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To make a Pullman loaf, which is a bread shaped perfectly for sandwiches and toast, I use the same recipe as the multigrain sourdough loaf, with these changes:

• Use a heavy-gauge Pullman measuring 4 by 4 by 9 inches, but without the lid, to encourage height. I like the USA Pan brand made of aluminized steel, coated with Americoat.
• Use only about 2 pounds of the dough for the Pullman loaf. The rest I freeze for 1 pizza. I do this subdivision after the overnight rising, so that the Pullman can get that final rise of about 2 to 3 hours.
• Bake at 400ºF degrees for 35 to 45 minutes, rotating midway. The internal temperature should be 200º to 210ºF degrees when done.

As for a more rustic, I-don’t-need-a-pan loaf, I just plop a recipe’s worth of the multigrain dough onto a pan lined with parchment paper or a silicone liner, then bake at 400ºF degrees for 40ish minutes, turning the pan midway. Again, the internal temperature should read 200º to 210ºF degrees when done.

For pizza, I subdivide the multigrain recipe into 3 or 4 pieces after the overnight rising, depending on how thick I want it. Each pizza is roughly 12 inches in diameter. The uncooked dough freezes nicely, too.

In addition, you could make a multigrain focaccia by prodding the dough into jelly roll pan lined with parchment paper or a silicone liner. Sometimes I feel round and make two loaves in two non-stick 8 inch (or 9 inch) circular cake pans, without liners.

For the past few years I’ve been playing around with a couple sourdough starters I created, and I’m amused to note that, except on a very few occasions, I’ve ended up using starters instead of packaged yeast for my yeast-based baking needs. It’s really nice to be able to produce one’s own bread. It’s especially nice to be able to create a crusty, fluffy bread that approaches what one could get at the farmers’ market or restaurant. True, it won’t be the same as the awesome sourdough from Pescadero’s Arcangeli Grocery Co., but they’ve had years to develop their bread!

I’ve been intimidated at the supposed labor and tricky technique involved with making crusty bread. But Jenifer’s recipe makes the process approachable, as it involves a heavy cast iron pot and lots of patient (but easy!) oven preheating. Don’t need a special oven or well-timed water spritzing, either.

I call this recipe “Miranda’s bread,” named after Morrisa and nj’s daughter who enjoyed some I recently baked. That loaf didn’t contain buckwheat flour, so I’ve denoted it as optional.

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Our bush-like satsuma tree had so many fruit on it that the branches were threatening to break. “Time to thin down.” The prospect of throwing out, even into the compost, nearly half of the satsumas made me feel guilty. That is, until I realized I could treat the underripe fruit like lemons, and preserved them.

What follows below isn’t so much a recipe as Rather Vague Guidelines, mind you. My first and current batch are curing, so I’ll need to update this post as to how the preserved satsumas actually turned out. But it’s a start.

Update, 8 January 2012: These go nicely stuffed inside a roasted chicken, as well minced and cooked with roasted vegetables. Also provides nice seasoning in stews like vegetable tagine.

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Packages of hominy grits always seem too large. So, having heard that some cakes are made with polenta, I tried something similar with grits. My recipe resulted a moist yet pleasantly crunchy cake, with a thin sugary crust and pine nuts to add to the crunchiness.

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Elderflower has the aroma of spring, and brings respite from the heat of summer. (Even though, admittedly, we’re not having much of summer. But still.) Combining elderflower cordial with lime or lemon juice in a cake has yielded one of my favorite cakes for this and the last season.

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