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White Sourdough Loaf

It was over 90 degrees in Seattle that week, a fine time for my rhubarb mother to be ready. I figured, what's 90 compared to 100? I might as well get some bread in the oven before it gets any worse. It was a good call. Later that week Seattle hit 102, and without air conditioning, let me tell you - I didn't dare go near the kitchen.

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Rhubarb Mother

I've put off starting a sourdough mixture for a long time, and for a lot of reasons. This week, I just didn't have any more excuses. This starter begins with rhubarb from our garden - just another item (like cabbage) that you can use to start a sour mixture.

This method comes from the Fergus Henderson cookbook Beyond Nose to Tail and is the basis of a number of bread recipes in his book. It's my goal to use this starter in a BLT challenge, so I wanted to try it out first.

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Lovage and Rhubarb Spritzers

We got the idea for these spritzers after a dinner at Monsoon. One of the salads featured candied lovage - and given how much lovage we have in our garden, we were curious what they were doing with it. We didn't order the salad that night - too much geoduck sashimi already - but I asked the waiter if he could snatch me a little taste so I could figure out what it was. He brought back a tiny bowl of lovage stems that had been soaked in simple syrup.

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Sandwich Bread

With 10+lbs of bread dough in our freezer, I decided to pull some out today and make a simple sandwich loaf for this week's lunches. Without the added time spent mixing, kneading, and resting the dough, this bread was lightening fast. I had defrosted it in the fridge the previous night so it was good and awake, and I pulled it out this morning to shape it and let it complete its final rise.

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