bread by zen

for the first time in years i have a reasonably sized kitchen and bread pans at the same time.
so i got some yeast and made a half loaf.
it's an intentional half loaf so it doesn't go stale before i get to finish it












it's a very wet dough intentionally. i wanted lots of steam for crustiness.
i proofed the yeast in advance in warm water with a little sugar. flour, salt, water, yeast - mix.

let it rise three times on the warmer on my stove, double boiler style.























then i poured it into a greased pan [had just finished a stick of butter so i just used that to wipe the pan, i use unsalted butter]

425 for something under an hourish until the crust was golden brown






super soft inside with lots of medium and small bubbles, crusty outside like a loaf of french bread. it tastes exactly like the most perfect pizza crust i ever ate.



there's only one problem.
i didn't use a recipe and i didn't write it down.
hehe, this should be interesting to try to repeat.

house modding - maximum function, zero aesthetic

what i ended up doing with the area over my kitchen sink. this is the result of the broomstick found in the shed on the last house modding post. the grundtal rack didn't completely fit over the broomstick, but that's what vice grips are for, right?

for details on what each item is, check the original flickr photo and mouse over the pic for pop up notes

http://www.flickr.com/photos/catastrophegirl/4285351995/

this is how i store my ziplocs, foil, etc. i take my own food everywhere so i always need something to put it in. this was it's always right at hand.
that little lazy susan used to go in my fridge but there's no good place for it in the current fridge and it doesn't fit in the cabinets. haven't found a permanent home for it yet. may eventually go in the pantry?



and this is the hallway.

in the middle of this pic is the linen/diabetes closet.
on the right is a magnetic tool bar from harbor freight tools with various things i reach for all the time and want close at hand.
on the left is an ikea bag holder. there are three trash cans and a litterbox in the surrounding rooms. i have a hard time keeping enough bags on hand to use, actually

again, for more details [if you REALLY need to know what's on the tool holder] notes are on the original photo, here

http://www.flickr.com/photos/catastrophegirl/4285363861/in/photostream

fridge features

i don't actually love my fridge. it came with the house.
it's a side by side and i honestly loathe that. i prefer either a top or bottom freezer.
but as long as it's in good working order and i have other things to spend my money on, it stays.
in the meantime, i am thoroughly enjoying the fact that it's a dry erase compatible surface.

gives me LOTS of room to split out my shopping list.

and the side of it is good for a to do list.

my sister has a nice super fancy steel french door fridge. it's lovely. spacious, interior is remarkably usable.
but she had to give up the magnetic properties of the front
and she could never write directly on it.

i guess by the time i am in the market for a new fridge, i'll have a giant list of want and do-not-want features.

house modding

really enjoying finding stuff to make my house more comfortable. a little trip to ikea sort of helped but i had already bought some of the things on my ikea list at a thrift store the week before for $93 less.

was out in the shed this morning digging around in the stuff the previous homeowner left behind and had one of those 'i'm an idiot' moments.
i had wasted countless time trying to figure out how to make a tension rod hold a lot of weight or how to cut down an ikea grundtal rail... when what i really needed was a broomstick that was lying on the floor of the shed under some wood scraps.



now i just need to cut three inches off it, get a couple of large cup hooks to screw into the window frame over my sink and i can hang my dish brushes and the grundtal drainer rack for my soap, nail brush and sponge holder.

duh....

wood burning

reading all kinds of articles and instructions for making lightweight, compact, wood burning or alcohol fueled camping stoves.
sometimes making is good when you want to save weight or money, but seriously, there's a time even i find something better than home made.
one of those things is an old metal chicken feeder i found at a thrift store. didn't even know it was a chicken feeder for a long time. i happened to find out accidentally one day.
just that when i saw it on the shelf my brain said 'ooh! fire!'



i found a source for them new and it's cheap enough to make the work of cutting up food and soda cans be very unreasonable: $3.25. probably available at any feed store for a comparable price.

that's not to say i won't think about making a soda can stove someday for fun but i hardly find it necessary

http://allanimaldepot.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=25&products_id=272

ghost in the making

ghost in the making
Originally uploaded by catastrophegirl

it was going to be a ghost bride and the veil would have muted the makeup on the mask.
but then i started assembling it.
are you thinking what i'm thinking?

whoa! i had no idea!

so i was reading

http://www.wisebread.com/sanity-saving-ideas-for-canning-jars

and it led me to

http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/tip_blender_and_mason_jar/

which led me to my kitchen. where i immediately stuck a mason jar on my blender




and then i tried the mason-jar-with-handle-mugs i have [two of them, different sizes]




and then i eyed the glass jar that my kava [brand] low acid instant coffee comes in that i had just pulled out while unloading the dishwasher and hadn't put away yet..... i have a LOT of those since i drink a lot of coffee and i'm not quite able to recycle a perfectly good glass jar after only one use.

lo and behold it fits!





sadly, the alfredo sauce jars do not fit, but they have metal lids so i am using them for storing tobacco anyway.


on an unrelated note, i do horrible horrible things to my kitchen in the name of efficiency [laziness]

i have several knife blocks so i didn't need the magnetic knife bar that came with the house... for knives. but it's a great place to keep my mini cast iron skillet and to drain my teapot after rinsing it out. ok, so i leave it up there all the time.








that green thing is the microfiber cloth for cleaning my glasses after i do dishes. i always splash them
feel free to be disturbed by the fact that i have a 20 foot long kitchen with 37 cabinets and i can't put away my teapot. i use it all the time so i am counting myself proud that i even bother to take it off the stove at all.