Baking/Cooking Weekend

Two batches of baguettes yesterday.

Flatbread made today.

A fresh batch of pizza sauce made.

And not made today, but homemade pizza dough fresh from the freezer to thaw and rise for dinner.

What did you do this weekend?

Cold Repair Work

It was -2ºF (-19ºC) when I got up this morning, and I believe we only got up to around 10ºF (-12ºC) this afternoon.  It was damn cold, the coldest of the season so far.  Still, this is Wisconsin; life went on as normal with no shutdowns or anything.  Just a lot of tongue-in-cheek complaining about the cold, but that's a winter past-time around here.  Thankfully we don't have any significant snow on the ground yet to go with it.  And we will get warmer again as there is a chance of rain on Saturday and Monday.

With snow being inevitable we had my wife's wheelchair van in the shop this week.  Her driver side back door would not open, so she always had to use the passenger side to load and unload, which would be an issue when that curb side has 2 feet of snow piled up.  It was an expensive fix at over $1700, the part alone was a grand of that, but it had to be done no matter the price.  Next up for her car is brakes and tires, so we'll have another hefty bill soon after the new year.

I've not talked about my new job here much at all.  It's been over a year now, and I still feel a bit unsure about it.  I'm not sure why, but I've always kind of fallen into my next job and wound up being really good at it.  This is so different than anything I've done I think I still just don't have a ton of confidence yet, though certainly more than when I started.  Back then my head was still spinning from the last job and I knew someone who worked here and I needed insurance as soon as possible, so I took it.  I could look at the negatives about the pay, hours and insurance (and maybe I do which is why I still feel unsure), but overall I am much happier than I was before.

I spend about half my time in-house and the other half out job-coaching various clients one-on-one.  When I'm in-house it's usually just playing and entertaining clients with varying degrees of personal cares to do throughout the day, depending what classes I'm scheduled in.  And job coaching varies depending on the client, but normally isn't very difficult.  I've been getting one of our most difficult clients to job coach often, but he usually listens to me well and I know how to guide him so by now I'd actually prefer to be with him.

But, before I'm tempted to type specifics I should move on.  Thank you for the recent question, BW.

Meanwhile, frozen or not, these pumpkins are getting eaten.  I think they will slowly disappear into the belly of the beasts out back well before spring.

Street Reconstruction Part 17 & More

Yesterday they installed two No Parking signs near the top of our street and the next one over.  Today they installed more down both streets, but spaced further apart.  There is a sign two houses up and two houses down from us, which makes me happy we don't have one on our terrace to mow around.  So rather than take a picture of one of the signs in front of a neighbor's house, here is a stock photo of what they look like.

I'm thinking all that is left is for the extra poles to be removed and trees planted in spring, but they may surprise me with something I didn't think of again.  Happily, it appears people are heeding the signs and only parking on the other side since I'm not sure how many neighbors looked into the work to be done as I did and knew about this change.  And while I'm happy parking is on the other side, that means I'll have to back out a bit more carefully on this narrower street since we're pretty much guaranteed to have a car across the street now, and it may be my wife's at times.

When I got home from my Mom's on Thanksgiving Day I caught this fat squirrel eating from the frozen pumpkins on the stoop, picture taken from the car.  Well, they lasted out front for about a month and a half, through Halloween and Thanksgiving, so it was time to put them in back and let them decompose or be eaten.  

I've had trouble with my display driver on this computer so haven't used the trail cams lately as reviewing all that video does bad things, but you can still see the squirrels eat up our pumpkin from a couple years ago here.  Question:  Does anyone know if you can download a new display driver?  I haven't found anything when I looked, so I fear I may need to get a new computer to fix the issue.  And yes, the driver is fully updated.

I placed the pumpkins on the rotting stump in back, near the frozen bird bath.  (We've been below the freezing point for several days now, though we might manage to get just above tomorrow so we can get some rain that can then freeze for us.  Wonderful.)  Whatever the squirrels leave of the pumpkins can help nourish the wildflower seeds we plan to spread on the stump again next year.

