Lotus - Pink Lips' Seeds

Beside test cooking in my kitchen, I enjoy tending the garden. They help me relax and appreciate the day.
This is the Lotus from my largest Lotus Plants - Pink Lips that I have in my garden. It lives in a 3 feet deep water. The Lotus blossom and leaves rise 12" to 25" above the water surface.


I want test germinating this fresh seed to find out it's possible or not or it needs to form into hard shell before it could germinate.

Found water sipping into the 'cut' stem of the Lotus Pod.  Time to drain water out of the container below the cut stem.  I heard it can drown the lotus.

 

       PINK LIPS 2009 - 1st blossom.  The pod looks quite different from the 2010's.

2009 Pink Lips' pod - much smaller than 2010's.

Romano Tomatoes Vege Sandwich

This year, Romano tomatoes are quite welcoming. They ripened much earlier than last two years - in the summer.  The previous two years, they were ripening, if any, at autumn.
The best part of these tomatoes is that I didn't even plant these tomatoes. They are the growth from the previous year's tomatoes that I left decaying with the vines. The first year I planted the Romano, the vine grew so densely and there were many beautiful fruits.  But, they never turned red enough on time for me to enjoy.  When fall came, the tomatoes were still green and even frost beaten.  To clean them up, they were too heavy and bulky to dump into the recycling container; so, I waited till they dry up and became light.  Ever since, the tomatoes are growing on their own.  Live or let die method of gardening seems to work.  I pay too much attention, and they all turn x!#@ RIP.
I made some fresh baguettes from the previous Tai-Chi Baguette dough I made and froze.
They turned out to be handy when you only want to eat a couple, instead of 10 baguettes.
So, here it is. Fresh Romano tomatoes from the garden, and fresh baguette from my kitchen.  I would like to say, " and avocado from my garden."... but not quite... I did managed to grow the avocado tree from an Avocado seed from the avocado I ate.   It grew up to be 7 feet tall, but right before the spring 2010, it died.  Cause of death:  frost bite.  So the avocado is store bought.
Another summer lunch made with ingredient from my garden.

Multi-Grains Wheat Sourdough Loaves

This is a delicious bread loaded with good grains for your health.   I learned this in my class, and since then, have tried it twice at home.  The recipe is from Bo Friberg's "The Professional Pastry Chef, Fundamentals of Baking and Pastry."  You can purchase this book from the Amazon.com. 
Ingredients have all the grain goodness of rolled oats, sunflower seeds, cracked wheat, rye flour. The recipe is quite involved with 2 to 3 weeks preparation for the starter (luckily, I have and used my babied and cultured starter for this recipe.)  Then, there is overnight prep for the grains; 24 hours for the fermented dough; then, the dough on the day of. But it is well worth the wait.
I just had a couple of slices, and they are delicious.
(double click on images to enlarge the image and view other comments on the images.)

All ingredients are eventually mixed together.  As this recipe formula is a full 'commercial' weight and yield that 's more than my Artisan mixer could handle, I kneaded the whole dough mixture by hands.  Kneading time - 20 minutes.

 

They deflated quite a bit when I inverted them out of the proofing onto the baking sheet.  My kitchen was so warm from baking the crumbled peach crostada that I let it rise too much before the baking. They doubled in size instead of the preferred time-and-half. The next time, for home oven baking, I need to remember to do the final proofing and baking in the same pan.  I know some home bread bakers out there have already achieved the artisan bread baking with least difficulty when it comes to transferring to a baking sheet without causing the dough to deflate much. (I still got a lot to learn.)  Upside is that the bread still turned out light and tasty. Instead of gaining the height, it widened. Good color. Good texture.

Total Yield: approx 1lb 8 oz - 6 loaves  Froze 4 loaves for later.