Fidget

I decided to begin with the Crusty Cob recipe on page 20 of Paul Hollywood’s 100 Great Breads. It’s the first page of Basic Breads, which seemed like a good place to start, and all I have is 1 smallish loaf pan – pyrex – so I figured I’d do a baking-sheet recipe first thing and save myself any worry about the pan being too small, the wrong shape (if I decided to go with the 8×8…) or trying one of the pan recipes on a baking sheet (what if it puddles out and ruins the oven?!). Yep, I’m a worrier when it comes to these experiments.

Providentially, I was reading blogs this morning and Smitten Kitchen’s Tips of the Day for today and yesterday were about yeast and bread baking. There was a link to her Eight Tips for Less Intimidating Bread. This took such a load off my mind! I was really uncertain about the whole “punching down the dough” thing, since Paul didn’t say anything about that but I’ve always heard it’s a big step and that you’re supposed to do it when the dough has “doubled in volume.” But how can you tell? Well, SK cleared that up: just gently deflating it is the thing to do.

But, I’m getting ahead of myself… I measured my flour. I put the salt on one side of the mound and the yeast (active dry, dissolved in water as directed on the packet) on the other side, and attempted to not let them touch as cautioned by Mr. Hollywood – apparently the salt will kill the yeast. Though how you are supposed to mix things together without having them touch eventually is beyond me. Some of the yeast liquid ran over into the salt. Oops.

I “softened” the butter in the microwave but I didn’t want it to melt, so just for 10 seconds… I think it might have been a little cold in the middle. So hopefully the butter isn’t in several big lumps or only worked through 1/2 of the dough! I wonder if maybe it wouldn’t matter to just pour it in melted? Other recipes use oil, which is a liquid. And you want the dough to be warm so it will rise. Also it’s totally freezing today. “Highs in the Lows” as we like to say.

I poured in the water in a few stages and stirred with a silicone spatula. (There’s nothing creepier to me than scraping dough off of a wooden spoon. Eeegh.) Once it was sticking together well I used my hands and mixed it a bit more.

I wanted to do my kneading on the table rather than the counter, since the counter is a bit high and I thought it would be an awkward angle for my arms. I have these heavy plastic placemats from IKEA so I floured up one of those and used it to knead on the table. Both Paul and Smitten advised against adding too much flour during the kneading, so I tried to use the bare minimum. The placemat worked out kind of nice because the dough stuck to it some but I could turn the whole mat before folding over the dough for the next knead. Neat!

I kneaded for 10 minutes which was PH’s recommendation for beginners. I washed out and oiled my big blue bowl (it’s a wonderful Big Blue Bread Bowl) and put my dough ball in there and covered it with a clean dishtowl, orange for contrast. Paul says you don’t have to cover it but I don’t want dust or anything settling on the dough while it sits there for two hours! My apartment is not the most dust-free place. I gently and lovingly placed my dough bowl in the warmest several cubic feet of air in the place: on top of the refrigerator. That’s the only place that really ever gets what you could call warm. We like to keep the thermostat at 61-ish – gasp – but the way our ceiling heat seems to work the upper 1/3 of the rooms get too hot if it’s higher than that. So we’ll see. The dough did grow a lot during those two hours, and I poked it as instructed by SK and all seemed well. Yay!

I lined my baking sheet with parchment paper – fancy unbleached silicone-coated – with no cornmeal, contrary to what Smitten seemed to suggest, because that just seemed like a pain in the neck. Wasn’t in my recipe anyway. I formed my dough into a nice ball (thanks again to SK for the detailed tips!) and placed it on the siliconed-pan. I put the dishtowel back over it and put it back in its little warm zone for another hour. My feet are freezing but heck, the dough is cozy. If this loaf turns out good I won’t have an excuse to turn up the heat on bread-baking days. Though I guess if, like today, it’s also bill-paying day, I won’t let myself make excuses for using any more expensive kilowatt hours than I have to!

I moved the oven rack lower… because PH says that “the longer a loaf takes to color or bake, the drier it will be.” I don’t want the top of the loaf to get dry while it’s waiting for the bottom to bake all the way through. Also, the Crusty Cob recipe has a little anecdote saying that “this bread, which dates back to medieval times, was known as one of the oven bottoms, as this was invariably where it was baked.” So we’ll see how that goes.

