[aaronatthedoublef]

Last week was an interesting week of baking. For the first time in a year I made no bread or crackers. I had my starter hibernating in the refrigerator downstairs not being fed. I did not even make pizza dough for Sunday night pizza (fortunately I had some dough leftover in the freezer from before Passover began). I made an almond pancake recipe which none of the kids liked except my oldest so I won't do it again. I made matzah caramel crunch which I've seen with saltine crackers before.

My middle showed an interest in baking cookies before Passover began so he baked some sugar cookies. During Passover he wanted to bake some Passover sugar cookies. It was an interesting recipe containing potato chips for crunch (didn't really work - probably needed thicker, kettle style ruffle chips). They were very dry and sandy and probably needed less flour or more butter or something. But to these he added citric acid to try to make them very sour. But he did not add enough so no one tasted the sour. We'll see if his interest in cookie baking continues or abates now that he made his joke cookies.

My starter is back up. I've fed it but it's still cold, compressed, and thick. So I'll see how it is tomorrow and see if I can make crackers with it. I did have five dough rounds for pizza so I made five instead of seven pizzas which means no pizza for lunch today but everyone seemed happy last night.

Not sure what else I'll do. Might make some rye bread. I have some white rye flour to use up which I do not like so much but I need to use it.

[aaronatthedoublef]

On top of more demand for shipping their is more competition for drivers. For a while Amazon even had a program to loan money and help you start your own shipping company and they would pay you to deliver for them. There are tons of Amazon trucks around us.

And UPS used to have standout wages and benefits but Amazon is competitive now.

We are living in interesting times.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I have seen "Nailed It" although not this episode. But neither my brothers nor I (fourth generation south siders until we moved away) have heard of this. My dad probably would have. He had a job driving to gas stations all over the city and his knowledge of Chicago geography and institutions was encyclopedic.

My little brother was a big fan of the Rainbow Cone which he was introduced to while working at Rainbow Beach.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Had my second shot (Pfizer) Saturday and no ill effects. My arm was not to sore until Violet started jumping on me.

[aaronatthedoublef]

"Sour" is interesting. I used to have a really sour starter and what was good about that was I could make sour sourdough (too many sours) quickly. But I couldn't make something lighter. Now I have a starter that is sweeter that I can make more sour with time.

If I could have multiple starters hanging out I would have a sour one and a sweet one (and maybe rye and wheat variants too). But, until I have my own kitchen that won't happen.

Thanks for the tip on first clear Mike. The first time I ordered a 50 lb bag of flour the shipping was $11 (including the box of parchment. The next time I went to order flour shipping was $35. It was cheaper to by 48 lbs of flour in 8 lb bags from Walmart because the shipping was free.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Looks really good - dark and rich! Where did you find first clear? I cannot find it any place except KAB anymore and it's really expensive.

The local miller I've used some did not know what it is so I sent them some links. They have something they say is like it so I might ask for a sample.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Taxes are interesting. If you are wealthy enough and can hire the right lawyers and accountants you can live lavishly and avoid taxes.

I know some multi-millionaires who have put all their assets including things like houses and private planes to non-profit foundations. They then rent the assets back but the foundations have all the wealth. They also do some good and spend money on worthy causes but it's a way to keep massive assets tax free unless/until we want to tax non-profits.

I've tried to set his up with our house but have yet to find anyone who will/can do this. Guess you need to be Bill Gates to do this.

And Mike is right, the middle tax is going to be hit because as much as the billionaire class has, it's spit in the ocean compared to the trillions in debt we're running up.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I made my bread this morning. I upped the load size from 900g to 1k and I think I over-proofed them. But that's okay. They're a little ugly but that never seems to slow down my eaters.

I also made BA's crackers this morning.

[aaronatthedoublef]

And I thought dyeing the Chicago River was cool! AWESOME.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I'm not sure how much time I would have for the conference but I am interested. I may sign up. It's not horribly expensive.

The slap steak looks okay but the slap chicken does not look appealing at all. And it takes twice as much energy to cook it compared to a regular oven. I didn't see any build costs either and he never managed to build one that didn't break or come apart. But my son showed me this yesterday afternoon and we were still talking about it and laughing this morning and that is always good.

[aaronatthedoublef]

FWIW I went to Costco the other day and it was the first time in a long time that there were no limits on toilet paper, paper towels, and Clorox wipes.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I'm about 24 hours behind. Rolls just came out. I let them rise, as usual, with a sheet pan on top but then took it off to bake them. I like it better when I bake them with the top pan on but it was worth a try.

My bread is still rising and I'll let it go another hour maybe before I bake it.

I need more BA's crackers so I'll make those tonight or tomorrow.

I did not make pie because I made chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast (and for breakfast today and tomorrow at least...). And then I made pizza. My daughter is spoiled and was not happy despite having pizza and chocolate chip pancakes!

[aaronatthedoublef]

Sourdough: A Novel

This is another one. I've read it and enjoyed it immensely! Kate secretly bought it for me and then saw me reading my own copy and said "where did you get that?"

It's about a secret starter with a mind of its own.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I made BA's crackers. I've been using the pasta roller and rolling the dough at room temp. I chilled it to see if I could roll it thinner. Not only could I not roll it thinner it cracked and shredded even at the "1" setting. So I warmed it in my hands and rolled it out on "2".

My second batch of whoopie pies came out nicely. I may add a little melted chocolate to the recipe to see what that does. I thought the filling was too buttery and not marshmallow-y (is that a word?) enough. Kate disagreed which was surprising because she usually favors sweet over butter.

I made sandwich bread again but haven't had a chance to make raisin bread. I'll get up early one morning this week and make it.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Len - your pizza is a work of art!

Mike - is my math right? Are you really putting 14 ounces of cheese on your pizza? Your my hero!

Does anyone ever par-bake their crusts? I'm thinking about it for my veggie pizza where the raw veggies give off lots of water and for my sausage pizza where the sausage gives of lots of grease (I went back to Chicago method for my sausage).

I've now made two batches of whoopie pies. The first spread too much. I then noted that I had changes the recipe and added more flour so my second batch of cakes looks very nice. I'll make the filling tonight. Violet helped with the first batch but not the second because I had to make them quick and early this morning. I'll let her help with the filling.

I was going to bake some crackers but ran out of time. I'll do that tonight or tomorrow. The dough is resting right now.

I have my first COVID 19 vaccine this weekend! The scheduling system here is a mess! Badly thought through and I'm not convinced that federalizing it would have made it any better. Yes, I know how hard building a massively scalable scheduling system is (I've worked on them). But they came up with multiple new vaccines in under a year which is MUCH harder.

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