Cooking Adventures

I’ve been experimenting a bit in the kitchen of late.In the last two days, I’ve backed two loaves of Honey-Whole Wheat Bread from Betty Crocker’s New Cookbook.

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and Coq au Vin from Clean Eating magazine’s November/December 2012 issue.

003Truth be told, I’m not too thrilled with either endeavor. I prefer my bread to have more texture. Although this was wheat bread, it had the texture of white. So, I’m now in search of a bread recipe with more twigs and bark. 🙂

As for the coq au vin, it’s delicious, but somehow mine has the consistency of mush. I’m trying to figure out where exactly I went wrong. I’m thinking it has something to do with the potatoes. The picture in the magazine looks much more appetizing. Still, as I said, the flavor is good, and this dish wont go to waste.

P.S.: I think I finally realized why my coq au vin became mushy. The recipe called for new potatoes. I used larger potatoes that I peeled and diced. If I had used new potatoes still in their skin, I think they would not have become mushy. Next time!

Garden Journal

It’s been a bit since I’ve had time to update. In the meantime, spring has sprung on our property.

Forsythia:037

Anonymous climber from Costco:038

Fringe Plant:039

Almond Tree:040 041For the past two weekends, our primary preoccupation has been with the irrigation system. With 24 separate stations, it’s been a big job to get it in working order. We have three more heads and one bubbler to replace.

On the planting front, Landry planted two bleeding hearts and three dahlias among the irises above my patio bed last weekend. We’ll see what comes up. Hopefully, these new arrivals will provide some color until I can plant more irises in August.

We are coming down to the heavy jobs of turning over the soil in the veggie and patio beds and laying weed block and mulch on the veggie garden paths. Then we will finally be able to get to some planting!