elainegrey

Kitchen adventures

* Sunchokes roasted for over an hour at 350°F do have an effect on my digestive system. I've started lacto-ferment pickles with the remainder. I'll dig some more later and will try boiling them "in lemon juice" (whether the blogger meant in water with added lemon juice or lemon juice was unclear, i assume the former).

* I tried this fudge recipe and am disappointed: https://www.food.com/recipe/maple-fudge-102905 The condensed milk flavor seems predominate and the texture is soft and pliable. Not the crystal-crumbliness i think of with fudge. The amount barely covers the bulb of the thermometer so i have no idea if i actually made it to soft ball stage. It seemed like soft balls in the water test, and i was worried i was actually scorching the mixture despite constant stirring. I may have also started stirring before it cooled all the way down to 110°F. I suppose i should try a different recipe.

* I tried to make bread again and it was horrible. I forgot the oat bran which presumably absorbs the moisture. I don't think i forgot the salt but i may have forgotten that as well. So bad that i am feeding it to the wild life. I am tempted to find another Balto-Nordic bread recipe and just start over. (But i'll keep Hans.) As far as the wildlife's opinion, i didn't get a photo on new years eve of the critter(s) who took the bread. There was a later photo of a Chatham rabbit, on New Years Day: a happy first observation of the year.

* I made sourdough waffles with the rye starter and brown rice flour. THAT turned out just fine.

I've spent Monday, Tuesday and (New Years), Wednesday going through digital reminders and ticklers. I'm trying to get back some old habits of recording some details systematically and maintaining to-do lists (as opposed to just adding and adding things and then feeling overwhelmed by the length and never reading the list, which means actually done things linger on the list). This is also a good time to clear out last year's ticklers (if i didn't do so promptly - -i found some lingering from January) and -- i realize -- all the past ten years that start 201*

I've begun dosing Luigi with CBD. tylik mentioned dosing one of her anxious cats. As Luigi seems helped by the Dasuquin but still walks stiffly and is generally querulous it seems like a possible ease. I don't think i'm ready to trust CBD for anything i complain of, but if i were spending considerable fractions of my day sleeping already....

Meanwhile, Marlowe's litterbox failures and her general insistence have earned her unsupervised outside time. I go fetch her after 5 minutes when i let everyone out at dawn (well, in the dark right now. It's not even nautical twilight). She had been fairly compliant but this morning i had to follow and herd her in. I think she could get out if she really put her mind to it, but i think there's enough inside the orchard to keep her distracted from strategizing an escape. Christine keeps a timer and checks on her in order to not allow too much time to pass without supervision.

Carrie and Edward are doing well. Edward is, on the books, the same age as Luigi (~16-17 years old). We adopted him as a full grown stray in 2009 (the vet estimated 5 years old), and i'm pretty sure he'd wandered around the neighborhood for a year before that as an adult cat. That puts his birth year at most recent as 2007. So he may be as young as 13. He seems so much more hale than Luigi; it's hard to believe they are the same age.

Yesterday had some frustrations and disappointments that accumulated.

Lovely things: feather comforter on a cold night.

Driving in the dark, with the extra hour saved from the spring, up to the signal range of the low power radio station to verify it was still broad casting. Visiting the studio for the first time. Nostalgia for the radio stations from when we were in college.

Scintillating stars, bright blue day. Raking leaves and having the immediate gratification of the drive looking tidier.

Tonight we're trying the red grapes and (vegetarian) sausage sheet pan recipe from the NY Times. I need more sheet pan ideas, i think. Apples, red onion, and sweet potato sounds good. I guess we have celery: a celery potato and onion mix might be nice as well. Wait, something with green tomatoes

Ah well, off to meeting and to shake this dissatisfaction.

( whining )

Impatient bread turned out JUST FINE. 75 min in the convection oven set to 400° (which means it then resets itself to 375°) and it's moist with a crumb that reminds me of the packaged pumpernickel.

The one negative is that i followed the salt quantity and ... it's a bit much. That, and some of the seeds are still a bit daunting.

So there, recipe, so there.

So, i have learned a few things about making bread, but not much. I have at least not repeated the teflon removing goo stage that ruined one loaf pan. (Mmm, that could be a reward for loaves that i am happy with: some really nice loaf pans.)

( I have doubts about the success of today's breadmaking )

So, if this turns out like the last loaves... well, i'll have learned something about the process. Get a new recipe, perhaps.

