My thoughts right now are with my friend Shawn Powers, whose house just burned down.

All his family is OK, but they lost all their pets.

If you know Shawn, please lend him your support, even if it’s only in kind thoughts and words.

ADDENDUM the First:
Linux Journal has put together a page so donations can be made to the Powers family.

Additionally, if you would prefer to make a donation through Shawn’s pastor, I can pass that information along to you as well.

All requests from the Great Book Giveaway went out Saturday. Our favorite postal worker was at the counter, so we actually enjoyed the entire process (and there was someone at the other window, so we weren’t holding everyone up).

Oh. Hmmm… I just realized I forgot to send Susan’s books out. Ooops!

There are still lots of books left, so wander on over and see if anything catches your eye.

incoherent \in-koh-HEER-unt\ adjective
: lacking coherence: as a : lacking cohesion : loose *b : lacking orderly continuity, arrangement, or relevance : inconsistent c : lacking normal clarity or intelligibility in speech or thought

Here’s hoping today’s word is not a sign of things to come today.

Between the holidays and the unusually cold weather, I’ve been baking up a storm.

Now, I love baking cookies, but after all the Christmas cookies I made, I wanted to make something different. Since I don’t like cake, I decided to try breads (pies are okay, but I find pie crust more frustrating than fun).

Now I have lots and lots of cookbooks, however, over half of them are for desserts and cookies and sweets. I discovered I really only had a couple good resources when it came to bread.

First was the King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion. This is this first book I grabbed of the shelf when looking for a specific bread recipe (such as the Challah I decided to make over the holidays). This is a very good all purpose book. The recipes always turn out well (unless I make unexpected substitutions without planning ahead), and they always taste good. I use King Arthur flour in my baking, but any quality flour will work fine I’m sure. Of course the advantage of using KAF, is that you don’t have to worry about regional variations in the gluten levels of the flour.

From the Baker’s Companion I made Challah and Italian bread, both of which turned out very well.

An advantage of those recipes is they called for all purpose flour. Yes, you can make substitutions, but if the recipe calls for one type of flour, you’re always better off sticking with that kind of flour. This is of course an advantage if you don’t bake frequently, and are unlikely to use the bread flour before it goes bad.

Now if you like lots of pictures, this is not the book for you. There are a handful of pictures, but for the most part this is your standard cookbook with very few pictures. Not that there’s anything wrong with this, it just means this book isn’t as pretty as some of the others out there.

As far as the recipes, they’re simple, and I very much like the way the recipes are laid out: all the ingredients are listed at the top, and if an ingredient is used multiple times, it is listed multiple times. Since I have a habit of leaping before I look, I find this very useful.

The next book I grabbed was a Passion for Baking by Marcy Goldman. My aunt & uncle gave me this book for Christmas several years ago, and my pizza dough is based upon the recipe in this book.

The first chapter is dedicated to discussing different baking techniques, ingredients and tools. Most good baking books start this way, but it’s actually important to know how the author does things–especially if you don’t measure your ingredients by weight.

There are plenty of pictures here, showing everything from end results to intermediary steps. And they’re not just gorgeous pictures, but pictures of foods it looks like a normal human could bake. (I love Baking with Julia, but the photography only serves to make the book more intimidating, and I almost never use that book out of fear.)

The recipes are clear, and there are plenty of side notes, explaining different tricks or asides.

As I said, I very much like her pizza dough recipe and techniques, and have used that recipe for quite awhile. I also decided to branch out and tried her “BLT Bread” loaf. That turned out extremely well, and Grandmom particularly liked that bread. We made grilled cheese sandwiches from this bread, and they were fabulous. I also tried her cinnamon bread recipe, however, I attempted to substitute white wheat for all purpose (which I have done with several recipes from KAF) and although the bread tastes fine, it didn’t rise much, so that was somewhat disappointing. But again, that was the fault of the baker rather than the recipe.

And finally, I ordered The Bread Baker’s Apprentice by Peter Reinhart, which I am slowly working my way through. He goes into great detail regarding technique, and I am learning a lot, but it is a bit overwhelming. Nothing like a good book to make you feel like you know nothing.

So that’s what I’ve been reading. And unlike most of the other books I read, these are leading to so fabulous and delicious results.

Today’s word: RED

So I have a big old pile o’ boxes to take to the post office on Saturday.

Pretty impressive, isn’t it?

But I still have plenty of unloved books that are looking for a new home.

If you’re interested, you can wander over to the Great Book Giveaway 2010 post and see if anything interests you.

So, all the baking I did over the holidays? I pretty much took no pictures. At all.

You’ll just have to take my word for it that things were delicious.

As usual, I made a lot of cookies. Although I tried some new recipes, I also made some favorites from last year, including cranberry oatmeal cookies and lemon coins. Unfortunately for Michael, I never got around to making any sort of peanut butter cookie. Luckily, my friend Sarah gave us some, so the holidays were saved!

But I also tried to branch out a bit this year, by adding different kinds of breads to the mix.

As I mentioned last week, the cranberry walnut bread recipe from Rose Levy Beranbaum turned out extremely well. We’re currently eating the loaf I froze.

I also tried my hand at challah, using the recipe frmo the King Arthur Flour Baking Book. That also turned out very well, and the french toast Michael made from the second loaf was delicious.

For something slightly sweeter, I made pumpkin walnut bread, with the recipe from the Cook’s Illustrated Holiday Baking 2007 magazine. Actually, one of the reasons I made challah was because Grandmom can’t eat nuts, and I really wanted walnuts in my pumpkin bread. I ended up making three loaves of this bread, and although I’ve run out of fresh pumpkin, I’m going to pick up canned pumpkin from the store so I can make more of this bread. It was wonderful to snack on, and for a lazy weekend breakfast. (Plus it has pumpkin! And Nuts! That makes it healthy! Yay!)

The fourth type of bread I made was an Italian bread, this recipe also from the King Arthur Flour Baking book. The first loaf turned out extremely well, although the egg wash made a crush that Grandmom has a harder time eating. I left the egg wash off the next flour, and although it tasted fine, the color was extremely pale. I made another loaf over the weekend using white wheat flour, and that was a disappointment–the loaf hardly rose–so no more substituting white wheat flour in breads without more planning ahead and a better knowledge of making that substitution.

All in all, it was a fabulous holiday, and there were plenty of delicious baked goods to be had around here.

Crinkle crinkle! Crinkle crinkle crinkle crinkle!

(more…)

Yup. It’s that time again: Time to cull the bookshelves, before I lose the ability to move around the basement without toppling a pile of books.

Since I missed the book donation last year, some of these are leftover, but there is a full box of books from this year added.

Most of these books are used, however, and handful are new and unread, as on multiple occasions I pre-ordered the same book twice (damnit).

As I did last year, I’m giving away these books for free. If you want to repay me postage, (or just be nice) you can get me something from my Amazon wish list or send me a new bookmark (always needs those around here), but really, I need the space.

You want something, mention it in the comments and then e-mail me (random@klishis.com) your address so I can send the books out.

(more…)

Janiece’s post on house cleaning just reminded me… It’s time for another great book culling.

If there is interest, I’ll post pics (and maybe type the names & titles) of the books I’m getting rid of, and send them to anyone interested.

If the weather ever clears, we’ll take a trip to Half Price Books in Pittsburgh, but I’d rather y’all had first dibs, if you were interested.

Anyone?

It feels like something is blocking the heat in the living room…

“What? Me? I wouldn’t attack the Christmas tree! No way!”

“Pay no mind to the furry gift under the tree.”

That’s RIGHT! It’s Wednesday!

Today’s word is: bulb