IN MY KITCHEN, FALL 2026

Posted in In My Kitchen by sallybr

In My Kitchen posts are hosted by Sherry, from Sherry’s Pickings. Please visit her site to see what everybody else is sharing this month. I join four times each year, on the first day of January, April, July and October. If you are a food blogger, consider taking part of this fun event. It is a chance to share those little things you bought or received as gifts and that make your life in the kitchen easier.

Starting with gifts….

From our former graduate student Lorne and his wife Wasu, beautiful ceramic pieces… We love owls, living in a place absolutely packed with them, I adore elephants, and that vase has the colors of the Brazilian flag. Can you spell perfect gifts? Thank you, it was lovely to see you again!

Speaking about friends knowing me well, this was another quite appropriate gift from our friend Gary… Yeah, defines me to a T.

Once again my friend Monique surprises me with a Dalmatian-inspired gift… I melted on the spot. Spot? Did someone say spot? Black spots maybe? Thank YOU, Monique1

Moving on, let me share a few things that joined our household since my last virtual tour, in the Summer.

In our kitchen…

These jams are not easy to find. They are from Ohio, but my beloved husband, the resident Jam Lover and Critic, fell in love with them, so he stocked up on two big bottles. If you ever see them for sale, grab them. They have less sugar than most brands and are very flavorful. Of course, this is info conveyed by the husband, I admit I don’t eat jam, although I use them in baking. Not these, though. The man I married is very protective of them (cough, cough).

In our kitchen…

Have you noticed I baked a lot? Maybe you did… ANYHOO, I am smitten by this line of pans, from Caraway. The coating is superb, they look super stylish, so I slowly changed some of my old pans by these. You can find them online, either at Caraway site or The Super Evil Empire. But keep an eye open because I’ve seen them in stores such as Marshall’s.

In our kitchen…

Rye Berries! An ingredient that is quite important if you make Danish Rye bread. I will have a blog post about it soon, so if that is interesting to you, stay tuned. Available here.

In our kitchen…

Paper stencils, these work wonderfully on sourdough bread, you need to be gentle and make sure to dry them well after use and place them inside a book or something to keep them flat. Available here.

In our kitchen…

My first bread using those paper stencils, a little bit of a learning curve, but I like the outcome…

In our kitchen…

Ube-flavored condensed milk. I saw it used by a baker on Instagram. Had to order a can, but have not put it to use yet. I am tempted to just make Ube-brigadeiros, but cannot quite decide, so the can is sitting and waiting. Yes, it was an impulse buy. Available here.

In our kitchen…

We have been using our two cast iron pans a lot. I have two gadgets to keep them clean. The one behind, with fine links, is my favorite. The other one, although easier to handle and easier to wash (it will go in the dishwasher if you want to), is not as efficient to reach the sides of the pan, and depending on how small the glued stuff is, it won’t remove as easily as the small chain does. Both are available on amazon, just do a search because the specific brands are always changing.

In our kitchen…

A heavy-duty kitchen paper holder. We’ve had one for 10 years, it finally broke, the bottom cracked. I tried to find the exact same brand but it was impossible, so I went to work and searched around The Evil Empire, reading reviews. Brought this one home and hope it will last as long as the first one did!

And now, let’s expand the horizons of our virtual walk, I will take you to the backyard, a place we’ve been enjoying more and more after our retirement back in May.

At this time of the year, we can sit outside when clouds go from white to pink, as the sunset starts. It is magical and we try to savor this moment, that lasts maybe a full ten minutes, whenever we can.

Prince believes we are there just for playtime with him and Star, nothing to do with pink clouds or the majestic beauty of the universe…. We obviously comply!

Of course, the backyard is more than a playground to them. They guard it, protect it, inspect it. Particularly Star, she is fearless and totally committed to the job.

Guarding the property against invaders is not an activity restricted to the backyard. They scrutinize the street for people daring to walk their pups, squirrels, bunny rabbits, wild turkeys, and flying leaves. WE ARE ON IT!

But all that enthusiasm can backfire at times…

During a walk, a squirrel rushed past us, and the commotion he caused made me let go of their leashes, and resulted in a furious chase which thankfully ended well for the squirrel. Prince came immediately back when called, but Star went through a fence and found herself dangerously close to three huge cows and a young calf. Those were very stressful minutes that I don’t like to remember, so yeah, she’s been booked and charged. Charges were later dismissed, for reasons that nobody quite understands.

