"…Muckers might make angels in its drafts as children do in snow, lovers in sheets, lie down and leave imprinted where they lay a feathered creature holier than they." Photos of a Salt Mine by P.K Page

Dear Y'all,


This week has drawn my summer to a close but I in fact feel less and less sure about what this Fall and, consequently this year, holds for me. I'm processing a lot of questions about school, about my writing degree and about my vision for my future. In the wake of these questions, I just decided to fill my timetable with achievable crafts and carbs to ensure a blithe contentment with what I'm working into. Discouragement can be a hard thing to work through because it unavoidably required taking a hard look at your expectations and whether they are…appropriate. It also takes examining a certain degree of romanticism in life. I would be the first proponent of maintaining the romance in life. But romanticism can also become idealistic and that is the perfect breeding ground for disappointment and discouragement. Blabbity-blab and so goes the mouth. I'll probably be digesting all this stuff here as well. And posting fun things that feed the romance of life. 


Psychosomatic Side Note: I always think of the curry Barracks Farmer's Market in Cowtown when I talk about 'romanticism'. The Farmer's Market was right across the street from where I studied Romantic literature. 


I tried out artisan bread, which has long plagued me with it's irresistible crust and upwards of 18 hour prep time. Letting it sit overnight didn't really gel with my unfettered obsession with carbs and my need for instant gratification with baking. I followed the process listed on the blog Ivory Hut, in which she uses a recipe from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, which I now have on my bookshelf. This bread is the bomb-diggity. What made me nervous about the bread was the involved nature of it and most of the recipes I had seen required it to be baked in a Dutch Oven. This recipe, while it did require about eight hours of 'prep' time, most of it was just waited for the dough and letting t just hang out in a bowl. You don't need to knead it and you really only handle the dough for about five minutes in total (thus the name). Moist, great crust, mild flavour and endlessly adaptable. I want to make an olive-rosemary loaf next and I've seen a recipe for spinach-feta that would be fantastic.  If you have a spare Saturday where you want to make some bread that's going to make you feel like a superhero, try this bread. Plus, I split the dough into three and froze the other two. They still bake up perfect and it makes the time commitment a little bit more rewarding. I have baked two out of my three loaves and I don't have any pictures because we eat it too fast. Perfect with soup, for bruschetta, or….


Grapefruit curd! I mentioned it with baited breath earlier in the week. And on Friday I actually got around to making it work. I have been a part of making lemon curd so many times during a holiday season. It's one of my dad's favourite treats to make around Christmas. It's always made with the intention of spooning it into tarts for Christmas Day but it inevitably is eaten by the spoonful at regular intervals that come Christmas Day there is not a sniff of curd to be found. My dad makes his in the microwave but I found a recipe for a grapefruit curd made on the stovetop and given my recent track record, I found myself dreading whatever would manage to go wrong with a lemon curd, namely 'curdling the eggs'. Nothing is more disgusting to me than curdled eggs. I'm on the fence about eggs anyway (it's my veggie head brainwashing) but eggs going awry in a sweet spread: gross. But after my achievement with the bread, I felt emboldened and dare I say, a tad punch drunk that I put my hesitations aside.

Taste-wise, it was a thing of beauty. Sweet but with a refreshing citrusy tartness, it is flecked with grapefruit and lemon zest and mixed with chunks of fresh ruby red grapefruit. But as you can see, it is a bit…loose. The recipe said that cooking it for less time would result in a soft curd (read: runny). I cooked it, inspecting each flick of the whisk for any trace of opaque egg white, for almost an hour waiting for it to thicken into a spread, more like this:

from Saint Marty via google images

But it did not materialize. There is no such "dollop capacity" with my curd. Look at the definable 'hole' left by the spoon! But as I said, it tastes wonderful. I gifted some of it to some of our favourite people who just tap danced back into Bankybear and they told me they tried it by the spoonful. Which means it was a success.

Happy Monday! Eat something with zucchini in it. I know I will be. 

P.S ~ Moozh and I want to do a home brew this year. Got any tips?