Tag: baking!

Wednesday with a side of baking

Coon cats first

Firefly:

Rook:

#
Wednesday. Cloudy and cool.

Hard to get out of bed this morning. Rook finally had to resort to sitting on my head and chewing my hair.

Read about a quarter of the WIP, breaking to make macaroni, some of which will become part of lunch; the rest of which will become part of lunches going forward. Also have to do some banking.

Came across a recipe for scallion-and-cheddar scones, which I do believe I’ll be making this afternoon; they actually look like Real Food, in addition to being tasty.

The Lawn Guy has been by and done his thing, being as it’s not Actually Raining at the moment.

The question How Are We/I Doing? has been asked. The answer “I’ve been better,” may be seen as flippant, and “Working,” may be seen as not being kind to myself.

A story. Steve and I many years ago attended the Universalist/Unitarian Church, where I was also a volunteer with the Evening Sandwich Program.

Now, Unitarians are kind of the Virgos of organized religions. There are many variations on the joke that starts out with a question like What Do The Religions Do When Their Church Catches on Fire, and it’s inevitably the punchline that the Unitarians call the fire department.

At our particular church, there was a tradition when those in the congregation who had experienced a Good Thing in their lives during the previous week, were asked to stand up and share this with those gathered. One Sunday, Steve stood up and talked about some writing triumph that I no longer recall, and got A Look from the pulpit.

At coffee, after, the minister came up to him and said, “The Good Thing is supposed to be personal, you know. About your life. Not business.”

To which Steve famously said, “But writing is my life.”

All this to say that when I say I’m going to work, it doesn’t mean that I’m being mean to myself or exceptional in my dedication to my job. I’m writing. It’s what I do. Worry when I don’t do what I do.

. . . and that’s the bell for the pasta.

How’s everybody getting by today?
#
There was a call for the scone recipe, which is rendered below:

Scallion Cheddar Scones
This is supposed to make 12 scones. I made 16, because I have a scone pan and it has 16 spaces.

From the King Arthur All-Purpose Baking Companion

2 cups (240g) unbleached all-purpose flour OR (224g) unbleached pastry flour (I used white whole wheat, because that’s what I had)

1/2 tsp salt

1 Tbs sugar

1 Tbs baking powder

6 TBS unsalted butter, cold, cut into pieces

2 large eggs, beaten

1/3 cup (77g) cream or sour cream (I used sour cream)

1 TBS Dijon mustard

1 cup (112g) grated sharp cheddar cheese

3-5 (56g) scallions, chopped (I used shallots because no scallions)

Preheat oven to 375F. Sift together flour, salt, sugar, baking powder. Rub in butter with fingers.

Mix together eggs, mustard, cream. Add to dry ingredients. Stir in grated cheese and scallions. Mix until just combined.

Liberally flour the counter and your hands. Pat the dough into a 6×9 in rectangle about 1 inch thick. Cut the rectangle into 6 smaller rectangles, and cut each smaller rectangle into two triangles to form 12 triangular scones. Place on well-greased baking sheet.

OR 1: Squish even amounts of dough into each space in a dedicated scone pan

OR 2: Make 12 even amounts of dough into balls, put on well-greased baking sheet.

BAKE for 20 minutes, or until nicely browned.

Mine just came out of the oven:

. . .I have conducted a Quality Control Taste Analysis.  These?  are good.

Saturday with writing and bread

Saturday. Sunny and cool.

Wrote about 600 words this morning, and discovered that I twitched something that I should’ve tweaked, so I printed out the offending pages and will sit with them later to try to untangle the he-said/she-said.

Since I’m down to my last two slices of bread, I’m baking a loaf, which is in for its first rise. I’ve cleaned up the kitchen. Still need to perform my duty to the cats.

Nothing much else doing, except the observation that it’s apparently Tali’s afternoon to keep me Under Surveillance. Either that, or she just likes to watch bread being put together.

Oh. The question of When Can We Buy Kin Right, which has come up three or four times in the last week.

ANSWER: The last I heard from Baen was that Kin Right would be published in “Spring 2027.” So now everybody knows as much as I do.

Also! It’s “taking so long” because I needed 18 months, instead of our usual year, to write it, which meant I turned it in to Baen in April 2026, instead of October 2025.

