Chuck’s mouth was occupied with a fish sandwich with what for him had an unnatural amount of greens on it. “Don’t make a face,” Ginnie advised, from the kitchen chair sitting across from him at the tiny table that served as Betty’s eating area. “Don’t tell me that you are like the rest of the guys who have to have meat on meat and maybe some cheese as food.” She made sure that Betty wasn’t in earshot and conveyed the advice/criticism quietly.

The men were already there when Ginnie showed up.

Ginnie was pleased with the turnout today.  She had gotten up at the usual ungodly hour and did her chores and teaching with Betty, who had shooed her out the door early to come down and supervise the work.  She was surprised at having six men to get started, and Carl had pointed out that it might be better to spend time clearing and levelling a pretty big area in front of the door so that if the rains and snow came hard, they wouldn’t have to dig it out again.  

John Bratby/ Jew Chew Honeydew

Just as a forward:  There is a difference between apology and apologia.

Spending time baking lately.  It warms the house and soothes my soul.  I haven’t been writing much lately.  I feel my brain a-working in there, chewing on something, but it hasn’t come to term yet and the gestation is probably at an equivalent point to the seventh or eighth month of a pregnancy, when women get surly and just want the damn thing done.

I am publishing this on both sites for my small number of correspondents.  Just a heads up that I will publish a chapter tomorrow, but then I will be doing holiday-type stuff for the next couple of weeks.  So don’t expect a chapter after tomorrow until January the fifteenth.  Just saying.

Hope everyone has a merry christmas and a happy new year, or whatever holiday you call this time of year.  I tend to think of it as christmas, but that is slowly changing to my considering it as the solstice.  Either works.  

Screed

Spending time doing things that make sense to me.  This is becoming a vanishingly small subset of the possibilities open to me.  Current infatuation is with bread.  Simple, plain bread.

Now, a lot of this is facilitated by the Kitchenaid stand mixer that I found at a thrift store a while back.  I strongly feel that this item was mispriced ($ 60.00 USD).  It appears to be one of the ancient models, made prior to the manufacturing improvements of the last twenty years.  It weighs a ton and is build like a tank.  Apparently it is even repairable.

So I am making my own bread now.  This is great in the winter as now the heater can stay off and the heating of the house, while staying pretty much the same, now yields my daily bread and BTU’s to keep my old ass warm.  A clear win in December and January.

I am starting pretty basic.  Just sandwich bread.  

Since I am publishing this on both sites, I have decided to name this recipe “Aunt Beast’s Bread”.  

Aunt Beast’s Bread (Rev 2.0)

Step One

1-½ cup warm water

1 tablespoon sugar

½ tablespoon dried yeast.

Put the warm water into the bowl of the kitchenaid, add the sugar and mix, then sprinkle the yeast on the top of the sugar water.  Let it sit for a half-hour.  Check to see that the mix is frothy and bubbly and then go onto the next step.

Notes

Gotta get the yeast revved up.  I really did try to delete this step, but I haven’t been able to say that it doesn’t help the end result.  Leaving the step out seems to make the bread just a little bit less good.  

Step Two

3 cups bread flour

¼ teaspoon of vitamin C powder

1 teaspoon salt

¼ cup buttermilk powder

While the yeast is getting revved up, put all four dry ingredients into a container and mix them with a wire whisk until you think that they are mixed.  It is harder than it seems.  I use a beat up old yogurt container with a snap lid (damn thing must be ten years old) and put everything in there and shake it.  

When the 30 minute incubation of the yeast is finished, dump the dry ingredients into the mixer bowl.  Attach the bread hook to the Kitchenaid, and let it mix on the lowest setting until all the water has been absorbed, when that happens, up the speed to 2-3 and let it knead for six minutes.  

Notes

I am testing just how well the Kitchenaid kneads.  The two or three loaves that have led to this recipe have not had the texture that I like in my bread, so this time I spent a couple of minutes hand-kneading it before letting it rise.

Step Three

I am currently of the opinion that two rises and a final proofing are the way to go.  A single rise doesn’t add to the flavor much.  Here is the schedule that I am using currently.

Rise One:  two and a half hours, then punch it down and give it a knead for two minutes.

Rise Two:  one and a half hours, then punch it down and give it a knead for two minutes.

Final proof.  Until it doubles.

Since I am still working out the “perfect” recipe, I am also playing with the temperature used in the “proofing” phase, right now it seems that I can control the proofing temp pretty well by putting the oven on at 175℉ and putting a cast iron dutch oven on the right-rear burner (above the oven’s heat vent) and letting the waste heat from the oven warm the area.

Step Four

Bake at 375℉ for 31 minutes.

This recipe did work out pretty well, the bread is a touch denser that I would like, so I am thinking that a little more water and a longer final rise will fix that.

The crumb is good, and it makes a pretty damn good roast pork sandwich.

“I can’t say that I expected this” Carl said, When they finally got back to Evan’s place and were inside by the little cast iron stove that Evan had meticulously installed.  They were all sipping on big mugs of hot tea.  Carl was thinking to himself  

Post-Impressionism / Vincent van Gogh/ Water Wheels of Mill at Gennep

I am not informing you of changes to the schedule or anything, so don’t panic at the picture.  But my youngest had me check out the work of Graham Hancock and I am intrigued by the way that he thinks.  I am pretty sure that he isn’t “right” but his theories are interesting and may well serve as grist for the mill on what I am writing here.  I have hit a point where writing is becoming a bit more difficult and Mr. Chapman’s way of presenting things may offer me a way to move forward more expeditiously than I am currently managing to achieve.  

Joe Rogan has had Mr. Hancock on several times now.  Like Rogan or not, he gives folks time to talk and present their views in a reasonably unbiased forum.  You might want to check some of these episodes out on youtube.

It is Thanksgiving here in the US.  So I will be heading over to stay with the sons tonight and do all the preparation for the obligatory gluttony that is the last Thursday of November on this side of the ponds.  No turkey.  My family has decided that no one really likes turkey.

Earlier that morning the three men had walked into what had been dubbed the “mess hall” at about the same time that Walt had walked in and turned on the lights.  They had all slotted into ‘helping’ without asking, Carl and James following Walt around the kitchen and doing what they were told to do.  Evan had made a beeline to the R2D2 coffee pot and had taken it into the kitchen and scrubbed it out with water, then vinegar, then fresh water.  He had even taken apart the serving spigot and scrubbed it out.

High Renaissance / Leonardo da Vinci/ Studies of Water passing Obstacles and falling

Having been raised Catholic, I am accustomed to guilt.  Truth be told, it is such a major portion of my worldview that I wouldn’t be me without it.

Hence this Mea Culpa.

My story blew up.  Where I was heading with the storyline, upon mature reflection, was a ginormous piece of shit.  So I am replotting the story in my head and trying to figure out how to get from where I am now to where I need to be at the end.  

Luckily, I don’t think that I will be losing that much in what I have written and published online this far, but chapters 34-41 are not going to help me in digging out of the hole I have gotten myself into.  

Be patient with me for a while.  It isn’t easy fixing mistakes and I might need to go back into what you have read thus far and make some tweaks to ensure consistency.  Nothing major, just differing emphasis and (at least what appears to be right now!!) subtle changes in emphasis.

Gimme a bit, thanks for being patient.