When you have three energetic little dogs, how do you keep them exercised? First you take a three-wheeled bike... a couple of harnesses... some ingenuity... and voila!
If you lived here, you would see us going by every morning, early, before it gets too hot. We either go to the field, or the park. Then we all get unhitched, put on our regular leashes, and we take a long walk. Back again to the bike, get hitched up, and we trot back home for bones!
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Bread Baking
Happy New Year everyone!
What did you get for Christmas? I was lucky to get some new cooking equipment, so that in 2010 I can prepare more meals at home, and we will eat healthier but tastier food. I usually cook at home, but have to go to the store every few days to stock up on food that is appealing. Veggies, meat, and bread don't keep for very long. Now I am going to try to change that, with my new FoodSaver (that's for a different post) and with a book that I hope will really help.
I read Clayart, a usenet kind of email list for potters, and the subject turned to bread. Strangely, potters and bread seem to have an affinity. Bread and clay have many of the same attributes, and potters seem to like to eat well. Someone brought up a book that they really use, that has a recipe for bread that can be stored in the fridge for up to two weeks, and only takes five minutes a day to prepare for baking. You don't have to do it every day, either, as you do with sourdough starters. The bread will sit until you are ready to bake! Well, I thought and thought, and decided that I wanted to get the book and try it.
I won't give away the recipe here, because the authors of the book deserve to make sales for their effort. The book is well worth the price, and you can follow along and see if my efforts end up making something that you would also like to be able to make. But the idea is that a very wet dough keeps well in the refrigerator, and actually develops nuance as it sits. Then, whatever portion is desired can be removed, allowed to sit for 40 minutes, and then baked.
The recipe was simple: all-purpose unbleached flour, instant yeast, warm water, and salt. That's it. I had a lot of bread flour, but not as much all-purpose since Allison did some baking here over Christmas, so I used half bread flour and half all-purpose. The bread flour has a higher protein content and might be a little tougher in the baked product. I deducted a little flour when making the recipe, as they said to do if using bread flour. I might have deducted too much....
Anyway, the KitchenAid was an invaluable tool for mixing. Have I TOLD you how much I love my KitchenAid? It gets a workout around here! Almost daily. It's my most beloved kitchen appliance. (Granted, the competition is small, because I have an ancient toaster, a crock pot, and a rice cooker... the microwave doesn't count, that's for the guys) If the KitchenAid were human, I would give it a raise, or maybe I would adopt it like a child. Any way you look at it, the stand mixer does more than its share, and the cookies were a breeze this year! But I digress.
Back to the bread!
You mix up the dough, by putting the yeast and salt in the water and then adding the flour, all at once. When it's fairly well mixed (it took about four minutes) then you put it into a container that will allow it to double, and set it out on the counter for a few hours. Two hours did the trick, but the book says that more or less is all right too. Finally, into the fridge it goes. I divided the dough between a Corning Ware casserole deep dish, and a big measuring cup/bowl. Covered them each with Saran and sure enough, next morning they were both doubled.
I ran out to the Carlsbad Outlet Mall and caught some after Christmas sales, buying an oven thermometer and a baking stone. Those were the bare essentials, everything else I either had, or could improvise. I'd been wanting an oven thermometer, suspecting that my oven runs hot, and sure enough it does, but only about five degrees. The baking stone is interesting, it's like a big flat piece of light terra cotta clay. It is porous, so it absorbs the moisture from the baked goods and gives a crisp, crunchy crust. It was only about twenty bucks.
So here is one container of the bread dough, ready to start baking:
It's quite soft and sticky, not like the usual bread dough. The book warns that it will be soft, and you just have to get an eye for adjusting it! So I sprinkle cornmeal on top of a cookie sheet with no sides (because I didn't want to buy a pizza peel, that flat wooden board with a handle that they form pizza on and then slide it off onto the pizza stone).
