Olympic College Vocal Jazz Concert

Justin had a concert last night and it was a delight. College is so much more adult than high school! I love live music and enjoyed my time there very much. And, of course, it was free, so that made it even that much better. Thanks, Justin, for sharing your performance with me. I will be looking forward to many more in the future!

Bread Baking Books

 After the bread class I took in October with Gayle I came home and started baking. I have had a really good time providing my family (and myself) with some whole wheat and white hand crafted breads. They eat them up. And when I follow the directions completely, they work great!

Here are the books I have been looking at. I am best at the white Italian loaves, called Pane Pugliese (PON-ay poo-lee-AY-zay), but would like to do better with the whole grain bread. It's better for you. But until I conquer it, I will have white every other time I bake, because I don't want to burn out my faithful tasters with an inferior product.

I read and bought the Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book in the '80s and have found that the tutorial called "A loaf for learning" has been the best teacher of how to make a delicious loaf of whole wheat bread. Not only does it teach technique, but it teaches WHY you need to do the things to bake a light and edible and not brick-like product.

This was one of the books our teacher had at the class we took, and it was a super-pretty book. I bought it used online for a song, and am glad I did. I think I will try some olive bread for the holidays.

Our teacher recommended watching Peter Reinhart on Youtube for some techniques, so I did. He is a really great instructor and baking professional, and fun to listen to. I am reading through this whole grain bread book, which is pretty technical and overly scientific in some places, but informative and interesting. I am hoping to hone my skills at creating a great artisan loaf of whole wheat bread.

What are you doing now that the weather has changed and you've had to come in out of the cold?

October Goal: 100 Things a Success!



My dream garage.... Thanks, Google Images.



I more than accomplished my goal of getting rid of so many things, and I'm actually going strong on sending more things to the landfill, or the thrift store, or someone else's house. I'm not keeping track anymore, though, since October is over and I made the grade.

 It's a telling thing that I can get rid of hundreds of things year after year. I should keep track of how many things I bring in here--that would be an eye-opener, I'm sure. How do you manage your things? What do you collect? What do you no longer collect? How do you keep your possessions under control?