One last tricky step – slashing the top. I think you are supposed to do each cut all in one slash, but I couldn’t help sawing a little.

In the little beauty goes!

… Later …

Well, it came out great! We had fresh bread and cream-of-carrot soup for dinner. It was lovely. I baked the bread for 30 minutes, exactly as the recipe said, “or until golden brown” and sure enough it was golden brown after a half hour. And it was done all the way through, but not too done. The only thing is it’s a bit salty. I thought a tablespoon was kind of a lot. Maybe next time I’ll do 2 tsp instead. But I’m very pleased, since this is my first time. And the recipe was great - I followed it to the letter, something I rarely do, but it payed off here. I’m excited to try Hollywood’s other bread recipes and work my way up to expert.

Note: this post was made possible by my darling sister SS, who gifted me the cookbooks this Christmas.

by CS Lewis

Just when I thought I’d had Lewis all figured out.

It’s kind of surprising how a Christian writer can re-tell a classic pagan myth (Cupid and Psyche) and still have it be so… pagan.

In some stories, the “twist” or irony is that you have this really ugly or socially despised character who is the one who is the most selfless and loving… not so here… our heroine Orual seems a little bit like one of the ghosts in the Great Divorce; (except her time and place is not modern England but pre-Christian Europe.) She thinks of her feelings and actions toward her young sister Psyche as virtuous and righteous, but she has a lot to learn about that simple but endlessly complex concept known as Love.

The tone and setting of this book feel really different from typical Lewis; but according to his usual skill he leads the reader into deep, surprising intellectual territory along a deceptively simple story “path.”

I would recommend it - note I’d rate this PG-13 for sensuality and some disturbing “images” !

I’ve been on quite a Hogwarts kick for awhile - I just got done reading through all the books. What fun! I think it took me about 12 weeks. If you haven’t read ‘em, I’d recommend the series for an absorbing, time-wasting, nail-biting good time. I laughed a lot and even had a good cry or two. (And don’t read the rest of this post because I’m talkin’ spoilers in it!)

I think one of J K Rowling’s strengths in the books is how convincing the wizarding world is. You quickly come to feel that you’ve become a student at Hogwarts and find yourself wishing you could visit Diagon Alley in person. The movies have helped with this feeling - I’d seen all 5 that are out before starting the books (though I’d read Book One years ago, after seeing the first movie.) Having images from the film to assist my imagination was fun. That’s also why I wanted to read the books - the movies left me mostly really confused so I wanted to read all the details and subplots for myself and get it all figured out. The books are so long and complex that I think the movie makers sometimes have to just count on people having read the books to follow the plot and catch the details.

There are also some really great characters - I absolutely adore Hagrid’s little domestic tendencies (he cooks, knits, gardens, and cossets his pets. He’s a regular Martha Stewart… ok, maybe not) and emotional meltdowns. He’s so tenderhearted. Rita Skeeter is so infuriating… and Snape! Where do I start. I think his movie self helps his book self be more believable and… dare I say endearing? (Alan Rickman rocks!) I (mostly) always knew he hadn’t gone back to the dark side. I think Rowling made a lot of great choices in things like having the Weasleys be Harry’s surrogate family. They’re great… giving us a glimpse of the normal wizard family life that Harry never had. One thing I never thought worked was the whole Sirius thing. I think Rowling never gave them time to bond, and then S was killed and it was sad but only because Harry’d only known him for 2 years, and never spent any significant time with him, really. That was troubling. I also disapproved of killing off Fred during the climax. He’s a twin!! you just can’t do that. Wouldn’t Percy have been a better choice? He comes back to the good side, and nobly dies for the cause. ‘Course, that’s what I was expecting so maybe JKR thought it would be too predictable.

