Leap Day & Mom

Happy Leap Day, everyone.  Not really a holiday, just novel in that it only comes about every 4 years, usually.  (Century years must be divisible by 400 to have this extra day.)

Today would have been a normal workday for me but I took it off as my Mom returned from Alabama yesterday afternoon.  After work I gathered my stuff, plus some snacks since she had no food in the house after being gone a couple months, and headed to the airport to pick her up.  Everything went smooth and quick and soon we were on our way to Dodgeville.  We got dinner and stayed up to watch ToYoube videos and talk.  The next morning I did a couple small things that needed to be done, but everything was pretty much in order since she hadn't been around.  She ordered groceries for delivery and we had a lazy morning before I left mid-day after they had been delivered.

It's been 10 years since my wife and I visited her down there.  She shares the rental with a sister now and many other family and friends have done the same visit.  And going back to the same place every year she's made friends with other snowbirds from various other places.  All in all, she enjoys her time down there and I'm glad she gets to do it.

Every time I go down to Dodgeville for a night I seem to forget one thing, this time it was the two baguettes I was going to take to her.  Bugger.  For some reason I still don't have bread flour again yet but I will soon so hopefully I'll have even better ones for her next time.

And, of course, the cats didn't seem to miss me one bit.

February T-A-T Follow-Ups

It appears our new neighbors moved in late last week, ready or not.  There's still workers over there every day and as I write now, but not yesterday so I'm thinking they just wanted one quiet day to settle in a bit - but who knows?  I reckon that's about 6 grand off their total bill for the renovation, but I won't ask them details (though I'm curious!).

My wife fell ill on Sunday and still doesn't feel good today.  I hope she feels better a lot quicker than it took for me.  And even my two weeks followed by lingering sniffles seems to pale to what they have across the pond - Get well soon BW, Delcatto and Sue!

Weather has been colder, at and below freezing, but we saw the forecast and now it will become warmer again, and very much like spring again.  But there's still time for winter to return.

I made crostini last night from one of the baguettes I made two weeks ago, pictured in the last post.  Those were made from bread flour, and I finally saw the bigger bubbles in the crumb that I've been lacking with this recipe.  I might try an all-purpose/bread flour 50/50 split next time and see if I get close to this.  Baking baguette has become an ever-evolving experiment for me by now, and very enjoyable.  

I baked both the new and old baguette recipes again on Friday night and Saturday morning, respectively.  I forgot the diastatic malt powder when I made the new recipe and while still good bread you do notice what that DMP does for the taste and crustiness.  No issues with major splitting this time, though a little deflation in the transfer process.  I'm warming to the couche but ordered a new one as the light cloth towel I'm using now still sticks a bit after proofing no matter how much I've tried to embed the flour.  Also a transfer peel since I don't have a good equivalent, so that's two more new baking related gadgets for me coming soon.

And I won absolutely nothing on the Super Bowl this year.  Easy come, easy go.

Above is last week's baguette, and I'll put the new and old after the break in that order.

February This-And-Thats

I've been feeling much better this week but for continuing sniffles, since being sick the prior two weeks.  It's just been going around as I've heard of several others being sick.  It's no fun, especially since I was barely sick for several years due to changes that came with the pandemic, like masks and working from home.  I'm around so much more people now than I have been in a long time.

New neighbors, late neighbor Dave's daughter and son-in-law, are still not moved in.  The house was supposed to be done December 15, they told me, and they had to be out of where they lived January 31, so not sure where they're living now.  At least they are getting $100 off the bill for every day past December 15, but I'm sure they'd rather it just get finished.  In the early days late in summer and fall there was work being done maybe one day a week. Now, for the last several weeks there's work being done weekdays, weekends, holidays, and sometimes late into the night.  Further exterior work will have to wait, they said, whether for weather or financial reasons I'm not sure.  We've been thinking of putting a fence on that side like our back fence, and they may want to remove theirs before then if they want the metal posts covered with wood on their side of it, like the fence in the back.  We'll talk to them again sometime after they finally move in, I'm sure.

The weather has been mild, kind of like March at the end of January/beginning of February and continuing.  Early last week we again had morning fog on several days, including freezing fog in areas.  Was like nothing I'd ever seen.  Driving through one of the little squalls is a almost a whiteout of tiny snowflakes, with everything getting frosted in white with them.  Otherwise, the snow has been melting so just a small mound here and there where it was deepest.  And we had thunderstorms the other night, including a few tornadoes just south of here - the first February tornadoes in Wisconsin in recorded history.  It feels like spring though the calendar says otherwise.  I guess we'll find out if February will start acting like winter again or not.  And anything could always happen in March.

I came across a website that provides (for free) background noises, and you can customize and combine to make one to your liking.  Noises Online is under those blue words, if interested.

The last time I made baguette I used bread flour instead of AP and proofed them in the couche.  I seemed to get bigger bubbles in the crumb but proofing them in a floured cloth makes the skin less flexible to expand when baking, thus they tend to split on me, so far.  But I like mixing it up and trying new techniques.  In fact, I'm even starting to reconsider getting a sourdough culture that I'll have to feed and keep alive in the fridge.  Ugh!  Anyway, they always are good bread no matter and I look forward to my next stab at it, probably next weekend.

Tomorrow is Super Bowl Sunday.  I do plan on watching the game, but only to try and catch a glimpse of Taylor Swift!  Just kidding.  I don't really care who wins, but I do like to see Patrick Mahomes whine so I may root for the 49ers.  Mostly, I just hope it's a good game - and that my number$ hit!