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Monthly Archives: May 2010
Postcard for a Purpose
Keep the libraries open, okay? Closing branches means closing sanctuary and educational spaces for tens of thousands of kids who desperately need them. What do you want your city to be like? Speak up.
Peter Reinhart’s Artisan Breads Every Day: Book Review
I like bread more than I like chocolate. My stepmother Betty (no bakeries in Heath!), Carina, and I have all been conducting various no knead bread experiments to try to replicate the kind of bread we love at home.
This Reinhart is some kind of bread guru and has a significant following. His recipes are written in paragraphs which makes it a challenge to decipher how many different rises and actions you are to take on each loaf. I got confused and gave up after a few proddings and restings. I baked the 50% Whole Wheat rustic loaf and it came out mishapen but had more complex flavor, chewiness, and big irregular air bubbles than any bread I’ve ever baked. I plan to repaginate the recipes in outline form to make them easier to follow.
Reinhart admits that part of why artisan bread makers have been slow to take advantage of the flavor and texture possible with refrigerated dough is a love of the process. They believe that for great bread you must suffer. Only reluctantly is this guy jumping on the slow rise bandwagon. Happily, he is devoted to flavor and texture above tradition and shares the best methods, well tested, with us.
Posted in book review, cooking
cheer up!
Ack, I’ve been very Eeyore lately. It is a defense mechanism. Everything is so wonderful for me right now- I can’t even begin to count my blessings and instead am pretending that every thing is bad and difficult so I won’t be struck by a lightning bolt or a city bus. Does that work?
This is my bike. It is red!
Posted in muttering
Sullivan Station- Punishing you for using it.
Why is it so bad? How can the design suck this much and still exist in a seemingly enlightened society?
Really makes you want to just ride a bike into Boston traffic. Instead of waiting like an unloved peasant.
Posted in muttering
Tagged boston, charlestown, commute, public transit, somerville
kite flying
My heart feels tethered and tugged
in many directions.
If I let go of the string
I will not get my kite back.
Its plastic body will reproach me
impaled on a local tree
all year.
But, of course, if I grip too tightly,
stringburn and nosedive.
Posted in poem
Birthday
I felt scattered and prickly all morning until I saw the date: Today would be my mother’s fifty-fifth birthday. I continued to feel raw and lonely, but I stopped trying to feel different. In two weeks I’m going to London- where I lost her. She would be very excited for me to go back and enjoy it this time. I wish we were going out for dinner tonight to celebrate.
Posted in lost
Boil Water Alert!
Caper and I, having ingested pond water from the sink (not our first, certainly, but somehow pond water from a pond is less sinister) are now lying on the couch awaiting intestinal upset. Just to keep you posted. Also my landlady gave me a ceramic bowl full of four kinds of fancy cheese that I’m supposed to take downstairs and refill whenever it is empty. That’s right, I have a magical bottomless cheese pot. Could also lead to intestinal upset.
Posted in muttering
