My Kitchen Life     I started cooking as the oldest of five kids when my mother went back to college.  My mother pushed me into the kitchen. She started me with Peg Bracken's I Hate to Cook Book.      I was the camp staff cook for Chin Be Gota Boy Scout Camp in the summer of 1969, where I learned about large quantities (1000 chickens) and public tastes.      My grandmothers were both great cooks, in different ways.   They did not teach me, but I observed what was served. My love of red cabbage comes from Grandma Rayfield.  And one day Grandma Alexander, who let Grandpa cook the fresh fish on fishing trips, but handled the frozen fish we brought home, took me to the Art Institute and introduced me to ratatouille. On our next trip, she took me to Benihana of Tokyo where the food was prepped and cooked at our table.  She graciously grabbed the check from my college hands too.     I have made peanut brittle since college days as a Christmas gift to family.      My first mother-in-law was the 13th kid in a New Hampshire farm family, and stressed the importance of fine fresh ingredients.     When I met Holliday in 1993, I was taken to her family's summer home in Maine where her father, Louis Kane, the founder of Au Bon Pain and Panera restaurants, had prepared lobster salad stuffed in lobster shells for 20 people.  I got a smile from him, and knew I could fit it, when I explained to another kitchen helper that the garnishes on each plate were to make the lobster look its best.  I learned from Louis and his friends in the kitchen, with an emphasis on relaxed fresh taste.   A Japanese tea master and artist, Kaji Aso, saw how I enjoyed the Zen of putting fish and vegetables on and off the grill, and used the idiom for this in his country, for anything that relaxed but also stand up with excitement and pleasure.  He said I was "a penis at the grill".     Holliday's friends Jeanne and Kalle from Germany loved to cook on vacation with us, and I came to see cooking as recreation, something perhaps rushed at home, but relaxed on vacation.        Holliday and I love the time we have together in the kitchen, though it took us several years to design and build our home kitchen.  I can always count on her for steering or salt correction. Thanks to her careful research, our kitchen has standard consumer appliances, but ones with just the right features, like responsive gas controls and oven temp down to 100 on our Maytag stove, and freezer on bottom and lots of rooms but no frill on the frig, except for magnets and photos.      For our wedding, we received a bread machine, with a very joking card, in the shade of Au Bon Pain.  But I wore it out, and have worn out several others, trying all sorts of spices and extras to brighten our bread life.  There's still a working Zojirushi on the counter, for when I am too tired to bake, to at least handle the mixing and rising.      One day the wife of the man who had been the voice of Thumper in the original Bambi gave me some sourdough starter.  Life changed.  Now I hand knead and hand shape boules after the first rise, and bake on stones in a hot oven.      Now I bake four or five times a week, for family and friends, charities, and, for the last year, seven loaves on Tuesday and seven loaves on Thursday for the local food shelf.   I take my starter and sesame seeds, and bake on vacation anywhere- including England and Aspen.     I look through cookbooks, listen to Lynn Rosetto Casper's Splendid Table on the radio, and I took a class on how to make hot cross buns with the church ladies at King Arthur Flour.  I buy my King Arthur bread flour in 50 pounds bags, and my Butterworks Farm whole wheat flour in 25 pound bags.  I used a large fish poacher to make a huge loaf of bread for the 50th anniversary of the UCC at our church. But what's really important is that kids love my bread, crust and all.      I love to walk the aisle at the grocery store, wondering what to make for dinner or for a crowd, and sometimes I get a good idea.  Even the bad ideas have provided some laughs.   I tried vodka and grape Kool-Aid in college.  Lovely pink salmon was turned sickly dark purple in a red wine poaching solution for important guests.  But it tasted fine.   When in doubt, make sure to serve a side dish of something tried and true, like bowties with fresh pesto.      Sophie ignores me except in the cookie department, but Miranda is turning into a good baker.  Rikki is blessed with her mother's training, and my inventiveness.  Feed your children well. Teach your children well,  and eat well along the way.  