Handmade Noodles

DSCN2605, originally uploaded by baltimoreDIY.

Feeling quiet today. So no post, here's just a simple photo from the the BaltimoreDIY archives.

Behold, a guy stretching noodles by hand!

Pic is from the Maker's Faire 2009.

Upcoming November Events

Interior of 2640 St. Paul

So many great events going on this month! Don't forget to check out the awesome Red Emma's/2640 calendar here: http://www.redemmas.org/2640/

I will be the steward on Thursday, November 19th for a film screening by Food and Water Watch and I'd love to see you there!

And as always, the Baltimore Free School has some great classes, so be sure to check them out. Don't be afraid to just drop in on a single class!

In addition to the Eve Riser/John Berndt show at 2640 on Thursday, there is also a great anti-war event hosted by the Civilian-Soldier Alliance (formerly Iraq Veterans Against the War). Here's the info:

GUEST SPEAKER: MS. CHANTELLE BATEMAN, PRESIDENT
IRAQ VETERANS AGAINST THE WAR, D.C. CHAPTER

WHEN: THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2009, 5:20 P.M.
WHERE: THIRD FLOOR ATRIUM, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES BUILDING
2500 WEST NORTH AVENUE, BALTIMORE, MARYLAND 21216

Also, this Friday 11/13:

The Country Potluck Catastrophe Hamilton Arts Collective 7pm Bring a dish to share $3/$8 with no food

And coming up:

Film Screening and Discussion "A History of Struggle: War, Occupation, and Afghanistan's Women" Tuesday, Dec. 1 7-10pm Falvey Hall at MICA 1301 Mt. Royal Ave.

But of course, Baltimore City Paper and Metromix are great places to find out different events around the city.

Just finished listening to the 11/10 episode of The Best Show on WFMU and I'm feeling inspired by the positivity and energy of Andrew W.K.!

See you around town!

Scenes from a Delicious Sunday Brunch

Ah, Sunday morning. The day to use up leftover food before picking up another bursting bag of produce from the One Straw CSA.

In addition to using up vegetables, there was also about half a loaf of bread left over (from this episode), and a few cups of cold lentil salad which has made a great hot or cold meal all week.

Unable to decide between savory and sweet, six slices of bread became french toast to be served with homemade strawberry jam (from this episode).

Several other slices became plain toast to be served on the side with an egg-lentil-greens hash. Very easy to cook: just scramble the eggs and saute in butter along with any leftovers you've got in the fridge.

Here's a closeup of the plate:


A great brunch to be shared with friends over steaming ceramic mugs of black tea, maybe with a few slices of apple and Maryland Public Television on in the background. Leftovers can be grand.

French Toast is a pretty basic recipe: just mix about 1/2 cup of half-and-half, 2 eggs, 1/2 to 1 cup of sugar, and spices together in a baking dish. I used about a tablespoon of garam masala to spice, but vanilla and cinnamon is another great mix.

Soak the slices of break for 1-2 minutes each side. Fry each slice in butter over medium-high heat in a frying pan. Enjoy with syrup, butter, and homemade jam.

Egg Scramble is a great way to use up leftovers, and it's one of my favorite savory breakfasts. Simply chop some garlic and onions, fry in oil, and add your eggs and any leftovers to the frying pan.

Here's a list of what I included in the scramble:

1. Local eggs from Mill Valley
2. Chopped kale
3. Lentils cooked in curry powder with onions
4. Cauliflower that was sauteed earlier with this relish in olive oil

Much healthier, tastier, and more packed with flavor than your standard omelette fare!

Prepping Remington Garden for Winter

Last Saturday a whole crew of Hopkins students came out to help prepare the Remington Community Garden for winter.

Old stalks were pulled from the ground, new compost was added, and the site was generally cleaned up. I also cleaned out the various compost buckets in my backyard, and dumped some of the excess compost on the strawberry patch. Tried to give a worm composting buckets away for free to some of the Hopkins students, but there were no takers.

Here are some pics:

Hopkins crew helping out, asparagus fronds waving in the wind, and mural in the background

Healthy Worm Compost

Shoveling up fresh soil, and some blurry fennel seeds in front

Green tomatoes harvested! Time to make some relish or fried green tomatoes!

The bees were still going nuts on these flowers (can you find the little guy in the photo?) One of my favorite things about the garden is seeing what a haven for wildlife it is, in the heart of the city.

Lemon Mint collected to make some delicious tea

Muhammad showing off the taro root he and his wife grew. They're a root vegetable that is cooked similar to potato, apparently. Very exciting to see different types of plants!

I didn't know this, but Muhammad and his wife told me that cilantro grows all winter.


