Category Archives: bread

Oct16

more bread with my bread, please.

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Simit-Pogacha

A carb-lover’s dream, this sandwich gets stuffed with flaky pie crust.

Simit-pogacha is a beloved breakfast food in Skopje, the capital city of the Republic of North Macedonia. Bakers slice open a bun, stuff it with burek—a pastry crust of layered phyllo—and serve as a sandwich. No meat, no cheese, no sauce. Just bread.

Burek is typically stuffed with feta cheese, greens, or meat. However, the burek that goes into simit-pogacha is just the plain, flaky crust. Depending on where you buy it, the crust can be housed inside sesame buns or warm, fluffy rolls. Either way, diners almost always wash down the greasy, comforting carb combo with drinking yogurt.

If you leave Skopje without at least trying simit-pogacha, you’re missing the city’s soul. The sandwich doesn’t have much flavor and can be dry without the lubrication of the yogurt, but its comforting carb-on-carb composition makes it a morning must for many Skopje citizens.

Recommendation: Restaurant Bakery Koki -Dame Gruey Skopie, 1000, Macedonia
In addition to simit-pogacha, they have burek (try the feta crust variety), pizza, and really good lasagna. 

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enjoy one ( or any other bread)

in honor of world bread day,

created by the international union of bakers and confectioners

to celebrate the oldest and simplest of food staples

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  • “acorns were good until bread was found.”
  • – francis bacon

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credits – gastro obscura

Nov27

bread is.

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my first bread.

 

3 personal goals this year –

1 didn’t happen due to the human factor,

1 didn’t happen due to the pandemic,

 1 did happen in spite of everything- 

i learned to make bread.

1 out of 3’s not bad.

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“bread is a celebration.”      

-lynne rossetto kasper

Aug27

just a spoonful (or 11) of sugar….

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on this day in 1964

a perennial favorite of children

“mary poppins,” premiered.

julie andrews as mary, sang and danced her way through this happy film

 her famous ‘just a spoonful of sugar’ song danced through my head

as i continued my foray into bread making with my latest project

cinnamon swirl donut bread

i think mary would have been quite impressed/horrified by all the sugar involved in this one

is was not only a sweet donut loaf

but was swirled with cinnamon, sugar, and molasses

and in the final stages

the entire  loaf

still warm from the oven

was dipped in melted butter

then rolled in a mix of brown sugar, white sugar, and cinnamon

that melted together

creating an outer crust 

this was not a loaf for the feint of heart

nor amateur sugar-eater

 a little went a long way, but pretty tasty, all in all.

next up – beer bread

i wonder what movie from my past that experience will trigger.

“if god hadn’t meant for us to eat sugar, he wouldn’t have invented dentists.”

-ralph nader

 

 

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image credit: walt disney pictures

May8

toast.

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I’m not gonna’ lie, i’m pretty good with toast.

 

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“What is the right way to cut a piece of toast?”Diagonally, insists the narrator in NIcholson Baker’s novel “The Mezzanine.” It creates a “triangularly cut slice” which in turn yields “an ideal first bit.” With rectangular toast, you must “angle the shape into your mouth, as you angle a big dresser through a hall doorway.” (Dwight Garner, NYT book critic’s new essay on the literature of breakfast food.)

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“i have trouble with toast. toast is very difficult.

you have to watch it all the time or it burns up.”

-julia child, master chef (1912-2004)

 

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credits: New York Times, Dwight Garner, Nicholson Baker,”The Mezzanine”, google images

Feb22

i love cinnamon.

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‘i love cinnamon and baking with my mom.’ – h

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 class bakery day

 the children worked

very hard

over the last few weeks

learning

about bread

about baking

how sharing bread is a way to welcome others

 every culture makes and eats and shares bread

listened to books about bread and baking

practiced ‘baking’ with play-dough

baked real lemon bread at school

baked breads at home

bought breads at the store

made signs and decorated tables

learned about buying and selling using pennies

gave other classes pennies

that they had to ‘earn’ by working in their rooms

invited other classes, faculty, staff, and families

to come to our room for a big bakery event

said they would give pennies or free bread

to anyone who had no money or food

families supported their efforts

making this day so special

 everyone went home

very full, very tired, very happy.

the bakery in full swing

“anyone who gives you a cinnamon roll fresh out of the oven is a friend for life.”

-daniel handler

Jan19

bread.

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one of my dreams this year

is to learn to make bread from scratch

I look forward to

the peace, the poetry, the adventure. 

the crust.

 

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“peace goes into the making of a poem as flour goes into the making of bread.”

-pablo neruda

 

 

 

 

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image credit: lamag.com