The reason I had to “take so long” to write it is because my co-author died in February 2024, and the September 2024 delivery date for that book (Diviner’s Bow) had in actuality not been extended, as I had thought it had been, which meant that I had to scramble hard to turn it in on time, or, rather, only a little late. Which in turn meant that I was exhausted, and that Creative Well we all talk about was dry and I needed some down time before I pulled the next rabbit out of my hat. Files under “Writers are Human.”

I think that really is all.

How’s Saturday going at your place?

Remote writing

So, Sunday. Dim and damp. Big breakfast of scrambled eggs with inclusions. Need to make something for lunch realsoonnow.

One thousand two hundred five new words written today, putting the WIP well over fifty grand — 50,570(ish), for those keeping a spreadsheet.

I’m contemplating a nap. I prolly won’t take one, ref make lunch, above, but jeezlouise is it a day for a nap.

In totally unrelated news, this morning I was thinking about Something Else, and a character wandered into my head, as they do, this one bearing the conviction that she’s from Chicago. Well. Everybody’s gotta be from someplace, I guess.

How’s Sunday treating you and yours?
#
Bread’s in the oven. Remote arrived. I have achieved a kludge blu-ray system by which I need to start the disc playing manually, but once that happens, I can use the remote to start the movie, fast forward through previews and all like that, which is to say!

I will, indeed, preorder a copy of Hadestown, and when it arrives it will be more than a pretty ornament.

I would like it noted in the log that my test disc was Jupiter Rising and that I did not watch all of it.

I am a Tired Woman, for whatever that’s worth.

Everybody have a good evening. I’ll check in tomorrow.

Episodic Monday

Foggy Monday morning at the Cat Farm:
#
I have a rosebud!

#
Monday. The fog’s burned off and the morning is sunny and cool.

I’m a little drifty this morning, for some reason. OTOH, yesterday did have its Moments.

Breakfast et — the last two slices from the loaf, toasted, with cheese, and the last of the cherries. A theme. Bread, I can do something about — all the ingredients are measured out and sitting on the countertop, warming to room temperature. I’ll commence in mixing and kneading and whatnot after I sit with my notes and glower at the screen. Cherries will wait on the morrow.

I’m nearly finished writing the scenes I had, ahem, “plotted” and now I need to sketch in some scenes going forward, so I can go forward.

Why is writing a novel like crossing a stream on stepping stones?

Started reading Dragon in Exile last night, which — the beginning is a little rockier than I recall. Of course, I recall that the first scene I wrote was of the traveler arriving at the front door amidst a light summer snowfall, and taking a moment to decide if it would be better to use the palm plate or pull the bell rope.

And! That’s the bell for the third cup of tea, which shall accompany me back to Steve’s office to assist in the Glowering at Screens.

How’s your Monday starting out?
#
Did some glaring, did some editing of what I wrote yesterday, added some new words. WIP currently stands at 13,610 words, more or less.

Bread’s in for the first rise, and I? need to find something to eat.
#
And Useful Internet Find of the Day: King Arthur — how much does it weigh?

#
Does anyone here trade with crows? I seem to have a family in the big pine tree and we might as well get to know each other.

How do I set up a trade station?

What are the drawbacks?
#
Yeah, this’ll do

#
OK! By request, this is the recipe for the loaf I made today, and by Gumby, Imma make it again, so this is for me as much as it’s for you. Again, I have taken a “Harvest Grain Bread” recipe from King Arthur and adapted it by (1) decreasing by .5 cups the unbleached flour, (2) increasing by .5 cups the wheat flour, and (3) subbing in 1.25 cups of lukewarm milk for .25 cup of dry milk and 1.25 cups of lukewarm water.

If you want the actual recipe, it’s here

BELOW IS WHAT I DID; reflecting the changes discussed above.

2 cups (240 g) (King Arthur) unbleached bread flour
1 cup (113 g) (King Arthur) golden wheat flour (this is what used to be called white whole wheat flour)
1/2 cup (74 g) (King Arthur) Harvest Grain Blend
1.5 teaspoons (9 g) table salt
2.5 tablespoons (28 g) granulated sugar
2 teaspoons instant yeast
1.25 cups (283 g) lukewarm milk (I used skim, cause that’s what I had)
3 tablespoons (43 g) unsalted butter, softened (OR 3 tablespoons (35 g) vegetable oil

Combine all ingredients and knead (via hand, electric mixer or bread machine) until the dough is smooth, elastic, and satiny.

