Whole Wheat French Baguette And Last of Garden Greens Soup

I've had soup for dinner four nights this week already. I could eat soup 24/7. It's just that this time of year--soup is called for. Simple soup. And this Garden Greens Soup is the simplest of simple. The days are getting shorter. The light outside is sort of orange--from sunrise to sunset--there is this whole dramatic bronze thing happening. I love it. I wouldn't want to live anywhere else but the Midwest in fall. It's just gorgeous. One drawback is it's hard on the emotions for those of us with light sensitivity--the waning light and all. I have a spot in the house I like to sit in that gives me a direct view of the sunrise. It helps me begin the day on a bit better level. That and my coffee. The cloudy days. . . well, that's another story. 

The weather changing stuff we've had here is contributing to my food desires (or lack thereof). It's a lot cooler around St. Louis right now--the heater kicked on this morning. It's making my appetite sort of go away. (Never really a bad thing per se.) Aside from intense cravings for chocolate, my only other craving is for carbs, thus the bread. To keep my protein level up I try to toss in some vegan sausage when we have it on hand. As for my bread, well, I am on my sixth loaf! I personally have not consumed ALL six, I've shared one loaf with a neighbor--who delighted in my warm, just-from-the-oven surprise on Sunday--but I also share my meals with Dr. Thyme. Thankfully, having some serious Irish cutting through his DNA, he too loves the soup (as long as there is some potato in it) and bread.  

So out to my garden I went, scissors in hand. I clipped kale, chard, parsley, chives, sage and oregano. I also had an old onion lying around. Nothing wrong with a little onion. I've left my other onions in the ground--they'll keep. I know I have some garlic out there somewhere, but since I planted it in spring last year, I thought I'd wait until next spring to see what I've got. I've been too lazy to plant any more garlic. I will hate myself if I don't get the garlic in the ground before too long. Along with my cravings for carbs and soup, I've been roasting whole bulbs of garlic to satisfy my other food want: garlic. The aroma in the house of roasted garlic is nothing short of heaven if you ask me. I would pay money for a garlic plug-in. Seriously. 

This bread is the easiest bread in the world to make--my inspiration for creating a whole wheat baguette came from the cookbook, The Bread Bible by Beth Hensperger. (I've not had a bad recipe from her EVER.) The addition of whole wheat flour made me feel a lot less guilty about consuming an entire loaf in one meal as we had done with the original French Bread recipe I baked Sunday. The recipe will yeild you three loaves. Her recipe is also made in one day. None of this two-day ferment stuff. I am all about the moment right now. I couldn't plan my food wants a day in advance if my life depended on it.

Fresh from the oven. Crisp crust, amazing aroma.

My one surviving kale plant. This little one here will keep producing through the early "cold" snap--hopefully through November. I love this plant. Why only one kale plant? I have no idea. I know I must have planted like fifty darn seeds. It's a mystery. I just know when this baby needs trimming, we have kale in our supper.

As you can see, my garden is no longer that "tidy" little fresh space you saw in spring. Leaves are everywhere. While I do love every single leaf-bearing tree around our house, however, I sort of give up on raking about now and hope the wind blows them "elsewhere". The motivation to get out and rake and then mulch finally hit me this past weekend. I raked the leaves into rows and plowed over them with the mulching mower--this is the BEST ever thing for your lawn and for your garden. I never worry I'll run out of leaf mulch.

Poor little guy. All dug up and exposed. I think one of the many moles in my yard found this in the way of his tunnel and decided he'd move it.

Both of these recipes are incredibly simple. This bread--made in one day, will need about a four hour start. So about one in the afternoon is a good time to begin the process. A google search will yield you many French Bread recipes. Beth calls her bread Pain Ordinaire. (The link will take you right to it.) To make my whole wheat version, I simply substituted 1 cup of the unbleached all-purpose flour for 1 cup of twice sifted whole wheat flour. Be sure to sift! In doing so, this removes the bran that will cut into your gluten strands and leave your bread a bit flat. I've tested this recipe twice now, so it works. I also used weight measurement--each cup of bread was measured as 4.5 ounces. I think any bread baker worth her salt should weigh her flour. Minimally.

As for the soup. Gosh. I feel sort of silly posting the recipe--it's so easy. It's everything I listed I took from my garden plus one onion, two celery stalks sliced thin, three yukon gold potatoes cut into 1/4" pieces, about five cloves of garlic--saute all of this in about 2 tablespoons of oil for approximately five minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. I also added a shake of cayenne pepper. Then, add your veggie broth--about five cups worth (you can sub with some water if you are low on the broth). Cover and allow to simmer over low heat for an hour or so. A squeeze of lemon and a drizzle of flavored olive oil (I used blood orange olive oil)--will yield you one heck of a good bowl of yum. Bread is mandatory so plan accordingly.