Crispy crust, gooey cheese, salty toppings, all served hot right from the oven. What’s not to like about pizza? Food technology and mass production, however, have turned what could be the most perfect self-contained meal into a mean joke—cardboard wan…
Weekends, In Which I Fall on My Face and Use a Chainsaw
I started out my weekend with a bang. Picture this: it’s a beautiful morning, mind-60s, and you’re out for a mountain bike ride through verdant hilly back country. Following a meandering coyote trail you cross over a small grassy depression. …
San Diego Bakers?
There are groups for knitters, Koala lovers, Pullman train enthusiasts, underwater basket weavers, but nothing in the San Diego area for bakers. So I’m trying to start up a group here in San Diego of folks young and old, experienced…
The Young Artist
Have the tools available. This is what my wife and I keep trying to do with Toddler Harbat. If she has an interest in cooking, she’s got her kitchen and ours. If she wants to make music, we have instruments…
Sourdough Ciabatta Continued
My newest creation, naturally-leavened ciabatta, has me thinking about variables. How much time to ferment? Should I leave the dough someplace cool or someplace warm? Is the high-gluten/bread flour blend making the dough too chewy? Should I stretch and fold…
Our Winter = Your Summer
You can’t help but be smug. You can’t help but call your friends in frozen places. When you live in Southern California and it’s 75 degrees in January, you have to tell people. This weekend while my wife and I…
The Fence Project, Continued
How long ago was it that I originally started on The Fence Project? Long enough that the brilliant orange/brown of fresh redwood has faded to dusty grey and a family of earwigs has taken up residence in the paper-thin slot…
Dinnertime Battle
Somehow I’ve fooled myself into thinking my return home from work at the end of the day will be a 1905s Norman Rockwell painting. My wife will be drying her hands on a lace apron daintily draped over a beautiful…
Outside Work
Glorious, glorious weekend. January in Southern California is really the best time of year. You are reminded why you live here and not in Michigan (no offense to Michiganders). By Saturday late morning it was up in the mid-70s with…
Fear Not, Bakers
Heat is a good thing. We like it when we put our palms to the fire after coming in from the wind-whipped snow. We like it when we blow on a spoonful of split pea soup with ham before gulping…
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