I pull up and cut off about as much dough as a size of a grapefruit, and then with floured hands it gets pulled and stretched down each side, like you are pulling it from the top and tucking it underneath. Turning and pulling, turning and pulling. The dough is still very sticky and doesn't want to stay in a ball. I begin to think that it's a little too soft, but will fight the instinct to add flour. Try it this way first, then adjust in future loaves. Here is the dough, resting...
Forty minutes later, the oven is preheated, the stone is preheated, the oven is about right,
and....
the dough is looking like a cross between a frisbee and a pita.
Yikes!
Determined not to give up, I slog ahead... dusting it with flour and then cutting a crisscross pattern on top. But the dough is so soft, it doesn't cut, it just sort of... oozes. Well, maybe it will taste good anyway.
Maybe? Like Nan bread or something? Hmmmmm.....
So I open the oven, put in a pan with about a cup of water in it, then sprinkle the stone with cornmeal. Which immediately smokes a little and smells like popcorn. Not bad, at least it doesn't catch fire and burn my arm hairs off! I grab the cookie sheet with the dough on it, and try to slide it onto the stone. It's supposed to just sort of skid off, intact. Nope. Standing in front of the hot oven, with the smoking cornmeal, I try to slide it off, but end up rolling it over on itself as it .... sllllluuuuurrrrrpppppps off and onto the stone.
Apparently it WAS too soft. Way too soft. Well, nothing to be done now except plan for the next encounter.
Here is the cookie sheet with the skid marks:
It's been about twenty minutes, let's take a peek....
Hey, it's rising! Aside from the odd shape, and the surface covered with cornmeal, it's not half bad! This just might work! (with a little adjustment, wait till you see what I try next!)
It's then that I notice that the light streaming through the window has a distinct bluish tint. I clean my glasses, but the blue remains. It's the smoke from the cornmeal! I TOLD you it was smoking! So hey, it's a lovely day, open the window... and see the little birdies in the garden, eating from the feeders:
The bread is done, or at least I think it is, so I pull it out....
It's kinda cute, in a lumpy sort of way. I've grown attached to this first effort. Think I'll call it Fred.
When I asked hubby if he wanted a piece of "Fred and butter" he was a little hesitant, but he shouldn't have been... Fred tasted about like he looked. A little bland, and not very confident. I think that the dough needs a little more salt, maybe. Also, a couple of days in the fridge to get a little 'nuance'....
EDIT, later- Making another batch, I realized that the recipe didn't need more salt, I needed a brain implant. TABLESPOON, teaspoon, TABLESPOON, teaspoon (face plant) Just send me to remedial reading class, please.
Joanie
What did you get for Christmas? I was lucky to get some new cooking equipment, so that in 2010 I can prepare more meals at home, and we will eat healthier but tastier food. I usually cook at home, but have to go to the store every few days to stock up on food that is appealing. Veggies, meat, and bread don't keep for very long. Now I am going to try to change that, with my new FoodSaver (that's for a different post) and with a book that I hope will really help.
I read Clayart, a usenet kind of email list for potters, and the subject turned to bread. Strangely, potters and bread seem to have an affinity. Bread and clay have many of the same attributes, and potters seem to like to eat well. Someone brought up a book that they really use, that has a recipe for bread that can be stored in the fridge for up to two weeks, and only takes five minutes a day to prepare for baking. You don't have to do it every day, either, as you do with sourdough starters. The bread will sit until you are ready to bake! Well, I thought and thought, and decided that I wanted to get the book and try it.
I won't give away the recipe here, because the authors of the book deserve to make sales for their effort. The book is well worth the price, and you can follow along and see if my efforts end up making something that you would also like to be able to make. But the idea is that a very wet dough keeps well in the refrigerator, and actually develops nuance as it sits. Then, whatever portion is desired can be removed, allowed to sit for 40 minutes, and then baked.
