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Ryan Gillespie
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Sep 01 2010
Some Changes…
The hard part (at least for me)
about breaking up is losing the friendship. If even just temporarily. Setting arbitrary dates of when you can touch base again and see where we are in life. But the thing is, you won’t be in the same place. I suppose that’s a good thing in some ways, as there’s a reason things had to change. But there is still a feeling of deep loss. Like the act of actively not talking to someone will just make that the new status quo. At the end of the arbitrary time, there just won’t anything left but awkwardness and bittersweet memories.
Obviously this morning was seeped in melancholy for me, and listening to the John Prine version of the below song probably didn’t help. But it sums up a little of what I’m feeling this morning.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2010/09/some-changes/
Aug 28 2010
Multigrain Extraordinaire
Wow, this post is long delayed. I baked this bread months ago…but such is things when life gets in the way. I do luckily have a few more pictures of baking this bread to help spur my memory though.
I started out with a overnight soak of some oats, polenta, & wheat bran. The next day I mixed in the flour and let it rise.
This made a single loaf, and it crested nicely about the lip of the pan. I topped it with flax seed to add yet a little more extra goodness to the multiple grains. (My first batch of strawberry freezer jam is setting in the background!)
Just out of the oven.
Just out of the oven.
This made great sandwich bread. (I was also told it was good as toast, but I didn’t have any myself.) It was gone before I knew it. I would like to make this again soon as I get back into the baking habit.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2010/08/multigrain-extraordinaire/
Aug 12 2010
New York is Killing Me (ft. Mos Def)
Finally picked up this full album…had an download of this track earlier. A mix of spoken word and jazzy trip-hop from an old master.
I have days that I could replace New York with Los Angeles. Thankfully today is not one of those days.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2010/08/new-york-is-killing-me-ft-mos-def/
Jun 08 2010
Pizza Napoletana
We like to make homemade pizzas fairly often, so this formula came at a good time. This dough is meant to be slowly fermented, from the ice cold water used in the mixing, to the at least overnight fermentation in the refrigerator. Unfortunately my hand tossing skills are not up to par yet, so i ended up with the squarish pizza you see above.
On pizza day, you remove the dough from the refrigerator a couple hours before you will bake the pizza. When I got ready to attempt to hand toss the dough, I had a nice round piece of dough. I need a lot of practice to get the hand tossing technique down though. I get the dough too thin in the center and it tears. In the end…the square pizza at the beginning of this post.
I will have more opportunity to practice however, as I’ve got two more balls of dough in the freezer to use later.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2010/06/pizza-napoletana/
Jun 08 2010
Pane Siciliano
As you can see, this was a uniquely shaped bread. It also took 3 days to make. Day 1 was for the biga (pre-ferment). On day 2, the rest of the ingredients were mixed and the loaves were shaped. To shape the loaves, I divided the risen dough into 3 similarly sized pieces and shaped them as I would a baguette. Then I curled them in on opposite sides of the loaf to make the S-shape of the loaves. A spray of water and sprinkling of black sesame seeds on top, and the loaves were placed in the refrigerator to retard overnight.
Day 3 was finally baking day and it was worth it. This bread was amazing. A nice nutty flavor from the long ferments. I definitely look forward to making this again.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2010/06/pane-siciliano/
Jun 08 2010
Pugliese
I had to search around to find the durum flour for my attempt at Pugliese. The usual suspects had semolina flour but I needed the finer grind of the durum. I finally picked some up at Surfas in Culver City.
The formula called for a mix of durum and bread flour, however I used mostly durum and saved the bread flour to add while kneading. My loaves ended up flattening on the edges when I put them in the oven. The bread had a great flavor to it, especially the crust.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2010/06/pugliese/
Jun 07 2010
Potato Rosemary Bread
For this bread, we get a new ingredient to play with. Potatoes! I cooked up a batch of Yukon Gold potatoes (From Zuckerman Farms @ the Hollywood Farmers Market) to make the mashed potatoes for this loaf.
