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Here at the Food on Fridays carnival, any post remotely related to food is welcome—though we love to try new dishes, your post doesn’t have to be a recipe. If you want to talk about the hunk of organic eggplant that lodged between your teeth, that’s great. Posts like that are as welcome as menus and recipes.When your Food on Fridays contribution is ready, just grab the broccoli button (the big one above or smaller option at the bottom) to paste at the top of your post. It ties us together visually.Here’s a Mr. Linky tutorial:
Write up a post, publish, then return here and click on Mr. Linky below. A screen will pop up where you can type in your blog name and paste in the url to your own Food on Fridays post (give us the exact link to your Food on Fridays page, not just the link to your blog).You can also visit other people’s posts by clicking on Mr. Linky and then clicking participants’ names–you should be taken straight to their posts.Please note: I’ll do my best to update this post by hand. In the meantime, please click on the Mister Linky logo to view the complete list.
Food on Fridays Participants
Food on Fridays with AnnCharity and I, along with an organic farmer we’re getting to know, decided to put together an Organic Evening. The idea was that we would pitch in a variety of organically prepared dishes, eat together, watch a documentary, talk about it, and pray together about any next steps we felt led or inspired to take.Charity is already committed to eating organically and the farmer is already growing organic food, so I guess we Kroekers are the most transitional, working toward a more organic diet little by little.I said I would make homemade bread for the gathering. After I announced that as my menu contribution, I kept thinking I should try to make it as organic as possible, so I decided to head over to Whole Foods in search of organic flour. But before I went shopping, I dreamed a little bigger.My friend Sonya grinds her own wheat berries and regularly bakes fresh bread for her family. Maybe I could buy some organic wheat berries and have Sonya grind them for me? But Sonya was out of town. I’ve often considered investing in one of those little hand-cranked mills, but there wasn’t time to order one before Organic Evening.All those thoughts were flitting through my mind on the weekend, when our family went over to a friend’s house. She asked me what I liked to make, and I said that lately I’d been baking some homemade bread.“I used to make homemade bread all the time,” she said. “I even ground my own flour, believe it or not.”“No kidding?” I exclaimed. “I was just thinking about that! My friend Sonya grinds hers all the time in an electric mill.”“We just used a hand mill,” she said.“I’ve been thinking about ordering one of those,” I said.“I’ve still got mine. We haven’t used it in years. You want to borrow it?”And just like that, she reached up into a cabinet, pulled out a little hand mill and handed it to me!Delighted, I stopped by Whole Foods as soon as we left my friend’s house. The store had organic wheat berries in the bulk foods section.We bought hard red winter wheat berries:
And, hm, I think these were hard white wheat:
We came home and ground them; well, to be honest, my youngest daughter ground them.
I made a sample loaf, to be sure it would turn out okay.Mmmm…my family will attest that it turned out just fine.Then we ground enough for two more Organic Evening loaves. My husband and daughter ground and ground without complaint.Thanks to their assiduous labor, we ate super-healthy organic whole wheat bread on Organic Evening.After we sat down and filled our plates, I quickly grabbed a camera, looking for a plate with the best sampling of our menu. The farmer had the most:
- a slice of pizza topped with organically grown eggplant and yellow squash;
- a slice of organically grown heirloom tomato topped with a basil leaf and circle of mozzarella;
- a slice of Charity’s ‘Mater Pie (visit her site Friday for the recipe);
- and one slice of homemade, hand-milled, organic whole wheat bread.
With so much of my focus on freshly ground flour, I forgot to check on the status of butter. We had one tiny scrap left that we rationed out. You’ll see that the farmer ate his slice plain. I did eventually think to bring out some raw honey, which served as a sweet substitute to spread on it.By the time we finished the food—which included a dessert of rich, chocolate-y zucchini cupcakes that Charity brought—and wound down our conversation, it was too late to start the documentary. So we split up the leftovers and called it a night. Organic Evening didn’t turn out quite the way I expected, but the company was delightful and the food was delicious.
Next week, all new material will be published on a
self-hosted annkroeker.com.
Hi Annie Fo Fanny and happy friday! I loved your story about your organic evening and I think it is a GREAT idea to share fellowship and food and friendship in this way to learn more about those in our sphere! My recipe this week is a mark bittman arugula pesto that I played around with to make my own pasta dish! Enjoy! Alex@amoderatelife
I checked out your post–such a creative alternative to basil pesto!