The recipe was simple: all-purpose unbleached flour, instant yeast, warm water, and salt. That's it. I had a lot of bread flour, but not as much all-purpose since Allison did some baking here over Christmas, so I used half bread flour and half all-purpose. The bread flour has a higher protein content and might be a little tougher in the baked product. I deducted a little flour when making the recipe, as they said to do if using bread flour. I might have deducted too much....
Anyway, the KitchenAid was an invaluable tool for mixing. Have I TOLD you how much I love my KitchenAid? It gets a workout around here! Almost daily. It's my most beloved kitchen appliance. (Granted, the competition is small, because I have an ancient toaster, a crock pot, and a rice cooker... the microwave doesn't count, that's for the guys) If the KitchenAid were human, I would give it a raise, or maybe I would adopt it like a child. Any way you look at it, the stand mixer does more than its share, and the cookies were a breeze this year! But I digress.
Back to the bread!
You mix up the dough, by putting the yeast and salt in the water and then adding the flour, all at once. When it's fairly well mixed (it took about four minutes) then you put it into a container that will allow it to double, and set it out on the counter for a few hours. Two hours did the trick, but the book says that more or less is all right too. Finally, into the fridge it goes. I divided the dough between a Corning Ware casserole deep dish, and a big measuring cup/bowl. Covered them each with Saran and sure enough, next morning they were both doubled.
I ran out to the Carlsbad Outlet Mall and caught some after Christmas sales, buying an oven thermometer and a baking stone. Those were the bare essentials, everything else I either had, or could improvise. I'd been wanting an oven thermometer, suspecting that my oven runs hot, and sure enough it does, but only about five degrees. The baking stone is interesting, it's like a big flat piece of light terra cotta clay. It is porous, so it absorbs the moisture from the baked goods and gives a crisp, crunchy crust. It was only about twenty bucks.
So here is one container of the bread dough, ready to start baking:
It's quite soft and sticky, not like the usual bread dough. The book warns that it will be soft, and you just have to get an eye for adjusting it! So I sprinkle cornmeal on top of a cookie sheet with no sides (because I didn't want to buy a pizza peel, that flat wooden board with a handle that they form pizza on and then slide it off onto the pizza stone).
I pull up and cut off about as much dough as a size of a grapefruit, and then with floured hands it gets pulled and stretched down each side, like you are pulling it from the top and tucking it underneath. Turning and pulling, turning and pulling. The dough is still very sticky and doesn't want to stay in a ball. I begin to think that it's a little too soft, but will fight the instinct to add flour. Try it this way first, then adjust in future loaves. Here is the dough, resting...
Forty minutes later, the oven is preheated, the stone is preheated, the oven is about right,
and....
the dough is looking like a cross between a frisbee and a pita.
Yikes!
Determined not to give up, I slog ahead... dusting it with flour and then cutting a crisscross pattern on top. But the dough is so soft, it doesn't cut, it just sort of... oozes. Well, maybe it will taste good anyway.
Maybe? Like Nan bread or something? Hmmmmm.....
So I open the oven, put in a pan with about a cup of water in it, then sprinkle the stone with cornmeal. Which immediately smokes a little and smells like popcorn. Not bad, at least it doesn't catch fire and burn my arm hairs off! I grab the cookie sheet with the dough on it, and try to slide it onto the stone. It's supposed to just sort of skid off, intact. Nope. Standing in front of the hot oven, with the smoking cornmeal, I try to slide it off, but end up rolling it over on itself as it .... sllllluuuuurrrrrpppppps off and onto the stone.
Apparently it WAS too soft. Way too soft. Well, nothing to be done now except plan for the next encounter.
Here is the cookie sheet with the skid marks:
It's been about twenty minutes, let's take a peek....
Hey, it's rising! Aside from the odd shape, and the surface covered with cornmeal, it's not half bad! This just might work! (with a little adjustment, wait till you see what I try next!)
It's then that I notice that the light streaming through the window has a distinct bluish tint. I clean my glasses, but the blue remains. It's the smoke from the cornmeal! I TOLD you it was smoking! So hey, it's a lovely day, open the window... and see the little birdies in the garden, eating from the feeders:
The bread is done, or at least I think it is, so I pull it out....
