We’re in what could best be called the swinging of the seasons. One day – in the forties, an imaginable spring seeping up from the ground and making a nice early mud season squish. That night – a few snow flakes, a big drop in temperature, a lot of snow flakes, a lot more snow flakes, six inches of snow flakes.
In the north east, we can’t really bemoan this. This is really a normal part of our year. If the weather stays doing something for more than a few days, that fact alone becomes a topic of weather conversation. Whatever else is going on, the march towards spring continues, even as we are about to leave March and go boldly into April.
I had hoped to be in the sewing room, cutting and moving around fabric tonight but instead I opted for a quick trip to the market, an extremely nice dinner of chops and cauliflower and a big dish wash up. Not so exciting except that now the dishes are done. I also started the preferment for a new batch of bread so we can have fresh baked bread with dinner on Sunday. Wednesday night I stopped at Borders and looked at two other bread books that I often hear about from other bread bakers. They were both similar to the book I’m working from in that the recipes aren’t really recipes, but formula – geared towards getting the baker/reader to think in terms of relative proportions. Both had some information on things like ‘what IS autolyse” and why it’s a very good thing. I couldn’t really justify two more books when I’ve just begun to make a dent in what my book offers, but I did very much enjoy looking at the big difference between my book and the others: pictures! Ah HA! So that’s what you would consider a (medium dough consistency)(shaggy dough)(strong dough). Ah HA! Oh – before autolyse and after. (just like mine!) Before and after folding! (just like mine!) Oh!
So someday perhaps I’ll spring for these other books, but in the meantime, I am grateful that I was able to get some reassurance that I’m doing ok.
I have made a little progress on the new quilt, but I’m needing to work on how to get some lightness in the center and am thinking about how many colors I want to involve. Sometimes too many colors is just too many. Sometimes you need more to make it all happen. I may end up trying more and less and seeing which one makes it work.