Put dough into a lightly greased bowl, cover bowl with lightly greased plastic wrap, allow the dough to rise for an hour (or let the bread machine complete its cycle). The dough will be puffy, but it will not have doubled. That’s OK.

Transfer dough to a lightly floured surface, shape a loaf, put it in a lightly greased 9×5 loaf pan, cover the pan with lightly greased plastic wrap, and let the bread rise until the top is about an inch from the top of the pan — between 1 and 1.5 hours.

Preheat the oven to 350F

Bake bread for 35 minutes or until an internal thermometer registers 190F. Take the bread out of the oven, and out of the pan to cool on a rack.

Try not to slice it before it’s cool.

Store leftover bread (yes, there is such a thing), well-wrapped, at room temperature for three days. Freeze for longer storage.

NOTE: The foregoing is canon, but honestly, after the loaf’s cool, I put it in a plastic bag and tuck it in the fridge. If I know I’m gonna be slow on bread use, I sometimes cut the loaf in half, put half in the fridge and half in the freezer.

On concluding projects

What went before:

Also, this happened:

#
Saturday. Sunny and warm. I think. I haven’t been out. In fact, I not only slept late, I lay in bed, snuggled with cats, and read my email, so I’m just now getting up and around.

Today’s big plan is to make focaccia and maybe read or maybe… No, I don’t think I’ll write anything today. I do need to do some research but that can maybe wait. Maybe I’ll finish my embroidery project and see how that turns out.

As you can see my plans are firm.

How’s everybody doing today?
#
Focaccia happened.  Yes, it tastes every bit as good as it looks.

#
Had a very strange experience — I can’t get into either Bank of America or Discover to get my statements for monies due in early April, which is only a problem because neither one of those entities sent me a reminder that I had a new bill, and I happened to notice that now that my head isn’t filled up with BOOK.

Discover says that it’s really terribly sorry but it can’t complete “that operation” (which would be logging in) right now. Bank of America, ever charming, says that I phucked up my ID or my password or maybe both? And it might let me in if I give it my social security number, which, err. No.

So! I have two phone calls to make on Monday, lucky me.

In other news, I’m on what ought to be my last four meals from Cook Unity, delivered yesterday. Today, I had the shrimp grain bowl, which was…OK, I guess. I had six shrimp and got bored with them, so I chopped up the leftover ones, and I’ll be having a shrimp salad sandwich for the evening meal.

Also we here in Central Maine are under an Active Weather Advisory and warned to look out for between 3 and 6 inches of snow on the overnight. Honestly, March.

And now? I’m going to go embroider.
#
So, I finished my first! ever! concept-to-finished-piece embroidery project and!

I learned some stuff.

The first thing I learned is that I made this too small, in terms of the current states of my eyesight and the steadiness of my hand. Next time, I WILL go bigger, even if it means I can’t get the whole design inside the hoop at once.

I also learned — actually, I knew this — white-on-white is hard to read. Duh.

But! and most importantly!

I learned that it Can Be Done.

Which means I can Do It Again.

I should report that Tali and Rook joined me in the living room while I finished this up. Rook sat on my lap and didn’t even try to mess the thread. He just kinda curled up and went to sleep.


#
So, that was a nice day off-ish. Tomorrow, I will start to read Kin Right, and will also plan on clearing off the top of my desk — yes, again.

My next embroidery project is a pre-printed sampler — that’s it, just the design. So, my next step, now that’s in the hoop, is to make a yarn/floss card. Which means I need to dig out the Big Bag of Floss. Later.

For right now, I’m going to pour myself a glass of wine and see about making that shrimp salad sandwich.

Everybody have a good evening. I’ll check in tomorrow.

Mutant Seedy Bread recipe

Answering the multiple calls for the recipe of the dense, seedy bread I made yesterday.

Rolanni’s Mutant Seedy Bread

1 cup lukewarm milk

1/4 cup of (the recipe I’m riffing off of calls for orange juice, but I only had pineapple, so…)

1/4 vegetable oil

3 tablespoons of (dark) maple syrup — you can probably use molasses; I had maple syrup

2 teaspoon of yeast

1.25 teaspoons salt

3 cups whole wheat flour (I had King Arthur Golden Wheat)

1/3 cup of King Arthur whole grain mix

Mix everything together — it’ll be sticky and damp, that’s a feature — scrape it into a WELL-GREASED loaf pan, let it rise for 60-90 minutes (today it took 90 minutes for my dough to rise). Preheat the oven to 350. Bake the loaf for 40-45 minutes (today, mine wanted the whole 45 minutes), putting an aluminum foil tent over it after the first 20 minutes.

