A Baking Journey - Ciabatta

I have always been highly entertained by books and catalogues. I think the most entertaining gift I received at Christmas was the the toy catalogue. I could imagine how I would play with all the toys. Hours and hours would pass with me happy entertaining myself. Guess I always was an introvert, shocking I know.

As I grew older I could entertain myself the same way with cookbooks. (Oh heck any book would do, but today's story is about cookbooks OK?)

I have spent many an hour looking through my most comprehensive baking book in my collection, King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion. It is an aspiration baking book to me. Ranging across pancakes, crackers, bread, pies, cakes, cookies, puddings, crumbles, scones, biscuits and dang near everything else but the kitchen sink. 

I think I received my copy as a Christmas present from my MIL or my mom, in one of the first years of my marriage. Sorry I don't remember which it was I'm just happy they indulged my love of books and dreaming.

Anyways back to today's story. I have poured over this book and thought of all the wonderful things I could bake then selected a recipe and was promptly intimidated. Some days I just get overwhelmed with all I could be doing so I just don't. Other days I select a recipe and read through it and think to myself I could just bake something I know, maybe there is a reason some of this is not baked anymore. Some of it is just a big ol' faff.

Since we have been watching Great British Bake Off (GBBO), my sense of hey we should try that has been over stimulated. (I am still not making puff pastry!) A wild hare caught me and I decided to try making Ciabatta. I mean it looks so wonderful when they make it on GBBO.

Luckily I only read the first few steps to make the biga and let it develop overnight. Hey I can do that, mix a bit and let it do all the work for you. Ha! This was an all day recipe. Mind you it was not work intensive but an all day recipe. 

My biga developed overnight and turned into this wonderful smelling, bubbly concoction. Nothing like bubbly bready stuff to make you feel like baking in the morning.

We followed the directions and got my trusty Kitchen Aid kneading the dough. Now this one I do remember, Mom bought my Kitchen Aid as a wedding present. She has been my trusty companion through good and bad baking. Luckily for Hubby there has been more good than bad. It finally formed a wet slappy dough and it was time to start the waiting.

 

I mean come on isn't that gorgeous? Nothing like bread dough to make you feel all powerful and baking queen-ish.

This recipe had us knocking down the dough every 45 minutes, for 3 hours. Honestly is there much better than sinking your freshly washed hands into fluffy, stretchy, yeasty goodness?

I made D take pictures next to my favorite spoon rest. I love that thing so much I got a second one. Every time I see "I licked the spoon" I giggle to myself. 

He took a glamour shot after the final in bowl prove. Don't you just want to sink your hands in there?

We shaped them and left them to rise on another of my MIL Christmas gifts a Silpat mat. Loved it so much I got myself a second one. One of them gets used every weekend for scone making. I even made some twice baked potatoes last week on them too. I love having the right tools for the job at hand. 

The weird part of the recipe is that you spritz water into the oven to create steam while baking. I'm not sure how effective this technique was for us but we did it each time. I have used a hot pan that you fill with water right after the bread goes into the oven.

 

Loaf One

 

Our results speak for themselves. We had a fun afternoon together creating this lovely Ciabatta. It may not be perfect but it is great for a first attempt. D found a recipe that takes less time but honestly this was a nice way to spend a Sunday with my Hubby. Burt was rather put out by all the up and down. He has some pretty strong cat napping skills though and was able to recover from each disturbance. 

Loaf two

Underside of loaf two

Don't worry D got to participate as not just the photographer too. He knocked it down at least once and he figured out sitting them near a window in the sunlight would make a nice proving place.That final prove was all him.

 Not perfect but still great especially for a first effort. Now onto Focaccia and crackers. 

Is it wrong to try making Christmas Scones in January? I think I am still going to try them out too. We still have to do a Jelly roll, and fig bars and...

Knitting Time

Well look at this I am on my way to finishing my first pair of socks for 2022. Yes I am rather proud of myself, why do you ask?

My first socks from yarn I brought back from Czechia in 2019. You know before the world went into a tailspin? You know the before times? Well anyways it was rather uninspiring in the skein. Honestly I had to look hard to look rather hard to find something to buy in the little yarn shop I sought out. I guess it felt a bit like a yarn store aimed a baby knitting. Nothing wrong with knitting for babies but it is not my thing and I really don't care for pastels. 