It's kinda cute, in a lumpy sort of way. I've grown attached to this first effort. Think I'll call it Fred.
When I asked hubby if he wanted a piece of "Fred and butter" he was a little hesitant, but he shouldn't have been... Fred tasted about like he looked. A little bland, and not very confident. I think that the dough needs a little more salt, maybe. Also, a couple of days in the fridge to get a little 'nuance'....
EDIT, later- Making another batch, I realized that the recipe didn't need more salt, I needed a brain implant. TABLESPOON, teaspoon, TABLESPOON, teaspoon (face plant) Just send me to remedial reading class, please.
Joanie
Monday, December 7, 2009
The Goodness of Rain
It's been months since we had more than a tiny taste of rain. Dusty months with dry, windy days that chapped our lips and curled the leaves on patient trees. Promises of rain came and went, without fulfillment, without a drop to bring life back to the desert wildflowers or wash the dust from the high powered lines. Now, thanks to a mild El Nino and the right conditions, we have two storms coming in. Weather is always a mixed blessing, however. The rain that brings welcome moisture to dormant plants and washes the oil slick surface of the streets, also brings the menace of mudslides to the naked slopes of the foothills where fire so recently ravaged.
While I welcome the rain this morning, and look forward to a cozy day in the workshop putting glaze on some pieces, I think also about the people whose homes are sitting below unstable slopes, the roots of burned brush now unable to hold them together as the driving rain swells the dirt and adds weight. For weeks, people have been sandbagging, cities have put up temporary concrete walls to divert the flow from threatening houses. Let's hope it is enough! My brother and family live in La Canada and, while their home isn't in danger, neighbors just three blocks up are definitely spending sleepless nights as the black, cinder filled mud hangs above their heads.
On the other hand,
Casper notes the dampness and suggests that we all go back to bed!
Here is the garden that I have been working on over the past months:
We are on water restriction, and many of the lawns here are disappearing. Some of them are just dirt now, as frustrated homeowners give up trying to keep a lawn alive with ten minutes of watering, three days a week. In the spring, they will have weeds, which will dry and die again. When the wind blows, the dust swirls into the houses and into the street. So, after I let my lawn die, I started putting in some 'hardscape'. Bob stacked these recycled concrete chunks (from a neighbors broken and removed driveway) into an elongated kidney shaped planter and a smaller, round planter that you can't see from this view. We put heavy plastic down before placing the rocks, so that the planter would retain water longer, and since it sloped down toward the ivy, the lower end of the planter will drain through the spaces between the chunks. Then I started filling it with good, rich, water retentive planting soil. It's taken weeks of putting one or two bags in at a time, puttering with it as my back and shoulders dictate. Finally, the plants started going in.... French lavendar, lantana, honeysuckle, cosmos, etc. These are plants that attract butterflies and birds. I found the birdbath on sale, with an additional discount because it was 'used' and needed scrubbing out. Birds immediately began using it. I added a hummingbird feeder and a finch sock. You can see Buddha sitting there, but he is actually going to move a little bit in the end... I am going to stack a smaller corner planter, and put him there with a few Nandia (non-running bamboo) behind him and some moss. I can keep the little planter more damp than I can keep a big planter, even one lined with plastic! I am tucking sedum into the cracks between the concrete chunks, which will allow side drainage and keep the soil from eroding. Finally, I will mulch with redwood chips to keep down weeds and retain moisture. It will take a few more weeks but in the end it will be worth doing! And I plan to paint the furniture in a soft blue, slightly darker than the house. It will be a nice place to sit in the spring. The rest of the dead lawn will be covered in gravel. By the way, the rectangular stones along the outside edge are from old Los Angeles. My dad, who worked for the City of Los Angeles, took them from a job site where they were being removed for a street repaving. They are granite, made by prisoners prior to the 1930's. They had been asphalted over, and when they were dug up and being thrown in the dump, Dad decided to preserve a little history. They are amazingly heavy, and you can see the tool marks from the prisoner's efforts.