Here’s what mine looked like when I was done:

It’s been so long, eating and drinking and making merry

The Long Back Yard this morning.  Perhaps not obvious from the picture: It was snowing at the time.

OK. Thursday. Snowed about an inch this morning, just enough to freshen yesterday’s snow. Intermittently sunny — or cloudy, if you prefer it that way — at the moment.

Breakfast was eggs scrambled with spinach and onions and cheese, with a biscuit and strawberry jam on the side. Lunch…I may go back to my original plan of ham and yam, because I’m not sure those chicken breasts are thawed, actually.

Wrote about 930 words this morning, concluding a scene that I really like — Yes, this is going to be a book totally comprised of Scenes I Like. Rookie and Tali kept me company in the office, while Firefly is keeping a Very Close Eye on the bedroom.

I’m getting ready to start a loaf of bread to rise, after which it’s PT homework, one’s duty the cats, and lunch, one way or the other.

Hope everybody’s having a good day.
#
Yanno? “Wonderful Christmastime?” Paul McCartney, celebrating all the lovely, lovely things that “Only happen at this time of Year” And I am Up To Here with that.

First of all — it’s a real dud on the lyrics, but so are most Christmas songs, so I guess I can’t take points off for that. But honestly? Aren’t we all supposed to be together and sharing joy and magic all the time?

Why, why does it only “happen at this time of year?” Why is it not a lifestyle choice? What is it about cruelty that is so attractive that it gets 363ish days while Joy, Magic, and Fellow Feeling only get 2ish, and only if we’ve spent enough money?

Yes, I do feel better now. And the bread’s in to rise.
#


OK…The bread is really good. I had wanted a dense, seedy loaf and this one delivers. I cut it in half — one piece for the freezer and the other to eat now. Ahem. Over the course of the next couple days.

In between It All, I seem to have written 2,320 words today, which is … a lot, as we count words around here. On the other hand, as Jen Sin today observed to Miri, Traders talk A Lot. The WIP entire is somewhere around 113,480 total words.

I will mention that I wrote that many words and STILL had time to fall down the rabbit hole of Mongolian Techno. Some years back now there had been a Mongolian metal rock band — HU? HUU? — and they were doing some interesting things, but Mongolian Techno? Who knew.

Tomorrow, I have Real Life Business I have to take care of first (Well. “First,” after clearing snow, so Sarah can get in and also picking up so she can do her thing) having successfully put it off for more than a week (procrastination; it’s not for sissies).

I did read some few pages of Agent of Change, and will probably read some more after the cats stop shouting at me to deliver them their Happy Hour. What’s really interesting, is that I can remember which bits Steve wrote, and which bits I wrote, and which bits Steve wrote and I changed. I don’t think — but will be testing the proposition — that I can do that with later books. But you never forget your first, amirite?

Everybody have a good evening. Stay safe. Watch out for windblown snow and ice on the roads.

I’ll see you tomorrow.

Today’s blog post title brought to you by The Hu, from their 2019 Billboard hit, “Yuve Yuve Yu“

For want of a yeast, the loaf was lost…

Well. I wrote 1,475 words today, but I only got to keep 900 of them, bringing the WIP to 106,725. More or less.

The curtains are down in Steve’s office and have taken up their temporary role as dustcovers. Firefly emphatically does not approve of this development.

Boy, am I glad I cleared this with the committeecat first.

In other news, my yeast is dead and I’m unhappy. I took it into my head to bake a cheese loaf, only it didn’t rise. My yeast, living in the freezer, is God She knows how old. However! the back-up yeast has a sell-by in 2021. I feel in my heart that I should just buy a new bag of yeast and not even try the back-up bag.

I still wanted cheese bread, though, so I made cheese muffins, which are cooling as I type.

I have some notes to write re the WIP, and then it will be Coon Cat Happy Hour.

I will therefore take this opportunity to bid everyone a good night. Stay safe. I’ll look in tomorrow.

