Archive for ‘October, 2011’

Saturday Evening

Saturday evening, just before 8:00 p.m.

Bear and I were outside for a last patrol before bedtime. The sky was clear and the waxing crescent of moonshine was low in the sky on its way to moonset. It was so clear and bright that I toyed with the thought of taking the Jeep to the spot on the road home in an hour or so to see what things might look like – a crescent moon setting.

But, I was ready to call it a day so contented myself with photos from the yard.

Bear by the light of the crescent moon…actually his lighted collar :)!

***Bear has adjusted to wearing the collar and appears to have no problem navigating the woods in the dark of morning and evening. I did have to get him his own as Karl’s was too big and no good way to adjust it small enough. BUT, the old company was gone and this collar is from Firefly K9 Products – it is made much better. This weekend we tried on our hunter orange wear…had to order Bear his own orange as well.

Sunday Drive

Another warm weekend but despite the fact that Summer does not want to give up, the leaves have started to turn.

Swan Lake, even with hazy, smoky skies…sparkles.

Sunday Drive.

Perfect Rye

I love rye…in bread, distilled…I love rye.

Today, the rye “on the table” is bread.

I continue making the high moisture bread dough for my daily bread. Whether it is Portuguese Broa, whole wheat, oatmeal or rye, I make a mix which is 3 parts flour/grain, 1 3/4 parts water, 1 part (packet) yeast and a bit of sea salt in a bowl to sit overnight. The following morning, I spoon the yeasty stuff into a not airtight container and put it in the frig.

As needed, I scoop out dough for a small to medium boule, a french shaped loaf, english muffins, flatbread or pizza crust.

This week, the dough was rye. King Arthur’s Perfect Rye Blend combined with Montana Wheat’s Natural White high protein “hard wheat” flour.

The result: Perfect Rye!

**My exact rye mix: 114 grams King Arthur’s Perfect Rye Blend, 258 grams MT Wheat Natural White or any high quality, i.e. not grocery store, high protein flour. Yes, I’ve found flour quality to make a huge difference in both taste and texture of baked goods.

The other component is measuring by weight and not volume – a kitchen scale is less than $20. Converting to weight measure has made a difference in consistency of results for baked goods. All flour does not weigh or measure the same. Additionally, a cup of flour can measure differently on different days, To establish a weight base for converting recipes from volume to weight, sift flour into a 1 cup measure, leveling with a knife and weigh a sifted cup. Example with the rye blend as above: MT Wheat Natural White is 129 grams to equal a cup, the Perfect Rye Blend is 114 grams. For comparison, King Arthur White Whole Wheat is 110 grams to equal a recipe cup. There are even greater differences if you use other flours such as buckwheat, millet, coconut or almond, i.e. gluten free flours. If you don’t want to take the time or make the mess, there are charts online as well.