This post is very encouraging! I have been thinking of getting a grinder to grind my own gluten free flours, but have been a bit intimidated by the idea.
This little grinder can handle all kinds of grains. They were showing rice and other gluten-free types on the side. It’s an effort and takes time, but the electric ones would be easier (I’ve heard they are expensive and noisy). The hand grinder I’m borrowing costs around $60 or $70.
What a great idea to host an organic evening! The food you served looks wonderful, and I think it’s great you are grinding your own flour. Thanks for hosting Food on Fridays – have a great weekend!
It’s an experiment, this grinding thing…we shall see. It’s a big effort. But it’s also educational for the kids to see where flour comes from.
Well, I finally finished my post on the promised ‘Mater Pie. It was really great to share the evening with you, your family, and the farmer, too. Looking forward to perusing some of these other recipes that everyone has linked to.
Everybody go check out the recipe! It was *yummy*!
I am not too into organic food. But I love my grain grinder. I make all of our family of 6’s bread and naturally lots of deserts and mostly all are whole grain. I have been interested in having a hand grinder for times we might not have power or as a back up for if mine should break. Could you do ten cups or so pretty quickly with this one?
It is definitely *not* quick to use the hand grinder! The first time we were very slow, because we weren’t sure what we were doing and had to stop and adjust the grinder, tightening the clamp. When we finally figured out a better location, my husband sat and ground nonstop for about 20 minutes to yield about four or five cups. Maybe more flour, or maybe less time. We should use a stopwatch next time!
What kind of electric mill do you have? Someone recommended a Vitamix for it, but I don’t have one of those.
My grain mill is a Magic Mill III plus. They don’t make it any more but it is a wonderful grinder. My sisters and mom use the whisper mill and it is quieter but I don’t think quite as sturdy seeming. They have each had theirs for over ten years though so not too bad. A friend uses a vitamix and it does a good job for her it seems. Vitamix has its strong points but I don’t think grinding is it.
Oh and I did check out the tomato pie and am planning to try it as soon as I have ripe tomatoes, which shouldn’t be long now! It looks and sounds yummy.
Oh my goodness! I’m the only one here eating store-bought food. It’s easy and quick is all I can say.
Congrats, Ann, for getting all those wheat berries ground up. Your kids were great for helping out. I love family cooking projects. My sons always jump in–just to free up frazzled Mom, I think. But they have gotten into cooking as well.
My sons have been after me to make homemade bread again. It’s been many years. I don’t start with the berries but I do start with the wheat and white flour for one of the recipes. I also have a French bread recipe that bakes in a cylinder shape. It’s out of this world with butter.
So, as soon as the weather cools down–maybe November here (lol), I’ll get back in the spirit of baking from scratch.
Thank you for Food on Fridays. I love being part of it.
Blessings,
Janis
It was definitely a group project, with daughter and husband doing all that cranking. All I did was measure it out into the machine, which did a lot of the mixing and rising. I do the final rise in a normal loaf pan and then bake in a conventional oven.
Your French bread recipe sounds divine–my kids love French bread from the store, but I haven’t tried to make it yet.
I’m delighted we get to share Fridays with this theme!
By the way, that plate looks yummy enough to eat right off of my screen~
Janis
I’m glad it looks that good, because it really was delicious.
Hi Ann, Thanks for stopping by my blog. I will not miss next Food on Fridays. I will follow.
Hi Ann! I just found your FOF event through Alex at A Moderate Life. I’m a bit late this week…but I’m very excited to shuffle through all of the links. I have been wanting a mill for a long time…recently found a place where I could purchase one locally…now I’m saving up! Sounds like a wonderful evening 🙂 Thanks for hosting!
Wow, I am impressed, Ann. That is seriously “foodie” of you to grind your own wheat! My husband makes delicious bread…from the bread machine. I know, we cheat. But it’s still better than purchasing the preservative-laden kind from the grocery store, yes? One of these days I’m going to write about food on my blog and link up here — it’s so fun.
Yum.
Your new look here is awesome! It’s so clean and light. Easy on the eyes.
And that bread looks fantastic. Sounds like a real fun Friday.