Squash Season Is Here!
This is really my favorite food season. All the squashes come out to play and I am ready for it.
Adding whatever cooked squash have on hand to a batch of country white sourdough (80/20 white flour to wheat) and you get the chewiest, softest bread wth a decidedly tough crust; but the good kind of tough that when you toast it it becomes the best kind of crispy. My favorite loaf hands down.
A few months ago I decided to make a more of an effort to write down all bread experiments. I've been pretty good at that, but not as good about writing down my thoughts and tasting notes of each batch. Ideally I'll make and remake recipes to compare and then, maybe decided on a best one. I'm not sure if I'll ever get that point, I tend to like all my bread and find it difficult to be critical.
The recipe for the first batch of squashy bread is:
750 g water
900 g flour (all AP)
100 g rye
20 g salt
206 g kabocha squash, roasted and soft
25 g chia seed
Tasting notes: this is exactly how I remembered it from last year. Perfectly delightfully. (See how I'm bad at this.)
This week's squashy bread recipe is:
750 g water
900 g flour (50/50 AP and strong)
100 g wheat
20 g salt
80 g kabocha squash, cooked and soft
165 g spaghetti squash, cooked
20 g chia seed
Tasting notes: Soooo soft and chewy! I could use more chia seeds, I always get nervous when I pour them in and it looks like a lot more than it is. The spaghetti squash almost invisible, but gives a sweeter flavor and I suspect makes it more chewy.
How are you experimenting with squash? May I recommend you pick up some delicata squash, slice it, scoop out the seeds, dress with olive oil, S&P, roast for 20 minutes and enjoy? They're real cheap at Trader Joe's and can only be found during the fall/winter.
Maybe that's another reason I love squash, we've perfected growing certain vegetables year-round, in different climates and fast transport that a true 1-2 season food is revolutionary?
I went up to New York last week for work. It was a little bit of a last minute trip with the standard fare of last minute hiccups. I'm not a very brave person when I travel to NYC. Something about the city intimidates me and I feelso veryoverwhelmed.
There's a system and cultural understanding that I've not been clued in on. I travel all the time, going to new, strange and often foreign cities but I never feel as panicked and utterly overwhelmed as I do in New York.
However, I did adventure out to the New York Transit Museum, just a few blocks from my hotel. There I learned how the New York subway tunnels were constructed, how comic strips and books portrayed the subway system and walked through historical, aka old subway cars complete with period specific adverts. Walking through the different subway cars was my favorite thing. The 1916 and 1917's had wicker seats. Sitting, looking at the windows and walls, and thinking how they are so thin I can only imagine how loud and harrowing they were to ride in. The 1960's with all the circle windows and egg shell blue-green color pallet.
I did complete my goal of reading two books this month! I finished Am I There Yet?: The Loop-de-loop, Zigzagging Journey to Adulthood by Mari Andrews and This Will Only Hurt A Little by Busy Phillips. Both were light, easy reads, BUT I finished them. My goal for November is two books again.
Kit Kat kraze in Japan is a real thing. My favorite from my trip was the classic green tea, but I truly appreciate the weirder ones.
Bidets in America are not a thing, and it's kind of interesting as to why not.
I've been invested in the Facebook watch show Sorry for Your Loss. The stellar cast delivers the difficult storylines about grief and life after a loss beautifully.
The leaves are starting to turn, but I can't help but think where did fall go?
Amy