Hey at least this yarn identifies itself as sock yarn, and not only that it is Best Sock, sock yarn!

It is not like I was walking out the door without any yarn, let alone leaving the Best Sock yarn behind. Marketing claims need testing for science if nothing else.

Now I regret buying only one skein. (Realistically though have you ever heard me regret buying too much yarn? Right because too much yarn does not exist!) I am enjoying knitting this way more than I thought I would. 

I think it is the little flecks of blue that made me fall in love. Plus shh don't tell anyone but I love a stripey sock almost as much as D likes wearing them. I mean come on light grey, dark grey, medium grey, hey is that a hint of blue? Yes look at that blue. It is just so much fun to knit.

I will admit to getting a head start on these since I needed something for a quick drive up to Santa Fe before the New Year hit. As much as I silently scoff at commercially wound up yarn, it is so convenient to grab a ready to go skein and a set of needles and hit the road as a passenger. No winding no impatient hubby standing by the door with keys in his hands. Oh he was still there he just had to wait less time for me to gather myself together. 

Next up you know I cannot be too long without multiple socks on the needles. I had to cast on this lovely yarn too. This one is called 2020 to 2019: Hold my Beer. As we enter our third year of Covid, 2019 is just taking on a rosy hue or is that sepia tones of wistful thinking? Anyways the yarn knits nice and I am enjoying how this one pools itself in bright stripe-ish ways. Glad I bought a few different skeins from this dyer.

I was going to show off a pair of socks that need some reconstructive knitting but Melissa proclaimed herself to be more worthy of photo shoots than smelly old yarn or socks!

 

Then big bro added his orangeness to the convo with a heavy sigh and we were done with photo shoots.

Remember to give yourself enough self care. You're the only you we have.

Baking Again

While the kitchen is smaller than I am used to, I have been baking more. There is something to be said for a small kitchen that is well organized. Mostly that it is not my kitchen. Smaller can be better and I am working my way towards getting it organized as best I can. It does have a pantry and a place for our chest freezer and I am so thankful for that!

I was so worried about baking at high altitude. I read up on it and found there are several things you can do to compensate. Since the air pressure is less here the water boils at a lower temp and we have to brew our tea for a longer time. Tea is all sorted. As for baking the goods are going to raise quickly and easily due to less air pressure, pressing back on it. You want the baked goods to not rise quite as much and set faster. So this means less leaveners, and a higher oven temp. Both of those have been easy to do. I just tap off a bit more of the leaveners and raised the oven temp by five degrees. Since it is dry here I have been adding a bit more liquid than I had to in wet Oregon. Not really measured just splash, splash, wetter dough.

First up for Christmas I made my beloved dinner rolls. For these I just made sure I had a wetter dough. They were deemed worthy.

Also since it is dry here it is best to get things bagged up and not sit around too long. By dry I mean we have less than 20% humidity in here some days. I know I am getting a few humidifiers and you may want to invest in lotion company stock because I will be buying more! 

I found a bookstore while out and about one day. It may not be Powell's but it does have some local interesting books. There is a recipe for Sopapillas in it. Sopapillas are puffed up fried dough usually served with honey. They are the best local food item I have found. Yeah the chiles are wonderful here and you get asked red or green, but the Sopapillas and honey? Pure heaven. 

Next up D thought we should try baking in the bread machine and see if that is different. Once again we had to add water while it was mixing but it came out fine. Maybe not perfect but still tasty and able to make some nice sandwiches.

But my true victory and love Pumpkin Bread! And I had eggs this time so none of that weird peanut butter as a binding agent pumpkin bread. That stuff tasted like peanut butter bread and fooled no one. It was fine but peanut butter tastes like peanut butter no matter what you mix it with and why you mix it in.

Back to my favorite bread. Yum yum. I am so happy that D went vegetarian for a few years because it made him try different foods that he never would have touched before. My major bonus from that time? He likes nuts in baked goods now. I never realized how much I missed them till I got them back. I am still thinking twice about putting raisins in pumpkin bread like this recipe lists as an option. I may try it and love it but not happening for a while!

We both agree my scones are better here. Something about the higher temp gives a caramelized shell that I like. He just likes a more baked scone. 

I made some gingerbread alpaca cookies but the decorating just looks horrible so they are tasty enough to eat but not to post I guess. Gingersnaps are on my to bake list but I like a softer cookie so these may not live up to the Great British Bake Off snap standard. When I am baking for me and D that should be OK right?

