Welcome Back to the Heartland! We’ve been enjoying lots of seasonal recipes straight out of the garden, lately, and are packing up our pantries and feeding our sourdough(s) in readiness for autumn. Like what you’ve read? Hungry for more recipes? Consider subscribing and receive every post in your Reader, or by e-mail! Also, do you facebook? Come join the conversation at the heartland Renaissance facebook page! Thanks for visiting!We love Greek and Mediterranean food in our home.  A common summertime meal?  Grilled kebabs, beef, game or chicken, , seasoned with olive oil, lemon, garlic, oregano and more, served with homemade hummus (my favorite recipe is Ina’s), Tzatziki sauce (recipe coming up soon) with homemade yogurt, dill from our garden and cucumber, served along with or inside pita. I’ve never really [... To read more, click here ...]

For some of my regular readers, especially my sourdough bakers, you might recognize this recipe as a version of my previous, multi-grain sourdough bread.  When I developed the former recipe, I had lots of leftover oatmeal around and was searching for a way to use it up. My son was younger and didn’t have quite the appetite he has now; I made this recipe almost once a week just by saving the breakfast leftovers. Recently I realized I wasn’t making this bread very often.  My toddler turned three recently and he just isn’t leaving me the leftovers he once did, he’s a growing boy!  After several weeks, I realized that I missed baking this bread and  I wanted to develop basically the same recipe but starting with uncooked oatmeal (though [... To read more, click here ...]

Reason #214 to maintain sourdough starter. Because when you run out of bread . . . and tortillas . .. and your toddler requests peanut butter sandwiches or quesadillas for lunch (basic toddler fare), you can make sourdough crepes (crepes instead of pancakes, because we didn’t want syrup for lunch), fill them with cheese or peanut butter (or any other leftovers or jam you like), and then later, when someone asked what you made for him and you mention that you made him crepes (?) they think you’re a crazy gourmand. They don’t realize how easy these things really are. Sourdough Crepes makes about eight to ten crepes 1 cup sourdough starter 2 eggs 2 Tablespoons melted butter 1/4 teaspoon sea salt 1/4 – 1/2 cup of milk extra butter [... To read more, click here ...]

I’ve been working on this post for a while.  Months really.  Started and stopped.  Thought about it.  Documented.  Researched.  Went back over notes from my baking escapades using sourdough over the past few years. And wanted to share. The Definitive Guide to Sourdough . . . according to me. Sourdough Do’s and Don’ts. Tips and Tricks. And that, “According to me” part?  That’s my disclaimer. Who am I?  A home baker.  A mama -  of two boys and a jar (okay, two) of sourdough starter.  A sourdough mama who likes to read professional cookbooks and better baker blogs than me, and then tries to relate them to real life and real kitchens who use cups and Tablespoons and not grams and ounces (though I did just get a nice kitchen [... To read more, click here ...]

Remember that Boeuf Bourguignon? This is the bread I made to go with it. It is amazing. It is the bread recipe I’ve been looking to make forever. It easily replaces (and is so much better) than the sourdough boules you’ll find at your local grocery store bakery. Soft and slightly tangy sourdough flavor, with a firm crust that crackles when you squeeze it and a soft interior that squishes down pleasantly to the tooth. This would be excellent formed into boules and filled with your favorite holiday dip (crab? Spinach? Hot artichoke?), sliced and eaten as a sandwich and is amazing served simply with butter next to a bowl of hot soup (or, ahem, Boeuf Bourguignon). I like this recipe because it’s kind of a “cheater” sourdough recipe. It [... To read more, click here ...]

I love biscuits. My very first job (not counting babysitting, of course) was at a place that shall remain unnamed, but is well known for it’s fried chicken and homemade biscuits. At 15, I was not old enough to be able to do a lot of the back-of-the-house cooking (something about knives and boiling water and hot boiling grease – you had to be 16 for that), but I was old enough to make biscuits. And I did. And I ate one, with butter and honey, every day that I was on the clock. On occasion, my parents would make us biscuits and gravy for weekend breakfasts growing up. Once we got old enough to read a recipe, my sister’s and I were in charge of making biscuits (traditional, Baking [... To read more, click here ...]

This recipe was a happy accident. Inspired by a recipe for Multi-Grain Struan in Peter Reinhart’s Whole Grain Breads, along with a recent recipe from Leila, I started to experiment. I thought what I was making would make a lovely, crusty rustic bread but instead found myself excitedly eating the softest, multi-grain bread I’d ever made. The crust was lovely, the inside was spongy, perfect for sandwiches. I made it again today, this time writing down the details, and in loaf form, and again, success! Lloyd loved this with peanut butter and bananas (his favorite sandwich at the moment) and T. loved it as a late night dinner with leftover shredded pork and homemade barbecue sauce. Yum. I was very happy to find the bread hold together much better than [... To read more, click here ...]

I have recently found a gem of a cookbook. A gem that I already had on my bookshelf. Alaska Sourdough by Ruth Allman. This is a great book for anyone with starter in the fridge that is wanting to begin using it in everyday life. Alaska Sourdough has a ton of recipes for easy, basic recipes from pancakes to muffins to potato bread to pretzels to cakes. All using sourdough. Though it is not my favorite for rustic sourdough bread (I prefer Nancy Silverton’s Breads from the La Brea Bakery for that) it is a perfect book for filling out a meal, from corn muffins to go with chili to cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning. Plus, I appreciate that it uses everyday ingredients and measurements, making sourdough achievable for the [... To read more, click here ...]