magic is everywhere

Strom-pizza

It was bound to happen sooner or later. Our beautiful disaster.

I give you the strom-pizza:

It started this morning with a cheery, “Let’s make pizza for lunch!”

John looked dubious, but I was already measuring the flour.

I had a funny feeling that I interpreted as, “I used the wrong yeast.” But my main concern was that we’d be slicing our delicious pizza a little later than I expected.

The dough rose, and I flopped it out onto the counter. John was now 100% committed and had gone downstairs to find his pizza slider. “Why is it so sticky?” he asked.

“It’s fine!” I said, shaping the dough into a rough circle on the pizza slider.

Satisfied with my crust, I stepped back and implored John to make it pretty:

Then it happened.

Me: “You don’t think that’s going to slide off of there and into the oven, do you?

Him: “I hope so. We can’t cook it on this.”

Oh. no.

It wasn’t sliding anywhere. John wrestled with it valiantly, going to unreasonable lengths to keep our pizza pizza-shaped. In the end he had to fold it and cut it in half just to get it in the oven.

Order up!

I added a sprig of basil. Presentation is very important.

We took our strom-pizza to the couch so we could eat while watching football.

“I don’t like this restaurant,” I said. “We shouldn’t come back.”

John smiled. “Aw, let’s give it a second chance.”

August 29, 2021

Saturday Adventures

Adventure time!

On Saturday, John and I headed out to a nearby State park for some R&R.

They have a waterfall there, accessible via an easy 1/2 mile hike that is very popular. We knew it would be popular (read: people-y) and decided to go anyway, because even though we prefer solitude it seemed wrong somehow to never have seen the falls that the park is named after.

When we arrived at the falls, we were dismayed, yet not at all surprised, that literally everyone had ignored copious posted warnings about slippery rocks and falling to one’s death to climb over the railing and stick their smelly feet in the pool at the bottom of the falls.

Falls with too many people — Not shown: the idiots thumbing their noses at death from the top of the falls.

Disappointed, we decided to salvage the trip by hiking back via the Cliff Trail.

The Cliff Trail is much less people-y because it’s fairly strenuous, and I guess the falls people don’t do strenuous. John and I aren’t in the best shape of our lives either, but I told him that the trail would be “mostly downhill,” since we had climbed mostly uphill to reach the falls.

That was a bold-faced lie, but he fell for it.

So we huffed and puffed and saw some really beautiful vistas and generally didn’t die on our way back from the falls.

Woods — Green, empty nature. Just the way we like it.

For the second half of our adventure, we traipsed down a short trail to the edge of the lake, where we picnicked and held fishing poles in our hands for no apparent reason since I only caught one tiny fish and threw it back. Pretty though!

Are you ready for the best part? John was sitting by the bank, not catching fish, when a furry friend climbed up right between his feet!

Me: “John, there’s a racoon…”

John: “Wha’? Oh [expletives deleted]

John leapt back, cursing, and the racoon leapt back, hissing, then scampered off along the bank.

By this point I had managed to grab my phone to capture the moment in this National Geographic-quality photo:

Shoreline — Do you see him? No? Let me help you out:

Close up of racoon — Close up of scary and totally adorable raccoon friend.

Did I mention I absolutely love racoons? Here’s one wearing a tutu:

via GIPHY

Seriously, the internet is full of this stuff.

Anyway, all in all a grand adventure with my honey with lots of magic (and a racoon).

August 29, 2021

Special delivery

The knitting fairy stopped by and she had my new yarn and teeny tiny circular knitting needles!

Socks, here we come!

August 28, 2021

Cookies and feels

Apparently I’m a little stuck on baking.

So stuck, in fact, that in one short week I have used up these kitchen staples:

Flour
Salt
Chocolate Chips

And before you say anything, chocolate chips *are too* a staple.

I used them today when I decided to bake cookies.

These cookies are my jam

I’ve been making a lot of new-to-me stuff this week (beginner’s mind!). But this is different. I’ve been baking chocolate chip cookies FOREVER. They were basically my specialty as a teen. (I do cookies! If cookies aren’t appropriate, you’re out of luck!)

To point is, I have a lot of nostalgia around making chocolate chip cookies.

That said, here’s my setup:

Enter feels, stage left

So, the mixer.

This was my mother’s mixer.

It wasn’t the mixer I used when I was a teenager. She got it much later. I don’t know exactly when, but she was very proud of it. After she died, it came to me.

I mean, it’s a mixer. But also, it’s THE mixer.

So I’m in the kitchen measuring chocolate chips, swirling in late 80s nostalgia and a growing amount of anxiety at using my mother’s mixer.

Even though she’s dead.

WTF.

By the way, I didn’t technically have enough chocolate chips and had to halve a recipe I’ve followed 5,000 times on the fly. There’s nothing like trying to measure 9/8 cups of flour to give a girl confidence in the kitchen.

For all these reasons, the one baking project that should have been the easiest for me…wasn’t.

Anyway…

I made cookies!

They turned out okay. They’re a little flatter and browner than they were in 1987. Probably because of all the math.

Still delicious though.

August 27, 2021

More yeast bread!

