A Start with Crackers

I have been avoiding setting up this blog because I didn't want to do the first post.

I am not sure that I have it in me to keep up with another blog . . .

and if I never did the first post . . .

I wouldn't have to keep up.

Can you follow that goofy logic?

But, I have finally spun in circles enough times that I'm ready to jump in and start.

My aim with this blog is to "Find a balance between OLD and NEW".

Old and New What?

Lifestyles

Methods of Cooking

Ways of preserving foods

Gardening

Communicating

So, to start off the first post, I made crackers today.

Yep - crackers.

A very basic thing, but one that is terribly over processed these days. I am all about cutting out the "over processing" in our life and most certainly in our Food Chain.

I watched an Alton Brown - Good Eats segment on crackers and decided to combine his method with my favorite Hippie Cooks - Laurel's Kitchen.

As is typical of any endeavor these days, I had to start by collecting (buying) utensils and ingredients. Setting up a new house is much harder when you start with empty rooms and NO kitchen stuff.

The very first, most basic step was to provide Whole Wheat Flour.

Let me introduce you to one of the new loves of my life . . .

(I'll wear thrift store clothes forever if I can buy good tools to do my job)

This beauty is German and absolutely purrs as it grinds wheat to produce spectacularly light flour for me. Mmmmmmm . . . I feel a long and productive relationship here.

I used Organic Soft White Winter Wheat for this recipe. Don't know why I chose it over the Hard Red Winter, just seemed the right choice.

My first attempt was with the Laurel's Kitchen recipe and Alton's method. I like the way these came out, except the sesame seeds sprinkled on top had a tendency to fall off. Alton's recipe was more complicated, but incorporated the seeds into the dough. You can find Alton's recipe for Seedy Crisps :here:

I found these to be a tiny bit bland, so I sprinkled garlic salt on them as they went into the oven.

Here is a shot of using the pasta machine to roll out the dough.

Let me tell you, it is not easy to handle dough, turn the crank on the machine AND take a photo.

I finally ended up rolling the dough out VERY thin (#3) on my machine. I could almost see through the dough at that thickness, but the crackers were divinely crispy and thin.

Into the 450 degree oven for 4 minutes on one side and 2 1/2 on the other and

VOILA . . . .

Yummy Homemade Crackers.

No preservatives, no high fructose corn syrup, no bleached white flour. . .

just good stuff that made good crackers.

Paired that with Sherried Tomato Soup (recipe here) from Ree, a.k.a. Pioneer Woman and a glass of wine and I had some kind of fabulous dinner.

That is what we are heading toward.

Sometime soon . . .

the wheat will be from an organic local source (we are almost in Kansas after all)

the tomatoes will have been grown in my garden

and the wine will be from a local winery (there are lots in Missouri and Arkansas).

Stay tuned for more adventures.

Oh, yeah - please leave a comment so I can know that you made the move.