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.

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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.