Cook with and for people you like and love. Bon appetit! BREAD-     I bake for family, friends, and the local food shelf.  For small batches, I use my bread maker to make the dough, then hand shape and bake boules in my oven.      I bake anywhere I travel, taking sesame seeds and sourdough starter with me and buying local flours.     I make variations of the sesame sourdough bread with rosemary, with whole wheat, and with coffee/black cocoa/molasses/maple syrup using black sesame seeds.      Maybe on the first day of Creation, Bread created God.   In the beginning God made yeast?  Sesame Sourdough Bread  (Sophie’s bread)    4 cups flour    1 1/3 cups water    ¼ cup sesame seeds    ¼ cup sugar    1 tsp salt    1 tsp dry yeast    ¼ cup starter   Knead by hand 10 minutes, adding flour or water as needed Rise 1 1/2 hours at about 85  (in 100 F oven works, but most ovens do not go that low) Knock down and knead 2-3 minutes Shape into two balls or place in form Rise another 1/2 hou in warm place.  Preheat oven to 420 F Baste top(s) with milk  ( I use a bristle paint brush, sometimes my fingers) Sprinkle with kosher salt Score top if wished with bread knife Place in oven. Dash ¼ cup water in bottom of oven. Close door. Reduce heat to 370 Bake 35-40 minutes.   Notes: Flour- I buy 50 bags of King Arthur’s white flour at the IGA, which they say is their “bread flour”. I have also used plain white store brand flour. Starter-  I have had a starter for four years, so I would guess by now it is yeast from the Vermont mountain air.  I have not yet found a way to use it so that yeast is not necessary to get a good rise in an hour.  It bubbles fine and smells strong.  It saves for weeks in the frig.  I use it every day or every other day. While it may not do most of the rising in the dough, it adds great texture and flavor. On the other hand, without starter, any fresh baked bread is likely better than store-bought. Holler if you want some of my starter. Yeast- I buy one pound bags/blocks of commercial yeast at the IGA- silver /plastic vacuum bag. I keep  some in a small jar in the frig for daily use, and refill it from the bag as needed. Both keep fine in frig.  The starter yeast adds flavor; the commercial yeast is the powerful rising stuff. Sesame seeds are $4 a pound in bulk at health food store, or $4.50 for two ounces in a spice bottle. You decide. I keep a pound in a Tupperware container. Toasting this bread releases a second round of delicious sesame flavor as well as moisture in the seeds to reshen three or five day old bread.  Sesame seeds not so good for people with diverticulitis, but sesame is a great flavor in bread. The salt on top is just for flavor when eating.  If bread is kept in humid atmosphere, salt will get top of bread damp. I skip it in humid weather. I use Kosher salt, and made myself a coarse salt shaker from a plastic bottle. I developed this recipe in my bread machine, but now use it for free oven making.  I bake on an oven stone, or floor tiles, or an upside down cookie tray when traveling.  I use cornmeal dusted on the counter and the tray for second rise and baking. Bread does not just go stale, it changes and should be used accordingly.  Fresh bread is delicious but often too fragile to slice. After cooling a few hours, bread is usually fine to slice for toast or sandwiches. After a day or so, the bread may be dried enough to use only if toasted, and after that perhaps only for croutons or bird food. Quick trip to microwave will release water from sesame seeds and wheat granules to renew two-day old bread.   I triple this recipe for six small or three large loaves. I will mix the starter with one cup flour and one cup water in morning or night before, to develop sourdough flavor and gluten, and then bake that evening.   After baking, I put hot loaves on the counter to cool with two dish towels over them overnight.   I would be delighted to give anyone a small jar of starter. Every day or two I add ¼ cup flour and enough water to mix it into a paste. I keep it is a coffee cup, covered with a plastic lid.  When the rim gets caked with flour and water, I transfer to a fresh coffee mug, and soak the old one.  The starter bubbles then gets more fluid as it “eats” the flour. When I use the starter, I simply dump most of it into the dough batch, and use what sticks in the jar (usually a coffee mug) as the continuing starter with a ¼ cup flour and some water.  I use the same table knife for dumping the starter out and  to mix up the fresh starter- so it’s one messy table knife instead of two.  Knife mixes in a deep coffee mug better than a spoon. Easier to clean.  