Making an Herbal Wreath

Herb Wreath Directions

Supplies Needed:
Wreath frame
Floral wire
Rubber bands
Twist ties
Herb stems, leaves and flowers

Gather your supplies and choose an herb to become the base of your wreath. I chose rosemary. Using twist ties and/or floral wire begin covering your wreath base. Be patient with this process. It takes longer to do than one would think.

Here are a few different techniques. Select 2-3 different herbs and create small bunches using rubber bands. Then add each bunch to the wreath, using floral wire to secure it. Or, simply poke individual sprigs into the wreath and securing them again with floral wire.

Directions and photo’s edited from Garden Therapy

Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day

9 / 22 / 159 / 22 / 15

What’s better than fresh hot bread straight from the oven? (Well besides some delicious fresh butter on it!) What’s better is that this is a NO KNEAD recipe, couldn’t be easier. The dough will keep in your refrigerator for up to 2 weeks after mixing and there is nothing to do except pinch off a big piece, let it come to room temperature and bake it. The dough makes wonderful pizza, focaccia and flatbread as well. The authors, Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois, use Gold Medal Flour for their bread but I am a die hard King Arthur Flour fan. Read about flour and how to measure and then decide for yourself which to use. I use this dough for bread, flatbread, pizza and rolls, check the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day for other recipes. This is a book you must have on your shelf. Buy it now from Amazon, click here.

I like baking my bread in a Le Crueset Dutch oven and I give directions for that procedure, the Artisan Bread website will guide you in other methods. If you like using a starter for your bread, the authors also give you instructions on how to incorporate that method into your bread making.

If you learn to weigh your flour you’ll have much better results in the end product. Actually weighing ingredients for recipes is really much easier and the recipe comes together much quicker and more efficient.

Watch the video made by King Arthur Flour on how to measure flour here,
I’m posting my edited version of the bread but you can visit the authors website and read the original recipe with updates and tips. Go here for recipe

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Easy Artisan Bread

9 / 22 / 159 / 22 / 15

Debbi's Artisan Bread

3 cups lukewarm water
1½ tablespoons granulated yeast (2 packets)
1½ tablespoons kosher or other coarse salt
6½ cups unsifted, unbleached, all-purpose white flour

Add yeast and salt to the water in a 5-quart bowl or, preferably, in a resealable, lidded (not airtight) plastic food container or food-grade bucket

Mix in the flour—kneading is unnecessary: Add all of the flour at once.

Mix with a wooden spoon, a high-capacity food processor (14 cups or larger) fitted with the dough attachment, or a heavy-duty stand mixer fitted with the dough hook until the mixture is uniform. If you’re hand-mixing and it becomes too difficult to incorporate all the flour with the spoon, you can reach into your mixing vessel with very wet hands and press the mixture together. Don’t knead! It isn’t necessary. You’re finished when everything is uniformly moist, without dry patches. This step is in a matter of minutes, and will yield a dough that is wet and loose enough to conform to the shape of its container.

(I placed dough onto parchment paper and baked it on parchment in a Dutch oven.)

Cover with a lid (not airtight) or a towel. Do not use screw-topped bottles or Mason jars, which could explode from the trapped gases. Lidded plastic buckets designed for dough storage are readily available. Allow the mixture to rise at room temperature until it begins to collapse (or at least flattens on the top), approximately 2 hours. Longer rising times, up to about 5 hours, will not harm the result. You can use a portion of the dough any time after this period. Fully refrigerated wet dough is less sticky and is easier to work with than dough at room temperature. So, the first time you try our method, it’s best to refrigerate the dough overnight (or at least 3 hours), before shaping a loaf.

BAKING

Cut a piece of parchment paper a little bigger than a notebook size of paper, dust with a little flour.

