Tired Friday, comfort cooking

Rainy, chilly, day and I was tired. The kind of tired where you take a shower, sit and rest before drying off, rest again before dressing, go downstairs for a midmorning snack, rest again, read to the end of The Correspondent, rest, listen to a podcast while knitting, rest again. 

Anyway I had planned on making Baking on a Budget baguettes, and did so. This is my first try and it came out well. 

He's a Brit, so metric, and I had to convert all the measurements first, hence the notes, legible only to me.

In the absence of baguette pans I

created a divider with parchment paper 

And they came out lovely and crusty outside, tender inside. One's in the freezer now. Pouring boiling water into a pan one shelf lower right before baking helps make that crust.

 

 And a couple of slices went with a simple stew of cannellini beans and diced tomatoes, with tomato paste, oregano and Italian seasoning 

Definitely doing this again. It's a no-knead recipe. You have to be around because you have to prove (raise)  it twice, but the actual work on it is minimal. So it fits in with doing other tasks at home.

Next time I'll use a bit more salt, and since it needs bread flour and I only had ap, I'll add in a bit of vital wheat gluten. Maybe a pinch more of yeast, too. But it was pretty good. Bread flour has a higher protein level, more gluten and a better rise. But I can replicate that.

My energy's not high today, probably the barometric pressure. I made a strengthening smoothie with peanut butter, strawberries, milk and cane sugar. 

Happy day everyone 

 

Misfits, smoothies, surprise and kind offers

Today is Misfits day, this time Ronald has the honors, and the morning shift.

Neighbor contractor Mike who designed the risers for my sofa saw the pink truck arrive and carried in the box for me.

I got a refund on the eggs because two arrived cracked, very unusual. The other ten are fine but eggs count as a unit so Misfits takes  the loss on the dozen.

Sugar because I use sugar, and this is organic and fair trade, or I suppose as fair as you can get in the sugar trade. Nice pack of hake, affordable white fish which will make fish cakes and whatever else I think of, maybe just battered and fried.  Spinach which will make an appearance below, along with berries and a couple of these apples.

You'll notice other things happening in the background on the stove too. That's because I finally got around to making the crunchy tofu sticks. So easy and I really enjoy them. 

I make a dozen sticks from one container of extra firm tofu. Simple batter, panko, fry in avocado oil, dipping sauce made of ketchup, soy sauce and a dash of oil. Done. Today's lunch was roast chicken chunks with tofu sticks.

I forgot a picture of mine, but they're pretty much like these

This also gives you the reference to find the recipe on YouTube.

And I found a smoothie idea on Shug's blog, thank you, Ivy,  which I tried with the ingredients I have, not much resemblance to the original. I don't like the name smoothie, a bit twee, but I do like the results, and definitely appreciate the reminder.

Gala apples, blueberries, spinach, milk, honey, blended 

Here's two instant breakfasts or something. It's a nice mix, not all smooth, more of a roughy, but good anyway.

Today was not all food. I made it to the mailbox and met a couple of neighbors on the way, who both offered help in the next little while, so nice. 

Then there was actual mail in the box, a beautiful pop-up from C, thank you so much. 

I've been playing with it. Local birds there, too. It's a great lift to my spirits on a grey cold day. 

Good day, and I'm recovering from yesterday's excitement. My shoulders definitely feel the results of lying for long periods on my back, arms stretched above my head.  But there's worse stuff around us,  not much to complain about really. 

Happy day everyone. I may need to wait a day to crochet, to give the shoulders a rest, but that's fine. I'm planning the stitch pattern, simple, the size, small, figuring out the hook and number of chains to start. For once I'm thinking ahead, amazingly.

And in more direct resistance,  I wrote an email to one of those treacherous Dems who voted for the SAVE act, which will disenfranchise millions, Jared Golden, of Maine. 

The others close their contacts to anyone outside their district.  If you're in the districts of Ed Case, Hawaii, Henry Cuellar, Texas, or Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, Washington State, please give them your thoughts. Firmly.