soaked grain pancakes

Since the weather change I have been looking for warm, easy breakfasts using non-gluten grains, and since I am often inclined to get up and make a batch of pancakes anyway, this could be the solution. I might have first seen this idea on My New Roots, a gorgeous site and recipe blog whose wholefood nutritional ideas reflect my own. But I can't remember, it may have been here or here. Anyway, yesterday I had the idea to soak some grains, blitz them into a kind of wet 'flour' and do some baking with it.. I made pancakes.

Along my whole food journey, pancakes or pikelets are my go-to recipe when trying out new ingredients, or new methods. This simple recipe perfect for discovering the behaviour, flavour, aroma and utility of an ingredient that I have previously had no experience of. Pancakes are so immediate you get results without a huge investment of time or the expense and risk of a more elaborate recipe.

time goes by

The babies and small children in the (much) earlier posts on my blog, and in the sidebar, no longer look like that.

They are much bigger. And trickier, and more fun and good to each other. Except when they are wrestling.

 As yet they have no clue about the film 'Donnie Darko', but when they are old enough, they are gonna love this picture...

bubble, bubble, toil...

There are several very exciting experiments going on in my house at the moment.
Well, maybe exciting is relative..

 I am sprouting, drying and milling grains to make sprouted grain flour.

 And I have just received the gift of some kefir grains to make kefir milk (cultured milk).

My house is full of jars of things bubbling and silently growing and fermenting. My head is doing the same, meeting the challenges posed by cooking with these fascinating and unusual ingredients.

Why? As I mentioned a few posts earlier, there is a wholefood revolution going on in my household. And cultured or fermented products are a cornerstone of the principles of whole living. As is 'treating' your grains properly.

 I had to push my dietary and nutritional understanding of food to one side and asslimilate a new interpretation of healthy. It was difficult for me to ignore years of modern dietary wisdom, making choices that contradict the low-fat, no-fat, healthy food pyramid advice. Hard, mentally. Food wise it has been easy, the immediate benefits of eating 'whole', the deliciousness of the food, the satiety and 'wellness' and feeling of being nourished re-inforces that I am doing the right thing. For myself and my family.

This is the banana bread I made with my first batch of my own sprouted spelt flour.

The information on sprouted grain flour is limited, as it's not widely available. It appeals to special diets (those intolerant of gluten flours but not truly coeliac) and wholefood-ers who want grain that has been 'processed' (the usual way is the sour ferment or soak flours or grains before using. The 'why' of this I'll deal with later). It appeals to people who know that regular flour products- sliced bread and bakery goods- leave their appetites dissatisfied, make them feel hungry more quickly and perpetuate a maddening crave and binge cycle, in spite of best efforts to 'be healthy'. People like me.

I have gifted some flour to interested friends and co-workers to experiment with. First reports from my testers have been promising. I can't wait to hear about the pasta dough trial and taste the shortbread that's been made.

My next project once the kefir has matured is kefir cheese, and cultured butter. It is quite exciting...

food sells

At the library earlier in the week..

Are you serious? 'The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake'? Give me a break.

new guilt

I have found a new variety of guilt, if that's possible.
As if the parenting guilt, the luxury chocolate shopping guilt, the online sneaky book buying guilt and the house-is-filthy-and-I-don't-care guilt is not enough.

Recently I started studying Yr 12 Chemistry to satisfy the pre-requsite for a Uni course I am considering. It's been a challenge to get the brain out of first gear and back into it. But mostly it's been about forcing the regular wedge of time into my schedule to keep a flow going.

So when I do actually get the children to bed, clean the dinner table, stack the dishwasher, wipe the kitchen bench, make the lunches, find uniforms and pack bags ready, soak some oats for brekky and put on the kettle, it's time to settle down for a solid hour and a half of work.

The voice in my head starts to divert me- check your blogs, I wonder if there's any cheap books on Fishpond, gosh it's been a busy day, you're a little tired, just rest on the couch for a minute...and whoa! It's 10:00 and I will not be starting any study now, it's way too late...