Dust the surface of your refrigerated dough with flour. Pull up and cut off a 1-pound (grapefruit-size) piece of dough, using a serrated knife. Hold the mass of dough in your hands and add a little more flour as needed so it won’t stick to your hands. It will be very sticky. Gently stretch the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all four sides, rotating the ball a quarter-turn as you go. Most of the dusting flour will fall off; it’s not intended to be incorporated into the dough. The bottom of the loaf may appear to be a collection of bunched ends, but it will flatten out and adhere during resting and baking. The correctly shaped final product will be smooth and cohesive. The entire process should take no more than 30 to 60 seconds.

Rest the loaf and let it rise on the parchment. Allow the loaf to rest for about 40 minutes (it doesn’t need to be covered during. the rest period). Depending on the age of the dough, you may not see much rise during this period; more rising will occur during baking (“oven spring”).

Twenty minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 450°F, with a baking stone placed on the middle rack. Place an empty broiler tray for holding water on any other shelf that won’t interfere with the rising bread.

Debbi's notes: I take a 2 qt. Le Crueset (or any stone-ware or cast iron) Dutch oven and put it in the oven with the lid (make sure if the knob on the lid top is plastic to wrap it in tin foil so it doesn't melt). Let it preheat with the oven. When the oven is hot and the dough is ready pick up the parchment paper and plop it into the hot Dutch oven pan, Put the lid back on and carefully slide it into the oven. Alternatively you could slide the dough, still on the parchment paper, onto a pizza or baking stone that you heated with the oven.

Dust and slash: Unless otherwise indicated in a specific recipe, dust the top of the loaf liberally with flour, which will allow the slashing knife to pass without sticking. Slash a ¼-inch-deep cross, “scallop,” or tic-tac toe pattern into the top, using a serrated bread knife.

Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the crust is nicely browned and firm to the touch. Because you’ve used wet dough, there is little risk of drying out the interior, despite the dark crust. When you remove the loaf from the oven, it will audibly crackle, or “sing,” when initially exposed to room-temperature air. Allow to cool completely, preferably on a wire cooling rack, for best flavor, texture, and slicing. The perfect crust may initially soften, but will firm up again when cooled.

I found that it may take more than 30 minutes to bake, up to 40 to completely bake the inside. If you can use a hot pad and turn the bread over in your hand, tap the bottom of the loaf with your finger, it should make a hollow sound. If it's still a little soft, return it to the oven for a few minutes.

Store the remaining dough in the refrigerator in your lidded (not airtight) container and use it over the next 14 days: You’ll find that even one day’s storage improves the flavor and texture of your bread. This maturation continues over the 14-day storage period. Refrigerate unused dough in a lidded storage container (again, not airtight). If you mixed your dough in this container, you’ve avoided some cleanup. Cut off and shape more loaves as you need them. We often have several types of dough storing in the refrigerator at once. The dough can also be frozen in 1-pound portions in an airtight container and defrosted overnight in the refrigerator prior to baking day.

FOR PIZZA:

Pinch off a palm sized piece of dough, shape into a round, rectangular or square shape. Dough is sticky so keep some extra flour nearby, dust your hands as necessary to shape the dough. If the dough starts to snap back you should let it rest for a few minutes and then resume shaping.

Place onto parchment paper, a dusted pizza peel or the bottom of a dusted baking sheet. You can use anything you want providing the pizza can slip right off onto the rack.

If you are baking in an oven, preheat your oven to 500° or as high as it will go. Top the dough with anything you like, slid it into the hot oven and bake for 12-14 minutes.

If you are grilling dough, preheat bbq to high. Slide dough onto rack and cook 5-10 minutes on one side. Remove from grill, top the cooked side and return to the grill. Close the lid so the toppings will cook evenly.

Francois, Zoe; Hertzberg, Jeff , MD (2007-11-13). Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking (pp. 26-27). Macmillan. Kindle Edition.

Harvesting Tomatoes

9 / 7 / 159 / 8 / 15

This was a great year for tomatoes! My early tomatoes are giving it one last push before they succumb and my late (heirloom) tomato bushes are full with big beautiful green tomatoes. What we haven’t been able to eat (and share) I’ve been freezing for later use. Remember I told you how to freeze them? Just plop the whole or cut up tomato on a baking sheet and put in the freezer until frozen solid, then put them into a freezer bag or other container and put back in the freezer. This allows you to pick out however many tomatoes you need at a time and no need to peel before freezing. As they defrost the skin will slip right off and if you want to remove the seeds just cut in half as usual and squeeze out the seeds.

