{local event} Weekend of Baking

I tend to stalk people who intrigued me. Most of these people are intrigued with flour. Two of my favorite flour people are going to be teaching together soon. If you like flour at all, you will love this. Richard Miscovich and Kate Lebo are teaming up for a weekend of baking at foodwriter Molly…

{Grain Brains} King Arthur Flour

In the fall of 2013, l I got to dive into King Arthur Flour. From a little hello at the county fair – where my son displayed a poster about how wheat grows in different soils – I learned that the vice president of the company lived in the neighboring county. A few emails later,…

My Best Pizza for World Bread Day

I made pizza last night, the best food for a herd of kids at a sleepover. Let them roll their own dough and burn off some of that frenzy that comes from being together. Half the dough was leftover in the fridge from Wednesday, which was World Bread Day. The idea behind this day is…

{Farm Aid 2013} Grains Brains Pancakes

Editor’s Note: I am still over the moon, that Jennifer of Farm Aid’s Homegrown.Org reached out to From Scratch Club many moons ago about co-presenting the Skills Tent at this year’s Farm Aid Concert on September 21, at SPAC in my backyard, Saratoga Springs, NY.  We assisted Jennifer in stocking the Skills Tent class schedule…

{GRAIN BRAINS CHALLENGE} RYE ON THE BRAIN

Grain Brains Challenge A recipe challenge to help you get whole grains into your mouth, not just your kitchen. I grew rye this year. My son and I planted it in the fall, in a much smaller plot than we’d planted wheat the year before. That year, we had new land that we’d scraped of urban rubble…

{photo diary} Farms, Food and Photography

Words: Amy Halloran Images: Ellie Markovitch When Ellie Markovitch began organizing a Farms, Food and Photography Teen Camp the Agricultural Stewardship Association and the Arts Center of the Capital Region, she asked me if I wanted to do a class on pancakes. Of course I said yes because there are few moments I don’t want to talk about…

{reflections on food} My Independence Day

Last 4th of July I began my independence from sugar. I went to the parade on Avenue A, the street where I grew up. The parade began with my generation, in the thick of the centennial spirit of the mid-seventies. One year I wore the bridesmaid gown I wore at my uncle’s wedding. The next…

{fsc classes} My Flour Evangelism at the New HWFC

Honest Weight Food Coop has a new store, and I got to break in the new teaching kitchen. The day after it opened, I offered a Flour Tour and treated a dozen people to my flour evangelism. The gist of this mission is to use whole grain flours, preferably stone milled, and made from grains…

{Brain Grains Challenge} Buckwheat Amy

Grain Brains Challenge A recipe challenge to help you get whole grains into your mouth, not just your kitchen. Buckwheat is one of those good for you foods that are hard to use. I tend to buy groats or kasha when I’m on a mission to expand my food horizons and the stuff sits in the cupboard,…

{grain brains challenge} Whole Grain Crackers

Grain Brains Challenge A recipe challenge to help you get whole grains into your mouth, not just your kitchen. When Alan challenged me to a cracker duel, I thought I would whomp him with the kind of crackers I mostly make – very stiff flatbreads. But he sent me a beautiful recipe for crackers came out more…

{photo diary} Food For Thought

Honest Weight Food Coop invited Ellie and me to make food for their Food for Thought film series, co-hosted by the Linda, WAMC radio station’s auditorium. The film was A Place at the Table, a documentary about hunger in America. Ellie and I made our favorites: beans and pancakes. Beans are quick with a pressure…

{Grain Brains Challenge} Sprouting Grains

Grain Brains Challenge A recipe challenge to help you get whole grains into your mouth, not just your kitchen. Early in March, I met a baker who hates flour. Michael Perakovich makes sprouted wheat breads at Columbia County Bread and Granola and his hatred comes from what flour does to people’s bodies. He’s spent two years perfecting…

{Grain Brains Challenge} Whole Wheat Biscuits

Grain Brains Challenge: A recipe challenge to help you get whole grains into your mouth, not just your kitchen. Early on in my expedition with biscuits, I had a hard time critiquing the recipes. I made a few great batches and thought where is the bad biscuit? How can you go wrong with flour and fat? Well…

{photo diary} Know Your Grains

When I picked a day to hold my FSC Academy Pancake Class at The Arts Center, I had no idea it was National Pancake Day. How perfect! IHOP gave away free pancakes and I gave a few people my pancake valentine. I adore pancakes because you get a hot meal fast on days you don’t…

{Grain Brains} My Wheat Berry Tour

A recipe challenge to help you get whole grains into your mouth, not just your kitchen. +++ I fell in love with wheat berries in 1993. I was working at a thrift store in Seattle, and every now and again, when I got tired of cheese toast – which I made by the sleeve of multigrain bread…