The bleeding continues

It was time for a new gadget.

We replaced our old, tiny 36" television.

We decided that we're ready to have a High Definition Television. We got a 58" Samsung plasma set from Costco.

Even though its screen is much larger than the old CRT set's, it's not sticking way out into the room so the room feels much bigger now.  The old set stuck out almost a foot further into the room than the bottom of the new stand.

And we had to feed the hi-def-ness of the set. We got a Blu-Ray Disc player. And, of course, we upgraded our cable TV subscription to HD.

We've watched our first on-demand movies. In HD.

And the Olympics are watchable on on-demand. No commercial interruptions (there's only one commercial at the beginnings of the episodes). And you get to watch only the events you're interested in. I got to see both runs of each of the 12 finalists in the Men's Halfpipe finals without having to watch anything like the women's biathlon pursuit interspersed. All for no added charge! Yay, cable TV!

I know how most visitors to our house will spend most of their time.

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

Another turtle mug.

It's a roomy one.

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

A Randy Chitto story teller

See der waxwing?

This morning I was mixing up a can of orange juice. As I was filling the can with water I happened to notice that the birdbath was completely filled with some very handsome birds I had never seen before. Suddenly, the birds all took off and there was an empty birdbath. Then, just as suddenly, it was filled again with another batch of birds.

The birds turned out to be cedar waxwings. Their diet is supposed to be mainly berries so I don't know why they're hanging around these parts.

They just kept coming and going. I got out my trusty Kodak EasyShare Z740 and made a movie.

The movie isn't terribly clear but you get an idea of what we saw.


Here's a picture of them at another birdbath.

Our birdbaths give us a lot of entertainment.

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

A herd of turtles circling the globe. Plus some other metal turtles.

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

Silly signage.

The door from the garage:

By the walk:

I don't knead it anymore

About four years ago the California Center for the Arts, Escondido, had a series of concerts featuring up-and-coming artists. One of them was baritone Thomas Meglioranza. We enjoyed his concert and I started reading his blog where he tells us about his concerts, what he eats and what he cooks.

One of the recipes he raved about was bread that is easy and spectacular. It has flour, a lot of water, salt, and a bit of yeast. You mix (without kneading) the ingredients together and let it rise for 18 hours. Then you form it into a ball, let it rise again, then cook it in a Dutch oven that you've had in the oven while you've preheated it to 450°.

The result is supposed to be a loaf that "is incredible, a fine-bakery quality, European-style boule."

I gave it a try. I wasn't convinced. The dough, batter almost, was probably too wet. It kind of soaked into the towel it was sitting on for the second rising and didn't dump into the hot casserole. I guess it deflated way too much on the way to the pot and ended up a flat, tough loaf.

I was discouraged and never got around to trying it again.

A couple of weeks ago Duck Duck Gray Duck blogged the recipe. I got inspired to try it again.

I had better luck this time but I still think I need to adjust something. The loaf still ended up flatter than I hoped for. For the second rising you're supposed to form the dough into a ball. It was so soft there was no way that it would maintain a "ball" shape. It stayed flat.

But at least this time the dough didn't soak into the towel and easily went into the Dutch oven. The result was a flatish loaf that tastes very nice. And has a crisp crust.

Here's the batter dough after the first rising:

Here it is, formed in a "ball," ready to rise the second time:

Dumped into the much-too-large Dutch oven (the recipe says to use a 6 to 8 quart Dutch oven, which I did...I'll try our 4 quart one next time):

The baked loaf:

The inside of the flat loaf:

I wonder what I should try next time. A little less water? A smaller Dutch oven? (Yes.) Well, those are about the only adjustments possible. Wish me luck.

The recipe came from The New York Times and the accompanying article tells you about the theory of the process.

I hope everyone out there will give it a try and will tell me what I can do to make it even better.