Sourdough: 1, Kella: 0

Well, the results for my first loaf of sourdough are not in the basket. Nope, that lovely picture is Smaku's work for Good Eats. I want to make sure I give Creative Commons' users credit where credit is definitely due. I'm using Smaku's image to help you imagine what I was gunning for but did not achieve: crusty, yummy sourdough bread.

The starter I made on Friday and baked tonight did excellent through all fermentation and enrichment steps except the baking part, or so I thought. Perhaps I could have better cultivated the wild-yeast gathering for the starter, which is, I think, the trickiest step in the process. Dave seems to think that I didn't let the sourdough starter ferment enough, which is also entirely possible. There were some issues with the starter separating into liquid and dough early on, so I think I should add more flour in the beginning of the process.

While my loaf doesn't look pretty or as poofy as I would like to see, it did rise somewhat, which means I did collect yeast from somewhere off my porch. The tail ends of the loaf taste tangy and the texture is chewy and shows the requisite air pockets that indicate the presence of yeast.

However, the good news stopped once I cut into the loaf from the middle. A giant air pocket formed a cavernous tunnel much like the picture here. I think I didn't proof and shape the bread well enough, especially the latter. While I let the dough raise for 5 hours and then rest for another 2 hours, something went wildly wrong. I used bread flour, only glass containers, and filtered water, but my sourdough saga make me feel like General Douglas MacArthur: "I shall return."

All I know is that the Egyptians have been making starter breads like the one I made this week since 2500 BC, so I need to cut myself a little bit of slack and try again.

For those of you who are uber adventurous, the recipe I used came from a back issue of the now defunct magazine, Craft. As soon as I find a suitable recipe, I'll share. Till then, I'm sure you'll wait with "bated breath."

Let Them Eat (Cheese)cake

I don't know about you, but I'm on a budget. I realized this today when I went through the grocery line and had to mentally do the numbers before checking out to make sure I had what I could afford. Let's just say the Hellman's mayo (heck, I can make mayonnaise) and family pack of flour tortillas (I'm making a sourdough starter, so carbs are a plenty) didn't make the cut and were stealthily put back on the proper shelves. Seriously!

So, in coming posts, which from here on out will be posted weekly by Tuesdays at midnight, I'll detail some cost-efficient recipes that don't sacrifice flavor but do manage to be nice to your wallet and your palate. And don't worry. I'll still make room for Scharffen Berger chocolate and nasturtiums.

But, for one last hooray into decadence for the coming weeks, let me quote my sassy godmother of food writing, MFK Fisher:

"Permit your disciplined inner self to relax, and think of caviar, and thick cream, and fat little pullets trotting through an oak grove rich with truffles, 'musky, fiery, savory, mysterious.' Close your eyes to the headlines and your ears to the sirens and the threatenings of high explosives, and read instead the sweet nostalgic measures of these recipes, impossible yet fond."

The fact that Fisher's essay, "How to Practice True Economy," first appeared in her book, How to Cook A Wolf, in 1942 is truly awe-inspiring and yet not. We're surely not the first who have gone through an economic downturn, and we won't be the last.

In many instances, I hope to see a resurgence of home cooks and victory gardens. We owe it to ourselves to discover that good, healthful eats are not a luxury but a necessity. I'm a busy lady, but the older I get, the more I realize that there's something cathartic and rejuvenating about making a mess in the kitchen.

And in that spirit, I offer you one of my first original recipes--a recipe my mother perfected as I grew up in Blue Springs, Missouri: Turtle cheesecake.

Turtle Cheesecake
Recipe by Mary Carla Ligon (aka, Mom)

Ingredients

Cheesecake filling
3 packages cream cheese (the real deal, no neufchatel low-fat nonsense)
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup sour cream
2 tsp. vanilla
4 eggs
A squirt of fresh lemon
A dash of salt

Chocolate ganache
12 oz. bag of semisweet chocolate chips (I use Ghiradelli)
8 oz. heavy whipping cream

Crust
3 packs graham crackers crushed
2 sticks of butter

Garnish
1 cup pecans, halved
Smucker's Caramel Sundae Syrup (or homemade caramel sauce)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Liberate your 9-inch springform pan from underneath your frequently used cookware; you know the pan that has the cool little release latch that always makes me think of parachuting. They look like so.
3. Use a food processor on the graham crackers, or use a heavy duty plastic bag that you can beat the crap out of with a rolling pin. The latter is great for the low-tech cook.
4. Once the graham crackers are finely crushed, melt 2 sticks of unsalted butter in a saucepan or the microwave. Combine butter and crumbs to make the cheesecake crust.
5. Using clean hands and the bottom of a flat juice glass, press the graham cracker-butter mixture into the springform pan to make the bottom and side crust.