Here are some beautiful photos that my friend Christina Peters shot of my tomatoes this year and a beautiful Tomato Sauce from Marcella Hazan.

Marcella Hazan’s Tomato Sauce

9 / 7 / 15

Marcella Hazan’s Tomato Sauce

Serves 6, enough to sauce 1 to 1 1/2 pounds pasta

2 pounds tomatoes, or 2 cups canned imported Italian tomatoes, cut up, with juice
5 tablespoons butter
1 medium onion, peeled and cut in half
Salt to taste

Combine the tomatoes and juice in a saucepan, add the butter, onion, and a pinch of salt.

Place over medium heat and bring to a simmer. Cook, uncovered, for about 45 minutes. Stir occasionally, mashing any large pieces of tomato with a spoon. Add salt as needed.

Discard the onion before tossing the sauce with pasta. Serve with freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese for the table.

Brioche-Hurry Up & Wait

7 / 6 / 15

Homemade brioche is really pretty easy with most of the work being done by the dough. Plan ahead as it needs an overnight rise in the refrigerator. This recipe is from King Arthur Flour and they say (correctly I might add) that this recipe should be done only in a stand mixer. The dough is quite wet and sticky and it took 20 minutes to come together using my stand mixer. That was the hard part, well not really, the hard part was waiting overnight before I could bake it but the resulting French Toast was well worth the wait.

After the overnight rise, I cut the dough in half and made 1 small loaf and 3 good sized buns (for burgers). Then you have to play the waiting game again for a few hours before you can bake them. The long overnight rise and the room temperature rise before baking results in a beautiful crumb and delicate taste. The aroma while baking, of course, will drive you wild. The bread turns a rich golden color (don’t be afraid to cover them while baking if they start to brown too quickly) and is a very soft, light bread when it’s finally ready for you to eat.

I’m going to freeze the buns for a future use and perhaps part of the bread for toast and French toast in the near future. I did make a test batch of French Toast with a little butter and real maple syrup and woofed it down. It would have been delightful with some summer fruit but the last of the farmers market fruit was eaten yesterday in a peach-blackberry cobbler.

This is great recipe to try over the weekend. Mangia!

Brioche

From King Arthur Flour:
The inspiration for this recipe comes from our bakery, where brioche buns are among the wide variety of rolls and buns King Arthur Flour bakers produce daily. These particular buns are rich, tender, and pillow-like, similar to our bakery’s, and are the perfect vessel for a big, juicy burger.

2 3/4 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
¼ cup Baker's Special Dry Milk or nonfat dry milk
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon instant yeast
3 large eggs + 1 large egg yolk, white reserved for wash (below)
1/4 cup lukewarm water
10 tablespoons unsalted butter
Egg Wash
1 large egg white, lightly beaten with 1 tablespoon cold water
seeds of your choice, optional

Mix and knead the dough ingredients — in a mixer or bread machine — to make a smooth, shiny dough. It starts out sticky, and takes 15 to 20 minutes of kneading in a stand mixer to develop, so we don't recommend kneading this by hand.

Form the dough into a ball, place it in a greased bowl, cover, and let it rise for 1 hour.

Refrigerate the covered dough overnight, to slow its rise and make it easier to shape.

The next day, remove the dough from the refrigerator, and divide it into six pieces.

Shape each piece into a flattened ball, and place into the lightly greased cups of an individual pie and burger bun pan. Or place the buns on a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet, leaving about 2" to 3" between them.

Cover the buns, and let them rise until they're quite puffy. This may take as little as 1 hour; or up to 2 to 3 hours, depending on how warm your rising environment, and how cold the dough. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 375°F.