This morning I made sandwich rolls. They are the simplest thing in the world and they’re SO much better than anything I’ve ever found in a plastic bag.

My sandwich rolls call all the boys to the yard, including Jacques and Beau. Woof.

They didn’t get as brown as the photo in the recipe, but they are twice as delicious.

How do I know? It’s magic!

This recipe calls for instant yeast, which I learned is not the same as active dry yeast, so I had to proof mine. But it went totally fine. The little yeasties got all hot and bothered right on schedule.

I was surprised that these only took a total of about two hours to make, including the rising. Only 20 minutes in the oven, which was a lot faster than I expected.

Go bread go!

August 26, 2021

Aggressive tomatoes

The cherry tomatoes are done messing around. They’re coming for us.

That’s just this morning’s haul. There are half a dozen more that will be ripe by the end of the day.

I also picked two raspberries, but my hands were full of tomatoes and too bad they went in my mouth.

Thanks pollinators!

August 26, 2021

Knitting update

John’s rainbow scarf is coming along! It’s about 1/3 done. No pattern here. Just knitting and purling until he’s happy with it.

FYI, we will be skipping green. John hates green.

I’m working on my flicking technique, and so far I’ve more or less got it down on the knit side. Purl not so much. So I’m like 25% faster than before.

The edges are extra knit stiches that were meant to keep the scarf from curling, but it’s only kind of sort of working. Once I’m finished with it I’ll soak it and set it straight.

In other knitting news…

I decided to level up and try knitting an actual pattern. Socks it is! Here’s what they’re supposed to look like:

Except here’s the yarn I got:

I also have to learn to knit in the round. And make socks. Squee! Let’s do magic!

August 26, 2021

Oatmeal fix

For the last year, I’ve eaten oatmeal for breakfast pretty much every day. I love it with fruit and almonds and cinnamon and a splash of milk. Yum!

But recently, I switched up my eating schedule and bam! No more breakfast, which kind of meant no more oatmeal (or at least not every day since John cooks for lunch and dinner and I am NOT missing that).

Suffice it to say that I was in need of an oatmeal fix. And what has oatmeal in it?

Say hello to peach and strawberry crumbles, a.k.a. last night’s dessert.

I mean, they’re ugly. But I did this in response to a legit craving and, as we all know, responding to a craving is done in these stages:

Google “fruit crumble with oatmeal”
“Yeah, I think I have all this.”
Start making the thing.
“Oh crap, I don’t have strawberries.”
Procure strawberries..

And finally,

6. Crumbles

The last step is all that mattered. Get in my tummy!

August 26, 2021

Genius

In a stroke of genius, John suggested using the roasted garlic and herb no-knead bread I made yesterday as the base for some yummy bruschetta. Here is the result:

My unreal lunch — Yes. That’s really my lunch.

So easy! He just mixed fresh diced tomato (from our friends at Scenic View Orchards) with a little parmesan cheese and some chopped basil from our herb garden.

We make a pretty good team, n’est-ce pas?

August 25, 2021

My first time (baking yeast bread)

When I decided to make my life about making things instead of thinking things, it was inevitable that I would eventually arrive at baking.

Honestly, I’m pretty obsessed with food. I don’t cook often (one of the perks of being married to a retired chef), but John doesn’t really bake and I thought, hell, I can do this.

For my first loaf, I decided to make roasted garlic and herb no-knead bread. Here’s what it’s supposed to look like:

Okay, easy peasy. I’ve got this.

First I had to do the shopping. John has a well-stocked pantry, so the only thing I really needed was a jar of yeast. Then I raided our herb garden for rosemary and thyme. Done and done.

Keep in mind I’ve never done this before, and I didn’t even study the pictures too closely, because I like to fly by the seat of my pants at all times.

Nah, let’s just call it “beginner’s mind.” That’s better.

Anyway, I mixed up the ingredients and let the dough rise. Meanwhile I roasted the garlic and organized the herbs. A few observations:

If you like watching Dr. Pimple Popper, you’re really going to like the part where you squeeze the roasted garlic cloves out of their skins.
There is no easy way to separate thyme leaves from their stalks. But, as I kept reminding myself, slowing down to pluck tiny thyme leaves and place them in a measuring spoon is exactly the point.
Either I had no idea what I was doing (fact) and/or no-knead bread dough is not meant to be handled without the parchment paper in between it and your hands. So sticky!

My unbaked loaf looked like this:

You guys, may I never forget the aroma of raw bread dough covered in roasted garlic and fresh rosemary and thyme. It was amazing.

After some mixing and more rising, I dumped the dough into our cast iron dutch oven and this happened:

When I say there’s magic in the world, this bread is what I’m talking about. Gather a little flour, a little salt, some cooperative yeast, and about 10,000 thyme leaves, and 6 hours later you get this.

Here’s a shot of it sliced, which accidentally looks almost exactly like one of the photos from the recipe!

I slathered some butter on there and went wild.

Doggo approved! — Roasted garlic and herb no-knead bread is doggo approved! (No, they didn’t get any.)

It didn’t turn out exactly like the photos in the recipe, but when does it ever? Pretty good job for a first time baker. Now that I’m armed with a little jar of yeast, no bread recipe is safe!

August 24, 2021