Shockingly, bad behavior is not restricted to the outdoors. It involves the indoors. More specifically, doors. Doors that are mercilessly scratched when closed against the will of the resident pups.

Charges have been filed, and later dismissed, for reasons that are not fully understood.

Could it be because we are impossibly cute?

It is possible that cuteness explains it all. Not only charges being constantly dismissed, but the fact that they keep showing up on cookies…

Prince and Star could not be more different and at the same time they are so great together… Star has endless appetite, will eat pretty much anything anytime, whereas Prince can be very picky. He will often beg for treats by coming up on the countertop where we keep them, but then refuses each one…

However, even the Pickiest Eater in the house, has his weaknesses….

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The meaning of life, according to Star is sleeping well, playing hard, getting belly rubs, always wagging the tail, and giving slobbery kisses!

Well, that is all for now, my friends! I hope you will come back to read about our adventures in the next installment of In My Kitchen, which should really be In The Kingdom of Dalmatians!

1 YEAR AGO: In My Kitchen, Fall 2025

2 YEARS AGO: In My Kitchen, Fall 2024

3 YEARS AGO: In My Kitchen, Fall 2023

4 YEARS AGO: In My Kitchen, Fall 2022

5 YEARS AGO: In My Kitchen, October 2021

6 YEARS AGO: In My Kitchen, October 2020

7 YEARS AGO: In My Kitchen (and Beyond), October 2019

8 YEARS AGO: In My Kitchen, October 2018

9 YEARS AGO: In My Kitchen, October 2017

10 YEARS AGO: Little Bites of Paradise

11 YEARS AGO: Coxinha de Galinha: A Brazilian Delicacy

12 YEARS AGO: Prosciutto-Wrapped Shrimp Skewers

13 YEARS AGO: A Simple Dinner

14 YEARS AGO: Brown Butter Tomato Salad

15 YEARS AGO: Spelt and Cornmeal Rolls

16 YEARS AGO: Roasted Potato and Olive Focaccia

17 YEARS AGO: Multigrain Bread Extraordinaire

27Sep2026

FLOATING BUTTERFLY, THE VIDEO

Posted in Breads by sallybr

As I mentioned in my post from yesterday, I am back to share a detailed video of the method to make the floating butterfly, this time in a large boule format. The process is separated in two videos, made in real time. I go over some of the struggles of the past and how they got solved. Apparently I also talk to my bread, which I only realized when I watched it. Oh, well.

VIDEO #1

And the second video, shorter, shows the scoring for maximal lift, made after the bread is baked for 7 minutes.

Float, little butterfly, float…

26Sep2026

MINI-SOURDOUGH BOULES, THREE WAYS

Posted in Breads by sallybr

Baking small breads is a great way to practice different decorative designs starting with a single batch of dough. That’s exactly what I am sharing with you today. My default recipe, using 500g of total flour gave exactly 4 little balls with 230g total dough each. The bannetons I used were bought on eBay. As far as I can tell, they are not available anymore, but I found the same kind at Evil Empire (click here), although you do have to buy a set with way too many…

After overnight in the fridge, I froze them still in the banneton for 30 minutes to facilitate scoring and working with the stencils. I start with my favorite, the floating butterfly…

THE FLOATING BUTTERFLY

For this design, I rubbed the bread with back cocoa powder, and used a thin metallic stencil that I got recently (click here, it is part of a big series of stencils sold together in a bundle). After gently lifting the stencil, I cut around the edge of the butterfly, and lifted that area a bit. Baked for 7 minutes covered in a 450F oven, then carefully removed the bread from the oven and made the cuts deeper, adding a small ball of parchment paper on the four corners of the wings where I hoped for more lift. You can see the process below. The bottom right picture is what it looked like after 7 minutes in the oven, when I put the little balls underneath the wings. If you’d like a more detailed visual explanation, I will have a blog post exclusively about this type of decoration in a day or two. Stay tuned!

