Fall
It's fall. It finally feels like it down here, with frost on the cars in the morning (still 65-70 during the day). Made some fall food, Ship's Biscuit, and had a terrifying pumpkin mishap.
I made Ship's Biscuit. This is the hard tack which would form the bulk of a sailor's diet in early nineteenth century sailing, two pounds per day at dinner. A year's supply could be loaded on at the start of the voyage, and it would be expected to last (except for the incursions of weevils). Almost all the biscuit for the Navy was made in just one bakery and then shipped to ports around the world.
It is made from flour, enough water to form a stiff dough, and a little bit of salt. The recipe called for kneading 30 minutes of kneading, and I'm starting to really appreciate the Kitchen Aid mixer and its ability to do handle such tasks. After an hour of baking you get really hard bread-like objects. If you break them open, they are somewhat soft on the inside (at least fresh). We'll see what they're like as I use them for more sailing recipes in the next few months.
Fall is the time for stew, so I made a very thick three bean vegetable stew with chili powder I got from the Italian Lady on the Food Network:
That's a lot of food! Two batches of this have kept us in leftovers for weeks now, with plenty in the freezer.
Finally, last week we carved a pumpkin. Last week was warm and rainy as well (or at least not New England crisp), and it turns out that's a good environment for mold:
Katy's coworkers said the same thing happened to their pumpkins too. Disgusting!
I made Ship's Biscuit. This is the hard tack which would form the bulk of a sailor's diet in early nineteenth century sailing, two pounds per day at dinner. A year's supply could be loaded on at the start of the voyage, and it would be expected to last (except for the incursions of weevils). Almost all the biscuit for the Navy was made in just one bakery and then shipped to ports around the world.
It is made from flour, enough water to form a stiff dough, and a little bit of salt. The recipe called for kneading 30 minutes of kneading, and I'm starting to really appreciate the Kitchen Aid mixer and its ability to do handle such tasks. After an hour of baking you get really hard bread-like objects. If you break them open, they are somewhat soft on the inside (at least fresh). We'll see what they're like as I use them for more sailing recipes in the next few months.
Fall is the time for stew, so I made a very thick three bean vegetable stew with chili powder I got from the Italian Lady on the Food Network:
That's a lot of food! Two batches of this have kept us in leftovers for weeks now, with plenty in the freezer.
Finally, last week we carved a pumpkin. Last week was warm and rainy as well (or at least not New England crisp), and it turns out that's a good environment for mold:
Katy's coworkers said the same thing happened to their pumpkins too. Disgusting!