Everything in its place, as the French say. Oh, those French. Whether it’s kissing in the “French style” or setting out tools and materials before baking, they know how to get things done. Here’s my recent maximum setup, though I really didn’t need most of the flours and bowls. All the plastic bags are my mixed grains for the struans. All those grains cost about four bucks in bulk from the local health food store.
Making the dough for the baguettes and the soakers actually didn’t take that long. So it left plenty of time for me to open up a cold bottle of Bass, put it out of the way of the mixer, then knock it over and spill it when I moved the mixer. Uncle F@#%-Up in the kitchen! The multigrain mash was fun to cook up, though I stupidly included the oats in there, so they got a little gummy. Since I had a lot left over I had it for breakfast this morning with milk and brown sugar. As that Joker-faced chatterbox would say, “Yum-o!” Tonight will be the true test of my timing and baking skills, as I try to bake a half dozen baguettes, rustic olive, two struans, and make two whole wheat soakers. It should smell fantastic in the house all night.
Finally, here are some pics of our ultra-modern minimalist fence. Really the posts should be stainless steel. People who have no shame and live in glass boxes with their mandatory Barcelona chairs, Corbusier lounges, Swiss eyeglasses, and no clutter, would love that kind of fence. Even though it doesn’t “fence”, per se. Please note the neighbors on either side have green lawns with lots of plants. Our lawn looks like Dresden, circa 1945. Even the neighborhood dogs are too proud to dump here.
Writer, architect, father, husband.
I guess the advantage of knowing most of your neighbors is that they wouldn't let their dogs do that. Despite how bad the yard looks right now ; )