If A Curtain Drops {weekend adventures in London}

Double Feature!

Although we would not say that we are overly fond of London as a city, we make the best of the environment and take in as much as we can.  I mentioned in a previous post that my partner and I biked across the city to go to a friend’s surprise birthday party, which also happened to be a backyard film screening of The Last Waltz (in lovely 16mm).  Duker was planning on screening this, but he didn’t know that Nicole had secretly planned a concession style snack stand, and surprise birthday party!  It was so much fun, Nicole bought an insane amount of candy and she insisted that none of it be left at the end of the night.  I don’t think I’ve eaten that much candy and chocolate in a really long time.

The amazing concession stand at Duker’s surprise birthday screening! (well I guess the screening wasn’t a surprise but the party was)

Isn’t this just cute?

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But, of course, this was already a few weeks ago and we have been very busy since then!  This past weekend, London had its annual Pride festivities, which culminated in a huge parade / dance party on the Sunday.  Somehow, through all the hectic crazy stuff we have been sorting out, we didn’t even know that Pride was this weekend until Sunday at 11:45am (did I mention that the parade started at 12:30?).  But we decided it was worth it to rush and bike down there and have a good time, and it definitely was!  We biked down without too much hurry and still arrived before the parade.  I love the atmosphere of the parade, everyone just being happy.

Beautiful!

The Forest City Fashionista!

We ran into so many people that day, from artists Cindi Talbot, a Super Scientist who is literally landing a robot on Mars this coming Sunday, old friends, to the Forest City Fashionista!   You may notice that these photos are not watermarked.  That is because many photos were taken, and it is hard to say whether they were taken by myself or by my partner Korpolfr.  We have been discussing this, and we are planning some joint work in the near future and so they will be watermarked then.  I have uploaded many photos from Pride to my Flickr account, however I never knew that only 200 photos are visible at any time.  So now I am on a search for a new photo hosting site, since 200 photos simply won’t cut it.

Even though we make sure to include some fun, we are actually both super busy this summer.  The house is coming along amazing.  Every day I am surprised by how far it has come along. I have been collecting some photos of the house for “befores” from over the years.  We never officially took before photos, but our hoarding is evident in many.  This is something that I will talk more about at another time though.  All that matters is that we are working towards a future that we want, while still enjoying the moment.

Thank you for reading, I will be posting some more recipes in the next few weeks including Roasted Garlic and a Chocolate Cake.

xoxo

Single Day Cheese Bread {without a bread maker!}

Whew. How time flies in the summer time!   I have been very busy the last few weeks, everything from camping out under the stars (literally, with no tent), multi hour bike rides, making new foods on a daily basis, a poop load of gardening (literally), re-arranging all the furniture in the house, plus all the work we’ve been doing purging the organizing the house.  Needless to say, by the end of the night I am passing out with exhaustion.

But, I am here today with another instalment of my recipe series, this time my personal Cheese Bread recipe.  This is a favourite with my partner, who begs me to make this every time I make bread now (but I can’t make it every time, otherwise it wouldn’t be as special!). It’s not uncommon for me to make a loaf of this bread and have it disappear by the end of the night, especially if we have friends over.
Plus it is insanely easy to make.  As you are about to find out!

Ingredients

• 2 Cups Bread Flour
• 1 Cup Whole-Wheat All Purpose Flour
• 1 Tbl sp. Kosher Salt* (of course you can use regular table salt, but I added a note on the end about why I use Kosher Salt)
• 1/4 Tea sp. Instant Yeast (or Bread Maker Yeast)
• 1 1/2 Cups Luke Warm Water
• 1/2 Cup – 1 Cup Grated Cheese

Supplies

• Large bowl (for making the dough)
• Spatula (for kneading the dough)
• Measuring cups or spoons
• Saran wrap and towel (for rising the dough)
• Casserole dish with lid (for baking the dough!)
• Parchment paper

Mix all dry ingredients, don’t worry about mixing the yeast right in! Quick note about bowls: I use a thick ceramic because I’ve found it rises much nicer than in plastic or metal bowls.

Pour in the water, simple and easy.

Put your cheese in after the water, why? I’m not entirely sure but I find that it blends into the dough more evenly this way.  Also, only put in about half of your cheese in this step.