Brush the buns with egg wash, and bake on the middle rack of the oven for 14 to 18 minutes, tenting with foil after 10 minutes if they appear to be browning too quickly. The finished buns will register at least 190°F on a digital thermometer inserted into the center.

Remove the buns from the oven, and cool on a rack.

Yield: 6 buns or 2 small loaves

King Arthur Flour

Hawaiian Luau Feast

6 / 4 / 156 / 4 / 15

Summer is almost here and if you can’t visit the Islands we can certainly take some of the traditional Hawaiian foods and tweak them to our recipes and summer picnics. Our next cooking class uses many of these ingredients and we show you ways to incorporate them into your backyard parties.

While we can’t host a traditional luau in the tasting room we can enjoy a luau type picnic with foods of the Islands. In ancient Hawaii men and women ate their meals separately but in 1819 King Kamehameha removed all religious laws and taboos and men and women began eating together, creating the first luau feast.

The name luau refers to a dish made with chicken wrapped in taro leaves (luau), and baked in coconut milk; it’s served with slightly salty, smoky Kalua pig (pork). Kalua means ‘the hole’ and refers to the pit (an imu oven) the pig is cooked in. Simply put, the pig is steamed over a long period of time and is similar to a smoky pulled pork dish.

We’ll be doing our Kalua pork in a pressure cooker but the flavors will be able to develop while we talk and prepare other side dishes that use traditional Hawaiian ingredients. We might even be able to talk Tammy into a little hula (we know she can)!

Join us in the Temecula Olive Oil Tasting Room, Seal Beach for our fun little Hawaiian party. Learn a little about Hawaiian tradition and a conversation about cooking with pressure cookers!

Click here to see full menu

Our class goes off next week! Thursday, June 11th 6:30 p.m.Make your reservation today!

For Reservations Call (562) 296-5421

The Chef, The Photographer and The Adventure

5 / 26 / 155 / 27 / 15

Meet my friend, Christina Peters, photographer, and experience adventure through her eyes and lens. Christina’s new website, tastyfstops.com, chronicles her adventures through food, farms, travel and more. She began her new adventure in my spring garden and through her lens and my recipes we’ll bring you through one (or more) harvests of my potager (vegetable) garden. Sign up for Christina’s newsletter and follow us through spring and summer into fall and winter. Enjoy.

It’s berry season in the garden and my blackberries and boysenberries are off to an early start. This is one of Christina’s beautiful, succulent shots and here’s a tasty little recipe to get your summer started right! Blackberry Crumb Bars

And speaking of summer, check out the new cooking classes for June, we still have a few seats for this Thursday also. Two summery classes in June, A Summer Picnic Party and an Adult 4th of July menu. We’ll be hosting one more class in July (on the 9th) then I am off for another knee surgery and won’t see you back until the end of summer! So grab a spot while you can.

Mangia!

Debbi

French Yogurt Cake

5 / 9 / 155 / 9 / 15

French Yogurt Cake

1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 cup sugar
1 lemon, grated and zest
1/2 cup plain yogurt
3 eggs
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup citrus olive oil

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350°. Generously butter an 8 1/2-x-41/2-inch loaf pan and place the pan on a baking sheet. A cake pan, Bundt cake pan or any other pan may be used; you made need to adjust the cooking time.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.

Put the sugar and zest in a medium bowl and, with your fingertips, rub the zest into the sugar until the sugar is moist and aromatic.

Add the yogurt, eggs and vanilla and whisking vigorously until the mixture is very well blended.

Still whisking, add the dry ingredients, then switch to a large rubber spatula and fold in the oil. You’ll have a thick, smooth batter with a slight sheen. Scrape the batter into the pan and smooth the top.

Bake for 50 to 55 minutes, or until the cake begins to come away from the sides of the pan; it should be golden brown and a thin knife inserted into the center will come out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool for 5 minutes, then run a blunt knife between the cake and the sides of the pan. Unmold, and cool to room temperature right side up on the rack.

