Wood cutting

This is not an area where I can claim much expertise, but I have found a few things that work.  I have a wood-burning stove, and have wood from a variety of sources:  fallen dead trees, trees cut down because they're too close to the house or have other issues, and trees (usually dead) cut down by the power company because they are close to power lines.  The latter are usually cut into fireplace- or stove-length logs for me, but the others are very long and need to be sectioned.

 Shown above (the one on the left) is a tree that was leaning over the house last spring.  It was damaged in an ice storm, developing a crack in the main trunk, so I wanted to pull it down in a controlled way rather than risk having it break apart in a storm and fall on the house. So I asked someone to help me get it onto the ground.

Once it was down, it was as shown below.

 

It wasn't terribly large in diameter, but was pretty long and was blocking the area where I normally park, so it had to be cut up.  Below is a view from the other end.

It could be cut up with a manual saw, like a bow saw that can be bought at any hardware store.  However, it would take a lot of time and probably be pretty fatiguing to cut up that much oak by hand.  I used a chainsaw.  Since I don't use the saw very often, I have a battery-powered one (so I don't have to mess with 2-stroke engines, fuel stabilization, etc.).  Battery-powered saws are also a lot quieter.  Nice ones are made by Stihl, Husqvarna, Oregon, and others.

First I cut off most of the smaller limbs then began making cuts to the trunk, using cubits as a rough guide to length (my stove will take 20" logs).  Eventually I had just a long section of trunk and used a timber jack to lever it up off the ground for remaining cuts (I got mine at Northern Tool).

 

Timber jacks are easy to use.  Just set the hook, pull the lever toward the ground, and the trunk--even a very heavy one like this water oak--pivots up.  It starts to get harder to do as the remaining amount of trunk is reduced; eventually, some other support will be needed to do the last cut (like a saw horse or two concrete blocks).

The finished result (with some unrelated pine logs in front) is shown below.  It took less than an hour to cut the tree up (and as can be seen, the interior of the trunk was rotting).

From this point, to make firewood, the larger logs need to be split--using a gas-powered splitter, wedge and maul, axe, or other method.

Whole Wheat Bread Success Story

As I have previously written, I sometimes do 100% whole wheat loaves using the no-knead approach described in that post.

The picture at right shows the same white/soft whole wheat loaf as in the previous post.  There's a decent amount of rise but it's overall pretty dense and the crumb structure shows small gas pockets (versus larger ones obtainable with some mix of white flour).

This is typical of whole wheat loaves, and it's true even with added vital wheat gluten (VWG)--as the one at right has.

Fast forward to this month, and I baked a whole wheat loaf using standard red wheat flour.  I forgot about the VWG and left it out.  I realized that too late to add it, but was committed at that point and went ahead.  I expected an even denser than normal loaf, but the end result was pretty good:

This is impressive.  One key factor is that it has gotten cold here in Georgia (comparatively), so I'm now heating rather than using air conditioning.  I have a seasonal temperature swing of about 10 degrees (79 summer, 69 winter) and I have previously observed that I get better results in the winter. During the day the temperature drops even lower, to as low as 63.  As one of the instructional videos at Breadtopia notes, counter and oven rises are to some degree offsetting: a vigorous pre-baking rise usually means less oven spring, while less rise during the fermentation time leads to a more dramatic rise in the oven.  That's part of what probably happened here.

The flavor is not impacted either way, and the individual slices are still pretty dense.  A 100% whole wheat loaf (particularly with red wheat) is not something everyone will like.  I like it okay although I wouldn't want to eat it all the time.  As noted in the other bread post, I usually use a near-50/50 split of whole wheat and white flour.  It gives consistently good results, although it is also affected by the seasonality issues mentioned above.

Cornmeal Brownies

First, an apology:  the fonts on this may be messed up on your screen.  For whatever reason, I can't get them to save in anything other than micro type.  I tried a few things, but haven't found a fix.

Cornmeal brownies?  Seriously, yes.  Although the concept may sound a little gross, they are actually pretty good.  I found the recipe one day at Grit magazine's site. I adapted it a bit to make it a more conventional brownie recipe (black walnuts are okay for brownies; peanuts are not so much).  I ended up with this:

1/2 c cocoa powder (I used dark)
1 stick of butter
1/2 c flour (I used white flour)
1/2 c cornmeal
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
4 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 c sugar
1/2 c brown sugar
1/2 c nuts (black walnut, but almost any other nut would be fine--and 1 c will also work with the same baking time as described below)

I mixed it all up and found that I had to bake it longer than the recipe suggested: I left it in for 40 minutes at 350 degrees.


This shows a cutaway view of the first pan (I have now made two)--the flavor is nice.  There's definitely a texture of granularity because of the coarseness of the cornmeal, but what I tried tasted basically like brownies.  Of course, the black walnuts may impact that, too, since they are fairly strongly-flavored.  In the second batch, I used 1 cup of nuts and it worked well.


One other note is that I tried a new cooking fat to grease the dish beforehand: tallow.  I'd read about it and wanted to try some, so hunted down a jar online.  It's definitely pricier than the partially-hydrogenated lard I have been using.

When I opened the jar, I was greeted by a faint, unmistakable, and not necessarily welcome beefy aroma.  It had a slight flavor to it, too.  Crisco and processed lard are very neutral.  I may have more to say about tallow in the future.  It worked and it is no longer perceptible in the finished product.


Overall, this recipe has definite potential.
 

Scalloped Oysters

This is a recipe for a dish I remember from Thanksgiving and Christmas when I was growing up: scalloped oysters.  Pretty much only my mother and I would eat them.  When I was trying to recreate that dish as an adult, I looked around online.  There are a lot of recipes, most of which are a variation of this:

2 cups cracker crumbs
1/2 cup (2 sticks) butter (3/8 cups also works, and some recipes call for 1/4 or 1 stick)
1 pint oysters, liquid reserved (which I don't deal with; I just dump it)
1/4 tsp Worchestershire sauce
3/4 cup half & half
3 tbsp fresh chopped parsley (or 3 tsp dried)
Salt and pepper as desired




Melt the butter and pour over the crumbs, mixing well. In a small (I use a 6x10 Pyrex) dish, put 1/3 of the crumbs, followed by half the oysters, then another 1/3 of the crumbs, and the rest of the oysters.  Then put the half and half mixture (with parsley, Worchestershire sauce, and 'oyster liquor' [if used; I omit this] added) on top of the upper layer of oysters, followed by the rest of the crumbs.  Bake at 350 for 40 minutes, or if doing with a turkey, 325 for about 50-60 minutes. I grease the dish beforehand, but I'm not sure that's necessary.

This is similar to what I remember.  I don't add any salt or pepper, and I don't add any alcohol--some recipes call for wine or sherry.  As noted above, I also don't add in the excess liquid from the container of oysters.  The dish is oyster-flavored enough and doesn't need an extra boost. Mixing the parsley and Worchestershire sauce in with the half and half works fine (some recipes call for 100% cream, but this is fatty enough without that).

It's pretty easy to do.  If done together with everything else that commonly goes with a Thanksgiving meal, it comes at a hectic time in the process, when everything else is nearing completion--so it pretty much has to be easy or it couldn't get done.

A bonus:  leftovers freeze well.  Back in the day my mother and I were the only ones who ate these; nowadays it's just me.  So I have a lot to put away for later.