Sunday, October 01, 2006

A salute to fungi


With the recent rainfall over the last week or so, there has been a proliferation of fungi on the forest floor. I'm curious if these are supposed to look like this, or if some combination of freezing temperatures and intermittent rain caused this striking pattern. I don't know my fungi too well.


But I do know yeast, and all the wonderful things it can produce. This is my first loaf of bread from my new bread machine. I decided to go with a prepackaged mix to test things out, but this is no ordinary, white bread. It's a Swedish limpa rye, flavored with anise, fennel, and caraway, with a bit of orange. The machine did its job beautifully, although I think I may have added a touch too much water. The bread was fabulous, with all the complexity and body of a good beer. My entire dinner consisted of bread (dipped in melted butter), wine, and a salad made with red cabbage from the garden, along with walnuts and poppyseed dressing.
I spent the evening browsing through a bread machine recipe book, and now I have all kinds of visions of heavy grain breads, whole wheat buns, focaccia, sourdough...the possibilities are limitless. I think I'll head out right now and get a cracked wheat dough started!

7 comments:

Lené Gary said...

Yum on the bread--and great shot of the fungi. I have no idea if they're supposed to look that way, but they're beautiful regardless.

barefoot gardener said...

"Dude, I dig your 'shrooms!"
I also know little about fungi, so could not tell you anything about them....

The pic of the bread makes my mouth water. Sounds like you had an amazing evening.

Pam in Tucson said...

Haven't had limpa for years - wonderful stuff. Limpa , red wine and red cabbage salad, yummmm! When are you opening your MN restaurant?

Love your fungi photo.

LauraHinNJ said...

Very pretty mushroom.

How did the beer brewing go?

Deb said...

lene- thanks!

Barefoot gardener- cool shrooms indeed! And it was a great evening.

Pam- You know limpa! And you know Vasen, obviously you must have some Scandinavian blood in you! When I first tasted fresh-from the bread-oven limpa, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. It is a dream to open a small bakery/coffeehouse/music venue to accommodate all of my interests. :)

LauraH- A post on the beer brewing is forthcoming, for now I'll say it is happily bubbling as I speak so I must have done something right. :)

R.Powers said...

Freezing temps? Cold envy.

The fungi are beautiful, but the limpa bread (which I have never heard of) looks beautifully delicious.

So your bakery-coffeehouse-music emporium is going to need a catchy name ....

Cafe Minnesotarctica?
Starflower Cafe?

clairesgarden said...

bread envy!
love your beer brewing tales too.