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?

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.

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.

Street Reconstruction Part 11, More

It appears we're ready to have a new street installed very soon.  There's not been a whole lot of activity lately other than grading and compacting the gravel.  They didn't work at all over the weekend, so maybe Monday.

I've not had many fires this year, and I've kept short the few I've had.  It was either too hot, too windy, or I was just too tired on weekend evenings.  Now, with cooler weather and an earlier sunset I may get out there more.  I did get out there for a bit on Friday evening.  It was nice, but I did build it up and let it burn down in just a few hours rather than spend all night.

And Basil got a visit from a neighbor cat.  People aren't supposed to let their cats out here in the city but many do, even despite the construction and large machinery going back and forth all day.

On my way to pick up groceries this morning I noticed an odd sound as I arrived.  I didn't see anything outside the car so kept the radio off and paid close attention on the drive home and I heard horrendous noises coming from the car.  I'm not sure what's going on, but first thing in the morning I'll have to try and get it into the shop.  I can use my wife's van sometimes, but I need my car.

Atwoodfest 2024

This is the tenth year of Atwoodfest, in this incarnation.  We've gone every year since 2016 but for 2020.   Dancin' in the street!

Flatbread, Flowers And Hamish

We had gyros some time ago from a delivery restaurant.  I got the regular gyro meat and my wife hasn't cared for their chicken version so tried the veggie, which is just more of the gyro veggies in a pita.  Unsatisfied, she recently wanted to try to make homemade ground beef gyros (since we still have lots to use before we can order another side of beef) with a Greek seasoning.  She found a recipe and it turned out really better than expected.  That seasoning also seemed to work as a binder so the patties were able to be cut similar to regular gyro meat and made for a rather good meal. And we love tzatziki sauce!  The only downside was the store-bought pita bread, of which only one choice is ever available at the local grocery store, as it is way too dry and bland.

So, for the leftovers I tried a flat bread recipe that I had saved but not yet made.  In fact, I hadn't tried to make any kind of flatbread previously, but I found this so quick and simple, and yet so good.  Like my homemade baguette, pizza dough and cheese pennies, flatbread will now surely be a regular homemade food in this house, though I may experiment with other recipes/techniques, too.

Otherwise, I've just been so tired this week.  I don't want to discuss my job here, but I've been doing it now for over 8 months without taking any time off for myself, only a few sick days when I've been unable to work.  I have a couple days off soon here which will hopefully recharge me until my week off in September.  After that I'll have to see what little time off I have left for the rest of the year and plan accordingly.  That's all I want to say about that for now, since I'm in a rather crispy state of mind at the moment.

Anyway, the tiger lilies by the porch are mostly waning, but for each end which are a different type and will continue flowering for a bit.  The tree stump area is doing pretty well with some of the wildflowers on the old stump starting to do what they do.  The day lilies are big and strong and many smaller plants are maintaining, at the least.  The newly planted bushes seem to be doing okay but not really taking off yet, but hopefully by next year.

The two sunflowers by the back corner of the garage are still doing their thing and growing tall.  About a week ago the remaining stalks of the peony next to it were bitten off by a critter, which is unusual for peony but wouldn't be for the sunflowers next to it at that stage so thankfully keeping that cage has kept them going.  That peony may not even come back next year as the lily of the valley has mostly strangled its roots, it seems.

And lastly for today, I've not posted any cat pictures in a while and I really ought to more.  After the break is Hamish, tonight, waiting on the back of the chair for me to come into the computer room and type this.

July 4th, In Pictures

Happy Independence Day, everyone.  (Those in this country, anyway.)  I don't have a lot to say right now, I'm just enjoying a day off work so here's some recent pictures I found interesting.

We took a walk to the Atwood area for lunch last Sunday.

From the breakwater at Tenney Lock yesterday, the capitol building in the distance.

Interesting skies in the waning minutes of daylight last night.  Good to see bats and fireflies about.

I made each kind of cheese penny this morning.  On the left is parmesan on top and sharp cheddar with cayenne below. On the right is the last of the mild cheddar and bleu cheese below.

I think we may go out to lunch here in a bit, but I'm otherwise just relaxing after some baking and making pizza dough this morning.  Back to work tomorrow for a day and then the weekend.  Cheers, everyone.

