From : "Amy H."
To : ALU
Subject : Life in my neck of the woods
Date : Wed, 01 May 2002 13:08:58 -0400
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Hello,
I'm long past due for an update, I know, so here's what's going on:
Work has been... OK. We've had 2 employees leave in the past 4 months,
which cuts me team in half and (you guessed it) doubles my work.
Fortunately we hired on a former employee - Mike Tayter - as part of
my team, so things should lighten up a bit.
At home, I've stopped kntting for a while. I was trying to tan for
my trip to Florida (May 18-25) and then decided that walking was good
for me, and then exams hit... so, not a lot of free time for sitting
around knitting. I have, however, started on the Terry Pratchett
Discworld series again - I last read them in High School, so it's nice
to get reaquainted.
School is done, fortunately. My last exam was Monday, and I think I
did OK. That was Java. Spanish went well too, the professor
complimented me on my pronounciation, I was pleased.
And in my love life: I broke up with John on Saturday morning. Yeah,
for real. Not a belated April Fools joke. Things were drifting apart,
in a straggly sort of way, and rather than drag out the pain I decided
to just cut it short and live in the black and white. Maybe we'll get
back together. John has been very mopey and lovey since we ended it,
and I still care for him very deeply, so I guess we'll just have to see
how it goes.
That Florida trip is still planned, and I'm going with John, his best
friend Patrick, and Patrick's girlfriend Stacie. It's in 2 1/2 weeks.
It's an enforced week with John. Wish me luck... we'll either hate
each other, or be back together by the end of that week, I'm sure.
Back to home news: I baked a loaf of Barley Bread this weekend (Welsh
Haidd, if anyone's interested). Unfortunately the recipe was written
down wrong, so I spent Sunday morning worrying that it was the
loaf-of-evil and that it would take over my kitchen. Here's the story:
I checked a copy of "The blessings of Bread" by Adrian Bailey out of
the library. It has a detailed history of bread, as well as recipes
for great things like "trencher bread" and whatnot. Barley was
apparently the grain of choice before the milling process improved
greatly about 300 years ago. So I thought to myself: My ancestors
lived for centuries on this stuff, and I don't even know what it would
taste like. Armed with the book's recipe, I went to the food co-op,
bought 1.46 lbs Organic Barley flour, and began with a vengeance. I
followed the recipe to the letter, even measuring everything (something
I seldom do). It seemed... dry, so I added a little more water, then a
little more, then decided that it was just a very dense loaf and left
it to rise. 18 hours later it hadn't moved at all, so I attempted
kneading it. Like play-doh left out overnight, it crumbled in my hands.
Yet it smelled of alcohol.
Sourdough starter!
I thought excitedly. I added more water, stirred it up, and was very
excited to have a real starter on my hands. Then I stopped. And
remembered that I was making bread, and what the heck was I going to
do with this batter, afterall? So I added more flour, a little sugar,
kneaded it a bit, and left it to rise.
With absolutely no idea if it would rise.
Thus the concern that it would rise too much, and overtake my kitchen.
Sunday at noon it had roughly doubled in size (actually it oozed to the
sides, but it's about right). I kneaded it again, with more flour,
then patted it into a ball and let it set while I took a shower and
warmed the oven. I think it rose as much in that 30 minutes as in the
entire 24 hours prior.
Unfortunately I forgot to cut a cross in the top to let out the demons,
but it did make a pretty good (though salty) loaf.
Yummy demon loaf.
-Amy
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