BreadBlog: The Snook made our third batch this morning: Coffee and Walnut bread. YUM. He again set the machine last night to have the bread ready for breakfast. This time it worked perfectly! I wonder if the caking problem we had last time was because it was a prepackaged mix and this one was from scratch. All I know is, waking up to the smell of fresh-baked bread only to discover that the Snook has left a buttered slice and a glass of milk beside the bed for me makes for the Best. Morning. Ever.
Month: March 2005 (page 5 of 7)
It seems that a rare sheep mutation may spell the end for “mulesing.” We chatted about this recently at the Tapestry Craft Stitch and Bitch. Mulesing is the process by which the wool and skin is physically torn off a sheep’s bum to prevent something known as “fly rot,” which is really gross and involves flies laying eggs in the sheep’s skin. So, yeah, mulesing is pretty harsh, but so’s having maggots breeding in living flesh, right? (As the resident dumb American, I wondered aloud to the group why the sheep would have this difficulty, as it seems like something that evolution would’ve selected against. Turns out it’s not the sheep’s fault; it’s because Australia has entirely the wrong climate to raise them. It’s hot and humid and infested with big nasty flies. So now you know.) Anyway, it’s good to know that there may be a genetic way around the issue. PETA has been agitating for some time for international wool buyers to boycott Aussie wool, and it’d be a shame to let the local industry die out over something that maybe can be fixed.
Oh my! Bride and Prejudice is finally out! I’m so excited. And wow, Ebert has a serious crush on the star.
Bork bork bork!
Swedish meatballs at the biggest IKEA in the southern hemisphere. We are on a mission from god… to find bookcases!
The Death Knell for the Atkins Plan
There is a simple explanation for my lack of blogging this week: I have been shamelessly stuffing my face with beautiful, delicious carbs. Oh yes, we bought a bread machine. “Of course, we’ll just use it to make low-carb bread and pizza dough,” we rationalized. That didn’t last long. The Snook started researching recipes on the Internet, and suddenly his inner baking demon – starved for activity for nearly two years – broke free. We spent over a hundred dollars at the grocery store last night just on bread-making supplies. We got, like, five different kinds of flour (including one ten-pound bag), spices, powdered milk, nuts, fruit, sun-dried tomatoes, potato flakes, yeast, seeds, honey, butter, everything. And now we’re eating it all. We’re fat, but man, are we happy.
In the event you want to enable our addiction, does anybody know any can’t-miss bread machine recipes we should try? We’ll also take any technical tips you have. I made my first loaf last night from a mix, and it was also our first attempt at using the timer feature to have the bread ready just as we got out of bed in the morning. It wasn’t perfect though, mostly because the flour and water seem to have caked up overnight and hence there was a bit of lumpy, unblended flour at the bottom of the loaf. It still tasted good, but we want to work out the kinks. Anybody else experience this?
I’m not sure what the point of horizontal corduroy pants is, but their website is so cheeky and fun that I’m almost tempted to get the Snook a pair. He wears through his cords so quick. But – eek! – eighty-eight dollars? I could sew him a pair for less than that.
Schmaltz-O-Rama
As I’m sure the other ND alumni did, I received in my inbox today an invitation to check out lovetheenotredame.nd.edu. “Self,” I said, “I bet you dollars to donuts this is a treacly Flash movie set to a plinky-plonky piano that will make you feel all warm and nostalgic, only to leave you slightly cold with the plea for donations at the end.” I was not disappointed. That’s not to say it isn’t well done; ND’s marketing is always really spiffy and professional. It’s just that it’s become utterly predictable to me. (And I admit I snorted a little when I noticed that both pictures in the “dreams come true” frame are of minority students.)
This Craft Corner Death Match thing sounds pretty interesting. Does anybody know what channel it’s on? Not that I’m likely to get it here, but I may be able to talk Mom into taping it for me if it’s good. Or maybe I could just invite Amy and Helen over and we can recreate it at home!
You have three balls of Feathers, two bin liners, a Dremel, a dozen pipe cleaners, and an assortment of novelty hole punches. Today’s Challenge: create a poncho suitable for a dethroned craft queen’s re-emergence into polite society. GO!
Note to self: If the Deep-Fried Feast ever goes ahead, be sure to include Beer-Battered Asparagus as a starter. That looks yum!