Glaze (optional)

½ cup lemon marmalade mixed with 1 teaspoon water

To Make the Glaze:

Put the marmalade in a small saucepan or in a microwave-safe bowl, stir in the teaspoon of the water and heat until the jelly is hot and liquefied. Using a pastry brush, gently brush the cake with the glaze.

Adapted from Dorie Greenspan

So. Coast Plaza Garden Show Recipes

4 / 25 / 154 / 29 / 15

Spring Herb Tart

1 recipe pate Brisée recipe, with
1 Tb. chopped fresh thyme, add thyme to flour and stir well
½ pound fontina cheese, grated (or more-to your taste)
1/2 pound fresh asparagus, trimmed and cut into ¼” pieces
1 tablespoon Parmigiano-Reggiano
Salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat the oven to 400°. Pre-bake the shell according to directions in Pate Brisée recipe. Let cool to room temperature or cool overnight. Sprinkle with the cooled crust with fontina cheese. Arrange the asparagus pieces around the bottom of the shell, season with salt and pepper; sprinkle with Parmigiano-Reggiano. Bake until the cheese is melted, about 15 minutes. Garnish with fresh herb sprigs. Serve room temperature or slightly warmed. Can be served along with a light salad tossed with vinaigrette dressing.

Serves 6

If you wanted to turn this into a quiche mix together 4 eggs & one cup of cream, half and half or milk. Pour it over the cheese and asparagus and bake approximately 40 minutes. You may have to cover the edge of the crust with foil to prevent it from burning.

Adapted from 'What's In Your Pantry' by Debbi Dubbs

Pate Brisée (Pie Crust)

From ‘What’s In Your Pantry’

www.debskitchen.com
[email protected]

Pâte Brisée (Pie Dough)
2 ½ cups flour, (10 ¾ oz.)
1 teaspoon salt
2 sticks butter, cut into pieces
3-5 tablespoons ice water
1 tablespoon sugar (for Pâte Sucrée, sweet pie dough)

Add flour and salt (sugar also if making Pâte Sucrée) into the bowl of a food processor; pulse a few times to incorporate all the ingredients.

Add the butter and process until the mixture is crumbly and the butter is pea size.

Place the mixture into a wide bowl and add water 1 tablespoon at a time until the mixture comes together. Don’t overwork the dough or it will be tough, not flaky. Once the dough comes together in a ball, divide it into two pieces, flatten into disks, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Dough can be wrapped well at this point and frozen for up to three months. Let the dough defrost overnight in the refrigerator before using.

Roll one chilled disk out on a floured counter or rolling mat, lifting and moving the dough every few rolls to help prevent sticking. Add only enough flour to the counter to keep the dough from sticking.

Place your pan on top of the dough to make sure it is the correct size, it should be slightly larger than the pan, then roll the dough onto your rolling pin and unroll over your pan. Gently lift and lay the dough to fit the pan, never pull the dough to stretch it. Lightly press the dough into the pan, roll your rolling pin over the top edge of the tart or pie pan and remove excess pastry.

Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Preheat your oven to 400°.

To blind bake:

Blind baking is baking the dough without filling.

Prick the bottom and sides of the dough; cut a piece of foil large enough to cover the bottom and sides of the dough, butter the dull side and lay the buttered side on the bottom of the dough and press into the sides. Line with pie weights or dried beans and bake in the center of the oven for 20-25 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove the weights and foil and let cool before filling

Makes 2 - 10” crusts

Berry Salad with Pomegranate Vinaigrette

½ shallot, minced
2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
½ cup Pomegranate vinegar, another light vinegar could be used as well
¾ cup extra virgin olive oil, approximately
6 cups baby greens, washed and dried well
2 small Persian cucumbers, sliced
2 cups croutons
1 container each of strawberries, blueberries and raspberries (strawberries sliced)
2 avocados, diced, optional

In a small bowl mix together the shallot, Dijon mustard and vinegar. Add a pinch of sea salt and a little grind of pepper. While whisking slowly pour the oil in until the dressing starts to thicken a little and emulsify. Stop and taste the dressing before adding the remaining oil. You may not need all of the oil depending on the flavor of the vinegar. Add more as necessary.