Unrelated but I do have to brag that I finally once again am caught up in my knitting journal. I feel so put together when that happens! I also have one and a half socks to show for my knitting efforts so far. Not a pair but a sock. Oh well I'm happy so that is all that matters. 

New Knitting Stuff

Ah WEBS you tricksy yarn store you! I opened my email on Christmas morning and saw this adorable bag up on offer as part of a kit. What can I say I am a sucker for knitting snowmen. Plus it came with a bunch of stuff that I wanted to try out, and an enamel snowman pin that matches the bag. It is like you were calling my name.

With no festivals to attend for the last few years my yarn purchases have been fewer. Sometimes you just have to reward yourself for not falling to pieces. I blame that multi-color blanket I should be working on. It is so pretty and fun to knit with its color changes.

Above is all that came with the kit. Yes I am now the proud owner of pom pom makers? OK fine I don't see myself as a pom pom kind of girl but hey whatever, I like all the other stuff and who knows I may be fully prepared for that pom pom emergency I did not plan for.

Then I added more colors because hey I really like yarn y'all! While I was at it some sock yarn caught my attention, because when does sock yarn not have my attention? And two of those skeins came with a tape measure. Who doesn't need another tape measure?

A sock yarn that will especially get my attention is one with a colorway name of Quiet Time. You know this girl is just praying for some nice quiet knitting time, and the cats are too because that means lap time.

 

This last ball quietly hid in the basket while all the others got their class picture taken. Now this one was a bit of a surprise, on the screen it was a deeper orange and I am not sure if I will ever fall in love with it. I do know it will make fantastic socks that someone will love. A bit more color diversity is just what I need.  I never used to like the color orange till I started knitting. Knitting sure opens up the world of color. So many interesting combinations that I never would have combined. Plus as a sock knitter I can get away with dang near anything for colors. It is not like it is going to make my feet look washed out or sickly. And if it does what the heck are you doing that close to my feet!?

Now I am going to go dig out that blanket that I had to put on hold to reach my sock goal last year and knit some on it. It has probably been long enough that I will screw it up and have to frog back but hey at least I will be knitting!

Year end looking back

Well like most of you I hope that 2022 is a better year than the past few. I know the kitties are ready for the world to be better so they can spend less time taking care of mom after shots and more time taking care of napping. OK fine they admit to napping quite a bit while taking care of momma, but still everyone needs less stress. 

Now that the big move is over I am concentrating on keeping us safe and happy. Quite a big task if I do say so. But the kitties are with me so I've got that going for me.

The kitties trying to keep me warm and make me nap after my booster shot.

I can tell you that I managed to meet my sock knitting goal of 12 pairs this year. Let me show you pair eleven. Hubby's Christmas 2021 socks. Yes I know it is not an artistic picture. If the world has taught us anything we need to roll with what we have. They are beautiful and he is happy to wear them. They are from Lisa Sousa Hardtwist Merino Petite in the Aww-Tum colorway. This yarn followed me home from Rhinebeck in 2015. Huh I guess that makes it one of my last Rhinebeck hauls. Incredible color.

My last pair of socks were for me. These are Huckleberry Knits Willow BFL in Honeycrisp colorway. Now these were a pandemic purchase directly from the dyer. Sadly she went out of business this year but I will enjoy here beautiful colors on my feet for quite a while. 

Do we need to look at the tally? Heck yeah I do. Hubby got more than half of the haul this year with seven pairs for him. I got two including my purple socks that I knit on while waiting to make sure my body could handle the vaccine. Those socks hold so much hope and love for me. Our caretaker friend Julie got two pairs knit for her after she gently asked what you have to do to get on my knitting list. Since she kept both of us feed and sane during our separate broken bone confinements, she did not need to do anything she's already sock worthy. Plus she is almost my foot size so she got pick of don't fit me anymore pile. Nice to know my socks are keeping her toasty when she is out camping. She even sends me sock pictures, hard for her to get anymore sock worthy than that. 

I have more to tell you and show you but I might as well just stop here and get this job done while the sun is still up. 

And one last thing RIP Betty White, you made me laugh and feel better. Thanks for that.

Whew Glad I got that off my chest.

