Lauren's Sage and Rosemary Bread

Even in January there are still some hardy herbs to harvest. I was gifted a large rosemary from my friend's garden (thanks K!) and it continues to thrive throughout the winter.  My sage was just a small sprig when I planted it along a fence five years ago and also provides lots of flavour to those classic hardy winter meals like stews and soups. 

This bread is great with a comforting bowl of soup or fantastic on its own.  The loaf gets a nice crust when baked in a cast iron pot but is fine baked on a pan as well.

Lauren's Sage and Rosemary Bread Recipe

3 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon honey
2 teaspoons yeast
about 2 cups of warm water
 2-3 tablespoons of finely chopped fresh rosemary plus a few sprigs to garnish
2-3 tablespoons of finely chopped sage plus a few leaves left whole to garnish


1.Add flour and salt to mixing bowl with bread hook attachment
2.Fill a  one cup measuring cup leaving enough room at the top to add honey and yeast.  Leave for a few minutes until yeast dissolves
3. Add wet ingredients, mix for one minute, add about half a cup more of warm water.  Dough should start to form into a smooth ball, if it appears too dry add more water.
4.  Add finally chopped herbs.
5.  Let dough rise for 45 minutes to 2 hours depending where you and your bread need to be that day.  Take the dough out of the bowl and knead it down into a ball, this should take just a minute, don't spend a lot of time kneading, you have better things to do.  If you have some aggression to get out beat on the dough vigorously and tell your family it is a necessary part of the process.  Make the dough into a roundish shape and let rise 30 minutes to one hour, again depending on how much time you have to get this bread done.  Preheat your oven to 450f.
6.  As gently as possible plop your ball or bread into a cast iron pot with lid (or any ovenproof pot with lid).  Gently press a few sprigs of rosemary and sage into the top of the loaf before placing on the lid and throwing in the oven.
7.  After 30 minutes remove the pot lid and let the bread bake for another 10 minutes until it is brown on top.  The bread is at its best one to two hours after it comes out of the oven.

A version with raisons or organic garlic is really nice with the herbs.  A bit of grated cheese can be added though I'll line the pot with parchment as the cheese can stick the loaf to the pot without it.

Perhaps a little warm carbohydrate comfort in loaf form can help us all get through the drudgery of winter.  Let me know how your bread turns out.

craving spring!

Christmas is over, the New Year's resolutions have been made, the sun is out and I'm craving digging in the dirt. I obsess over where I want to move plants around in my garden but the ground is frozen so I will have to wait a little longer.  For now I'm getting my spring/gardening fix indoors.

Tulips caught my eye at the store the other day and came home with me:

I also bought some miniature daffodils (narcissus tete a tete) at the grocery store and planted them in a couple glass containers along with a few huckleberry branches.

And I finally resurrected my hanging terrariums that had dead plants in them and a layer of dust on the outside of the glass. I planted them with air plants and moss.

I borrowed a cow from my daughter although she claims that cows don't belong in there!

Outdoor Christmas Tree

We are enjoying a snow day today!

My daughter and I started a new tradition of decorating a tree in our front yard.  The big bobbles show up the best.

And a few cute pics of my little man in his new sled:

DIY Maple Slab Coffee Table

We try and keep our posts on DDS focused on  yard and garden topics.  Though you might say a DIY coffee table does not fall into the general scheme I will attempt to justify my DIY coffee table post as follows: 1.  Technically the Maple Slab came from a yard (my parent's actually) and it is indeed organic. 2.  The ground is frozen making time spent digging in the yard more challenging right now!

Though a natural coffee table is not everybody's style I am very pleased at how it all turned out.

i

 

Several year's ago Dad had to take down a large Maple Tree in his back yard that was diseased and beginning to rot.  I requested a hunk of wood be saved  to be reborn as some form of furniture.  Dad chainsawed me two eight inch slabs from the base of the trunk where the tree "v"d into two.  The slabs then sat in my garage getting in the way for several years, drying and curing while I procrastinated from starting to work on them.  Finally last year I started to literally chip away at the project, first planing off the deep rough chainsaw cuts with a power planer. I then used an orbital grinder, starting with an 80 grit sand paper and working up to a fine 240 grit.  Finally, I gave it a coat of Beeswax polish (Clapham's Beeswax Salad Bowl Finish).  The legs were pre-cut and threaded galvanized pipe from a big box store that I just screwed together with half inch fittings in the plumbing aisle and then spray painted black.  My HH helped me with the tricky part of attaching the legs to a very unlevelled underside which involved much shimming  (this is adding little wedge pieces to level out the leg where it is to be attached).  Overall this project cost less than $30 for the galvanized pipe legs and spray paint.  Shannon loaned me the beeswax which is about $16, though I had to promise not to use too much. 

 

 One winter project off the list!

-L.

all i want for Christmas...

