Just what I need... another hobby.

I am not lacking extra curricular activities. In my past I have pursued drawing, painting and ceramics. More recently I have focused my attention on woodworking, gardening and home coffee roasting.

Now I am into bread.

A year or so ago I read Peter Reinharts book The Bread Baker's Apprentice. I was inspired, but overwhelmed. It's definitely the advanced class. And, I knew nothing about making bread. Well, this past Christmas my parents bought us a grain mill (since we are in Kansas, and there is plenty of wheat around here). Kelly also bought me Reinhart's latest book Whole Grain Breads.

I'm diving in.

So far so good. I have mostly been experimenting with sandwich breads (trying to get whole grain bread soft, light and airy).

Today I made a new bread. It's an adaptation of a recipe called "broom bread" (because it has so much fiber it really sweeps you out). It really does have an explosively high fiber content. It has whole wheat, rolled oats, oat bran, and flax seeds. I think a better name would be "super colon blow".

It tastes really good, though. And it looks cool too. Here are a couple of pictures.

Next time you visit I'll give you some.

Texas food

I need to give my buddy Ross credit for this one. He told me about a cool blog that he found called Homesick Texan.

http://homesicktexan.blogspot.com/

The author is an expat Texan living in New York city. She writes primarily about the food of Texas with some awesome recipes.

For all those Iowa folks that had to put up with 7 years of my complaining about the food, here you can find what Texas food is all about - Cheese Enchiladas, Sopapillas, Barbecue, Chicken Fried Steak with cream gravy, sheet cake... oh my goodness... I'm getting light headed. She even has the recipe for gingerbread pancakes from one of my favorite restaurants in Austin called Magnolia Cafe. I have had those pancakes. They are out of this world - I can't wait to make them.

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Just thought I would share the wealth.