Oh what story to tell you today? Sometimes I catch myself composing blog posts and journaling solely in my head, I really wish I could transfer them here so easily. I write such awesome things in my head. But when I sit down here I just stare at the blankness and think of all the things I need to be doing. And I never get the pictures I wanted loaded. Today I scrolled through pictures and I had posted most of them. So I have only this one to offer you.

So I am going to try some freeform writing to see how that goes. I know you're thinking like me, isn't that what I normally do anyways? Let's just pretend this is new and move on OK? Also no I did not write in my journal like I said I was going to last week. 

Yes we are settling in here but there is still more to do. Isn't there always more to do? 

I will tell you restocking a kitchen is not as fun as it sounds. I am starting to set up some freezer meals again. I love having a freezer full of yummy things to eat that I have made. I have been watching youtube videos from a lady that spends six or so hours cooking on a weekend to stock up their many freezers. She is a machine I tell you. Really 40 or more meals in four or six hours. Quite an inspiration but not the level I am looking to get to at this point in my life. The apartment kitchen is less fun than our Oregon kitchen but I am learning to adapt. Talk about space saving. At least I kept our freezer in this move and it fits perfectly in the kitchen. Almost like it was designed to go there. The kitchen does not have a lot of storage space and I sure as heck am not using it efficiently, but we are back to that settling in thing again. 

Hubby has discovered the joy of watching Great British Bake Off with me. And we are looking to explore cooking and baking together a bit more. I have told him I have no interest in making suet pudding but Swiss Roll is very much on the table for experimenting. I have always wanted to make one of those, so maybe a yule log for Christmas?

On the knitting front I am very happy to be close to my self imposed knitting goal of 12 pairs of socks this year. I have started the last sock that is needed. And even if I don't make it I came close and that is all that matters. Since I have only one sock on the needles I am itching to cast on more. And I want to get back to knitting that baby blanket for my friend again. D says the kid will be in college before it is done at this rate. I say it is still going to be done before my friend would have made it so it would still be a win. 

Goodreads tells me I have hit my goal of 52 books this year also, so I have that goal in the done pile too. 52 books read this year, check. Successful move in the middle of a pandemic, check. House sale complete, check. Still enjoying knitting, check. New handknit socks for hubby under the tree, almost check, they just need to be wrapped and put under tree. Booster and flu shot on board, check. Some Christmas cards sent out, check, more than last year's zero! Still in contact with friends in other states, check. Cats feed and petted, check. Momma not too stressed about everything, check.

Well I think that is enough rambling for the day. I feel better and I have some calls to make and some kitchen organization to do. 

Remember it always good to have a cup of tea with friends (furry or not furry) and just be you.

 

Post move Randomness

Did you ever notice when you move you always find new items, or new places for items, or new uses for items? Well of course you find new places for items since the old places are no longer handy so to speak. Anyways new uses, I have never been a big fan of afghans. It seemed pretty counterintuitive to expect an item full of holes to keep you warm. But if you have a nice hole filling cat and an afghan big enough to fold over it can keep you quite warm.  Plus it was handy since we never really figured out a new spot for it. I assume this is an afghan my grandmother made but maybe not who knows anymore.

I do know the one on the back of the couch my mother knit while we were still living on the farm, acrylic yarn has its place I guess. Burt does not mind clashing with either. 

You think Big Orange clashes with red Momma? I don't think I clash at all! Afghan has hints of white, I have hints of white, we match perfectly! Plus it is pretty comfy here I ain't moving again!

Before I left Oregon, I found two little journals that I had to pick up. I had looked at the one on the left online and found a page that said write down bad things lightly in pencil then using a dark pen write good things over top of them. They are not erased but they are not so easy to read. My mind immediately rebelled and said this is a bad book how will you be able to read the pencil stuff? 

I stewed on that for a day or so before coming to realize I did indeed "need" the book to learn a few lessons, most importantly how to let that shit go!

Sadly I have not taken a bunch of time to start working through the book. It is another one of the lies we tell ourselves that today is full of tasks and we will do it tomorrow. Plus working on yourself is hard. So on Monday I will do one lesson from the book to get myself working on me. 

Anyways so much for life philosophy. Let me show you something cool one of my former coworkers gave me. It is meant to go into a cup so you have a great place for all those little tools you use.

I discovered it hangs over my little knitting basket quite well too. How cheery and handy is that?

So that is today's report. I'm sure I will think of more things to tell you as soon as I hit the post button. But hey how about lunch first Hmm?