Tag Archives: winter

Food and Cooking, Health, Health and Diet, Lifestyle

Cookbooks for Bread and Comfort Foods to Enjoy During Winter Holidays

November 9, 2022 Madison Santel

Enjoy the season and learn to bake around the hearth and home

As follows some wonderful books for baking bread and other delights from scratch in our own kitchen to savor and enjoy.

Flour Water Salt Yeast: The Fundamentals of Artisan Bread and Pizza

There are few things more satisfying than biting into a freshly made, crispy-on-the-outside, soft-and-supple-on-the-inside slice of perfectly baked bread. For Portland-based baker Ken Forkish, well-made bread is more than just a pleasure–it is a passion that has led him to create some of the best and most critically lauded breads and pizzas in the country.

In Flour Water Salt Yeast, Forkish translates his obsessively honed craft into scores of recipes for rustic boules and Neapolitan-style pizzas, all suited for the home baker. Forkish developed and tested all of the recipes in his home oven, and his impeccable formulas and clear instructions result in top-quality artisan breads and pizzas that stand up against those sold in the best bakeries anywhere. Click here to see “Flour Water Salt Yeast” and help Independent Bookstores. Also available on Amazon.

Tartine Bread

It comes from Chad Robertson, a man many consider to be the best bread baker in the United States, and co-owner with Elizabeth Prueitt of San Francisco’s Tartine Bakery. At 5 P.M., Chad Robertson’s rugged, magnificent Tartine loaves are drawn from the oven. The bread at San Francisco’s legendary Tartine Bakery sells out within an hour almost every day.

Only a handful of bakers have learned the bread science techniques Chad Robertson has developed: To Chad Robertson, bread is the foundation of a meal, the center of daily life, and each loaf tells the story of the baker who shaped it. Chad Robertson developed his unique bread over two decades of apprenticeship with the finest artisan bakers in France and the United States, as well as experimentation in his own ovens. Readers will be astonished at how elemental it is. Click here to see “Tartine Bread” and help Independent Bookstores. Also available on Amazon.

The Bread Baker’s Apprentice, 15th Anniversary Edition: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread

Co-founder of the legendary Brother Juniper’s Bakery, author of ten landmark bread books, and distinguished instructor at the world’s largest culinary academy, Peter Reinhart has been a leader in America’s artisanal bread movement for more than thirty years. Never one to be content with yesterday’s baking triumph, however, Peter continues to refine his recipes and techniques in his never-ending quest for extraordinary bread.

In this updated edition of the bestselling The Bread Baker’s Apprentice, Peter shares bread breakthroughs arising from his study in France’s famed boulangeries and the always-enlightening time spent in the culinary college kitchen with his students. Peer over Peter’s shoulder as he learns from Paris’s most esteemed bakers, like Lionel Poilâne and Phillippe Gosselin, whose pain à l’ancienne has revolutionized the art of baguette making. Then stand alongside his students in the kitchen as Peter teaches the classic twelve stages of building bread, his clear instructions accompanied by more than 100 step-by-step photographs. Click here to see “The Bread Baker’s Apprentice” and help Independent Bookstores. Also available on Amazon.

Bread on the Table: Recipes for Making and Enjoying Europe’s Most Beloved Breads

In this highly anticipated cookbook, culinary instructor and baker David Norman explores the European breadmaking traditions that inspire him most–from the rye breads of France to the saltless ciabattas of Italy to the traditional Christmas loaves of Scandinavia.

Norman also offers recipes for traditional foods to accompany these regional specialties, so home bakers can showcase their freshly made breads alongside a traditional Swedish breakfast spread, oysters with mignonette, or country pâté, to name a few examples. With rigorous, detailed instructions plus showstopping photography, this book will surprise and delight bakers of all stripes.

The debut cookbook from cult favorite Austin bakery and beer garden Easy Tiger, featuring recipes from author David Norman’s time spent exploring bread traditions throughout Europe and North America, plus menu ideas for incorporating homemade bread into everyday meals. Click here to see “Bread on the Table” and help Independent Bookstores. Also available on Amazon.

Bread Illustrated: A Step-By-Step Guide to Achieving Bakery-Quality Results at Home

Many home cooks find bread baking rewarding but intimidating. In Bread Illustrated, America’s Test Kitchen shows bakers of all levels how to make foolproof breads, rolls, flatbreads, and more at home. Each master recipe is presented as a hands-on and reassuring tutorial illustrated with six to 16 full-color step-by-step photos.