In which the lost are found

Yesterday, I baked bread, did embroidery, carried books down to the basement and got them safely stowed, finished Phase One of the Sekrit Project, which leaves two Phases left to complete by November 14, which is totally doable.

I also found Steve’s cardinal, which was hiding behind books on the bottom-most shelf of the bookcase from which it fled.

And a bonus find…

About a million years ago, I bought Steve a sundial for his birthday. Approximately two hundred years ago, the gnomon went missing. The sundial then became a piece of glass art that sat on a bookshelt in Steve’s office.

Today, as I was looking for the cardinal, I found the gnomon for the sundial. It had been stuck to a book.

So the sundial is back together, which is pleasing, even though it I probably have no place to set it up, since — windows, cats.

Still, I’m pleased that it’s at least potentially functional again.

#

Where are we? Thursday?

Thursday. Sunny, white-and-gray clouds traveling across a blue sky.

Breakfast was two slices of yesterday’s bread, toasted, cottage cheese, and grapes. Yesterday, I ate three slices of bread with butter as soon as the loaf was cool enough to slice, two slices this morning, and I foresee another slice or two with lunch. I am not usually like this, but I’m gonna finish this loaf by Saturday. Guess I needed Vitamin Bread.

Wrote 1,459 new words this morning. Did the addition, to get some idea of where I am contract-wise, and found the total WIP at 102,870, which In Theory means I can type THE END.

Yeah, yeah. We laugh at Theory.

I did sleep in, and my desk one! more! time! looks like a bomb hit it. How does this keep happening? Gremlins, I guess.

Tonight is glassworking, which means a late lunch, because class goes so late. Happily, I can sleep in tomorrow.

That? Is all the news from this side of the world.

How’s everything going for you?

Oh.  I got the sundial set:

Thursday afternoon cat census:

Ain’tcha got no rhymes for me?

What went before ONE: Well, that wasn’t what I was going to be doing when I got home.

Splinter Universe got blasted out of the water (no, I don’t know Exactly How; we’ve been having some DoS fun over at my blog, and there may have been residual damage. Or it could’ve gotten targeted just for its own self.). Whatever the cause, I spent the last couple hours trying to put it back the way it was, and finally gave up on that in favor of getting the site online again, and there I may report success.

Splinter Universe is back on line, for those who may have missed it. All the Stuff is there, but it is much simpler in appearance.

Also? Yon writin’ woman is Some Corked Off.

Tomorrow: Early mammogram, just in case I needed another reason to be grumpy.

Everybody stay safe; I’ll check in tomorrow.

What went before TWO: So…I’m sorry; I have to share this or it will haunt me all night. AARP has shared A Tip of foods to limit if you have “prediabetes” (do not get me started on “prediabetes.” Arguably we all have “prediabetes,” it’s kind of like having “predeath.” See? You didn’t have to get me started; I’m self-powered.)

Anyway, this list of things to avoid have swap outs — you know the drill, instead of pasta, have some tasty spaghetti squash. Instead of rice, have some cauliflower. And — here’s the one that will haunt me for the length of my days —

Swap out wine for!

Vodka.

Yes, yes, I’ve gone and scared the cats, and on that note, I’m going to pour a glass of wine, which I have abSOfreakingLUTELY earned this afternoon.

Tuesday. Sunny and chill, but getting warmer fast.

Trash and recycling at the curb. Mammogram accomplished. Breakfast was vanilla Skyr. Drinking my second cup of tea with the last two cranberry-walnut-oatmeal cookies. You know what this means, of course?

Right. I need to bake more cookies.

. . .

Yanno? I think I have chocolate chips.

Another bad night of sleep, with the exception of the two! whole! hours! that Firefly tucked her compact little self into my stomach, and turned her purr box on High. I’ve gotta get me some more of that.

Firefly is currently off-duty, but that does not mean I’m unsupervised. Tali and Rook are both on guard at the right-side window, so I can feel certain They won’t get in That Way.

Needlework this evening. Between now and then, I have to perform my duty to the cats, and then I believe I will address the Cookie Situation.

Y’all have enough cookies?

Today’s blog post title brought to you by Paul Simon, via Harper’s Bazaar (you may blame 60sGold on Sirius XM for this)  “59th Street Bridge Song.”

Photo of the Right Flank Guards at work: