Last evening the power went out. As the power company predicted, they cleared up the problem (fallen trees) in 3.5 hours, just under the deadline for throwing food out of the fridge (for the freezer it’s 24 hours). Only there was a secondary problem affecting a much smaller area, which happened to include us. Missed the deadline by 30 minutes! And no, we don’t chance it — better to sacrifice uneaten food than go to the hospital with food poisoning.
Oh, for tech like Captain Cold’s … instead, we’ll be making a trip to the supermarket today. On the plus side, almost all our cooked food had been eaten during the week — doesn’t always work out that way — and I have powdered milk I can use for tea.
Other than that, this was another week dominated by Jekyll and Hyde and the Local Reporter. I finished rewriting the chapter on silent films, rewatching a couple of them; watched a 2002 adaptation (review to follow eventually) and searched in vain for a 2003 British film (not streaming, not available on US-playable DVD). For The Local Reporter I sat through a four-hour Carrboro Town Council meeting which will provide several stories. Only the first, about the challenge of balancing fire safety and pedestrian safety on older, narrow streets, is up.
Over at Atomic Junk Shop I cross-posted a couple of recent articles and put in one new one, on how DC and Marvel made reprint books a major part of their Bronze Age output. DC Special was an interesting example as it wasn’t tied to any particular character (as opposed to a Spider-Man or Superman annual) so they could do a variety of themes. Wanted was a particularly inspired one, leading to a sequel special, then a reprint series. Even though it’s just a set of Silver Age superhero stories, framing it as supervillain stories made it seem so much cooler.
Away from the computer, I attended this month’s meeting of the local Genre Book Club, which reads a different genre every month. I attended my first meeting in November, but cut it short because Wisp was having some problems. In January I went again but to the wrong place. Now I’ve made it two months in a row and I look forward to going again.
Oh, in case you’re wondering the genre was adventure books, hence my recent reading of Captain Blood.
Covers by Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson (bottom), all rights to images remain with current holders.
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.
They were a fair amount of work; anything that involves making dough, rolling it out and then putting filling in it usually is. But they taste good and they’re very satisfying. About half of one makes a meal for me.
The past month I’ve been surprised how little I’ve been cooking, compared to usual. Not that I’m switching to junk food or takeout — fruit on cereal or yogurt, veggie sandwiches, scrambled eggs with this or that are all easy and they all provide me with healthy, or reasonably healthy, meals. Plus TYG’s been cooking for herself and I often wind up eating her leftovers