She managed to bring things to a somewhat resolved ending in book 7, quite tastefully too. I wish there would have been more than just one chapter about “what happened after.” Also I think there were a few too many near-death episodes for Harry, Ron and Hermione in book 7. It just started to get wearying. Unlike the first six, they spend very little time at Hogwarts in year 7 and I think the book suffered a little from that lack of stable context for the action. One moment they’re in Godric’s Hollow and then next they’re inside Gringotts, escaping by the skin of their teeth, again. And again. I guess I should have expected it, since Voldemort attacked in chapter 4! Things don’t calm down much after that. Whew. That’s gonna be a heck of a movie… too many action scenes already!

It’s been truly fall here for a couple of weeks now… patchy clouds, periods of rain, and the temps took a noticeable dip awhile back. The forecast high for today is 62, tomorrow it’s 58. It’s been a bit sudden… summer gave no warning that it was leaving for good.

I’ve busted out my sewing machine recently - I’m working on the pants pattern from SEW U / Built by Wendy. Finally - fashionable pants from a home-sewing pattern. GC has had good success with her attempts at this same pattern, and she inspired me to buy the book/patterns and have a go as well. The book is worth the money for the patterns, the wonderful array of customization/embellishment ideas, and some good tips and tricks, but I wouldn’t recommend it to a beginner. I would be a bit lost in the instructions for the pants if I didn’t have as much experience with sewing as I do.

I’m taking a weaving class at the Craft Center this term. I had my first class last night and it looks like it’s going to be fun. We’re making rugs out of scraps from a wool mill.

Yesterday I woke up with a sore throat and today I’m feeling worse. Yuck. I hate being sick!

I eagerly welcome book recommendations - leave me a comment!

C.S. Lewis: Narnia series, the “Space” Trilogy, Mere Christianity, Screwtape Letters, The Great Divorce

The Lord of the Rings + The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien

The Little House books, Laura Ingalls Wilder

War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy

Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte

Mill on the Floss, George Eliot

Bleak House, Charles Dickens

Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

Les Miserables, Victor Hugo (abridged version)

Little Women, Louisa May Alcott

Watership Down, Richard Adams

Momo, Michael Ende

The Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series, Tad Williams

Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier

All Creatures Great and Small, James Herriot

This Star Shall Abide, Sylvia Louise Engdahl

The Dark is Rising series, Susan Cooper

Winter Cottage, and Caddie Woodlawn, (unrelated), Carol Ryrie Brink

Mara, Daughter of the Nile + The Golden Goblet, Eloise Jarvis McGraw

Witch of Blackbird Pond, Calico Captive, The Bronze Bow, Elizabeth George Speare

The Wheel on the School, Meindert DeJong

Out of the Silent Planet

Perelandra

That Hideous Strength

by C.S. Lewis

I guess these books fall into the “Science Fiction” category, since they involve interplanetary travel. But it’s a misnomer to call it the Space Trilogy - the books are based on the idea that Space - what we think of as a cold vacuum - is a rich, vibrant, more-than-real world filled with life. And that’s just the start - there are so many other interesting concepts about the universe (spiritual and physical), explored in the series.

In the first two books you get to learn about the life on two other planets in our solar system - fantastical, personal journeys and full of suspense and discovery. And then the third volume, which is as long than the other two put together, is spent behind enemy lines, on the Silent Planet, known to us as Earth. A dark, disturbing and gripping tale.

This is the 3rd time I’ve read the series, and each time I get more out of it. I absolutely love reading Lewis. I gain so much from his approachable but deep writings - I grow in spiritual intelligence as a result of reading them.

I think what I most enjoyed about the books this time around was the thought processes of the characters. After being kidnapped to Mars, Ransom has lots of interesting thoughts about what it means to be human, since he meets new species that are human but not man - they are intelligent, moral, emotional beings with souls and spirits. Also, he learns about the super-human eldila. He experiences an amazing shift in perspective - an extra-terrestrial perspective. On his voyage to Venus, Ransom has to face a deadly enemy and work through isssues around his own fears, God’s power to work through him, and his role as the “protector” of the newly-created un-fallen humans. In That Hideous Strength, Mark and Jane discover spiritual dimensions of life that they never anticipated - they had been living such a superficial, empty life and the process of growing beyond that was perilous to say the least.