Organized by level of difficulty to make bread baking less daunting, the book progresses from the simplest recipes for the novice baker to artisan-style loaves, breads that use starters, and more complex project recipes. The recipes cover a wide and exciting range of breads from basics and classics like Easy Sandwich Bread and Fluffy Dinner Rolls to interesting breads from around the world including Lahmacun, Panettone, and Fig and Fennel Bread. Click here to see “Bread Illustrated” and help Independent Bookstores. Also available on Amazon.

Poilâne: The Secrets of the World-Famous Bread Bakery

To food lovers the world over, a trip to Paris is not complete without a visit to Poil ne. Ina Garten raves about the bread’s “extraordinary quality.” Martha Stewart says the P in Poil ne stands for “perfect.” For the first time, Poil ne provides detailed instructions so bakers can reproduce its unique “hug-sized” sourdough loaves at home, as well as the bakery’s other much-loved breads and pastries.

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It tells the story of how Apollonia Poil ne, the third-generation baker and owner, took over the global business at age eighteen and steered it into the future as a Harvard University freshman after her parents were killed in a helicopter crash. Beyond bread, Apollonia includes recipes for pastries such as the bakery’s exquisite but unfussy tarts and butter cookies. In recipes that use bread as an ingredient, she shows how to make the most from a loaf, from crust to crumb. Click here to see “Poilâne” and help Independent Bookstores. Also available on Amazon.

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Climate Solutions, News, Observation

Why a warming climate can bring bigger snowstorms

Video February 4, 2022 Creative Commons

The blizzard that buried Boston under nearly 2 feet of snow in January 2022 was historic, but not a surprise. Over a century of reliable weather records show many of the Northeast’s heaviest snowfalls have occurred since 1990 – including seven of the top 10 in both Boston and New York.

At the same time, winters in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast have warmed by approximately 4 degrees Fahrenheit (2.2 C) since the late 1800s.

How can the spate of big snowstorms be reconciled with our warming climate? I’m an atmospheric scientist. Let’s look at an important law of physics and some theories that can help explain the changes.

Warmer air, more moisture

First, warmer air can hold more moisture than cold air.

Think of the atmosphere like a sponge. Air holds about 4% more water vapor for each additional degree Fahrenheit increase in temperature (that’s about 7% per degree Celsius). The physical law that explains this relationship is known as the Clausius-Clapyron relation.

This increased atmospheric moisture is helping to intensify the water cycle. The Northeast and Mid-Atlantic have become wetter – not just in winter, but in spring, summer and fall, too. In addition to more total precipitation over a season and year, the additional moisture also fuels extreme events, like more intense hurricanes and flooding rains. The Northeast has seen an increase of more than 50% in the heaviest precipitation events in recent decades, the largest increase of any region of the U.S.

In the early 1900s, winters across the Northeast typically averaged around 22 degrees Fahrenheit. Now, 26 degrees is the official new “normal” temperature, defined as the average over 1991-2020. A few recent winters have been over 30.

In the Northeast, then, we have an environment that has warmed yet is often still below freezing. Put another way, regions of the world that are cold enough for snow have warmed enough to now be visited by storms capable of holding and dropping more moisture. Rather than intense downpours like Louisiana has been seeing lately, the region gets heavy snow.

The warming ocean plays a role

The January blizzard was fueled by ocean waters in the western Atlantic that are warmer than normal. That’s also part of a consistent pattern.

The oceans have been absorbing more than 90% of the additional heat attributable to rising atmospheric greenhouse gases from human activities, particularly burning fossil fuels. The oceans now contain more heat energy than any time since measurements began six decades ago.

Scientists are studying whether global warming may be driving a slowing of the ocean conveyor belt of currents that transport water around the globe. Satellite imagery and ocean measurements show that warmer waters have “piled up” along the East Coast, a possible indication of a slowing of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation.

Moisture evaporated from ocean water provides much of the energy for both tropical and mid-latitude extra-tropical cyclones, known commonly as nor’easters.

The Arctic influences the snow pattern, too

While tropical storm systems are fueled primarily by warm water, nor’easters gain energy from sharp temperature gradients where cold and warm air masses meet. The frequency of cold air outbreaks is another aspect of climate change that may be contributing to recent increases in extreme snowfall events.

