Friday, June 12, 2020

Thrills, spills, mad new skillz

It's just as well I like learning. Our present situation demands new learning every day.

Now the library is planning on curb side pickup, where your books are put in the trunk by library staff. This means I have to learn to open the trunk from inside the car. 

And the utility company says we must read our own meters, and send them the answers. Or take a picture. So I studied the meter, learned to upload a picture I took, hoping it was the of the right bit of the meter, to my utility account, even getting in without the usual titanic struggle. 

And whole-wheat flour, which I used for crackers, is not around at a price I can pay. So today's baking learning was to use steelcut oat flour I ground. The plan was crackers. Baking them, that is. Though yes, come to think of it, it was crackers in the other sense, too.

 It would have been better to add in ap flour, so the dough would hold together. I did add some after the fact, also extra water and olive oil, but it's not the same as doing it right at the outset.

I ended up with a dough that I could not roll out, nor form into logs to slice. So I pinched bits off to form by hand, laborious work.



And  I made oat pennies rather than crackers. I'll offer some to handsome son, who also bakes experimentally and has experienced the falling-apart phenomenon. The dough, that is, though today it included the dough maker.

This is about half the dough, ran out of mojo and froze the rest, pending the outcome of this batch.

I will say that the fresh thyme I picked and minced in was lovely, and I pressed caraway and celery seeds in. With cubes of sharp cheddar, it's edible. But it's not good enough to give to friends. 

As Dr Johnson said, not a dinner you'd invite a man to.  But it did provide a large load of learning. Sigh. 




My tired old tootsies requested that I take out the sneaker laces for their walking comfort. I definitely sympathized, that kind of day, and did so. What next, bathrobe downtown, pension going on brandy? 

11 comments:

  1. We learn to adapt and adopt, don't we? It's sometimes interesting and even fun.

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    1. My son tasted and ate several of them, thorough testing and said they were okay in fact. And wondered if I fancied adding in sugar to the rest of the batch to make cookies. Good idea.

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  2. There’s a steep learning curve for seniors with all the new technology and demands on us. Keeps our minds healthy I guess.

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    1. That's my hope. Ive always been an early adopter, but the speed of new inventions is practically a full-time job to keep up with.

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  3. my library opened but you can go in an browse and check out books. they do wear masks as do I and have the plastic shields up. the only thing I bake is desert.

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    1. I think it will be a long time before we can do that.

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  4. Your shoes will look charming with flowers where the laces use to be.

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    1. Now that's a good idea. I may do something about that today. Thank you.

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  5. I like to bake also = breads of all sorts, including crackers which have been less successful than, say, saltines.

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  6. Our library has done the same thing but I haven't tested it out yet. It's going to be an interesting test when I do because the main reader in this house is Resident Chef (I choose to spend most of my time stitching) and he's read hundreds of library books and whatever ones I choose for him online will in all likelihood be ones he's already had (which, no doubt, he will point out). Apparently they are putting all books into a 72 hour quarantine before re-releasing them to the public but that must be a huge nightmare for them to keep track of.

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    1. I agree. I wouldn't fancy being a library worker just now. But I have found out how to unlock my hatch from the driver's seat. But it's not a separate space like a trunk. It is reasonably distanced, though.

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