Making Bread - Demystified

I was reading in the paper and there was an article about the hassle of making bread. It talked about how we don't know how to do the simple things anymore and instead rely on store bought loaves that really don't give you the same satisfaction as if you got them fresh.

In this article they also gave a recipe for what they called the easiest bread ever.  Sure they made it look all fancy and plugged specialized equipment that no one really ever needs to even know exists, but the for got to loop back to the real problem we're facing. It takes time to make bread and they gave one of the worst recipes I can imagine to start with.  They said to use yeast, and yes they recommended quick rise yeast, but they insisted that you don't have to kneed it and that it takes three hours to rise.  This is the part that bugged me.  At this point you might as well have thrown the ingredients into a bread machine or gone down to the store and gotten some of their bakery items. You'd have the same experience.

To make a good loaf of bread, and really feel more a part of the process, you have to get your hands dirty. Knead the crap out of that dough! This isn't just a way to mix the dough. First off this really makes you appreciate the bread and what goes into it. Second it actually makes the bread rise better. Your body heat gives the yeast a better environment to thrive and thus makes it rise quicker and better.

Another thing they didn't seem to want to do, and I can understand that there are a lot of people out there who might agree, is add sugar to the ingredients. We're not talking about a cup of sugar or even a quarter cup. All you need is a teaspoon or so to feed the yeast. This will wake those buggers up and help them multiply. Even with quick acting yeast I would add sugar.  This doesn't affect the taste of the bread since the yeast eats nearly all of it up during the process.

As far as the tools you need, you just need a bowl, some measuring cups and spoons, and a loaf pan or two. You might even decided to make it a round loaf which just needs a flat pan to bake on.  Get used to making bread first and if you decide later you want to get fancy then go explore the world of breads and see which kinds you like. In general they are easy to make and will make you feel accomplished.

Recipe Coming Soon!

Office Ants

Sometimes, even three stories up, you run across the problem of ants.  Ants of course live in dirt and when you have many plants sometimes they get the idea that it would make a nice home. Apart from removing the dirt you have few options.  What I recommend is taking the plant out and soaking the dirt to drive the ants out. After you are sure the ants are out and have fled for their lives you can then let the water drain out and put it back where it came from.
To prevent ants from returning you need to try to find out what they've been eating that makes the dirt such a convenient home. In my office's case it seems to be crumbs left over from having food in the conference room a little too often. Once the food source is removed all you have left to do is a little preventative spraying and you should be fine. If they return then something else is wrong. Maybe the floor under or over you is providing plenty of food for everyone and the problem you're having may just be run over from theirs. In that case you would need to discuss this with your neighbors.

Garden Harvest

The garden is growing well. Here are a few of the picks from yesterday.  We already ate one of the zucchini and a few of the cherry tomatoes.  The peppers we have planned for a curry although we haven't decided which kind to make yet.  It will almost definitely involve potatoes though since, as far as we can tell, potatoes seem to go well in every curry dish.

 

There are plenty more tomatoes out there as well as some more forming zucchini and peppers. There is also some squash that should be ready soon and hopefully some cucumber.

 

I planted some green onion from seed recently and it's taking off well enough.  It isn't huge but it's already a few inches tall. Quicker than I expected.

 

It's supposed to continue raining for some time this week which hopefully won't interfere too much with the outdoor activities we have planned. The percent isn't too high so maybe it will be mostly morning showers.  We can deal with that.

Cacao Tree Progress

The  cacao trees are growing well. The leaf on the right is the topmost and biggest leaf on the plant.  It is about fifty percent bigger than the other leaves on the plant.  There are a total of seven leaves now, six on the main trunk of the tree and one on a side branch.  This is of course the one in the window of the main conference room.

The other trees are still smaller than this one even though they are in much larger pots with more room for putting down roots. They also have varying amounts of light.  The main plant still has pretty much all day sun through UV protective glass with a small break in the middle of the day while. Pot two has two trees with afternoon sun. It also has another tropical office plant and a pineapple plant growing in it. The trees have about five leaves each and have grown a couple inches in height since the last post. Pot three has three trees with only ambient outside light. It's been slow growing but still steady. The smallest one only has three leaves still  but it's really starting to grow faster. I might need to transplant these to separate pots so they can have a better chance to grow well. It shouldn't be to hard at this point but may get harder to do if they get much farther along. When I added dirt to the main plant it's roots were coming along but it was no where near root bound. I could only barely see the roots at the edges of the cup. In a couple more weeks I will be transplanting it into a real pot although probably not it's final pot. That will take some time before it can have enough presence in a room to merit it. It is in an office after all.