Cable Update and Cheese Pennies

A couple hawks with a snack, across the street yesterday.

After finally getting cable TV canceled last month, no small feat, I changed my strategy a bit on Tuesday when I called to cancel cable internet.  I simply told them I was moving to Tokyo, which still didn't stop them from offering better deals or putting me on hold to delay me, but it did seem to go quicker this time.  I seemed to annoy them (again) that I would not end the call until they turned the internet off and I verified, but they had already proven their word could not be trusted.

Then, at the end of the call, he brought up one piece of equipment we supposedly still had - one of their modems.  I was pissed.  I told him it had been several years since we returned that modem, so long ago I couldn't remember what year or where I returned it.  He opened an inquiry and said it could take up to 72 hours.  Meanwhile, I looked up when we bought our first modem from Amazin' and it was March of 2014, so I would have returned their equipment by early April that year at the latest, over ten years ago.

Thankfully, later that night, I received an email that stated they have "completed your equipment research request in alignment with your expectations."  As far as I'm concerned, that better be the end of it.  Fuck Spectrum, I'll never be a customer of theirs again.

Meanwhile, I've continued to make cheese pennies every so often.  I'm finding it easiest to make multiple batches at once to have them available in the freezer.  I baked most of the last of a roll of mild cheddar cheese pennies yesterday, and today for the freezer I made bleu cheese (for the first time), parmesan, and sharp cheddar with cayenne cheese penny rolls.  (I've also made swiss cheese pennies before.)

Our first-place Brewers are playing the last-place Cubs this weekend.  It's always fun to beat the Cubs, especially this year.  Rain again last night and now too windy tonight for a fire, so I'm going to kick back and watch the game this afternoon and enjoy a quiet evening in.  Have a good weekend, everyone.

Fire Pit Visitors and Zoo

Shortly after starting the fire on Friday night I had two interesting visitors, as a welcome distraction.  A Brown-headed Cowbird couple came by, he to keep watch while she foraged along the flowerbed, not many feet away from me and the fire.  A good start to the weekend.

I visited my Mom again on Saturday, and we've kept busy today with a brunch downtown with friends and getting some more plants to cover the bare ground patches still along the fence and between the new bushes.  New batteries installed for new solar lights that came with bad batteries, and more spikes installed on the fence to discourage squirrel damage.  Four on top of the fence in strategic areas and now four on the cross bar beneath them as they would just go around the spikes on top otherwise, I hope this helps.

I got the opportunity to visit our zoo for work last week.  It had been several years since I last visited, one of those things that are so close and easy to do yet neglected, taken for granted.  It's still an animal jail but they do continue to make improvements to their habitats.  Two of us had several clients to keep an eye on and wheelchairs to push, but I still managed to take several pictures, I'll put some after the break.

Sprung, And Other Updates

Sprung, versus my Springing post, or most of my posts since, I guess.  (I'll keep the cable issue separate - see last post.)

I've mentioned the weather and the luxuries of open windows, getting a new fence and new bushes, fire pits, gardens, plants and plantings.  The landscape and gardens are looking good and a I have a nice corner of our world to relax by a fire.  But this will be more of a pictorial post with some commentary.  All pictures but the fire pit were taken after arriving home from work today during a dry spell between thunderstorms.

The peonies have been beaten down relentlessly by the rain.  I power washed the steps 3 or 4 weeks ago but we haven't dried out long enough to seal them.  A weekend morning would be preferable for sealing, but now even a weeknight evening will have to do.  We just have to be able to dry out for a few days first.  And all sunflower seeds planted in this corner this year appear to have been pilfered, no matter how many times I reseeded.

The new bushes are still looking good.  We had to move a purple flowering plant that we just call 'purple floppy thing' to a different area since it spreads and grew too big in front of the bush on the left, it is now near the firewood.  I have 4 new, colorful butterfly solar lights along the garage and you will see 6 multi-bulb solar lights in the picture here that I had among the hostas along the back fence, but the hostas are too big and they did not get a good charge back there so I'll have to figure something else out.

The gardens are looking okay, some things are questionable but the seeds were a bit old.  The peonies on the back corners of the garage are now open and, apparently, both pink.  The nearer one is held up by a neighboring cage.