And the guilt sets in. Should have done it, wasted a night, really putting yourself in a bind, if only you could do it in the daytime..

So I book a day of study for myself. One child at school, one in extra daycare ($83 a day!) and off I go to the library. But (the voice says) it's a little cold, just pop home and get a scarf, oh now you are here give the place a quick tidy, put the heater on, you may as well stay at home and do it, ooh the floor needs a vacuum, time for morning tea, better make a couple of phone calls, lunch, short nap on the couch, whoops, must have really needed that, it's 2.45, time to go get the boys again..

Guilty and guilt.

One of the scourges of my modern life is the incessant prattle about 'time for yourself'. Do yoga, have a massage, read a book, meditate. I despise this talk because in my life it is unrealistic to expect 'me time' when I make dozens of choices a day that only erode free 'me time'. But they are my choices. Yoga or make pita bread? Pitas, please. Meditate or write a business plan? Business plan, please. Yet thanks to the power and persuasion of our media saturated lives, I feel like I have failed myself on 'me time'.  I yearn for it, even though I never choose it. Even though I have voluntarily undertaken this course, I find myself feeling deprived of my socially ordained 'me time'. Which is self defeating, since for the next 10 months, I willingly and voluntarily have chosen to and will have to spend 'me time' studying chemistry.

Or feeling guilty all the time for not doing it.

Blogging about it is just another delaying tactic.
Ok, ok, I'm going now....

the long break, the life changed

This is an attempt at a comeback.

My time away has been long and the pile of blog posting notes is enormous. Sifting through the scrappy jottings I have kept to share I realise how often I thought of my little short blog and wistfully wished I could get here. If I even began to describe what has kept me from this space, you would think me overly dramatic, weak, hysterical (the bad, not funny way) and lazy. Or you just wouldn't believe me.

That's in the (recent) past. I'm coming back.

In the meantime here are some links to what I've been reading and thinking about and loving..

-a favourite writers trip to Israel
- the catalysts for the wholefood revolution happening in my household
   Heidi Swanson
   Jude Blereau
 -photo inspiration

Talk to you soon.

Merry Christmas

I'm sitting in our little office at the back of the bakery. It's 8am on Christmas Eve and we are done.

Well, done but for the bread selling. The baker just left, after starting at 3pm yesterday afternoon (so that's 16 hours of baking). And I am here, having arrived to help at 1am. I'm trying to get away, but I'm waiting for some danish to freeze solid for a customer to bake their own while we are closed.

This is our first Christmas as small business owners. It has been a huge year, and we have dealt with so much, well out of our areas of expertise, I can't even think how we have done it. Even the baker said this week 'Wow, Christmas! I thought we'd be divorced by now!'. Thrilling that we aren't. Thrilling that we are still going. Daunting to wonder how we will do it for another year.

Some BIG business must do's in 2010
- hire and keep a baker with interest, talent and skills. They can provide them , or we will train!
- do my own books. It's not hard but for some reason I'm terrified of messing up the computer. The motivation is to keep the book keepers salary for myself!
- get the furniture, permits and staff I need to open the shop later and Sundays.
- better and more beautiful, creative baking. Can't wait to see what recipe books Santa brings...

Best wishes for the season.

christmas cards

Tis the season and the christmas cards are rolling in fast. Collecting the cards this year has become a lovely part of the afternoon routine for my family- checking the letter box, bringing in the pile, opening the cards, talking about who they're from, what's on the front, why we don't have snow here at christmas...Cards are really helping build the Christmas momentum in our house.

However, since we own a business we are getting a lot of cards from people we deal with, suppliers and such. I have to say, a card from a business is not such a joy. Maybe I feel like this because our first card was from the broker who sold us the business (who gained about $5000 from the transaction) with whom we have had no contact since. Then a card came from the accountant's office, signed by everyone in the office. Which is nice, but currently we are still waiting on our tax figures from our 'swamped' accountant, but apparently she's busy signing christmas cards. Then a sales man who I deal with sporadically dropped in a card. But he was really only checking out what we are using and if there is a sales opportunity there.

I do realise that christmas is a massive marketing tool. Every business book recommends sending a christmas 'something' to your customer data base to remind them you exist. But isn't christmas supposed to be about something else? Family, friends, personal reflection during a sacred and spiritual time. It's not the best opportunity for people with whom you have an account to 'remind you they exist'. I get those reminders every month..

What about those who don't participate in Christmas? I have received nothing from my Indian drygood supplier, nothing from the Jewish papergoods people. What about the faux pas of sending them a card? In our multicultural world, it's potentially a very bad decision to use a religious holiday as a business opportunity. What say you on that, marketers?

So, I've decided that a business custom thank-you and New Year acknowledgement on the Christmas statement, along with our holiday trading hours is the most appropriate action for us. I'm comfortable with it and it's as sincere as I can be. Afterall, it's just business.

Hey! A wonderful chef and his wife (with whom I have both worked) have just bought a restaurant. Yay! Congratulations to them and best wishes for a great start on their own.

It's called Colenso and it's in Woodend.

Check out the menu on their website www.colenso.com.au and pay attention to the Prix Fixe menu on Friday and Saturday nights. Gorgeous and great price too.

A lovely weekend away in a little B&B wth dinner and breakfast at Colenso might be just what the body needs.

FYI- Woodend is about 40mins from Melbourne at the foot of the Macedon ranges and the spa country (meaning not far from Daylesford).

food-centric tales

Today playing chasey in the backyard, my son named himself the Gingerbread Man
(run, run as fast as you can, you can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man,)
and he named the baker, his father, the Muffin Man.

Yes, absolutely, everything in our house revolves around baking. Yep, everything.

the cake

Christmas cake is a very hard thing, both as a baker and an eater. I suppose, as with all food, it's about personal preferences. Dark or light? Heavy? Moist and crumbly? Nuts or not? Gross red cherry things or not? Boozy? Citrusy? Jammy, figgy puddin' cake?

I find it really hard to do christmas cake. The time and the cost make me hesitate, and then the recipe variations are too many. I've really yet to find my true cake, the one I would make every year forever. The christmas cake my grandchildren would remember me by. I'm still trying.

But, of course I had to make something for my customers. So we have cake. It has no butter in the recipe and heaps of soaked, boozy fruit. The cake is really just there to hold the fruit together. It's a nice cake, baked weeks ago and aged as it should be. I was worth it (the trouble, time, effort and stress), but I want better.

What's my perfect christmas cake? I think it is not light or dark, but a golden medium colour cake, with moist, juicy fruits of all kinds, even cherries. It also has walnuts and the fragrant hint of marzipan. It is crumbly and cakey, not a heavy fruity brick. And no white icing.

Once I made a marzipan fruit cake from a Nigella recipe I think it was. I'm searching it out now, for my second wind of christmas cakes in the bakery. I'll be doing a 'quick Christmas cake' for the last two weeks in December, a bit cheaper than the Christmas cake, because it's more a simple fruit cake. In fact that's probably where I'm going wrong in my quest. I'm reading Christmas cake recipes, when I really want to get myself a brilliant fruit cake recipe.

The same issues can arise when making fruit mince pies. But for me this is easier, because I know how I like my fruit mince pies to be and so I make them that way. Pastry with a bit of baking powder and egg, so it's cakey, light and soft. It creates a gentle pillow around the fruit and carries it beautifully into your mouth. And warmed with cream it's like a little sweet pudding from heaven.

But I've had criticism about my style of pies, from my very own household even. All I can say is there's no right or wrong, it's a preference. Shortcrust mince pies and light christmas cake are fine for some people, dark, heavy cake and soft pillow pies for others. I just hope I've got enough cuatomers who like my christmas style, and then enough pies and cakes for those who do!

betrayed

Staffing is a constant, ongoing issue in the small business world.
Getting
1. the right people to
2. do the job you want them to do
3. for the money you can afford to pay them

is a multi-factor nightmare.

At the moment in my shop I have five people employed who fulfill one of the three criteria. I would not be alone in finding it difficult to secure the best people, since they rarely present for the jobs I have to offer.

So I have invested considerable time in getting my staff up to speed, on food safety, operating procedures, company policy, customer service goals, minimum acceptable work levels. Some of this stuff is so obvious, I really do loathe having to tell my staff about it. I get embarrassed when someone has not noticed something obvious that requires their attention because IT'S THEIR JOB.

I have one staff member who has pushed and pushed for more hours and changed work circumstances, and got everything she's asked for. Today I found out that she has handed her resume to a casual staff member to get assistance in looking for other work.

This is the first real conundrum for me as an employer. When I was an employee jumping from job to job with no loyalty was all part of hospitality work. It was one of the privileges of having skills to sell. Now as an employer, having it done to me is really shocking. For a start this employee does not have skills to sell. The time I have spent training, the effort I have made to give her the work she asked for, relegating other staff so she can get her hours, I expected a bit of loyalty, but no. I don't get loyalty or commitment or anything but a FU behind my back. I'm hurt and annoyed.

How do I react? Currently I have a useful person doing a consistent job. I need this in my business right now. And so far as the future, I had plans to offer her the full hours she wanted and develop my business with her as part of that core team. I don't want to do this now. But perhaps she's going looking because she doesn't know what I may to offer her. Perhaps she simply doesn't like the job.

I have another staff member who is a consistent but sloppy worker, and who cannot change her behaviours or attitude, as much as I coach her, encourage her, put up with her. Her attitude is the pits. She often comments that customers are being difficult (asking for things we sell, for crying out loud!), and she sneers at people. I have made a huge effort to train all staff about our bread so they can speak knowledgeably when serving, but listening to her talk to customers, she doesn't care. At all. I tolerate this because she turns up every day at 7am, 5 days a week and I need this in my business, because it's something I cannot do. Presently I'm desperately trying to find a way for her to exit the business. I'm sure she has no idea about this. So she will eventually feel betrayed for her loyalty, once she is aware of our plans.

Some of my problems are about communication. I am absolutely not good about confronting people in the moment or after a problem has passed, or taking people aside for a talk, pointing out failures, doing any of that 'one minute manager' stuff. And I need to, because putting up with the mediocre is costing me time, wages and the end result is my customers are affected, so my business is affected.

I often think about how I feel when people I know come into my shop. Mostly I'm embarrassed about the run down, dusty way it often looks, the grotty plates on display, the smeary glass and badly displayed (divinely delicious) bakery items. NO WAY should I feel like this, when I pay people to sort out these things. Shiny, clean glass, beautifully displayed food, with the correct name and price on them and happy, happy service is all we have going for us, and some days we do even have that...

These staff have gotta go.

stuff going slow

Yesterday we went on a day trip to visit some friends in Romsey. It's great going there, so close but far enough out of town that you feel like you're in the bush. And you can smell the paddocks and mountains, not cars and traffic. You can even hear any cars and traffic. It rained the whole way there, which was pure joy.

These friends are chefs, and a visit there always involves a lovely eating experience. For those of you who are not chefs, this does not mean we get a multi course degustation, matched to wine. In my experience when chefs cook for chefs, the smart ones go simple, fresh and use the best. It's the best way to cook anyway and leaves you plenty of time to chat and gossip. We had braised chicken and rice followed by a tomato and cucumber salad with some amazing, creamy feta that turned this simple dish into a luxurious lunch finale.

Well, lunch was being prepared when we got there and from a cupboard appeared something I haven't seen in ages- a pressure cooker. Saucepan style, handles that clip together and a little steam whistler on top. My children and I perched at the end of the kitchen bench watching that contraption whistle like a train, mesmerised. Lest it be said that our braised chicken was ready within the hour, tender and bone meltingly sweet and soft.

I decided right then that I have been stupid all this time, and I'm gettin' me a pressure cooker. Stuff your slow braised, 8 hour, overnight anything. The environmental impact of running the oven on 70 degrees for 12 hours for your pork belly or even just running the electric slow cooker overnight ..well, it flies in the face of current energy consumption directives.

That aside, the major factor influencing my home cooking currently is time. Most days I have less than 20 minutes to get a meal on the table and I rarely have the energy to get organised the night before. If I eat pasta more than once a fortnight I go spare, it's never enough of a meal for me, I actually get why Italians have it as an entree. A baby in the house means stir fry is off the menu for a while (regardless of what the baby books say about finger foods, crunchy veg and the joys of mopping noodles off the floor, I'm not doing it.)

But with a miraculous pressure cooker, I can have my usual go-to dishes, faster. Braised chicken and lentils, lamb and potatoes, even bean soups are go. And when I've run out of ideas, I'll just cruise the cookbook section of the op shop. Once I've picked through the microwave cooking and the 'Taste for Life' anthologies, I can see some gems being unearthed there. Can I do creamed rice in it? Wouldn't that take like, 4 minutes? Imagine how fast I could get a bolognese out of there, for sure. Gosh, I could throw together the meat sauce at the same time as the bechamel and have lasagne ready in an hour. That could save my marriage.

Hold me back, I'm off shopping....

Hello. In the spirit on NOBLOPOMO (blogger challenge month to post every day) I thought I'd head over here and give a bit back. Reading other stories all the time feels so take, take, take.

To catch up those wondering what's been happening, I am flat out being the baker's wife at the moment, and for the past months. Our staffing crisis has not been averted and so I find myself doing a whole lot more than what I'd ever intended. Anyone with Human Resources advice better than 'make up a manual and give them warnings' feel free to drop a line...

Lucien turned one in October, which was the highlight of the month. My russian shop hand made his cake, a magnificent creation called a 'russian honey cake'. It was layers of ginger/honey biscuit sandwiched with sour cream and walnuts in layers, like a chocolate ripple cake the size of a plate. It was beautiful. Lu was especially impressed and stuck his long baby finger straight into the creamy mass, ignoring the candle, which Gabriel was trying to blow out from two metres away. Which means he was spitting on it cake from a distance. Wonderful.

Our vege garden is going gangbusters, thanks to that fantastic rain, and even today enough of a spattering to stop me having to water it. Gabs is so proud, he walks along and names all the veges and is constantly sticking things in the soil telling me it's 'to keep the mozzies away from our vegies,'.

So that's our brief update. I'll be back here sooner than last time I hope, but no promises.

Wow, I didn't realise I'd dropped off the radar for that long.

This all consuming life of small business and children continues to swallow us up. But things are improving. We are almost fully staffed in the bakery now, and everyone seems to be chugging along happily.

We took a week to do some maintenance and recover ourselves before the next big onslaught. A well deserved break away from thinking non-stop about our business. But now there is fall out about that time away. I'm dealing with customers who may be lost, who were angry about not being able to get bread for a week and want us to know it. Even though I gave them notice, verbal and written.

Will I always be a slave to these customers? When will I be master of my own destiny? Is this the capitalist punishment? Subject to the whims of the market and forever on edge? Feeling like we could never close again for fear of our livelihood? What are the alternatives?

Before I forget them, this is my list of the joys of having a week off:

-all the boys in the big bed, wriggling, jiggling and giggling while I growl and grumble

-family breakfasts of 'dippy eggs' and endless piles of toast and jam, with kids playing cars around the kitchen table.

-tickles and giggling and not having the tele on at all because we are so busy playing and running and reading and doing, together.

-dozy, snoozy afternoons, hot milo and bikkies.

-being able to talk to each other all day and all night.

-going to dinner at a friends restaurant and tasting the love in the food.

-remembering that we love food too, and there is a reason we are doing all this.

-being so thrilled and rested and inspired after a week off, I baked a gateau basque and it was beautiful.

I'll be back again, sooner than last time....

the garden

This weekend we are working on putting in the vege garden.

Determined not to let our business completely rule our lives I am pushing to have something to do while at home with the boys. Outside, making messes and having fun. Because there are lots of parts of life that aren't fun and don't involve happy play time with Mum at the moment and this MUST change.

Vege garden, chooks and plenty to keep two boys busy.

two plates and a knife

There is a type of customer out there who drives me nuts.

They are a pair of women, over 65. They are smart casual dressed, in well pressed pant suit. You do know what I mean. Uptight doesn't even begin to describe them.

They come in and proceed to order. One coffee each, and one sweet item to share. Two plates and a knife please. And they sit and sit and sit with their purchase of under $10 between them.

They will complain about the service. The waiters can spot them a mile away and they know these low spend table sitters do not tip, so they won't bother with them.

What makes me nuts is why can't they just buy something each to share. Then you can taste two freshly baked goodies. You came out anyway. What's the point of a coming all this way for coffee and half a bun?

I know that being a food person means that I want to eat. I am interested in how food tastes, what tastes good, where I can get it and who makes it. I eat without concern for cholesterol, vitamin content, weight gain or guilt. I know other people do not do this. They go through life on a quest for fibre and fish oils, grappling with their desires, struggling to suppress the urge for mud cake and croissant.

Until they're 65 and sitting in a cafe on a decaf soy latte, trying to saw a monte carlo in half. What a shame.

gen y need not apply

A long term staff member of ours left today, as in quit. No notice, no warning, no explanation.

How can he do this? No, that's not an indignant, self pitying 'How can he do this to us?' question. I mean how can he just decide one day that he's no longer going to work? What of his own responsibilities?

Well since he's a gen y, he's still living at home with Mum and Dad well into his late 20's. Having his ego massaged, being told he's a golden child, no need to stress your self daahlink. So he can quit his job without worrying about making the rent or paying his bills or having to feed himself. That's all being done for him. He's so comfortable, he can just quit and mooch around home, having his washing done and playing the Wii until he feels like working again.

Gen Y may have been told they are on the path to milk and honey, the best jobs for the most money are coming their way. And it may be true, but gen y are not going to conquer the world with all their wealth, because they are going to starve to death once their boomer parents die.
Like Aztecs, this golden age generation will just disappear. And the rest of us will be like 'oh yeah, remeber those little f**ers, geez thank god they're gone, weren't they a waste of time...'

We aren't pissed that you've left, loser, it's that you gave no notice. Even one week would have been enough. But no, just the walk out. Hard to believe someone could be so short sighted. Quitting does not bode well for a decent reference, does it?

in the Queen's english

Advertising for staff avails me of some spectacular and extraordinary resumes. Here are some highlights of what I have been reading lately...

Potential employees assert that they possess the following qualities-

Willingness to sacrifice pleasure and rest for the sake of work. (! I love this candidate!)
Profound knowledge of the hazards of institutional baking work and ability to observe adequate safety precautions.
Remarkable ability to operate bakery equipment and to plan and maintain the required production.
In-depth ability to assist in the instruction and supervision of others in baking operations.
Uncommon ability to work under conditions of high temperatures. (Instant connection here, since I too possess this uncommon quality.)
Have a quality to give presentations and convince and motivate masses through effective communication and knowledge.

and to win me over..
I would be more than honoured to work in your esteemed organisation and give a dedicated and unmatched service to the best of my potential, if and only if given an opportunity.
or a last ditch attempt..
we are 2 guys looking for this job we have a car and we are avilable.

You know what? I started this post because I thought it was amusing. I have read so many emails and resumes, all but begging me for work in twisted, funny student english, in bad, should-know-better, Aussie english. People doing their utmost to convince me that they can do this job and are willing to write anything to get a go. But right now, it's making me sad.

Resumes, however lacking do build a picture of someone, and so many of my applicants obviously have aspirations in other fields. Microbiology graduates, aeronautical engineering graduates, people with real qualifications and genuine intelligence attempting to build life here, starting off by baking.

Yes, baking does require intelligence, commitment, grunt and sweat. I know some of you out there can do this job. But why? Doesn't this country need micro biologists and aeronautical engineers as well?

Please lord, just send me some bakers and find jobs for the others as well.

nothings..

Today I was thinking, isn't it funny that when I watch the Movie Show I rarely feel the need to see the movie anymore, but when I watch First Tuesday Bookclub I still want to read the books?

And when I watched Masterchef I yelled at the television all the time, but now it's gone, I miss it.