Although I'm sad that we won't have as much fresh produce at our disposal, it's kind of nice to relax a bit and settle down for the winter. Hopefully I'll bring up some red clover soon to add as a cover crop for the soil. And then I can harvest the blooms for tea!

Combat Paper

In light of the recent Fort Hood events, and in support of everyone who has been involved in the crisis of our nearly decade-long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, I am posting a link to an inspiring article by Elise Ertel, from elephantjournal.com.

Here is the link: http://www.elephantjournal.com/2009/11/art-healing-iraq-veterans/

Let's help heal our society, so that the violence that is being perpetuated in our name doesn't fester. Art is one way of releasing personal stress, and it is a great way for the community to come together in support of something positive.

Iraq Veterans Against the War is another great organization to help support returning veterans and move towards peace.

Little Nemo in Slumberland

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Nemo

And now for a fun post completely unrelated to DIY.

Some of you may already be aware of another of my fascinations, a deep love for newspaper comics. Baltimore's own Comics Curmudgeon is an almost daily read for me, and Calvin and Hobbes and Krazy Kat are some of my favorite books of all time.

During my trip to New York a few weekends ago, I found a calendar in the St. Marks bookstore that completely blew my newspaper-comics-lovin' mind.

Written in 1908, these panels are more refreshing, unusual, and hilariously surreal than anything I've seen today. Not to mention the beautiful colors used, and panels that completely blow today's format of three or four horizontal little boxes out of the water.

I just love the quiet strangeness:


And Little Nemo's completely loveable assortment of sidekicks and characters.

To quote Dr. Pill, the monacled man holding a gun, "That chap with the green face is Flip. He is twenty-nine years old, but has the mind of a child of nine. We have Impie there, too. A Zulu from Nowhere and also Slivvers a well meaning bonehead who is harmless but always in the way...":




And strange storylines, like this one where Little Nemo is taken in by beautiful mermaids who are trying to escape the grasp of Flip, and instead ends up having to protect the little hobo:




The last panel of every comic is always of Little Nemo waking up from his strangely vivid dream:


Apparently Fantagraphics has several Little Nemo books, which I will hopefully be checking out soon. If you like newspaper comics, this is a definite recommend!



A real classic.

King Arthur's Almost-No-Knead Baguette

Baking isn't my strong suit. Yet. But a popular new bread baking trend has just come across my radar, and I have to say that I have seen the light. Check out this great loaf that I just made this morning!

It's all about the No Knead Bread Dough.

The loaf above was made with King Arthur's Organic Flour, and I found a great baguette recipe on their website: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/the-almost-no-knead-baguette-recipe

This recipe takes a lot of the messy, tiring work out of making bread. Just mix together flour, yeast, salt, and water in a bowl, and let it sit overnight in your fridge.

The end result is a very fluffy bread with lots of air pockets, and a crackly, crispy crust. To quote Homer Simpson, "Gaaaaaaah."

I used a bucket from when I used to buy bulk tofu at the Asian market. Here's a photo of the dough when it's first mixed:


Then you let the dough rise for two hours. I took the opportunity to watch Barry Levinson's film "Diner" since it's been on my list of Baltimore Films to watch. Here's the dough after the movie, you can see how fluffy it is:


Then I covered the bucket with a damp cloth, put it in my fridge, and went to sleep.

The next morning I pulled off a chunk and kneaded it into a small loaf. I learned my kneading technique from a video that was posted by Baltimore's great bakery Atwater's, but unfortunately I can't find it right now...

Knowing how to knead a loaf helps with creating good air pockets in your bread. Mainly it involved pulling the dough from the outside of your ball into the center. Perhaps soon I will make a video and post it on the site!

Anyway, here is my loaf, which I let rise on top of my heater:

Heehee, this shot turned out very noir somehow. Like some desperate dame is going to come in and hire this loaf of bread to be her private eye...

In any case, I thought this loaf was going to be a failure because I only let it rise for 30 minutes, instead of an hour and a half.

Needless to say, the loaf was a lot denser than it should be, but it still turned out pretty good if I do say so myself. Can't wait to try it with the correct version.

PERFECT vehicle for the homemade blackberry jam that my neighbor traded me for some of my extra CSA vegetables. I brought out some of my local butter from Mill Valley, but this bread was so warm and chewy, I didn't even need it.


I added the coffee mug so that you can see the size of the loaf.

The best part this recipe is that you can make a huge container of pre-mixed dough and leave it in your fridge for over a week.

Just pull off a chunk of the dough and you can have a loaf of bread with half of the rising time. It's still an hour and a half of rising time, so this does require some planning, but not really that much work compared to regular bread making recipes.

I think I've just become a homemade bread convert!