Chocolate Challah

This one is a week late, (I have been out at a physics conference in Colorado), but better late than never.

One of my good friends had the first step of his medical boards last week, and so I baked him a loaf of chocolate challah (seen at left). A nice cake-like bread, braided like the traditional egg-bread, with chocolate chips and cocoa powder added. Typically dense and very moist. I baked it two days before the test- Hopefully everything went well for him-

I should catch up on the CSA stuff over the next few days, if moving doesn't consume all of my non-work hours-

Kris

Week Five- A Bit Delayed

We are in the process of moving from our separate to a single apartment. Thankfully, we can string this process over more than the single weekend that most people in Iowa City have over the last weekend of July. The first (and in my opinion, one of the most important) rooms to tackle was the kitchen. After a weekend of work and some compromise, we have almost combined our two nearly complete kitchens into one working and well stocked kitchen. The CSA goods have been scattered since the pickup on Saturday, but here is a list of what we got:

Green Beans, Cabbage, Basil, Garlic Scapes, Onion, Parsley, Lettuce, Broccoli, and Zucchini.

I will leave you with an image of where the kitchen briefly met the plants-

-Kris

Fourth of July Bread

Whats more patriotic than a big pile of bread, homemade for an outdoor grill out?

Around 4 pounds of fresh, slow fermented, Pan a l'Ancienne loafs- One of Amy (and my) favorite breads from The Bread Baker's Apprentice, and the first loafs to baked in her (now our) oven as we migrate away from cooking at my apartment. Hardy, chewy with a good balance between crust and crumb- simply quite delicious.

-Kris

Lamb Kebabs

One of the last meals to be cooked in my bachelor kitchen- Kebabs of Lamb Shoulder. I marinated them overnight in garlic and olive oil, skewered them with green peppers and shallots, and 'grilled' them over a hot skillet for a few minutes. On the side was rice and a lettuce slaw. While the slaw needs a good deal of work, as does my butchering abilities, the meal was overall a success. Thanks to American Lamb Council for the suggestion.

-Kris