And in that cage are the only two sunflowers growing in the yard.  I also planted some in the corner behind the lilac but they got bit off when a few inches high, despite being caged.  I really hope I can get these two to grow up big and tall, and will have to rethink these before planting next spring.

And the back of the lilac that had to be cut for the fence installation has many new shoots.  I am encouraged and hopefully this will fill out more in a few years.  In the meantime, I'm going to remove more dirt from that corner and reconfigure the rock border.  Perhaps another bush back there?  We'll see.

And Friday night's fire pit was very nice.  Wish you were here for it.

More New Fence

The fence installers left me two pickets from the back fence that they removed in the corner and replaced with new, plus 8 new pickets.  This gave me an idea to build a small section of fence behind the compost bin.  I discussed with neighbor Jane first and asked if I could zip-tie the section to her fence and she was real nice about it.  So, this morning I went and got 2 more fence pickets and 3 cedar 1x3's and this afternoon I put it together and installed it with my wife's help.

If you look close in the picture below you can see a hammock a couple yards over, and it's by a fire pit.  They often have fires when I do and is within sight, so a small section of fence will block that view from our firepit.

And every other direction is our house and the sides of 3 garages with just one open space that by chance had that neighbor standing there when I took the picture below.

I'm satisfied.  This is about as private as we want right now.  In an hour or so I'm going to go out and have the first fire of the year.  Then about an hour after that I'm going to watch a live Megadeth concert from Buenos Aires, Argentina, as I sit by the fire.  It's been a beautiful day out and should be a nice evening.  Cheers, everyone.

All That, And Cheese Pennies

As the days grow longer and the temperatures are warmer I'm reminded of how I haven't really walked the neighborhood since starting my new job.  Winter temperatures and very active work days seemingly justified the break, but my wife has suggested we start walking again when it gets a bit warmer and I think we should, too.  We can enjoy watching the neighborhood wake up from winter and grow into summer, until it's too hot to walk outside, maybe.

I'm not sure if I mentioned this yet, but since commuting every day I'd been saving dashcam videos of egregious traffic violations/stupidity/arrogance.  I soon stopped bothering as it's become so common in these times that I see at least one and often several egregious things every day.  Running red lights, not stopping at stop signs, cutting people off in traffic with not even a blinker, stupid speeds, tailgating, or you name it.  This just seems to be the new normal.  Look both ways, folks.

I've not yet had a fire this spring, but I'm sure it will happen in the next few weeks.  There have been crocus coming up in the lawn for at least a week now.  (I always want to type 'krokus' because of the band!) The new neighbors really opened up the other side of their back yard for access to trim the black walnut trees, which look real good now.  It's been 3.5 years since we had the back fence replaced and we've considered putting a matching fence on that side ever since, and now's the time.  There will be much more on that coming soon.

Yesterday I perused King Arthur's website for a quick and easy recipe for something I could make with what was in the house and I came across this recipe for Cheese Pennies.  Today, I decided to make them as a distraction from the Badger game, which they were not favored and did lose.  It was interesting getting the dough to come together, but with a bit of water it got there.  Everything was pretty easy and was done in a short amount of time.  They taste like one of the name brand cheesy cracker snacks but have a home made texture.  I got 69 crackers and the recipe says about 80, so I may have sliced some a bit thick.  Overall, a fun experiment and a tasty, cheesy snack.  Good to try but not sure if I'll ever make it again.

And finally, before I forget to post these, I came across a recent PBS video of a show about Madison.  I found it interesting and noticed they did one about Dodgeville last year.  They're almost a half hour long, so only for the interested.  Links to the Madison and Dodgeville PBS videos are under those words.

I'm looking forward to spring, a big fence project, and more backyard privacy.  Among other things, of course.

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!

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.

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.

Solstice Firepit

 Happy Winter Solstice, 2023.  Finally the days will begin to get longer, though winter has barely begun for us.  We've had a taste of snow and really cold, but mostly have been a bit warmer than normal (above freezing) and that is expected through the holidays.  There is plenty of rain in the forecast that would otherwise be snow, too.

I've not had that many fires this year, but I do like to have a fire on the winter solstice when I can.  This year, today was fully cloudy and damp but a few degrees above freezing so I made myself get out there for likely the last time until Spring.  We're in for a mild winter, they say, but we'll see.

Happy Solstice, everyone.