Emmalou has come into her own as a bread starter, getting turned into a lot of variations on the rustic bread theme, including a most delicious ciabatta last weekend. She continues to enjoy being fed, although she mostly just sits on the counter and bubbles away--not exactly charismatic. The bread has been tasty though (outside of the times we failed to add salt and the times we overcompensated for the salt exclusion by doubling down). I can see this hobby sticking around for some time, as raw ingredients are considerably more cost-effective than loaves of inedible grocery store cardboard and it makes the house smell really good too...plus, what's a better lunch...and snack...and dinner than fresh baked bread? (And this is where we raise our middle digits to the Atkins fad as well.) We're developing some technique and have yet to strike upon abject failure, which seems to be the key to maintaining interest in any subject!
In the second week of the year, we chose to divide and conquer with the man's work focused on creating a backyard composting system and the woman's work endeavoring to produce some homemade yogurt--these would be the next microbial forays. Yogurt making was a piece of cake--if I hadn't bought the auto-shut-off heating pad it would have been seamless! Ooops. So much for "letting sit" for 8 hours! The compost system, after much sweat and muscle strain, seems to be coming along, although not as quickly as hoped. It was a challenge to find the proper starter ingredients this time of year, but after mixing several bags of manure with all those damn leaves we raked a few months back, it seems like it's on its way. Thus, Oscar was born.
Next on tap for the microbes is brewing. It's been a few years, but it seems like a good time to get back into it, so hopefully, coming soon to a refrigerator near us will be a nice batch of porter. We tried to find a recipe for Black Butte Porter while we were at the brewing supply store, but had no luck with the books they had. A quick search of the InterWebs turned up several, which I've filed away for next time...we'll see how the first one goes.
Now for the vertebrates...after 15 years of being fostered by the parentals, my aquarium has found its way back into my life! I could probably attribute my start in professional fish wrangling to that aquarium, but truth be told, I like my professional fish endeavors to fall in the marine and the tank is set-up for freshwater...so it's not a perfect match, but suffice it to say, I've been mesmerized by fish for years. Actually, I got my first fish when Grampy took me to the "Polish Picnic" 'round about 198x (? I was but wee) and I won a "goldfish" in a bowl from a contest of some silly nature (I'm sure Grampy actually won and I just reaped the reward). As it turned out, the goldfish was a platy (Xiphophorus maculatus) and this free gift turned into a small investment "opportunity" for my loving parents, who dutifully marched to the pet shop and got all the necessary equipment to rear the lil' fellar'. This spawned (hehe) a whole series of tropical fish tanks and their inhabitants.
The present model was purchased as a graduation gift...then I promptly moved to another state. But at long last, we're reunited. After a bit of cleaning and some overhaul, we salvaged the one lingering fish, a loach of some sort, who is no doubt the latest in a line of tank cleaners my brother and I named "Sucksmuch" only to be told by my mother that it was an "inappropriate name"--the funny thing is, upon recounting this story to the newly (self) appointed Fish Tank Czar, he said the same...harrumph. I will still think of it as "Sucksmuch." So, after getting everything settled we added a few new pals to the tank and now have two schools of tetras cruising around. The plastic scuba diver was banned by the FT Czar, but I will survive, content to watch the little dudes hang out in their new home.
Hyphessobrycon pulchripinnis, www.redorbit.com
1 comment:
I think you need to add zymurgist or zymologist to your titles in your profile. This "experiment" of fostering microbial buddies has become quite the hobby... do I smell "organic bakery owner" in your future??? Perhaps after you get the PhD, you can open a sustainable-ag (trying to think of things that aren't sustainable-ag in a bakery) bakery and brewery and call it "Dr. Fish-head's Breads", or "Dr. Dough and Draft"... also props for the "sucksmuch" shout out.
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