Even though these experiences are quite bizarre and probably won’t ever happen to me, I gain insight into life here on this planet from reading about the very imaginary but very believable universe that Lewis opens up for the reader to explore.

by Leo Tolstoy

The edition I read, 1300 pages, is Oxford “World’s Classics.” Now I know why… War and Peace has to be one of the most amazing books I have read. Where to begin. I guess the thing I enjoyed the most about it, and what impressed me the most, was Tolstoy’s depth of insight and perception of human nature, spanning social classes, men, women, and children. By the end you feel that you know the characters so well that you could recognize them in a crowd on the street. And there isn’t just one or two main characters that this applies to. There are whole families of main characters, but I didn’t feel challenged in keeping track of them. They are so believable, you just get to know them in spite of yourself. They start out as social acquaintences among the wealthy Russian gentry, and you follow them through battles, illnesses, romances, military hospitals, war captivity, death, debt, and life-changing perspective shifts. You have the experience of the War of 1812 right along with them, with things gradually getting worse and more intense, looking back and thinking, I never thought things would come to this. But here we are. I am still me, but I have grown and changed, and these others - I can remember a time before I met them but I know them so well now that I can’t remember how it felt to not know them.
This is my criteria for an excellent, compelling book: Through the telling of a story, the author imparts to the reader the same feelings and experiences that the characters are having. By reading the book you live out in a partial, but convincing and moving way, the same thoughts, emotions, and discoveries that the story describes. This is a subtle, hard-to-pin down quality. Something in the pacing, the way and timing in which information is revealed or concealed… Obviously it comes with the author’s skill in describing people and events. Choice of words, to evoke the right imagery that really resonates with the reader. That’s the magic of good writing - you don’t have to work to imagine. The visuals spring unbidden to your mind, as if they couldn’t be any other way. A few brief external words later, you have envisioned internal truths.

Many of the descriptions and characters resonated with me in an “ah, yes. This I know. True, that.” kind of a way. But other things, like the descriptions of the characters’ experiences in battle, taught me a lot of new things about what it must be like to be a man, a soldier, a soldier in combat. These kinds of things are timeless, I think. A socialite in the early 1800’s, a young army officer in the early 1800’s - we are not so different in these modern days. Human nature still rings true, when it is truly captured in words, and so masterfully as Leo Tolstoy has done in War and Peace.

I would recommend it to anyone.

——

One tiny note: You have to be patient with Tolstoy. He kind of goes off on his ideas about the philosophy of history, especially in the later portion of the book. I found it interesting, but maybe repeated a few too many times…

Knitting socks seems so magical and mysterious - even people who can knit fairly well think, oh, I couldn’t knit socks. They’re too complicated, and I’d have to use those scary-looking double-pointed needles. The funny thing is, the oldest knitted artifacts existant are socks - cotton, from Egypt, 1200 - 1500 AD. Think about it: All socks used to be hand-knitted.

I didn’t think about socks much when I first learned to knit. I guess I figured why knit socks when they are so inexpensive to buy. And, they were mysterious. I’d run across patterns for them, and they would have a decent photograph of the finished sock, but no diagrams or photos-in-progress or any explanation of the Anatomy of a Sock.

I wanted to knit for my husband. I made him a hat last year - it came out great, he likes it, and wears it a lot. But he doesn’t need many hats - he’s perfectly content with two (the other one he made himself, back in his crocheting days.) He’s not the type to wear scarves, and a sweater would be such a major undertaking. So sock knitting started to be a lot more attractive to me - I could knit socks for BN. He’s actually quite the sock connoisseur, and often wears striped or colorful socks.

Meanwhile, I found a great sock-knitting book: Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch. The way this book is put together is perfect for me - It shows diagram-style photos of the Anatomy of a Sock, with each section knitted in a different color. It has a separate explanaton of each of 3 main styles of sock construction. All the size, gauge, and stitch pattern numbers are arranged in charts, so it’s easy to put together a customized design for your desired size, style, and yarn. Modularity rocks!

As if this weren’t wonderful enough, the instructions are arranged in an efficient 3-column layout, allowing you to use your knitting method of choice - 4 double-pointed needles, or 5, or my preference - 2 circular needles.

