8:00-9:00 am
With the dregs of Matthew gusting outside, I arose refreshed and renewed this morning, ready to check on my overnight leaven in the kitchen. It was bubbly and ready to go, so I found an old MST3K episode and threw it up on the old Apple TV while I mixed my dough. Then I moved to the office to start a post about my memories of MST3K when I noticed about six different species of birdies taking shelter and food at my window feeder. Most of them constitute the usual gang (minus the cardinal pair... they must be sleeping in), but the gray catbird was a new sighting for me!
I keep this old copy of An Audubon Handbook of Eastern Birds handy at my desk that I stole from my dad (it was a Father's Day gift from 1989). I identify my visitors and write them down in a leather-bound mini notebook with a loon embossed on the cover, which I picked up from a family trip to Wisconsin when I was thirteen. I could always turn to the computer beside me and ask Google what the hell I'm looking at, but I almost never do. Thumbing through the beautiful glossy photos of the zillions of bird thrills me so much more. It tests my powers of perception and eye for detail; a black ear patch here, a brown scapular there. I am such an old lady sometimes.
Anyway, I'll get to the MST3K post soon, but for now, my bread experiment involves NOT fermenting the loaf overnight. That's right, I'm giving it a few hours in the Banneton before it's getting popped in the oven. So I will be enjoying the fruits of my labor this afternoon/evening. W00T! Here it goes...
9:00-11:00 am
Stretch and Fold every 30 minutes. Stretch and Fold. The usual. Vacuum while listening to "In The Dark" podcast, which is like "Serial" mated with Stranger Things.
11:00 am
Start making lunch: potatoes and black-eyed peas in coconut-lime curry. Also an experiment. We shall see how this goes. Start stretching and folding every hour. Watch more MST3K.
12:00 pm
Lunch was GREAT. I can't believe it was VEGAN. Shit.
The cardinals showed up. And so did the Carolina wren. Cool beans.
4:00 pm
Shaped the loaf and placed in the basket, completely covered by plastic wrap to keep it moist. Decided to meet my parental units at the brewery for some hurricane beer, so I wanted to finish the bread before then.
5:45 pm
Put loaf in the oven.
6:30 pm
Loaf comes out, kinda flat, but the crust is softer than before, as suspected.
9:15 pm
Came home and tasted a slice. Delicious! Next time, add a bit of commercial yeast to lift that bugger higher. But otherwise, worked out really nice :)