Apparently one of the keys to making good bread is using what are called "pre-ferments", or basic types of dough which you let ferment (rise) before you make the dough which will become the final loaf. A sourdough starter is one sort of pre-ferment, as it's basically just a dough which has been fermenting for days. In fact, you could probably take ( Read more... )

When we last left our hero the Mighty Microbe, he was doing battle with the Serious Starches...

( Starter Culture, Days Three - Five. )

I am trying my hand at sourdough. This is based upon a formula in Peter Reinhart's excellent Bread Baker's Apprentice, which I am enjoying very much.

( Starter Culture, Days One and Two. )

( Recipe for Bsghetti Carbonara. )

I've decided I think the Music and Mood (what I fondly think of as M&M) fields in lj posts are lame. What I want are BBC fields. I mean, there are so many things you could fit to suit! Current Beer, Current Bread, and Current Cheese springs to mind. Also current Burger, Brat, and Cocktail ( Read more... )

The left-hand lane thing isn't that bad, really. You get used to it remarkably quickly. (Roundabouts are a bit trickier ( Read more... )

Good news: renters went into the house on the 1st, not that the management company saw fit to tell us this without repeated prodding ( Read more... )

Well, the movers have come and gone, and we're now more-or-less comfortably ensconced in Markington, North Yorkshire, in a beautiful 300 year old Queen Anne stone cottage. Now for the fun bit -- trying to find places to put everything!

Well, we finally got a functioning monitor... only to find out that the CPU itself doesn't seem to have survived the trip across the Atlantic, either. It doesn't seem to be posting -- if the motherboard is bad I'll be a very sad man.

No Half-Life 2 for me, alas.

Oh god, the pain. "Please make it stop. Just let me die," I seem to recall whimpering.

On the other hand, there were trailers for House of Flying Daggers (which just pushes all of my buttons in all of the best button-pushing sorts of ways), Alexander, The Incredibles (which looks too amusing for words), and Phantom of the Opera. I couldn't give a ( Read more... )