--== ∞ ==--

Christine and i spent hours talking today. It seemed we haven't talked like this for ages. Maybe since Mom's stroke? It was good, but we both felt it as heavy and draining. We do have a few plans, about next steps fixing an electrical issue with the microwave and installing a light in the garage, once the roof is done. I think the lamp we bought to have installed has been sitting out there a year. And then we'll also move forward with a shed on the side of the garage to shelter all the yard equipment. I don't know if i need a permit for that or not. I think not. It might be nice to roof it with the clear plastic roofing used for greenhouses: the light would be nice. Or a few panels of the clear and many of the opaque....

Anhow, good talking.

But i'm left with a heavy existential doubt. This is depression.

In positive things - I saw a tree frog hopping in the grass when i went out at dusk with Carrie. We are, at least, living in a way that the critters can thrive (up to the point Edward catches them). And even if the cursed stilt grass (Microstegium vimineum) is setting seed, i have gotten good bits cut down in time, even if not all. We are encouraging the wild and native plants. Edward, Luigi, and Carrie are happy. I am helping Mom & Dad when i work from their home (even if some of the existential questioning is from projecting myself 25 years out and thinking of aging).

Monday: productive? Wow, cannot remember.

Tuesday: afternoon was spent with my parents at an surreal and time consuming appointment. At the UNC Cancer hospital they ask you to show up 30 minutes in advance. Then we were called for the appointment 30 min late. So, an hour spent hanging out with my parents is valuable, but not planned. Next, the resident explained that they were puzzled why we were there because Mom doesn't have cancer, and they do cancer. We spent probably an hour with the resident and then the doctor who did Mom's first biopsy.

Thinking this was where we would be told about the pulmonary fibrosis, ( i still learned some things )

Mom left feeling great. Yay! No cancer! (Which we had known.)

I left feeling like they had given strong indications that mom (likely) has a fatal diagnosis. On the other hand, if it were me, i would be relieved at having a diagnosis that could take effect and not leave me lingering in a dementia twilight, with the possibility of more strokes making me dependent on others for bodily care. But i can't tell how well Mom can think through things with the dementia in place.

Christine's brother has recently been given a memory loss diagnosis and is receiving Alzheimer's medications. Their mother died of complications from Alzheimer's, and Christine fears getting it herself. It doesn't help that this is the sibling from whom she is most estranged.

Wednesday i worked from Mom & Dad's. Dad had forgotten that Mom had a physical therapy appointment and it threw him for a bit of a loop: i recognize the way a small perturbation can cause outsized distress from my own wrestlings. He ended up only going grocery shopping and not taking the boat out.

I brought over to them a "pre-ferment" for making sourdough rye waffles. Dad added the egg and salt but not the baking soda when he made them for lunch. I thought they were quite good, Dad would have preferred them to be harder and more cracker-like. I had added sugar per the recipe, but it wasn't particularly sweet. They were delicious with fresh tomato from my sister's and my garden, mayo, salt, and pepper.

I off loaded many large slicing tomatoes to them. I'm trying to get ahead of my garden as i will be out of town Monday through Friday next week.

Yesterday: i took the bread pre-ferment that had been bubbling since Wednesday early and the rye berries i'd soaked, and made bread loaves. This time i remembered to let them rise. That makes a big difference! I didn't add malt or sunflower seeds, but did add caraway (or fennel seed, not sure which), coriander from the garden, and molasses. Next time i think letting the rye sprout even more would be good. The loaves baked beautifully, although they spread out horizontally a bit more than rising up. I may use a bread pan resting on the baking stone next time to see about a more square loaf.

This morning the loaf end with cream cheese is delightful.

Work was busy, and i had a little headache.

We've had a touch of rain that has filled the bottom of the tank. That's gratifying.

I have started binging on season two of Once Upon A Time (still using fast forward occasionally).

I set up an Acurite weather monitoring system and hooked it into WeatherUnderground. I don't know why, when this page finishes loading, the temperature changes from the correct value to some confusing representation (Celsius, but the interface thinks it's F, so it shows the temperature as blue? Went away when i logged in.) I've wanted a weather station for a long time, so i finally splurged.

I also splurged on a new lens for my camera. I was testing it last night, and tried to use the flash -- and i think my camera's flash shorted out taking the memory of all the camera settings with it.

I am a little terrified but the camera seems to at least take photos still, so i'll troubleshoot eventually.