Once the bread is well kneaded (by well kneaded however, I usually do it for about five minutes, which would probably make professional bread makers cry), I add the rest of the cheese, this allows some cheese to be super melted into the loaf and some cheese to turn into delicious gooey bites.

Gently knead the extra cheese into the loaf.

Wrap the dough with plastic wrap, then a towel and put it somewhere where it won’t be disturbed, and preferably somewhere a little warm. I put mine on top of the fridge.

After eight hours or so (sometimes I leave it for more if it’s colder, or if I’m in a rush I’ve even left it for as little as four hours!) the loaf will be a sticky, gooey mess and will have doubled in size.

After you knead the bread again, it’s time for the loaf’s second rising (haha). I try to leave my loaves for a full hour, but sometimes I am impatient and leave it for a little less, but this definitely affects the consistency of the final loaf.

One way to keep patient while you wait for the second rising is to prepare your casserole and oven for baking. I put parchment paper into the casserole dish before pre-heating to make it easier to put the loaf in. Sometimes I sprinkle corn meal on the paper, but that is really just for added texture. Most bread recipes say to pre-heat the casserole dish for 30 minutes before, but I’ve never had any problems with 15 minutes at 420°C.

Bake at 420°C for 30 minutes. Reduce heat to 300°C, take off the lid and bake an additional 15 minutes, or until the top of the loaf is a crunchy golden colour. Then let the loaf cool and enjoy!

Sometimes I do some *additions* to this loaf, such as adding roasted mashed garlic, or other herbs.  Sometimes I sprinkle the top with extra flour before baking to make it a more “farmers loaf” style.  As I mentioned, I also sometimes add corn meal to the bottom too.

If you have any questions, concerns or tips, please let me know in the comments and I would be happy to try to answer them (or thank you for them if they are tips!)

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Why Kosher?

The main reason why I use Kosher over regular salt is simply because Kosher salt doesn’t include additives.  These additives tend to be anti-caking agents, which changes both the taste and texture of the final bread.  Plus, because I don’t grind down the Kosher salt, so I’ve noticed that we use less salt overall.  Of course, the biggest difference between table salt and Kosher is that there is no Iodine in Kosher salt, but whether or not that affects bread making is a big debate that honestly I know nothing about!

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Thanks for reading, until next time.

xoxo

Father Sol {Sunfest 2012}

Last weekend (and technically the Thursday before as well) we went downtown to attend Sunfest, in London Ontario.  We love going, mostly to eat some delicious food.  Unfortunately, on the first day the camera died and we couldn’t get any photos of everything we had, but it included coconut cookies, fresh pineapple, watermelon, and fried wontons.  Luckily, we were more prepared on Sunday and ensured we had our camera charged.  ^_^

This is actually one of the few photos from Thursday: a back view of the food place where I got my wontons, and coconut cookie.

This is where Jerry got his vegetable samosas.

On the left, my wontons with yummy sweet and sour sauce, and Jerry’s vegetable samosas on the right.

The only money we spent at Sunfest, other than on food, went to two super cool Tillandias, or “Air Plants”.  I need to put them properly into their container, but I already love them. I’m happy that I found some!  Plus the next day we added another plant to our indoor garden, a cacti. I will be adding new photos soon to my facebook page, both in the Gardening and Urban Explorers albums! 

Wheh, it feels good to have a little bit of time to relax.  I feel like I haven’t taken a break in… weeks!  But the house is really coming together, so much stuff has been removed.  But we still have a lot of work ahead of us.  But today, we are taking a break.  Last night we did an intense bike ride across the city, it took over an hour to get there, and about forty-five minutes to get home.  But the bike ride was definitely worth it; we got to go to a friend’s surprise birthday party, which involved a backyard film screening of “The Last Waltz”.  We had an amazing time, and I’m happy to say that I’m not even all that sore today!  I plan on making a tomato-pepper soup today, which is something I never though I would be typing, let alone doing.  I’m also going to bake a cake to reward myself.  ^_^

This summer has already been so exciting.  My decision to disconnect from the computer significantly has given my more time to be active.  Although we are not all that thrilled to be living in London, we are truly trying to make the most of our time here.

Thanks for reading, I’m already working on my next post!

xoxo