The end of September was not as productive as I’d hoped.
Monday through Wednesday I was busy working on my two Local Reporter articles, one on September’s big town council meeting, one a listicle of Carrboro nonprofits. It shouldn’t have taken three days but I was still tired from last week. Plus Trixie’s incontinence continued into this week, off and on. Plus I took her to a vet appointment Tuesday, then my flu and covid shots Wednesday became the excuse for a larger series of errands: library, cat food, dog drugs. Plus some paperwork that needed doing only the relevant website refused to cooperate. I have no idea if it’s malfunctioning or badly designed.
It doesn’t help that Trixie’s decided she wants to get up earlier. If she gets up just as I’m starting my day, it throws me way off. I lose the one to two dog-free hours I normally enjoy in the morning and coping with her as well as the cats makes it surprisingly hard to focus. But I’ll never say no to her.
Could you? And it’s not like it’s her fault or anything, even when snuggled next to me, she peed on my pants in her sleep.
Thursday, though, I got back in the swing of things. A lot of little tasks related to Become the Sky. Some groundwork for my next Local Reporter articles. And I began replotting Let No Man Put Asunder by thinking about the character arcs. While there’s a lot I like about the second draft, Paul and Mandy need much more emotional stress. And the whole novel needs a stronger arc: the threat level really doesn’t grow enough. It’s run-from-the-bad-guys, find temporary safety, run some more … it doesn’t ratchet up until maybe the last fifth of the book. But that’s fixable.
That’s not a lot to get done but just the fact I was really focused felt good. Especially with Trixie’s problems distracting me.
Oh, my friend and fellow Durham Writers Group member Lucy Adams has a chestnut tree and it recently shed a bunch of nuts. She gave me some and I tried roasting a few; when that proved successful I roasted more of them.
If I put a small X in the shell, the steam from roasting open up the shell, making it easy to peel. I made them into mushrooom-chestnut soup last weekend, and very tasty it was.
Late in December, I tried again and followed the recipe. The results were good but again, did not have the slim elegance of the classic baguette.
If anything it looked more misshapen. No big — I care more about taste than looks and it’s not like I’m baking for public consumption — but still slightly annoying.
It’s a very tasty, firm bread, though not hugely superior to some of my favorite non-sourdough recipes. Still, the sour tang does make it different so I’m going to try a couple more sourdoughs from some of my other bread books.
My plan was to use the loaf for provolone and veggie sausage sandwiches. I screwed up the bread recipe a little so the result was not baguette shaped.
There’s a legend that Wonder Woman’s one-time mentor I Ching got his name from an error. 
The Vampires Everywhere comic-book in Lost Boys never existed — but the 
I was dubious because the book places heavy emphasis on sourdough, like the loaf in my photo. I like sourdough but not so much I’d make sourdough recipes a regular thing. That makes it feel pointless to go through the work of growing a starter, then keeping it around after I finish the initial bread — I may not make another sourdough for months and I don’t want to keep nursing the starter along. It would be different if I had a family of five to feed, but it’s mostly just me and there’s only so much bread I can eat a week.
—and ciabatta, though they came out smaller than I’d expected. Still, easy enough I might try it again when I’m having sandwiches.
Last weekend I made a peppery squash bread though with sweet potato instead, as I had some of that left over.
Last month I also checked a book, Bread Head out of the library. I’ve only gotten around to trying one recipe, a buckwheat flour sourdough banana bread, but it was most tasty.
I hope to try a couple more before I send the book back (I’ll give it an actual review then) but overall I don’t think it’s for me. The authors, Greg Wade and Rachel Hotlzman, are into sourdough starter big time. I like sourdough but not os much that it’s worth keeping a pot of starter around all the time. Still the book did serve as a useful reminder on things like checking water temperature for my breads — possibly that’s why the ciabatta came in undersized.
