Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Back to indecision

Well, I like my purple scarf, but I think I want to go back to my first inclination, which was to use nice yarn and an elegant pattern...nothing sparkly, with oversized needles, etc. I think I may use the Cashcotton. I also have another gift scarf I need to make, so I need to get started!

By the way, Stefaneener, you crack me up!

Other knitting: More on the garter stitch blanket.

Reading: The seventh Stephanie Plum. I was given An Assembly Such as This, by Pamela Aiden. This is the first of a trilogy that tells Pride and Prejudice from Darcy's point of view. They're supposed to be quite good, so I think I'll be starting this soon. Butterbean and I are reading Harry Potter book 1 out loud as well.

Writing: Well, Tim's going to fire me for missing my deadline, but I had to delete a whole lot. The funeral just wasn't working, so I need to re-write it. Ugh.

Cooking: Here's where the good stuff is today! I think I will keep the blog as it is, with one vote for, and none against :) Last night, I threw together enchiladas and chile rice. There's a similar enchilada recipe in my recipe section on the sidebar. I used pinto beans, corn, and cilantro for the filling, green enchilada sauce, and crumbled queso fresco on top. For the rice, I just used white rice cooked in a bit of the enchilada sauce plus vegetable broth, and seasoned with cayenne. I completely forgot that I'd bought a couple of poblano chiles to roast and go into enchiladas, so I'll have to make something with them later, maybe chiles rellenos.

Sourdough Madness Report: I made Rosemary and Almond Sourdough Gems yesterday, and they turned out very well. I was completely surprised when they rose as they were supposed to, since I was using my sourdough starter. My husband's assessment was that they were pretty good, but tasted very healthy. This was true. I would double (at least) the rosemary, and the almonds were completely lost in the nutty whole wheat flour, so I would either give up and omit them or toast them first to enhance the flavor. I baked my French Country Sourdough today! I was trying to truncate the process down from three days, so I actually got up at two in the morning to move the rising boules to the fridge. I realize this makes me completely insane, but I had started the next rising before realizing that the instructions weren't to rise 4 hours then refrigerate, but to rise 4 hours, then rise boules 3 hours, then refrigerate. Oops. The bread was amazing. Great crusty sourdough. My husband used some to make a ham and cheese panini today, and gave it an excellent review. And again, I'm completely shocked that it rose as expected. Thank you, Bert and Ernie! I'm planning my next breads as we speak. I'm also trying to figure out what to do with the three bananas I have slowly softening in the fruit basket. NOT banana bread, as I've made too many banana bread-ish things recently. Perhaps biscotti, or scones? Bananas aren't traditional in either, but maybe they'll be okay.

For lunch, I made this Austrian Garlic Soup and it was lovely. Very creamy and garlicky (obviously), and the parsley really adds to the flavor. I ordinarily think of parsley as optional, or just garnish, but when all the flavor is coming from garlic, the parsley adds another dimension. I used toasted cubes of my sourdough bread!

3 comments:

Stefaneener said...

Don't knwo what i said that was funny, but I'm glad you enjoyed it. The sourdough sounds so, so, so divine. What is insane about getting up at 2 to move dough? I would so do that. Let the unbelievers scoff! Anyone who laughs, gets no bread. That's what I'm thinking.

Oh, keep your blog as is, definitely. Thanks for the book idea -- you of course know about Jasper Fforde, right? I love "re-dos" of classics, starting I guess with Wide Sargasso Sea.

Rain said...

Hang in there with the garter stitch blanket.

Anonymous said...

I've never heard of the Darcy POV books -- I'll have to check them out.