In a large salad bowl toss together the lettuce, cucumbers and croutons with a little of the dressing. Just until the greens have a shimmer of dressing on them. Season with sea salt and pepper, toss again, taste and adjust dressing and seasonings. Add berries and avocados and drizzle with a little of the dressing.

Serves 6

Lemon Chiffon Cup Cakes with Fresh Berries

4 / 11 / 154 / 11 / 15

2 cups all purpose flour
1½ cups granulated sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup vegetable oil
8 eggs, separated
¼ cup lemon juice
¼ cup water
2-1/2 tablespoon grated lemon zest
Lemon Glaze
6 tablespoon butter, melted
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
2 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 325°F.

In large bowl, add flour, granulated sugar, baking powder and salt. Add oil, egg yolks, lemon juice, water and lemon zest; whisk until well combined. In large bowl, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form.

Fold ⅓ of whipped egg whites into the batter to lighten. Gently fold in the remaining egg whites until mixture is combined; do not over mix or batter will deflate. Pour into ungreased pan; tap gently on counter to release air pockets.

Bake 50-60 minutes or until cake springs back when touched. Invert pan immediately after removing from oven and allow to cool completely. Run knife around the sides and center of cake to loosen.

For glaze, combine butter, zest, powdered sugar, juice and vanilla in medium bowl; stir until smooth. Pour over cooled cake and spread with spatula. Glaze will set hard within 30 minutes.

For Berries and Cream

Whip 1 pint fresh heavy cream and fold in sliced mixed berries.

Makes 24 cupcakes or 1 large Bundt cake

Courtesy of Martha Stewart

Photo: Marcus Nilsson

What to do in your Spring Garden

3 / 31 / 15

April in the Garden

Chef Debbi will be presenting a seminar, ‘Al Fresco Mothers Day Brunch’, at the South Coast Plaza Garden Show on Sat. April 25th, 12:30 in the Mitchell Gold & Bob Williams home store. Chef will be talking about spring vegetables, edible flowers and demonstrating a ‘Microgreen and Baby Lettuce Salad with Spring Vegetables, Edible Flowers and a Pomegranate Vinaigrette’ and serving that along with a Seasonal Asparagus and Goat Cheese Tart

The seminar is free but seating is limited.

What To Do in The Spring Garden in So. California

Last Chances:

You can get another crop of spring vegetables, peas (in cooler climates), asparagus, spinach, lettuce and last chance to plant artichokes from seedlings.

Spring Potatoes
Plant from certified organic ‘seeds’.

Spring and Early Summer

Tomatoes
Plant early season, cherry, heirloom & indeterminate varieties
Choose plants that are stocky with a thick stem, about the size of a pencil. Don’t choose plants with flowers or fruit on it, your tomato plant needs to develop strong, deep roots before starting to flower. Remove lower leaves and plant the seedling up to the first two set of leaves. All those furry little things on the side of the stem will turn into roots for you.
Companion plants to tomatoes are carrots, basil, lettuce and parsley.

Beans
All kinds of beans! Bush, pole and dried beans for winter soups and stews.
Companion plants to beans are corn, potatoes, radish and carrots.
Corn
Plant pole beans at the base of the corn and squash around the beans.

Beets, Turnips, Carrots and Radish
All grow underground in loose soil and can be grown in less sunny areas of the garden.

Peppers
All kinds of peppers can go in the ground, planting companions are spinach, basil and tomatoes.

Zucchini
Early squash can be planted but hold off on pumpkins until June if you want them for the fall holidays.

Herbs
Cilantro, Basil, Thyme, Dill, Fennel, Chives and most herbs will do well now.

Watch out for runners and re-seeders such as mint, oregano, borage, lemon verbena and pineapple sage for a few.

Now is a good time to amend your soil for the long summer growing season.

Bon Appetit!

Seminar is sponsored by