nana's hands

I don't remember my great grandmother's face nearly so much as her hands. I remember thinking they weren't much bigger than mine, but severely arthritic and bent. Somehow voluptuously so, with how her enormous knuckles joined by slim digits formed two hourglass shapes on each finger and one more on her thumbs. She passed away when I was in second grade, so my memory of nana is fading, not unlike looking at an old picture of her. One part is clear: her bony little fingers poking the surface of some focaccia over and over and over......

Nana's mother brought her to San Francisco from Genoa just after the turn of the century. Landing in the City at that time must have been a sight to behold. Her mother had helped bring babies into this world, no doubt having tough little hands full of tender loving. My nana learned through these hands, then taught her children, and so forth. Focaccia was but one of the foods handed down, but it holds the distinction as the only one I remember seeing nana make. Years later, seeing my grandma make focaccia reminded me how she poked the dough the same way and and how her mother must have taught her. I'd also notice how grandma's hands looked just like hers. Would I inherit these bony looking hands? I used to wonder.

Six years ago, my grandmother was not doing good. Being carried around everywhere by her husband was wearing on them both and she wasn't going to be around much longer. I had come for a visit to cook her some lunch and hopefully pick her brain about some recipes I could write down. I can't remember what I made, but afterwards I recall being on the back porch with afternoon light roasting me and just barely touching her, she was so thin. I asked her about crab cioppino and got a nice outline that was easy to transcribe. I asked about minestrone and got a similar rough outline. I looked at her gnarled fingers and then I asked about bread.
"It's easy."
"Yeah, like nana's focaccia?"
"Easy."
"So, how about ingredients grandma?"
"Eh, flour, water.........bread is easy dear, don't worry."
I looked down at my notebook

flour
water

"You'll figure it out."

I don't think nana or grandma used sourdough for their leavening. No matter, because somewhere back in that line of knowledge, someone did, and someone else converted over to dried yeast. Besides, grandma's recipe said flour, water.
And so that, is where I start.

a list of recent vegan experiments

OK. So I'm off to start a trip to DV in the early morning, but there has been alot of experimenting going on at my house lately that has not been documented by any pictures due to the nature of the experiments and the lack of planning. Some have been worthy of further trials, others have been tasty, but would take enough tweaking to warrant calling it another creation. So with that said, here goes with a menu of sorts.....

Wednesday September 27th - dinner with Tito, Tita and Ading
Entree: Enchiladas en mole negro, with smoked tofu, sauteed onions, mushrooms and sweet potato
Salad: Chayote, black bean, corn and tomato, tossed with a canola, cilantro and lime dressing with s&p to taste.
Soup: Veggie stock of the month, with added onion, celery, carrot and corn. Served blended and in mugs for drinking.

Thurday the 28th - H's cupboard surprise
"Grilled" tofu marinated in a house made peanut sauce
Asian cucumber salad tossed with rice vinegar and toasted sesame seeds
New Potatoes (red) boiled and served with s&p and spread
Steamed zucchini and carrots

Friday the 29th - a day of dough
Use recently created whole wheat sourdough starter with bread flour to make medium loaf and Scarborough Fair Focaccia
Use white sourdough starter to make big round dome (all bread flour) and and herbed pizza dough with all purpose, whole wheat and corn meal, with similar herbs from focaccia, topped with basil/pine nut/oil/garlic pesto, tomatoes, mushrooms, carmelized onions, thinly sliced potato leftovers, and vegan cheese

Saturday the 30th - a day of work
Bring focaccia, big round dome and medium loaf to P's place to see family and do yardwork. While there trimming back the grape arbor, we "procure" some 3+ pounds of Interlocken grapes that will become the base of yet another sourdough starter. Getting home late, we dine at Cactus Taqueria, a Rockridge institution

Sunday October 1st - a farmer's market morning with the monkey
Organic garlic, multi-colored onions, butternut squash, red leaf lettuce and honey pluots.
Conventional Brentwood corn, baby summer squash, squash blossoms, and fresh ono
Inspired by Orangette's recipe (see her blog - orangette.blogspot.com) I use the blossoms for a sauce made with carrot, onion, celery and veggie stock plus a touch of almond milk and serve it with sprouted wheat papardelle.
Red leaf becomes salad with blossoms, carrots, tomatos, avocados, figs and grapes

Monday the 2nd - hankerin' for frijoles
Black and pinto beans, boiled and soaked, then cooked in veggie stock with carrot, onion, and small red pepper with freshly ground coriander and cumin
Wild and brown rice with sauteed mushrooms and carmelized onions cooked in veggie stock
Corn on the cob

At this point the days became experiments with sourdough. Now three different kinds live in the fridge....more later, early next week (maybe after some desert backcountry baking)