Thursday, December 6, 2012

Soup, Borscht and Kim Ode steals my quote

Dan “Klecko” McGleno and the St. Paul Bread Club

A community of bakers gathers to share recipes and break bread.
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Brad Stauffer Photography
Outside, temperatures dipped to 15 degrees below zero. Inside, the atmosphere was anything but frosty. Some 60 people had gathered in the cavernous production area of a commercial bakery for the winter meeting of the St. Paul Bread Club in St. Paul, Minn.
Each participant was asked to contribute a favorite soup or a loaf of bread, and tongues wagged as a jumble of pots and loaves began to line the oversized tables. Eventually, the clamor subsided, and bakers were asked to describe their offerings.
"My experiment for the week was sushi rolls," proclaimed one member as she described a white dough doused with sake and rolled around sesame seeds and nori.
"I made butternut squash buns using the same soup I brought today," explained another.
"I tried a multi-colored levain-type bread," said yet another.
People who consider baking a science find their view irrevocably challenged. Clearly, to club members it's an art-with dough a palette on which to lavish endless creativity.
The Bread Club is the brainchild of Dan "Klecko" McGleno, a professional baker who guessed that if you mixed people with flour, you'd give rise to a yeasty community of home bakers. Today's meeting is proof that his hunch was right. The assembled group includes teenagers and professionals and retirees. Men are as plentiful as women. Kitchen newbies mingle with long-time veterans of the oven wars.
"Part of what I love about baking is being alone with my thoughts," says member Kim Ode. "But the club certainly draws out the inner extrovert. "People have always come together over the breaking of bread," she chuckles. "We come together over the baking of bread."
Story by Jo Marshall, a food writer in Deephaven, Minnesota

L.A.B. Rats -

It's getting to be soup stew and chili weather.

Above, was a story about my Soupalooza.

I swear it was 100 below zero, but the little LAB Rats came out of the woodwork, and all of us had a blast.

Next week I will be going on vacation.

During this time, I will start off the week working night shift at a Polish bakery, with a young Pollack kid that is hungry to learn.

A couple of my friends have suggested it was a weird way to spend my time off, but I am actually kinda stoked.

When those shifts pass, I am thinking I would love to do some Soup R&D.

One thing I noticed recently is that there are soup societies - chili leagues, but I simply haven't found any Borscht Societies, 

Maybe this could be that last leg of Klecko's culinary dynasty.

We are a Lab Rat Nation -

We are a Lab Rat Family -

If any of you have ideas as to launching a "Borscht Concept".........

Klecko will have time to listen.

He'll be going on vacation starting Saturday. 

P.S. Notice how Kim Ode Steals my quote space ...............sigh

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