I use a clear plastic bread box which has holes.  It avoids mold for three-four days. Actually we keep two of these bread boxes on counter, one with today’s and one with yesterday’s bread, usually two types of bread.   Option A: Substitute one cup of flour with one cup of oatmeal. Option A1: also substitute1/4 cup sugar with 1/3 cup maple syrup   Option B:  I call it Maplenickel, but it is  very differne from pumpernickel.  Substitute 1 1/3 cup water with equal amount coffee, and ¼ cup molasses for sugar, and add 1-3 tsp cocoa, for a dark bread. For even heavier and darker, substitute a cup of white flour with cup of whole wheat, and a second cup of white flour with rye flour, and add ¼ cup cracked wheat (bulgar) or wheatberries.   I am not trying to be Gandhi, who made his own salt and his own clothes to protest government restrictions. I simply enjoy building my own house and baking my own bread. I am lucky to live in Vermont where a little evening oven heat is usually welcome even in the summer.   It is good to share, even while keeping some fresh bread for yourself.  Bread is more about how you bake than the recipe, though the sourdough starter and the sesame seeds are the “secrets” of my bread.    Perhaps my favorite bread was a loaf baked in a rented condo with a big handful of fresh rosemary.  A little fresh rosemary or thyme is good in fresh baked bread.  A lot of fresh rosemary or thyme is GREAT!  Finally, kneading is good exercise.       Rick Rayfield  22 December 2006  rev Dec 2011   Notes: 11/23/08   Flour has doubled in price this year, so have sesame seeds.  For about the same price as tan sesame seeds, I buy black sesame seeds in bulk through my health food store.  Great for Miranda’s  Black Bread AKA Maplenickel.   Same recipe as above, but substitute 2/3 cup of coffee  and 2/3 cup water for the 1 1/3 cup water,  and add ¼ cup molasses, ¼ cup maple syrup, and two tablespoons of Black Cocoa.    I use corn meal all the time now to dust the cutting board or silicone sheet I proof on, and to dust the baking tile in the oven. No more sticking.    I roll up a silicone sheet to bake on when travelling.  At home I proof at 100 degrees for 45 minutes on a polyethylene cutting board. I made three boards the right size for two loaves.  Amounts of flour and water are relative to the flour- if you form boules, you need stiff flour for them to not collapse, which keeps your hands clean anyway.   I made 1/4 inch plywood rectangles that fit perfect inside my  over-the-stove microwave.   One of the rectangles has legs to stack.  I can put eight one-pound loaves in the microwave for the second rise, while the oven is heating to 420.  The light under the microwave keeps it a good temperature for rising bread. Bread is life.	Spiced Bananas    Put these hot spicy bananas on a plate with a few segmnets of mandarin orange  and few slices of fresh pear, fresh mint leaf garnish,  and you have a memorable alternative to Del Monte fruit cup as a starter.  This spiced banana recipe is from the Copper Kettle, a famous inernational restuarant in Aspen in the 1960s and 1970s.    1 c sugar    1 1/2 c wine vinegar    1/2 c burgundy wine   1 Tbs ground cloves    1 tsp ground cinnamon   Bring this mix, and then drop in bananas  for 2-3 minutes, turning once.   Serve hot and pungent.   Save the poaching solution in frig for next time.   I know this sounds weird, but it is a hit. Unexpected, and a nice complemen to small servings of fresh or even canned fruit.  Chocolate Rum Sauce  Basically equally parts sugar, corn syrup, butter, cocoa, and dark rum. So, one cup sugar, one cup corn syrup, and two sticks (1 cup) of butter, stir over heat till hot. Turn off heat and add in one cup cocoa and one cup rum, stir till smooth. More heat at this time drive cocoa flavor into air instead of keeping it in sauce. I only use dark rums like Myers or Gosling Black Label. We are lookign for the dark sugar taste not alcohol. I usually use only about 1/2 cup rum, and add a half cup of water.  Or 2/3 and 1/3.  Add some heat if it is too thin, add some rum to thin it out. But remember when you put it on ice cream the lower temperature will make it thicken.  My most common mistake is to make it too thick.  Why is there no rum? And where did all the ice cream go? Obviously fine on vanilla or chocolate ice cream, but my favorite it to pour it over black raspberry ice cream. Just about any cocoa will do- Herseys et al. Ghiradelli is a step up.  I sometimes add an extra 1/4 cup of cocoa to empty the can, or boost the choco-meter.   