The bread was covered again, baked for additional 8 minutes covered, then 15 more minutes uncovered. Since it is a small loaf, it bakes faster, but the best approach is to check the internal temperature, aiming for 205-210F. As soon as it comes out of the oven, remember to remove the little balls of paper, or they will glue to the bread. I’ve had a lot of struggle to make this method work, finally realized that one very important thing is the material of the banneton you use for the proofing after shaping. The best ones for this type of scoring are wood pulp bannetons. They dry the skin of the dough much more efficiently. I was using a plastic wrap to facilitate removing the dough after overnight proofing, and that was the reason for all my disasters. The plastic did not allow the dough to dry, so there was no way to slice it nicely. Finally I changed to wood pulp, skipped the layering of plastic wrap, and things started to work better, not only for lifted designs, but scoring the bread in general. Keep that in mind if you are into decorating your bread.

YIN AND YANG LEAF DESIGN

This design requires just a razor blade and scissors, very simple and quite effective. Again, I froze the dough for 30 minutes before inverting it out of the banneton and proceeding with the scoring.

GAME OF THRONES SOURDOUGH

The simplest of the three, all I did was freeze the dough, wet the surface very lightly with a spray bottle, set the dragon stencil on top, and rub red yeast powder. Lift the stencil gently and make some cuts around it. Baked at 430F, covered for 15 minutes, uncovered for 15 more minutes.

You maybe noticed I started with 4 small boules of dough but you only see three baked breads. At first I thought I could bake two at a time, but it was not feasible. One of them sat at room temperature after scoring, it deflated pretty badly and it ended up as bread for croutons. Oh, well. Live and learn!

1 YEAR AGO: Cottage Cheese Flourless Muffins

2 YEARS AGO: Açai-Blackberry Sorbet

3 YEARS AGO: A Bouquet of Macarons

4 YEARS AGO: Chocolate-Hazelnut Tartlets

5 YEARS AGO: Turkey Taco Salad

6 YEARS AGO: Cheese and Pesto Emmer Roll-ups and Elaine’s Cookbook Review

7 YEARS AGO: Mango-Hazelnut Entremet Cake

8 YEARS AGO: Lebanese Lentil Salad and a Cookbook Review

9 YEARS AGO: Cottage Loaf

10 YEARS AGO: Sourdough Loaf with Cranberries and Walnuts

11 YEARS AGO: Sichuan Pork Stir-Fry in Garlic Sauce

12 YEARS AGO: Our Green Trip to Colorado

13 YEARS AGO: Ditalini Pasta Salad

14 YEARS AGO: Celebrate Wednesday with a Thai Seafood Curry

15 YEARS AGO: Post-workout Breakfast

16 YEARS AGO: Semolina Barbecue Buns

17 YEARS AGO: Lavash Crackers

22Sep2026

BROCCOLI QUINOA SALAD

Posted in Salads, Vegetarian-friendly, Veggies by sallybr

This one definitely goes into the Hall of Fame of our salads, we loved everything about it, from texture to the mixture of flavors, all working together like a perfect symphony… I adapted it from a version in this brand new cookbook, which I highly recommend if you like to expand the horizons on your enjoyment of all things salad.

BROCCOLI QUINOA SALAD
(inspired by Tanya Sichynsky’s Veg)

1/2 cup quinoa, rinsed
1 lemon
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons Calamansi vinegar (or substitute apple cider vinegar)
1 small head broccoli
1 green, tart apple
1/3 cup toasted pecans, roughly chopped
1/4 to 1/2 cup dried cranberries
feta cheese crumbled, amount to taste
salt and black pepper

Bring a medium pot of water to a boil over high heat and season with salt. Add the quinoa, then reduce heat to maintain a simmer. Cook until plump and tender, about 15 minutes. Transfer to a fine-mesh sieve, rinse with cool water and drain well. While the quinoa cooks, finely grate the zest of the lemon into a large bowl, then cut the lemon in half. Add the oil, mustard, honey and vinegar, plus the juice of ½ lemon and whisk together. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Finely chop the entire head of broccoli and add to the dressing. Chop the apple and then add to the bowl. Keep them in the fridge or room temperature for 10 minutes. Add the cooked quinoa, feta cheese, nuts and cranberries and toss to combine. Taste and adjust seasoning, if needed. A final squirt of lemon juice is always nice…

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

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Comments: I don’t mind raw broccoli (although I despise a platter of crudités with intense passion), but I do not love it. Normally I would not even try this recipe but the author included a review from a person who made it and I was too tempted. Glad I made it, I am now a lover of raw broccoli, as long as it’s cut super small and allowed to sit in the acidic dressing for a little while. The addition of quinoa makes it hearty and pretty much a full meal if you want to go vegetarian. We had it with grilled chicken thighs, and my lunch next day was a bowl of this salad, warmed briefly in the microwave. Not a salad anymore, I suppose, but still wonderful… I do hope you try this recipe and also take a look at the cookbook.