Lauren's wish list:

Gardeners wash basket: A functional harvest basket that looks good

Light weight hedge trimmer: An excellent bush wacker for my box woods

Outdoor chairs from ikea: Shannon and I might be fighting over these.  Unfortunately they are sold out of these very mod yet comfortable composite chairs until March of 2014.

The pit of despair, under the deck project to be complete!

Shannon's wish list:

Wall garden planter from Lee Valley: I've wanted to put a wall planter on my west exterior wall that is below my cedar pergola to bring interest to the big expanse of stucco and for the fun of growing vertically.  I know there are lots of diy options out there but I like the watering system with this one and that it doesn't allow the roots to grow through and cause problems with the stucco. 

 



Rapid Reel hose reel: I fist spotted this hose reel in the background of a picture on a blog I frequent: Chezerbey.  I'm tired of my plastic hose real that I'm always fighting with that is located near my front door, this would provide a much better looking and hopefully smooth reeling option for years to come. 

Floating row cover from West Coast Seeds:I've wanted to try a row cover to protect my cabbage from cabbage pests.  Last year I spent too much time pulling and squishing green guys off my cabbage.

Book: All the Dirt: This book looks like a good read and will hopefully provide some useful information.

diy modern shed -finally complete

The old rickety shed that came with our house is past its expiration date.  The roof leaks, the floor is rotten, and it leans...so building a replacement shed has been on to do list for a while.  Of course I had grandiose plans of a cool westcoast modern looking shed with a green roof.  As usual, my original plans have changed because of cost.  According to my HH, the structure would have had to be much stronger to handle the weight of the green roof which would have ended up costing considerably more and Lauren pointed out that you wouldn't really be able to see much of the roof anyways.  So I let the green roof dream go.... at least for this project!

As mentioned in a previous post, we poured a concrete perimeter and used left over concrete paving stones for the floor.

Next we framed up the walls.  As I held the front wall upright so HH could level and secure it I kept thinking, man this seems really tall, I need to step back and take a look at this.  So when the wall was secure and I stepped back, there was no getting around it; the front wall was GIANT!  Somewhere in HHs calculations he thought we might want to put a asphalt shingle roof on it instead of a metal roof which would require a steeper slope, apparently this is how the front wall ended up so tall...  After reiterating that I prefer a metal roof he agreed to cut the front wall down by 15 inches, I think he was also worried what the neighbours would think of the GIANT.

Framing:

 

 

 Our 3 year old decided she was going to help, she strapped on her tool belt and headed outside, I caught this picture of her checking the squareness of the wall....maybe she has been subject to a little too much diy?!?

 



We decided to clad the shed with one side good exterior plywood and use pine trim to cover the plywood joints and to make an interesting/modernish looking exterior on the cheap. 

The metal roof was a bit of a pain.  Since I had conceded on the green roof, I was determined to have a good looking metal roof.  Of course the roof I wanted was one of the pricier options...  Ordering the metal roof proved to be painful, after getting quotes and talking with numerous sales people at big box stores and a local hardware store, it became apparent that none of them could answer questions about the correct flashing and installation requirements. Eventually after contacting the manufacturer and numerous special orders, we ended up with all the parts we needed and put the roof on before winter...whoohoo!

 

Here is the completed shed (minus a few touch ups) in all her glory:

We added windows along the top row of the front wall to allow light to enter the shed but still allow for lots of wall space for storage.  HH made the windows from old glass and wood from his dads.  I think they turned out great.  I painted the door yellow as I had left over yellow paint from when I painted our backdoor.

 

 We used 5 inch tongue and groove cedar for the soffit. 

The black metal roof.

 

Now to move the stuff out of the old shed and attempt to organize it in the new shed!  Anyone have any good shed organizing suggestions?

Seed sharing shout out

I recently received this email from my Aunt.  It reminded me that Shannon and I are not the first dirt digging sisters.  Auntie E. wished for and received a Kubota tractor for her 50th birthday.  Here is my Aunt's email made public:

Every year, in an attempt to have a wide variety of things in my veggy garden I buy too many seeds that I don't use. I am looking for people with a similar problem to share their excesses and also try some different varieties to come ripe at slightly different times. If you know of such people, please let me know.

The Dirty Auntie

 

This year I'm drying out and saving seeds from my own harvest so I have bachelor button seeds (a cute blue annual flower), marigold and pumpkin to share. I happen to know Shannon has an abundance of white sweat peas.   These seeds might be hybrid which means they could produce recessives or plants without the same growth as the original.  My mother in law just gave me Portuguese beans that she saves from year to year and grow amazingly well. They must be heirloom seeds in order to produce the same great plant down the line.  I wonder if gardening is a dominant trait?

 

If you would like to trade seeds and are interested in any seeds mentioned please leave a comment with your email on this post.

 

Thanks!