Mine is WAY Bigger Than Yours!

                  from Recipezaar


Super easy. (Just like your mom.) Yay for crusty French bread!

I will also continue to threaten your masculinity this week with some tartine recommendations from Urban Vegan, so stay tuned!



Failproof Crusty French Bread (For Your Bread Machine)

INGREDIENTS:

• 3-1/2 c. bread flour


• 1 t. salt


• 1 (1/4 ounce) package active dry yeast


• 1-1/4 c. warm water

DIRECTIONS

Place ingredients in bread machine according to manufacturers directions (essentially: wet, dry, yeast).

Start machine on dough setting.

When dough cycle is complete, remove dough with floured hands and cut in half on floured surface.

Take each half of dough and roll to make a loaf about 12 inches long in the shape of French bread.

Place on greased baking sheet and cover with a towel.

Let rise until doubled, about 1 hour. (Mine didn't engorge enough--snark--so I then preheated the oven and set the pan on top. This helped.)

Preheat oven to 450-F.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown, turning pan around once halfway during baking.

Remove baked loaves to wire racks to cool.


(Recipe from Recipezaar)

What?!?!?!?!? I Mean... WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

OMFG. I think I just wet myself with laughter.

I cannot believe that's what brussel sprouts look like when they're growing.

MUST. GET. BRUSSEL. SPROUTS. FOR. GARDEN. IMMEDIATELY.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

So I'm reading Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, and I've gotta say: It's fascinating so far. (Though I DO realize that I'm only about 100 pages in, and seeing as my friend P texted me a menacing "I'm interested in seeing what you think of it once you're all DONE with it," I'm guessing some animal-killing's gonna go down at some point.)

But right now, I'm just a-gog (I likes that word) over vegetables. The book is essentially about our disconnect with food and plants and where they come from (which is a disconnect that fuels factory-farming as well, as all of you are MORE than aware), and it's made me realize how little I really DO know about what vegetables look like when they're growing, or where they come from, or ANY of that stuff.

For example, she discusses asparagus in length in the first few chapters of the book. And asparagus has always been one of my favorite veggies. But I'd never really given thought to what it looks like while it's growing. And after reading her description of it, I was dying to google some pics of it.

And check this out. I mean, maybe I'm the only one who's in la-la land on what it looks like growing, but then again, I'm guessing not. And I don't know what the HELL I thought it looked like, but not this.




(Crazy-ass asparagus!)

And even more amusing--white asparagus:



I mean, could it be any more "Penis meets Tremors."

I'll spare you the penis pic, but hee Tremors:



Anyways, I'm really glad I accidentally timed the reading of this book with the planting of my rooftop garden, as it's been bringing me a lot of joy actually watching my vegetables pushing forth from the earth while reading a ton of fantastic, loving details about them.

Needless to say, you can expect the occasional post and/or picture about various vegetables as I stumble across them in the book and realize how ridiculously little I know about them.

So: STAY TUNED!

(Animal, Vegetable, Miracle website)