1 YEAR AGO: Campfire Chocolate Cupcakes

2 YEARS AGO: La Couronne Lyonnaise, Two Ways

3 YEARS AGO: Have a Heart

4 YEARS AGO: Chocolate-Hazelnut Tartlets

5 YEARS AGO: Turkey Taco Salad

6 YEARS AGO: Cheese and Pesto Emmer Roll-ups and Elaine’s Cookbook Review

7 YEARS AGO: Mango-Hazelnut Entremet Cake

8 YEARS AGO: Lebanese Lentil Salad and a Cookbook Review

9 YEARS AGO: Cottage Loaf

10 YEARS AGO: Sourdough Loaf with Cranberries and Walnuts

11 YEARS AGO: Sichuan Pork Stir-Fry in Garlic Sauce

12 YEARS AGO: Our Green Trip to Colorado

13 YEARS AGO: Ditalini Pasta Salad

14 YEARS AGO: Celebrate Wednesday with a Thai Seafood Curry

15 YEARS AGO: Post-workout Breakfast

16 YEARS AGO: Semolina Barbecue Buns

17 YEARS AGO: Lavash Crackers

18Sep2026

EAR OF CORN SOURDOUGH

Posted in Breads by sallybr

I’ve been flirting with making this bread for a while, finally took a deep breath and did it! It was a lot easier than I anticipated. The idea and basic formula came from a super creative baker I follow on Instagram, and you can marvel at all her stuff clicking here.

EAR OF CORN SOURDOUGH BREAD
(slightly modified from crumbofherown)

for main dough:
265g bread flour
170g water
65g active starter (mine was at 60% hydration)
6g salt
2 tiny drops yellow food coloring

for green dough (you will use only half of it for the husk)
160g flour
85g water
30g starter
3g salt
two tiny drops of green food coloring

Start by making the main dough, adding first the water to the bowl of a KitchenAid type mixer, and diluting the yellow color in it. Add all other ingredients, mix with the dough hook for about 4 minutes. Transfer to an oiled bowl, and ferment at room temperature folding 4 times at 45 minute intervals.

Make the green dough, exactly the same way. It will be lower in hydration, so it won’t be as smooth as the other dough. Place in a small, oiled bowl, and ferment at room temperature. Do minimal kneading every time you fold the yellow dough.

After about 8 hours of mixing the dough, form the yellow dough as a batard, and place in a banneton. Leave the green dough in the bowl and place both components in the fridge overnight.

The next morning, the yellow dough out was gently shaped/pushed each batard into more of a corn-cob shape without completely reshaping the dough. I scored lengthwise first, then added horizontal scores across the entire loaf to create the individual kernels.

For the husks, I rolled the green dough out into a rectangle and cut out triangles. I placed the triangles over the yellow cob, folded the tips down, and added a small piece of green dough at the base for the stem.

I baked these individually at 450°F with the lid on for 23 minutes, then 425°F with the lid off for 8 minutes. If the green dough gets too much brown color, protect it with aluminum foil.

Let the bread cool completely before slicing.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: I have used food coloring in bread dough before, but had not added to the water before mixing. That makes all the difference in the world! Mixing the color once the dough is formed can be very tricky, and time consuming. Adding to the water makes it incorporate in the dough like a dream… The green dough will resist rolling at first, just allow it to rest a bit so the gluten relaxes, and continue trying. I did not want to make a very small amount of dough, so I used the full recipe. With the leftover dough I made a tiny little boule, scored it and baked after the big bread was out of the oven.

So there they are, my two babies, ready to be enjoyed! I am definitely going to play with this concept, it was quite straightforward to make, although I was a bit scared to try it at first.

I hope you visit @crumbofherown site on IG, it is quite amazing everything she does with sourdough in terms of shaping and adding colors. I want to try many different versions… So many breads, so little time!