Don't you hate it when you find junk in the yard, especially broken glass! There is a bucket by my potting table that collects all the bits and pieces of junk that gets unearthed while gardening or after a heavy rain.
An otherwise wicked piece of ancient broken glass becomes a focal for a found junk collage. Silly isn't it when a fragment of glass is too interesting to toss in the garbage. I backed this glass which has a slight curve with a piece of tin and soldered the edges. It is a perfect frame for a favorite vintage (copy) photograph of a little girl and her dog. I have named them "Sally and Roscoe". The original photograph was black and white but I digitally colored the copy. -Wood is from a haphazard lean to that I torn down a while back, the nails were already in the board, love that. I just hammered them down and flat on the back. -Old piece of chain for hanging -found piece of thin rusty metal while hiking -a tattered scrap of lace that was just perfect -another piece of old wood from the tear down -a chunk of metal my lawnmower found, complete with chippy red paint -old chain -fragment of a religious card -old ledger page -scraps of old text pages -piece of vintage trim
I lined the inside and a bit on the outside of the metal chunk with pieces of old text to give it some interest. Since both the image from the religious card and the metal chunk were a bit flaky, I coated the inside and dapped the outside with some resin. The resin gave it a bit more gloss shine that I may have liked, but it gives some contrast to the old wood. I glued the metal chunk to the wood and glued on some trim. I cut and punched an old piece of ledger page and added it to the bottom.
While not a perfect baguette, they tasted good. I still need to work on shaping and not falling asleep during the second proofing. So, I am not sure I can cross off baguettes yet as I work my way through Ciril Hitz's "Baking Artisan Bread".
my work table today's task: sort through and organize the spray paint stencils stencils that have long forgotten the memory of spray paint days I had a large stack of stencils and masking paper that I knew I would not be using again. Instead of tossing this stack, I started layering the stencils and paper, both thick with layers upon layers of paint Far too interesting to throw away gluing and stitching to be used in other projects like the vintage rolodex sprapodex and I like repurposing stuff
I love ancient Romanglass beads but they are incredibly expensive. The matte rough surface is just so interesting and begs for close inspection. These newer beads have been processed so that they have the look of ancient glass, a faux Roman glass and I have a set on my supply etsy shop.
The brioche turned out remarkably well considering all the problems I had making the dough. Just as I was starting to mix the dough, my mixer blew out and I was forced into mixing and kneading by hand. After I had the dough mixed and ready for the freezer, I realized I had forgotten to add the sugar. Maybe, I should have dumped the dough and start over but I kneaded the sugar in and reshaped the dough. AND, the grandma's old brioche pans ended up not usable.
Despite all the problems, the end product was very good and I will be trying again to perfect the brioche.
This week, I have a new mixer being delivered which I am looking forward to.
When you have a tiny kitchen like mine, there is no room for appliances like a panini press. Don't get me wrong, I would love to have one if I had the space and the money but it is easy to get the same results with a couple of bricks and heavy duty aluminum foil. The cuban is one of my favorite sandwiches and easy to make at home.
Ingredients: Loaf of Cuban bread butter mustard mild flavored ham roast pork (in today's cuban, I used pulled pork shoulder that we smoked) dill pickle slices baby swiss cheese
Cut bread in half lengthwise. Butter top and inside of bread. Spread mustard on top slice. Layer with pickles, pork,ham and then cheese.
Grill on hot pan with foil covered bricks to press sandwich.
Now that it is too hot to garden, my summer plans are to bake my way through Ciril Hitz "Baking Artisan Bread". My goal when purchasing this book was to perfect my baguette. The flavor and texture of the dough that I use is good, could be better (ten fold better than my local French bakery) but my shaping needs considerable improvement.
Today's baguette
My family loves my baguettes but I am striving for consistent perfection with not only a good taste and crumb but a perfectly shaped bread.
I bake two baguettes a day and it is near impossible to have enough left over to make crostini. With fig season coming up, I may have to double up on my baking.
Below is my favorite baguette video, I am too embarrassed to tell you how many times I have watched it.
I have a couple of bread challenges that I have to tackle. Many of my baking issues can't be changed, such as having the smallest kitchen in the U.S. My entire kitchen is 8 foot by 8 foot which includes a standard sized refrigerator, standard stove and a dishwasher, so I can tell you that I have a tight working area. In addition, my countertop is unusally high which makes mixing, kneading and shaping dough difficult, not to mention a small work surface.
With the heat of the oven, I am not able to use a baking stone because of the time it takes to heat the stone. Living in a tropical area, having a hot kitchen is the summer is hard on the utility bill. I am thinking of getting a second gas oven and putting it in my garage until we can build a summer kitchen. Mulling over the pros and cons of this idea.
The above issues are easy, my biggest challenge in baking was when I was living in the gypsy wagon and had only a small electric convenction toaster oven to bake with. With a bit of practice, I was able to make a good boule using a dutch oven artisan bread technique. and I even experimented and came up with a lovely chocolate cherry version which made the best grilled cream cheese sandwiches. Sorry, no recipe for the chocolate cherry as I just added to the basic boule recipe.
Back to the "Baking Artisan Bread" book, I have read it cover to cover, devoring every word. This is going to be a summer of bread baking and I thought I would start with perfecting and tweaking my baguette and work my way through the book chapter by chapter. I have decided instead to start on chapter/formula nine: Brioche. The pans have been pulled out of storage and I am ready to bake tomorrow.
I love good bread and I am planning a bread vacation where we take the gypsy wagon on the road wandering and sampling bakeries along the way. My dream is to attend one of these workshops. Guess you could say I am Ciril Hitz biggest fan.
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