Elk and Venison Stew   Buy stew meat, or chop up what you have.  Drain well.   Since the meat is lean, put a couple tablespoons of olive oil is a big fry pan and brown the meat.  Since it often juices up before it gets dark brown unless you have a commercial stove, I slip in under the broiler for a few minutes to give some dark flavor to it.  Then dump it into the stock pot.   For each pound of meat, add ½ onion-  I like to cut in half, peel, then cut “moon” wedges.                For the venison which had more flavor than the elk, I browned the onions in the  fry pan with a little sugar to give a darker carmelized onion flavor to match the meat. 2 cups water (enough to cover everything) 1/4 cup red wine for elk and white wine for venison (we can argue this) ½ teaspoon salt  (maybe more- adjust last) 1/8 teaspoon red cayenne pepper ¼ teaspoon black pepper- fresh ground 1 large carrot chopped to bite-sized 2 big red potatoes- reds have thin skin you can leave on     (peel brown potatoes,  or tell me how sweet potatoes work- gotta try) 1 large piece of celery 1  tablespoon of Worchestershire sauce or BBQ sauce 1 teaspoon of balsamic vinegar   For my Elk Stew I added a bag of fresh cranberries. I’d have added dried mushrooms if I had them.  Could have had more cranberries- a bag per four lbs of meat.   For my Venison Stew I added a half head of red cabbage, sliced thin,  and a half cup of fresh chopped rosemary for a eight pounds of meat.   After this simmered overnight,  I added a half cup of my sourdough starter (which half flour and half water) just for a little thickening and flavor.  See my bread recipes for info on sourdough’s benefits.   The venison needed another half teaspoon of salt, perhaps due to the cabbage. Anyway, adjust your salt after the overnight simmering.    This is my first stab at game stew, and it was down the hatch,  with seconds for everyone I was told.  Fifty guys ate about 15 pounds of meat. That three tenths of a pound per guy, plus ham and egg sandwiches and corn chowder, and the stew vegetables.  Then apple pie with cheese and ice cream.  Anyway, my philosophy was spices and flavors to stand up but not overwhelm the game flavor, with a blend of fairly well-known spices, potatoes and carrots to absorb and carry flavor with so little oil.  Broiling the meat darker, caramelizing the onions, the Worchestershire or BBQ sauce, the balsamic vinegar, and the pepper  all are rich dark flavorings to complement and take the strange edge off the game.  I doubted the fresh rosemary would work, but its pine-like richness seemed to be appreciated- it raised questions.    Thanks to Joy of Cooking and all the web sites I peeked at before charging into the kitchen.  I thought cranberry would be cool for some reason, and I Googled elk and cranberry, and found I was not crazy. So use your imagination, look at what’s available in your kitchen or store, and Google your ideas to see if someone may say it worked.  Still your idea.  Same idea with the red cabbage and venison- I thought red cabbage with vinegar, apples, and caraway would be a great side dish, so why not put it right in the stew.  Google said- yes- been done, works.  I still think I got lucky.   rr                         rr          PEANUT BRITTLE   I have been making peanut brittle since 1973, when I was too broke in college to buy Christmas presents.   I make a maple-flavored peanut brittle most of the time.  I also make cashew and sesame seed brittles, and others.   I use the same pot I started with in 1973, an old pressure cooker bottom with a big handle.  Instead of a candy thermometer I now use  an infrared electronic thermometer.   I make five pound batches poured out on a slab of granite which replaced the recycled men's room marble I used to have. I buy peanuts from the Sunland Peanut Cooperative in Portales new Mexico, where the world's best Valencia peanuts are grown.   Aside from family, I put together packets of peanut brittle for auction at local charity events.  The sample bag gets nibbled by the bidders, and the price goes up.  $35 was top bid so far. Summer is too humid for keeping peanut brittle from sticking- winter food mostly.  Keeps fairly well in sealed jars, but there is fresh butter in it. Eat it.   Basic recipe:    Combine 1  cup water, 4 cups sugar, 2 cups corn syrup, and 2 teaspoons salt and bring to rolling boil-    When it reaches 240 F, add 5 cups of raw peanuts.   Stir to avoid  burning as the cooled syrup warms up again from the cool peanuts.     Wooden spoon works best.    AT 305 to 310 F add 3 tablespoons butter,  stir in,    then 1 /4 teaspoon baking  soda which will cause it to foam up a bit- this helps it turn out thinner.   Pour out on buttered and salted surface- granite or rmarble preferred,  but I used to do it on a Formica kitchen table.  Spread it out with spoon.    After it cools a few minutes, use spatula to be sure it is not sticking, anbd use cotton gloves on hands to pull sides out the make it thinner and easier to break/chew.      The above is a double batch that makes about five pounds of brittle.   First time, you might want to cut ingredients in half.  My granite slab is  18x30x 1.25 inches