My round loaves didn’t turn out to be as thick in the center as I would have liked, but it tasted good. I spread some fresh avocado on some toasted slices for lunch one day and it was heavenly.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2010/06/potato-rosemary-bread/
Jun 05 2010
Portuguese Sweet Bread
Peter Reinhart describes this bread as the east coast version of the popular Hawaiian style bread on the west coast. They are both sweet breads for sure, but I think this formula at least has a little more fruit forward flavor (the citrus extracts really stay present in the baked loaf). While this loaf uses a sponge, it does not need an overnight rest like many of the other breads I’ve made. The sponge has a relatively large amount of yeast for the size of the sponge.
After the sponge is nice and bubbly, it was time to mix the rest of the dough. First step was to mix up some of the liquid ingredients. Eggs, some vanilla, orange, & lemon extract.
To this mixture I added the sponge and the remaining flour and mixed until the ingredients formed a course ball.
Because this bread has a high fat content, it takes a little more time
to knead than one of the more lean breads (like French Baguettes). I
think I kneaded this for almost 15 minutes. Then it was time to let it rise.
to knead than one of the more lean breads (like French Baguettes). I
think I kneaded this for almost 15 minutes. Then it was time to let it rise.
While the formula suggested baking these in round pie pans, I decided i wanted these as sandwich loaves. They took quite awhile to proof, and even then they were a little smaller than I would have liked. The nice deep caramel color of the tops of the loaves were due to an egg wash applied just before baking. Another popular loaf among my co-workers. I’ve already got requests for another batch.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2010/06/portuguese-sweet-bread/
Jun 01 2010
A Rogue Wedding in Disneyland
A couple years ago, I signed up at the Universal Life Church Monastery, and became an ordained minister of the Universal Life Church. I did this in order to perform the wedding of one of my best friends. A few months ago, one of my former co-workers at Symantec, messaged me to see if I could still do weddings. He and his long time partner were finally going to get married, and they wanted to get married at one of their favorite places to go…Disneyland.
The problem with getting married at Disneyland is that its not allowed. Sure you can get married at one of the hotels…starting at $10,000 for the official Disneyland wedding experience. Even then, you can’t get married inside the park at that rate.
So my friend asked if I’d be willing to perform a “rogue” wedding inside the park. It would be just the two of them, a witness and myself. I was more than glad to help out, so it was just a matter of my friend figuring out the date.
The date was finally set for May 5th and I took the afternoon off from work. Because of a last minute change of schedule, Alicia wasn’t able to come with to be the witness, so my friend Noelle stood in. We got to the park around 3pm and headed in to find a good location to perform the ceremony. But first we had to stop and get some Mickey ear’s to complete the dress code. We ended up finding a nice quiet spot next to the Thunder Mountain Ride (which was closed for maintenance), on a wooden bridge overlooking a pond (with turtles sunning on the shore). The ceremony was fairly quick, just the vows (read off of the Bride’s iPhone), and the exchange of rings. A few people caught on and cheered when it was over (and the possible staff member that walked by ignored it).
After the ceremony, we got some celebratory lemonade (enhanced with some adult water) to toast the happy couple, and then explored the park until closing.
After the parks closed, we returned to their hotel to sign the papers (and make it official), and then had dinner at the mexican restaurant at Downtown Disney to celebrate both the wedding and have Cinco de Mayo margharitas!
Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2010/06/a-rogue-wedding-in-disneyland/
May 09 2010
Pain de Campagne
I didn’t get too awful creative with shaping my Pain de Campagne loaf. A simple round with some cuts in the top to try and make some peaks. They didn’t end up coming out as pretty as the ones in the BBA. This bread is very similar to your standard french baguette, however its got a small percentage of whole wheat flour added to it.
I’m not quite sure it baked long enough, as it ended up a little denser than I expected. However by the time I sliced it open the next morning, it was still plenty tasty.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2010/05/pain-de-campagne/