This book enabled me to truly learn about and understand socks, not just slavishly follow a certain pattern. I learned that socks are maybe a little complicated, but they break down into such manageable phases. They are seamless, meaning you don’t have to sew any pieces together, and you can knit an entire sock out of a single piece of yarn. (That’s only 2 ends to weave in at the end!) By measuring the recipient’s foot, you can get a perfectly customized fit.

I showed BN the book and asked him which socks he wanted. He picked the last pair in the book - the most complicated, with 2-color stranded knitting and a charted design covering the upper portion of the sock. I decided I didn’t want to do that one as my first sock project, so then BN said he wanted horizontal cables. Well, cables are sort of vertical by nature but I found this chain-like design in another book and did a swatch. He liked it, so that’s what I went with.

Hand-knit socks are not a money-saving item, but you do get what you pay for - in quality, customized fit, and knitterly satisfaction, they can’t be beat!

by Oliver Sacks

Reading this book felt sort of like fate, because I’d first heard of the author several years ago while chatting with a co-worker about his current book club reading. I was intrigued by the title, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, and even more intrigued when I was told that it wasn’t fiction - Sacks is a neurologist and writes about real people. A different co-worker at the same job (don’t know if he was in the same book club) once described one of Sacks’s subjects who is autistic but has an incredible affinity with animals, particularly cattle, and designs more humane “animal management systems.” This is a chapter in Anthropologist, as I learned a few weeks ago when chatting with my friend GP and she brought up the same story. So, I borrowed the book!

I was completely fascinated, reading the true stories of people like the Abstract Expressionist painter who loses his ability to see color. He couldn’t even remember what color looked like after the injury to his brain. Then there’s the surgeon who has Tourette’s syndrome - with extreme lunges and “tic” gesturing at all times, even while he’s driving, except when he’s operating. I had heard of Tourette’s many times but never really knew much about it. And there are several stories about autism - I learned a lot from these as well.

Sacks writes these case studies as a knowledgeable but sympathetic and sensitive observer. He clearly explains the patient’s situation and doesn’t hide the sad, “disabling” aspects of the brain conditions. But, he also does justice to the extraordinary, “super-human” traits that the patients have and how these elevate them to a plane that is just as human, but very different, from a normal person. As a neurologist he is of course interested in them as subjects of study, but he values them as people and friends and tries very hard to spend some “real life” time with them. Readers benefit from this and are able to get to know these unique individuals as well.

by Daphne du Maurier

I’m notorious for burning through exciting novels. I just can’t help it - I’m a fast reader and also a sucker for a good story. So once I have that itch to find out what happens next, it’s way to late for BN to remind me how I should be savoring the experience.

Rebecca was recommended to me by my mom as a great story with an exciting plot twist in it. Yep, she was right. (This isn’t going to be a very good book review, because I can’t tell you a thing about it. I’d hate to spoil the surprises for you.)

The story is told in the first person, by a young woman (whose name is not Rebecca) who lets us in on all her inner thoughts. She is very observant and perceptive, and I enjoyed reading her descriptions of people, her soul searching, and “deep thoughts” about memory, destiny, and “living in the moment.” Well, you might wonder, if Rebecca isn’t the main character, who is she? Well, I won’t say who but what: mysterious, beautiful, tragic, menacing…

I sometimes weigh the success of a work of art (images, writing, music…) by how well it makes me feel, see, or learn what the protagonists are feeling, seeing, or learning (whether that’s the main character or the author.) In this book, the narrator tells us what she’s feeling of course, but deeper than that, all the descriptions and dialog really pull the reader in and make you experience things along with her. I like that.

The book is set in the early 20th century, the late teens or early twenties. They have cars and telephones, but it’s still a different world, a good balance between recent and distant history. I enjoyed reading about the lifestyles of the rich and famous - spending summers in Monte Carlo and returning to their vast estates in rural England with a different room for each hour of the day, servants who have been with the family for generations, and masquerade balls for 500 guests. A good contrast to this opulence is our heroine, who is as new to the wealthy lifestyle as I would be and seeing it through her eyes is an enjoyable and entertaining experience. And, though my lips are sealed on the details, the storyline is intriguing, suspenseful and hauntingly memorable. Read it soon and let me know what you think!