SALMON  I grill big salmon at the beach in Maine for family dinners.  I have been dubbed the big ***** at the grill by a Japanese tea master.  It is not that I am a grillmaster; it is that I so love to grill salmon dinner for a lot of people.      WIth the salmon, I like to grill red onions, mushrooms, yellow and green summer squash,   eggplant, sweet potato rondelles,  snap peas, or whatever looks good at the market.     I like to warm the salmon up on the top shelf while I grill the veggies.   Nice to be evenly 156 degrees throughout, but browned.  Hard to do with a cold fish to start.  Best salmon ever was when I ran out of propane and patiently waited for the salmon to cook up to perfection while the grill cooled.  The salmon god smiled after tweaking my luck.     Salmon doesn't need anything other than olive oil, salt and pepper, in my book.  But I sometimes chop up chives, use a brown sugar based Alaskan rub with paprika etc,  or drizzle a chopped up mixture of toasted almonds and candied ginger.  Sure helps to drop some maple twigs into the grill to add some sweet smoke.     The shorter the time between coming off the grill and onto the palate, the greater the likelihood of amazing salmon.  Best to stand at the grill and pick off little pieces.       Trout is a member of the salmon family.  Rainbow trout stay in small rivers, and are the same species  as the large Salmon brothers "Steelhead out". Baby rainbows head upstream and stay in fresh water.  Baby Steelhead swim out to the ocean and go big in saltwater. Which babies decide to go which way. Don't know.  Wonder mystery of lfe, and delicious either way.     Grind up these spices for "Copper Kettle" Trout Elsinore,   which can sprinkle on trout or any other salmon.    4 t salt, 1 t thyme, 3 t caraway seed, 2 t celery seed, 2 t fennel seed, 1/2 t cayenne, 1 t garlic powder, 1/4 t fine herbes. I grind them in my coffe grinder or blender.
A Couple Cold Soups- easy, summer veggie/herb fresh, cold soup, but rich. Play around.    I suggest starting fat, and then slendering down the recipe.   Cool Cucumber Dill Yogurt Soup   Six large cucumbers, peel half the skin off (like a  zebra)   Cut all but one cuke into chunks and feed into a blender, with  a ½ cup water to get started.   Pour off half the pureed cuke into soup container (pot, pitcher etc.)   Keep feeding cuke chunks into blender until  all pureed, except that one set aside.   Keep last batch in blender,  and add into it for blending     Salt, pepper, some slices of jalapeno peppers,  fresh dill.    About a whole bunch of dill, maybe 2 tsp salt.  Be careful of jalapeno, but do use it. Add in a quart of whole milk plain yogurt.  So more cukes than yogurt. Chop up the remaining cuke into tiny bits, but do not blend.  Toss into soup. Stir or shake.  Add ice if you need it chilled right away.   Adjust salt to taste.  Adjust jalapeno to taste.  Do this by pouring a cup back in the blender, add your spices, blend, and then return to the soup.   Yes you could use less fat in the yogurt. It’s your palate. Serve with spring of fresh dill floated on top   Fresh Ginger Pea and Scallop (or other seafood) Soup   This is my summer version of split pea and ham, but instead you get fresh pea flavor and light seafood.  Grill some scallops, or lobster, or shrimp.   3 lbs of frozen petit sweet peas,  thaw them. 3 cups Half and Half (or light cream, or milk) Use a little liquid in a blender and start pureeing the peas,  that's right, fresh not cooked! Pouring off into pot or pitcher, adding more peas and cream to blender.,  Until all are in the soup, except into the last blenderful add Chopped fresh ginger, salt and pepper, and fresh onion.   Serve with scallops or other seafood sprinkled on top.	Orange Grapefruit Sorbet   In a gelato machine, or manual ice cream maker:   1 cup Simple syrup (1 c sugar, 1cup water- heated and cooled)  1 cup full pulp Orange Juice 1 cup full pulp Graefruit Juice, OR hand squeeze two grapefruits, use pulp   That's it.  Delicious,  and great palate cleanser