After the break is just some recent baking, if interested.

Happy Thanksgiving Weekend 2024

Happy Thanksgiving weekend, everyone.  A much needed 4 days off from work here.

I wasn't feeling the best yesterday, but I traveled down to my Mom's house.  I wasn't sure if I was getting sick or not so I wore a mask the whole time and cut my visit short, leaving shortly after my sister and nephew got there early afternoon.  

My wife made a traditional Thanksgiving spread with a large turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce and dinner rolls.  Kate then took some to her dad, but they wound up going to their family gathering.  She's been his caretaker for many years now, and he just gets more difficult as he gets older.  Anyway, there's plenty of leftovers for us to eat, plus she'll make up some freezer meals for her dad.

There's a dusting of snow on the ground and it will be cold, but there are some outside chores I could do.  And we'll see if I have a fire pit tonight or tomorrow, but otherwise the time will be spent inside.  There's a lot of football on the next few days, but otherwise I have some inside chores to do, maybe some baking, and lots of relaxing.  Cheers!

Street Reconstruction Part 16 & Miscellaneous

 It's late, but I wanted to share the latest update, however small.  Yesterday, temporary no parking signs showed up all along our side of the street.  Apparently to give the regular street sign installers more time?  Who knows.

First Snow & Street Reconstruction Part 15

Our autumn has been mild, overall, and I think I heard the mildest on record.  We started yesterday with a wintry mix (slush) that turned to light, wet snow, then more overnight to officially get our first snowfall of the season.  Below is what we had before I left for work this morning.

It continued with sideways, wet snow all morning with temperatures just above freezing and sustained winds 20 or more miles per hour, but by this afternoon it warmed up a few degrees and turned to a light rain.  Temperatures are expected to remain several degrees above freezing while the wind dies down overnight, so I don't expect to see much snow, if any, left tomorrow.  The foreseeable forecast has temperatures just above and below freezing, day and night, but I do see one day where we are not expected to get above freezing all day.

I'm not ready for this, but I never am.

I believe the same day of my last Street Reconstruction post we received a letter from the city that the contractor had completed their work.  Yesterday morning as I left, though, there were two of them out front; they had come back to try and connect my cable back to the top of the pole so they could get their pole holding the wire over the street, back.  From what I saw this afternoon, the newly-kinked coaxial cable is now pretty useless and would need to be replaced anyway, if we have a need for that again.  I should have just cut it off the house when they knocked it loose.

We got another letter today with a bit of information on caring for the grass or native plants, depending what the homeowner chose, and saying any trees would not be planted until spring.  Still no word on the unnecessary footbridge over the creek yet.  A waste of money, and this last election day a city referendum to raise our property taxes over state limits passed, inexplicably (who are these people voting for this crap?!).  We'll now have to pay a few hundred dollars more per year - with no end date - to see our money wasted on projects like that.  Ugh.

Moving on, there's now a new sign at the top of the street showing a 20 mph speed limit, but not any no parking signs on our side of the street yet, so everyone is parking as they had before but now on a narrower street.  I'd think with winter coming the signs would be a priority, and I expect to see them soon.

I'll continue with updates as they happen, but surely fewer and farther between now.  All in all, this went smoother than expected and we're glad the worst is over.

Street Reconstruction Part 14, And A Surprise Text

Since late last week they started filling the terraces and other areas with dirt, and when I got home today we had all the dirt, seeded and covered with a straw mat.  I do have grass growing in a spot I seeded in the back just a couple weeks ago, so maybe there is time yet for a little growing before winter.

As far as I can tell, signs need to be installed and the cable company must move wires so some poles can be removed.  Not sure if anything else is left.

As I sat to write this my phone made a noise... after the break!

One Way To Look At It...