Recent research has suggested that a warming Arctic, including declines in Arctic sea ice and snow cover, is influencing behavior of the polar vortex, a band of strong westerly winds that forms in the stratosphere between about 10 and 30 miles above the Arctic every winter. The winds enclose a large pool of extremely cold air.

When the Arctic is relatively warm, the polar vortex tends to be weaker and more easily elongates or “stretches,” allowing extremely cold air to dip south. Episodes of polar-vortex stretching have markedly increased in the past few decades, leading, at times, to more severe winter weather in some places.

Scientists Are Very Worried About Antarctica’s Doomsday Glacier:

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What is the polar vortex? NASA explains.

Arctic amplification, the enhanced warming to our north, may, paradoxically, be helping to shuttle cold air to the Eastern Seaboard during polar vortex disruptions, where the cold air can interact with warmer, moisture-laden air from the warmer-than-normal western Atlantic Ocean. The most recent stretched polar vortex event helped to bring together key ingredients for the historic blizzard.

What’s ahead?

Global climate models project an increase in the most extreme snowfall events across large areas of the Northern Hemisphere with future warming. In some other parts of the world, like Western Europe, intensification of the hydrological cycle will mean more winter rain than snow as temperatures rise.

For the east coast of North America, as well as Northern Asia, winter temperatures are expected to still be cold enough for storms to bring heavy snow – at least through mid-century. Climate models suggest that extreme snowfalls will become rarer, but not necessarily less intense, in the second half of the century, as more storms produce rain.

The sharp increase in high-impact Northeast winter storms is an expected manifestation of a warming climate. It’s another risk the U.S. will have to prepare for as extreme events become more common with climate change.

Michael A. Rawlins, Associate Director, Climate System Research Center, UMass Amherst

This article is republished from The Conversation by Michael A. Rawlins, UMass Amherst under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Breaking News, Earth and Ecology, Entertainment, Science

Jupiter, Saturn will ‘kiss’ on the exact Winter Solstice (December 21st)

December 20, 2020 Wiley Simms

Coming just a few days before Christmas this year, Jupiter and Saturn will appear within a hair’s-breadth of one-another to the naked eye

Although most of us consider this to be one of the worst, if not the worst, year that we are aware of, it may close out with something miraculous. If you take the time to gaze heavenward on December 21st,, just after sunset, you might see it: A Christmas Star.

Already in early December the two giant orbs can be seen ever so gradually nearing each other, as if they are feeling some sort of mutual attraction, an odd couple. perhaps, Jupiter and Saturn.

And, according to celestial experts at NASA, they will continue to converge until they appear nearly co-joined: just 1/10th of a degree apart, with a barley perceptible gap in-between.

It was in 1226 that this could last have been witnessed

Though these couplings are known to occur in intervals of roughly 20 years, this year they will be the closest they have been to each other since 1623. In that year, however, they were too near the sun to look at, and because this year the event will take place on the winter solstice, you’d have to go all the way back to 1221 for a similar show.

These two spectacular giants, which are the largest in the entire solar system, each with a personality, astrologically speaking, so divergent that they are said to be more like opposites, rather than twins or lovers.

Jupiter, a king and believed to be bringer of good fortune, looks the part in a spectacular explosion of color and power, planet of miracles, hope, and opportunity.

Saturn, meanwhile appears mysterious, unpredictable, even dangerous. Saturn has an air of the impossible and the forbidden. Best known, in astrological circles, for the so-called “quarter-life crisis” and for unexpected challenges to the status-quo.

Across the USA, a view of the two planets coming into near-alignment is going to be most visible and best viewed, just after sunset, in the southwestern part of the sky.

In a glimpse into the relativity of all things in the universe, though this duo will appear to be close together — resembling a double star or a gleaming figure 8 shaped blob, the two planets will not , in reality, be that close.

They will actually be more than 400 million miles apart. It is only from our lonely vantage on this little blue planet that they will appear to be “close” to each other.

Since it will be 2080 before a similar spectacle will grace our view, and that means that all but those who are currently quite young will not likely be alive, it is imperative to search the southwestern sky (from the USA) both the day before, after and of course on December 21st: as this is a rare opportunity to witness a spectacular and special event, and a last chance to do so for a long, long time to come.

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