Now, out to the workshop, to glaze and listen as the rain taps on the roof.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Of all the strange things on the internet....
What does this charming little face have to do with Pour Horse?
Once upon a time, someone with an exquisite sense of humor found him on ebay and sent him to me for a Christmas present. Someone very dear to me, who has been a friend, a helper, and an unindicted co-consiprator for longer than Pour Horse has been in business... before Pour Horse was just a dream. Someone whose friendship I treasure...
He is a netsuke, which is a traditional Japanese carving that was used to attach a pouch to the wearer's obi (sash) There is a fabulous website on netuske here. He's not very tall, maybe an inch and a half. Tiny little guy for such a great expression! But the fun part is what he is doing... you have to look closely....
Yes, he had a jar, and a horse is coming out of it. He is POURING A HORSE! No, seriously! And he is stamping his foot, or maybe he is dancing!
What the heck? Why was he carved? What craft or trade does he portray? Are there thousands of him out there, or is he the only one?
Isn't he one of the strangest things you have ever seen?
Thank you Cynthia, love you lots...
Joanie
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH
Two days of working on this horse, two days of detailing and cleaning the little fiddly bits...a little slow, but my shoulder is better so I wasn't pushing it...
Two. Days. Work.
Droppped the tool.
Thunk.
Clumsy.
Damn.
And the dog sleeps on...
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Resting
When a beam of sunlight slowly moves across the cool living room on a clear November day, what else is there to do but sleep?
The chair is so comfortable, Bear can't imagine being anywhere else...
Yasha gently opens her eyes and rests her chin on the arm, wondering what Mommy is doing...
Mommy is resting too. I hurt my shoulder and arm doing bonsai, and am giving it a little time to heal. So, quiet pursuits, like cleaning greenware. November is for remembering, for taking a glance back at what the year was all about. As the cool breeze dances the dead leaves down the street, the memories of this year's ups and downs dance in my head. December is for looking forward... making new molds, cleaning the work space, finishing up projects... but November is contemplative.
The chair is so comfortable, Bear can't imagine being anywhere else...
Yasha gently opens her eyes and rests her chin on the arm, wondering what Mommy is doing...
Mommy is resting too. I hurt my shoulder and arm doing bonsai, and am giving it a little time to heal. So, quiet pursuits, like cleaning greenware. November is for remembering, for taking a glance back at what the year was all about. As the cool breeze dances the dead leaves down the street, the memories of this year's ups and downs dance in my head. December is for looking forward... making new molds, cleaning the work space, finishing up projects... but November is contemplative.
Friday, October 2, 2009
Molan- Servant of the Storm
Molan, the Irish-Celtic Servant of the Storm, has all of the lovely, deep detail of Sarah Minkiewicz-Breunig's Stormwatch, with the color tones of gorgeous old European porcelains. Molan is a brown dun sabino, and he might have some overo back in his ancestry too. His feathers and hooves are carefully detailed and colored to show his favored home, the American plains, where the red dirt tints and stains horse's legs. Molan has yellow teeth that show behind his drooping pink lip, one blue eye, and a kind, appealing face. His mane and tail are black, with brown sunburning, and his tail and forelock fade to light silver/cream. I particularly love his little whisker bumps and facial shading, it makes everyone want to reach out and touch his face.
Molan is the third Stormwatch to be offered publicly, and he will go up for sale on MyAuctionBarn on Sunday, October 4th and will end Wednesday, October 7th. He will have a reasonable reserve, and someone will be enchanted to be the new owner of Molan, ready for next year's show season. He will come with a complete set of digital photos that the new owner can use to show him online.
UPDATE: His auction is here: http://myauctionbarn.com/index.php He is highlighted, so look for him on the front page.
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