 

via

Fall Cleanup, Fire & Baking

It's shameful how I've been neglecting the fire pit this year, but fall is here so I think it will be easier to get out there more now that it gets dark so much earlier.  Saturday night had ideal conditions so I was determined to relax by the fire while watching the first half of the Badger football game.

Earlier in the day I spent some time cleaning up the back yard; mulching leaves, cleaning up the gardens and flowerbeds, put the compost soil in the gardens and get the bin ready to receive on the right side while giving a good turn to the left.  I have a couple buckets of yard waste to get to the dump, just a bit of sod, and some woody stems and dead raspberry branches from the gardens.  Technically it all could go in with the compost but I always end up pulling out a few chunks and sticks and tossing them into the other side of the bin so they have another year to break down, and the less of that the better.

There's not a whole lot else to do outside before winter arrives.  I still have to clean out the gutters, though our windy weather has me hoping that will be a, um, breeze.  And I still have to make sure the snow blower starts and move some things from the garage to the basement.  Other than that, just keep on top of mulching the leaves, is all.

*               *               *

I haven't written about baking much recently, though I have kept it up very regularly.  I fell into a good routine with my baguette and flatbread, and there's usually cheese pennies available in the freezer to make a tray when we feel like it.  On October 22, King Arthur's Big Book of Bread was released, and I received it from Amazin'.  The first part of the book covers the basics of breadmaking, then there are over 125 different, detailed recipes.  Around the same time I bought a rectangular stone for baking bread on.  We have a round one for making pizza (also with my excellent homemade dough and sauce!) but wanted better for making bread.

So far I'd only tried their Yeasted Baguette recipe, and I liked it but I used a combination of the methods in the recipe and what I'd done before.  They turned out great, but I wanted to more closely follow and practice the book to learn.  Mainly the differences were wet handling/proofing with oil spray or now dry handling/proofing with flour and a couche (which I had done some of before), and using the peel and stone for baking rather than the baguette tray.

Anyway, I got ambitious Sunday.  I had a grocery order to pick up too, but I wanted to make baguette, at least two batches of cheese pennies, and try the Pita Bread recipe from the book and also using the stone.  My first try for pita, and it was interesting to see it puff up so much in the oven.  I thought they would collapse as they cooled, but I had to flatten them before storing them in the freezer.  That's right, we've not even tried them yet.  I think we're going to have homemade gyros on Wednesday, which is why I made them.  At that time we can decide if my flatbread would be best for gyros or not.  Making either is a similar process.

Everything got done in about 6 hours total, ending around 3 in the afternoon, and my legs were tired from standing.  The Packer game started shortly after so I was able to put my feet up and watch the game.  I'm glad I got done as much as I did, but I don't think I'll try to do quite as much in one day again.  I do look forward to trying other recipes from the book, but I have no idea what the next one will be yet.

Happy Halloween 2024

The windows mummy is no more this year, but I did get a neat black skeleton with lit eyes to hang on the front door tonight.  I also got a cheap purple spider web that I was hoping to cover from awning to bottom rail but it was way too windy to try and set that up, so it'll be put away for next year.  A flickering flame porch light and a couple squat pumpkins would round out our Halloween look this year.

I had a good day with some Halloween celebrations at work, then getting ready for trick-or-treaters at home.  We'd had great weather the last few days.  I was even able to wear shorts and sandals out and about the last couple days, but today was to be different.

It had been windy recently with a couple nice warm days, but today was more windy, sustained winds 15-20 mph with gusts that can stop you in your tracks.  Thankfully that's easing off a bit tonight, but we've also gotten so much colder with this front coming in.  By morning we'll be near freezing with barely a breeze.  

Despite the weather, we had a few more trick-or-treaters than last year, but still only 14 by my count.  We shut it down before 8 tonight, more than a half hour since the last ones.  Gave out less than half of the candy we had, so now we have that problem, too.  Happy Halloween, everyone.