Weather, Sickness and Livestreams

Since the foot of snow we had earlier this month we spent the following week in a deep freeze.  Temperatures at and below 0ºF after all that snow and with little or no sun contributed to snow-packed to ice roadways and dangerous conditions all-around.  That was followed by significantly warmer temperatures that hovered at or above the freezing mark, day and night, for another week, which has allowed salt to work and aid in making the roadways better, finally.  Last Tuesday we had all 4 types of precipitation in one day; rain, freezing rain, sleet and snow.  Along with those temperatures we had many days of dense fog and rain on a few days which has helped melt a lot of snow, yet there is still plenty of it everywhere you look.  This next week looks to be more familiar with daytime highs above freezing and the lows below, and no real chance of snow.

That's enough of a weather report, I think.  Wisconsin can have more extremes in weather than many other areas, many times seemingly without rhyme or reason, so can be interesting to note.

Also, last Sunday I started to feel like I was fighting a cold so I stayed in, started taking my supplements and just relaxed.  Didn't matter one bit.  Monday and Tuesday I felt like I was hit by a truck with head and body aches and lethargy, staying home from work and sleeping a whole lot.  (I tested for Covid and it was negative.)  While I got a little more energy back on Tuesday it was only temporary as the virus had settled deeply into my sinuses where it still resides now.  And no matter what cold medicine I've tried it barely helps, but that always seems to be the case for me.  I want to say I feel slightly better today, but really this whole week has been just absolutely miserable for me.  Today will be more of the same - rest and relaxation and hoping this virus clears soon.

At least today I will have some entertainment.  At the end of November I signed up for a yearly pass on Veeps, a popular livestreaming site.  I paid $60 (a half-price Black Friday deal), which is about what I spent on livestreams on that site last year but now I'll have access to all of their shows so will be more likely to watch shows that I was hesitant to spend money on before.  

At almost 2 this afternoon on Veeps is Bad Omens with opening act Poppy, airing live from Germany (7 hours ahead of us) on their current European tour.  I'm a big Poppy fan and while I don't know much about Bad Omens I do like the song they did together, V.A.N., released just a couple days ago.  Interestingly, it was written entirely by the singer of Bad Omens but it is not a duet with Poppy handling all of the vocals.  A good song and fits right in with Poppy's catalog, though.  I'm sure they'll share the stage at some point to perform the song together.

Bad Omens & Poppy - V.A.N.

Later today there is still playoff football on TV so that will be the rest of my day, then back to work tomorrow - hopefully feeling much better.

New Baguette

For over a year now I've mostly made the classic baguette recipe from King Arthur Baking Company.  Every now and again I tried a different baguette recipe, but some were better than others and I always went back to the original.  Over time, I refined that recipe and my technique to make pretty good baguettes every time.  Still, there were some characteristics I just couldn't seem to get, like bigger bubbles in the crumb and a nice ear on the cuts.

I tried a new baguette recipe yesterday and I was encouraged enough that I made it again this morning.  At first, I wasn't too impressed as I was making it and I was very unsure how they would turn out, but the oven rise and ears of the cuts were impressive and the crust was even better in today's batch since I added 1/2 Tbsp of the diastatic malt powder, which helps the taste of the bread, too.  I also used a homemade couche for the first time to proof them.  The classic recipe is a wet proof although I have tried dry proofing enough to know the cuts are easier that way though the oven rise was otherwise restricted.  The first batch of this new recipe yesterday had the bread exploding out of it's skin, to my surprise and delight.

Yesterday afternoon I also tried an interesting Peanut Butter Bread recipe from the great depression.  No butter, milk (sry!) or eggs, just peanut butter as the fat and lots of baking powder for the rise.  A pretty easy recipe I came across on the internet and while it's actually pretty good I'm not sure I'll have a need to make it again.

Back to baguette:  I also like the amount of dough this new recipe makes.  The classic recipe would yield 3 baguettes close to 300 grams so I had to make an effort to keep them short enough for the baking tray, while this new recipe is closer to 230 grams each so I can shape them as I want and still have the traditional pointy ends while easily fitting them on the 15 inch tray.

In some ways, the first batch is more what I'm looking for and the second I may have just thought about it too much though they still turned out very good.  I think this recipe is a keeper and I look forward to making it the best I can, as I did with the classic recipe.

WFW Part 4 - Final

I woke up at 3 a.m. this morning so looked out and saw it snowing, though less accumulation than before.  The snow petered out by 9 this morning, so about 9:30 we went out to clean it up again.  This time was 2-3 inches, depending where you looked, so I'm going to say we got a generous 12 inches from this storm.  I'll have to try and catch the news to hear the official amount since I still haven't found a good source on the internet.  Our official amount is taken at the airport, about a mile north of here, but we had high winds also so there was some blowing and drifting, so results may vary.

It cleaned up well enough again, I'll put more pics after the break.  The solar lights are still poking up but there is the gnome on the stump, now just a slight bulge in the snow.

WFW Part 3

I went out again about 7:00 and cleared around another 4 inches, making my guesstimate be 9 inches so far.  Keep in mind we had some inches on the ground before this started.  The tracks you see here are from taking compost to the bin, which was frozen shut so it got dumped behind it along the fence.  It has fallen slower than it did this morning, but we still have a ways to go.  I'm going to put it out of my head for the rest of the night and we'll see what we have when I get up in the morning.

I'll put some pics for more context after the break.

WFW Part 2

About a half an hour ago, just before I cleared snow for the first time.  There was about 5 inches so far, about 7 hours in and over 12 hours to go yet.  I'll have to clear at least once more today, maybe twice, then again in the morning.  But we'll see.

Winter Freakin' Wonderland

Well, winter finally caught up to us.  We got about 8 inches of snow on Tuesday and about 2-3 inches overnight last night.  There has been a white blanket on everything - and every branch of every tree and bush.  To many, it looks pretty as a postcard no matter where you look.  But enough is enough.

Tomorrow is due to snow all day long for a total of 8-13 more inches.  Local school districts already announced closures or virtual-only classes, just like they did on Monday afternoon.  My work goes by the Madison school district, so we will have our second snow day this week tomorrow.  It's nice to at least have the time off to deal with all that snow and not worry about driving anywhere (even the state police are saying to stay off the roads tomorrow), but we either have to use a vacation day or take it unpaid.  As I'm starting over in a new job I don't have much vacation time so I'm taking these days unpaid.

Then, to top it all off, on Sunday we begin a stretch of very cold temperatures with highs Sunday and Monday right around 0ºF (about -18ºC) and staying in the single digits for at least a week.  

Sure, we've seen these kinds of snows and temperatures before, but that doesn't make it any easier.  I'll try to post another pic on Saturday.  My guess is the fire pit and outlines of anything else in the back yard will be pretty much totally obscured.  I should have brought in the gnome and solar lights last weekend.  Oh well...

For Tuesday's snow day I made homemade cinnamon rolls.

Happy New Year 2024

Happy New Year!  I don't know if I'll be up for it so I'm writing this from the past and scheduling this for just after midnight.  By the way, Sunday's date was 123123, but mostly only in this country and not the rest of the world - 311223.

Last night my wife went out to a fancy dinner with her friend Terry and sister Becky.  I stayed in so I could catch the Packers/Vikings game.  Then later this new year's morning the Badgers play their bowl game against LSU.  I got my current list of chores done the last few days so aside from the game today it looks like it will be a good day of rest (with a little experimental making of pizza crust dough with 00 pizza flour) before returning to work tomorrow.

However you chose to ring in 2024, I hope you enjoy the holiday today and all my best wishes for a wonderful new year.