Back from almost 6 weeks away (and no inclination to write here) my first order of business was to coax my sourdough leaven back to life. In 36 hours I managed to go from the somewhat smelly jar above to the rather delicious bread below. And I wrote about it over on Fornacalia, which, like the leaven, has been a little bit neglected of late.
I was in Stockholm for the first time a week or so ago, attending a huge meeting to record material for a client's podcast. That went well enough, but the truly nice thing was what a wonderful, liveable place Stockhom seems to be. Admittedly we enjoyed better weather than they've had for months, b...
I'm getting really sick of websites that make me sign in with one of my other accounts in order to leave a comment. Especially when, as with this latest attempt on Typepad they can't seem to do it right. So maybe I can use that as an opportunity to do more here. 1
If you put anything metal in a microwave, sparks fly and it may blow up. That's a truth the whole world knows. Or is it? In the comments to the podcast on microwaved bread, Peter Hertzmann elaborates:
It’s not wise to put small pieces of metal in a microwave, such as the twist-tie on a plastic bag. Large pieces are another issue. I’ve been putting large stainless-steel bowls in my microwave ever since I worked in a restaurant in Switzerland in 2002 where we regularly warmed items in 2-liter metal bowls. The metal actually acts as a reflector, reflecting radiant energy from the magnetron tube into the food in the bowl.
Decided to get out of my baking bread comfort zone a couple of weeks ago to make some ciabatta. It was difficult work, but ultimately worthwhile, and in pursuit of my goal to maintain a record of my other online activities here, I'm linking to sourdough ciabatta.
This also raises the question of what to do about plurals of foreign words. It drives me a teeny bit nuts when movie characters, and ordinary people, ask for "a biscotti" or "a panini". So should I maintain my pedantic persona and refer to ciabatte when I'm talking about several ciabattas?