Now it's time for the ganache:
1. Using a double boiler, melt the 12 oz. of semisweet chocolate.
2. Once the chocolate is thoroughly melted, add 1 cup of heavy whipping cream. Stir together and let sit for 10-15 minutes until somewhat cooled.
3. Pour the chocolate ganache into the springform pan. This chocolaty goodness will be your surprise layer in the cheesecake.

Moving on to the cream cheese filling:
1. Blend the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and eggs on medium until smooth. Lumps will not do, so get rid of them.
2. Add the lemon, salt and sour cream into the smooth mixture.
3. When all ingredients for the filling are mixed, gently pour the cream cheese filling on top of the ganache in a circle, being careful to segregate the filling from the ganache (i.e., cover the chocolate, don't mix the two layers up).

Final steps:
Once the three steps are finished, bake cheesecake for 50 minutes to an hour until the middle is wobbly but firm (i.e., set). Let cheesecake cool overnight and then refrigerate for several hours before garnishing dessert with fresh pecans and caramel syrup. A cheating-heart trick for the caramel syrup: I use Smucker's Caramel Sundae Syrup even though I can make caramel. Call me lazy!

Enjoy with a robust pinot noir or big-bodied cabernet sauvignon (or as Dave says, Baileys).

Looking for A Big Bloom on A Short Vine

title after Lee Ann Womack's song, "The Bees"

My seeds are sprouting into cilantro, basil and chives. Zinnias and California Poppies are coming, so today I drove my little red truck to my local gardening shop and bought more potting soil, pastel pink impatiens and purple sage. I love the guys at University Gardens, 8130 Delmar Blvd. in University City. They're down to earth, have a lot of cool tats, and excellent advice on how to grow a garden (a stinky yet Hulk-like hint: fish emulsion).

In the next month or so, I'm going to start my organic summer vegetable garden because, let's face it, the girl and her oven are going to want to conserve a little heat for summer-fresh fare. And I think it's a crime to go all summer without fresh pico de gallo.

But until the heat becomes the "hot mess" my friend Lindsey M. often called St. Louis summers, I'm still baking. In the past two weeks I've made six dozen chocolate chip cookies and a lovely pan of the lime bars pictured above. Lime Bars were an impulse bake on Monday night. Chocolate chip cookies continue to be chewy, buttery crisp with lots of Ghiradelli semisweet chocolate. When my friend Beth comes to town on her way to her professorship at Bucknell, I'm going to use Scharfenberger to make her extra special delicacies. We're also hitting that taqueria on Cherokee St. and buying chocolates from Kakao. Hello, Maker's Mark chocolates and shrimp burritos. Yum.

But the best part of this week besides digging in the dirt and then baking (with liberal hand washing in between), was the little package that arrived on Wednesday night from Fed Ex. Our tickets from Travelocity arrived, which means Dave and I are definitely flying to Madrid in late June to visit some of his friends and then hitch a train to France for Carmella's wedding in Normandy on July 1. You best believe there will be a European edition of "A Girl and Her Oven." Double swoon with ripe camembert on top.

So, without further ado, to celebrate this week's bounty, here's my homage to tart lime bars (I promise to bake more chocolate chip cookies soon!). May the two flavors unite on this blog sometime soon. And if you're ever in town, let me know. I'll invite you to dinner, or at least dessert.

Hugs and high fives,
Kella

Lime Bars
a recipe modified from The Taste of Home Baking Book, a gift from my dad

Shortbread Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1 cup butter (unsalted), melted

Filling Ingredients
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1/3 cup lime juice
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 teaspoon grated lime peel

Dust confectioners' sugar on top once the bars are cool to the touch.

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine the first four ingredients. Press into a greased 13" x 9" x 2" pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 13-15 minutes, or just until edges are lightly browned.

2. For filling, combine eggs, sugar, lime juice, flour, baking powder, and lime zest in a large mixing bowl. Beat until frothy while listening to some good music. I recommend James Brown for this step.

3. Bake 20-25 minutes longer or until light golden brown. Cool on a wire rack. Dust with confectioners' sugar.

Enjoy!