It’s cold and rainy and just plain dreary outside today here in Milwaukee. So much for getting outside and spending some quality time in our gardens. To make the best of the day I think I need to get the house smelling of chocolate and comfort. These chocolate graham crackers were one of the best recipes I (well actually Lisa) discovered over the past year. The most difficult part of the recipe is waiting for them to cool down to a nice soft crunch before devouring the entire plate!
Chocolate Graham Crackers
½ cup all purpose flour
¾ cup whole wheat flour
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup dutch-process cocoa
1 ¼ cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons cold milk
Preheat the oven to 325°and line two baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpats.
Whisk together the flours, salt, cocoa, sugar, and baking powder in a mixing bowl. Using a pastry blender or your fingertips, cut the butter into the flour mixture until evenly crumbly. In a separate bowl, combine the honey and milk, stirring until the honey dissolves. Add the liquid to the dry ingredients and toss lightly with a fork until the dough comes together. Add a little more milk, ½ teaspoon at a time if necessary, to make the dough pliable but not sticky.
Turn the dough onto a well-floured surface and fold it over gently until smooth. Divide the dough in half, keeping the other half covered with plastic.
Put your half of dough onto the parchment paper or Silpat, and roll it into a rectangle about 10 x 14 inches. The dough will be about 1/16 of an inch thick (pretty darn thin). Trim the edges and prick the dough evenly with a fork. Repeat with the remaining half of dough on the other piece of parchment. Place the parchment/dough on a baking sheet, and bake for 15 minutes or until they begin to brown. Immediately cut them into rectangles with a pizza wheel or knife. Transfer on a rack to cool. They should crisp up as they cool down.
Let the countdown begin. When I began my year of inconvenience I thought it might be interesting if I kept track of the quantity of staples I was buying and making. Not everything mind you, but mainly the items I would have typically purchased conveniently at the supermarket (or in this case at my co-op). I’m pretty sure I missed tracking a number of items, or at least it feels that way now recalling how many weeks these items were part of my at times, frustrating routine.
Here’s a glimpse into my 52 weeks of inconvenience, primarily cooking or baking for just the two of us (although some food items became gifts, while others were served to our dinner guests. I started to provide links to the recipes below, but decided instead to develop a recipe listing in one of my future posts just to stretch this out a bit further.
| Ingredients | Made From Scratch |
| 40pounds of flour(14 lbs. whole wheat flour and 26 lbs. white flour) | 40 loaves of sandwich bread, 7 loaves of cinnamon raisin bread, 3 loaves banana bread, 6 Christmas Stollens, 24 hamburger buns, 24 flour tortillas, 24 popovers, 18 bagels, 12 pita breads, 12 pizza crusts, 4 batches flax seed crackers, 2 batches chocolate graham crackers, 8 crusts for chicken pot pies, and 4 pounds of pasta. Oh, and a crazy cake, cinnamon rolls, cookies, and I’m sure I missed a few other things as well. Whew! |
| 52 pounds of tomatoes | 144 ounces diced tomatoes, 96 ounces tomato sauce, 80 ounces pizza sauce, 54 ounces pasta sauce, 28 ounces roasted tomatoes. And I was worried I wouldn’t have enough to last. |
| 8 pounds of rolled oats, 5 pounds of pecans | 21 pounds of granola8 batches of granola bars (200 of 2×2 squares)The rest of the pecans were used in the Christmas Stollen |
| 5 pounds Masa | 7 batches (80) corn tortillas. I love making these and likely will not go back to buying them pre-made. |
| 13 pounds of whole chickens and 13 pounds of turkey breast | About 4 chicken and turkey dinners as well as leftovers for sandwiches, soup, and stock. |
| 448 ounces (or 56 cups) of stock | Chicken soup, veggie soup, turkey soup, lamb stew, tomatillo pork stew, chicken pot pies, dozens of rice dishes and other crock pot dishes |
| 48 Tablespoons or 24 ounces Instant yeast | Sandwich bread, cinnamon raisin bread, stolen, hamburger buns, bagels, pita bread, pizza crusts. |
| 52 ounces honey | Breads, 8 batches of granola bars (200 squares) |
| 48 ounces maple syrup | Granola (sweetener) and pancakes. Life is so sweet. |
| 10 pounds fair trade sugar | Okay that number should scare me into a five-mile hike. Yikes, that’s a lot of baking. |
| 3 pounds (48 ounces) brown sugar | Granola, some breads, granola bars, cookies |
| 8 pounds (256 tablespoons) unsalted butter | Wow, really? What did I make with all that butter? I only use unsalted for baking and some cooking. And I wonder why I gained 6 pounds this past year… |
| 97 ounces or 12 cups of olive oil | Salad dressing, marinades, pasta sauce, and all of those made from scratch dinners. |
| 20 dozen eggs (that’s 240) | Okay, if Lisa and I averaged 4 eggs/week total for breakfast that would be understandable. Many, many eggs were used in baking and pasta – and the rest made for some great breakfasts. |
My year ended on April 17, and I still have some of the tomatoes and chicken stock in my basement freezer. I remember when I was so worried about putting up enough tomatoes last summer, to last me through the winter, and much to my surprise I didn’t use them all. We’ve eaten a few meals over the past two weeks (since the year officially ended) that were part of my stocking up on frozen dinners. Things like curried chicken pot pie, turkey meatloaf, turkey noodle soup, and pork carnitas have added a bit of value to what might have otherwise been a convenience food splurge for me.
In fact, over the past two weeks not a whole lot has changed for me… uhm yet. I baked two breads, made a batch of granola, one pizza, a number of from-scratch dinners, and averaged at least 3 out of 7 lunches from scratch each week. What did change is that I purchased pasta, chips, salsa, breakfast cereal, canned beans, a few salads and one sandwich from my co-op. I have a half-gallon of milk in the refrigerator right now for making yogurt (tonight) and I also think twice before buying anything convenient, partly out of habit and partially out of guilt. Could I actually be a changed woman? Only the next 50 weeks will tell for certain.
A Year Of Inconvenience 