More bread and so on

Beautiful Vision
We haven’t bought any bread since December. No-knead pot bread has been a true breakthrough – crusty, good taste, good to look at, easy, and forgiving. This week, during a cold spell I baked another loaf. It started off rising slower than I planned and the bread-making slipped into my three day work week and I had to put it in the refrigerator to slow rising and once it rose too much and in the end, another good loaf of bread, hot and crusty from the oven. Photo left: moments out of the oven and the bread is still in the pot.

Photo below: orange marmalade, another breakthrough, so good! On a par with Mr. and Mrs. Robertson’s, they of the thick-cut marmalade we bought in Hong Kong. Pear or peach preserves next. I hope to never buy preserves or marmalade again.

The full BREAD recipe is here. I made a summary (below) because the article uses a lot of words. But I recommend you read it. I use a ceramic pot to bake in. I tried Le Creuset (heavy metal) but it scorched a little, so maybe bake at slightly lower temp if in metal?

4 cups/20 ounces/567 gm flour (3 all-purpose, 1 bread)
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp salt
¾ tsp instant yeast
2 cups ice water

Stir dry together, then vigorously stir in ice water.

Oil top, cover, fridge 8-12 hours
In cool room let rise 8-10 hours
Stir
Oil top, let rise until ~doubled
Fold using oiled rubber spatula until mostly deflated
Cover, let rise until doubled (2-4 hours)

Preheat oven and bowl to 450 – lower the middle rack 1st
(Go fast) Light olive oil to hot pot
Dough in – use oiled spatula
Spray water generously and put top on, shake it to level dough
Bake 55 minutes
Top off, reduce heat to 425
Bake 20-25 more minutes

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Changing the subject, I wrote this a week or so ago: Over the years, especially during hospice and when the Khmer came to Dallas I was advised by several people that if I didn’t slow down I would burn out. I never did slow down – and here I am, 65 years old and finally finally burned out. I thought all along that I had it right and now I know.

It’s better to burn out

than it is to rust

-o-

I am tired
I am weary
I could sleep for a thousand years

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Yesterday and last night we got 12.5 inches of snow – the greatest accumulation ever recorded in Dallas. Our electricity went off around 9p and came back on around 11p (I was asleep, so I’m guessing on the time). I love the snow – in small doses – having lived in Indiana and Colorado. A beautiful day and now in the evening, our welcome lights on the arbor sparkling in the snow.

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It was a nice surprise to stumble across this on the net (in a Roma website): “From Charles Kemp’s page, formerly on the Baylor University Website, and too valuable to be removed from the Web http://www.ringofgold.eu/charleskemp.html“

  1. Thanks so much for sharing that link. It meant a lot more people saw it, too.
    Blessings from Florence where our Romanian Roma, who have now had their miserable shacks, blankets, and clothing bulldozed by the police are now having to sleep on the cold wet streets in the open, elderly couples, children, people with health problems. I've written letters to everyone but can't take them in or we would go to prison. They are Christians, European Citizens, fellow human beings and my friends.
    Julia Bolton Holloway
    English Cemetery
    Florence, Italy

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