The Wood-Fired Blog
May 2013 | No. 50; The New Fiamma50 & Wood-Oven S’mores
May 13, 2013Welcome to our Wood-Fired Newsletter May 2013. As mentioned in last month’s newsletter, Forno Bravo is celebrating our 10th anniversary this year. This is a big milestone for us, and certainly a good opportunity to take stock of what we’ve accomplished and learned over the past decade. However, we have no plans to rest on our laurels! This month, we are excited to announce a brand-new product: the Fiamma50 outdoor... Read More
Trader Joe’s and Whole Wheat Sourdough
May 13, 2013Armed with the new knowledge that sourdough bread is easier to digest, lowers your insulin reaction to carbs, and might increase your body’s ability to absorb nutrients from the flour, I went to Trader Joe’s to check out their sourdough selection. Of course we all know that whole wheat flour is much, much better than white flour. What I found was not good. TJ’s has whole wheat yeast bread and... Read More
Sourdough Starter. Started.
May 13, 2013I bought a “Northern Italian” sourdough starter and started it. In the past, I have created my own starter using fresh, organic fruit, but I decided to play it safe. It should become active/alive in about 2-3 days (it’s supposed to be cool here, which will slow development down), then it needs another 3-4 days of dividing and feeding to develop to where it can make bread. I’m looking forward... Read More
This Banana Bread is Hiding the Healthy Stuff
May 10, 2013There has been a lot written recently by Mark Bittman, Michael Pollan and others about how important it is that our society reclaim some control over what we eat from the big multinationals by cooking at home more. Which makes a lot of sense. The theory is that big business has taught us that cooking is drudgery, better left to the nation’s fast food companies, but that in reality cooking... Read More
A Pretty Good Baguette
May 09, 2013I think the biggest lesson learned with this baguette is to be patient and actually use a timer to make sure I give the shaped loaves a final proof of a full 90 minutes — that and planning far enough ahead so that I can give the bread the time it needs and still be ready for dinner. The dough was not fermented overnight (bad on me). It was... Read More
Shipping Container House on NPR
May 08, 2013If you are into building things (I am), you might get a kick out of the shipping container house in New York features on NRP’s Science Friday. The house is on a very narrow lot in Brooklyn and is made up from five recycled shipping containers. My favorite part is that because it was easy to cut into the container, they could use recycled windows of just about any size.... Read More
Monterey Bay King Salmon
May 07, 2013We successfully made our first pick-up from Local Catch Monterey Bay, our local seafood CSA — beautiful Monterey Bay King Salmon. Here is their description (I can vouch for the wind): This week we are happy to bring you all California King Salmon from the Monterey Bay harbors triumvirate: Monterey, Moss Landing, and Santa Cruz. Stan Bruno, John Hulliger, Jerry Foster, and Brian Lucas all came together to bring... Read More
Community Supported Agriculture/Farms (CSA/CSF)
May 05, 2013Michael Pollan’s new book and the attention it is getting got me thinking (again) about where our basic food stuff come from — so I went back and watched the documentaries Fresh and Ingredients again (I decided to pass on Food, Inc.). All of which got me thinking about farmers’ markets, CSA/CSFs and sustainable food that is good for us, our kids and the planet. To quote Wikipedia: Community-supported agriculture (Sometimes known as community-shared agriculture or CSA) is... Read More
Sourdough
Apr 30, 2013Michael Pollan is one of my favorite food writers. His book Omnivor’s Dilemma was my first window into industrial food production, and he played a big role in the food documentaries Food, Inc., and Fresh. It’s a pretty sobering view. If you are looking to hear a funny interview, you can find Mr. Pollan appearance on NPR’s Wait, wait… don’t tell me. This is unrelated, but Peter Sagal, the host of Wait,... Read More
