Since Chuck was wonderful enough to write a post about our Thanksgiving feast, I would like to direct your attention to:
Adventures in Sourdough: the First Loaf November 30, 2008
The last time I made sourdough bread was probably eight years ago. I had two cultures – one from Bahrain and one from San Francisco – and the bread I made with them was OK but not spectacular, and at some point they got thrown out during one of many our post-college moves, having been long dormant in the fridge for many months. When we lived in Santee, I meant to try starting a culture from scratch, by was ultimately discouraged by the industrial zoning just a few blocks away. Fast forward to August 2008 and the creation of my 101 Things list: I added “make a sourdough starter from scratch” and “cook one recipe from every cookbook I own” to the list, and with two of those books featuring exclusively sourdough breads, it was clearly time to get started again.
Chuck helped jumpstart my sourdough renaissance with a new sourdough bread book and two Italian cultures from Sourdoughs International (which had been the source of my previous cultures as well). I’ve been on a bread-baking kick recently, so I was eager to get started, and I started to activate the culture last weekend:
culture activation - step one
I was using a brand new bag of King Arthur Flour and didn’t want to mix it in with the remaining “old” flour I had in my canister, so I weighed the flour throughout the procecss. In the photo above, you can see the foil packet that the dried started came in, and my sourdough crock containing the dried starter, 1 cup of water, and 3/4 cup of flour. After 24 hours, there were a few bubbles and a layer of water at the top before I gave it more flour and water:
starter after 1 day
After the first day, the starter was fed every 6-12 hours. At the next feeding, the bubbles were more active:
the starter, it has bubbles!
And then I split the starter into two jars so I had a backup. By the next morning, both we bubbly
sourdough starter, two jars
more bubbles
At that point the starters were almost active, so I dumped out about half of the goo from each jar and gave them one more feeding (the activation process feels a little bit wasteful sometimes – I went through more than 3 pounds of flour in the activation & first loaf baking process!) .
one starter with its next meal
I started the activation on Saturday afternoon and the cultures were active by Monday evening. I took one jar our of the fridge on Friday night, gave it another feeding, and awoke early Saturday morning to find it happily bubbling away, overflowing its jar. I was so excited that I forgot to take a picture of the overflowing crock, but here’s the culture I measured out to start my Pane Cafone recipe:
active sourdough culture, ready to make bread
I added 1 cup water and about 400 grams of the 500g called for in the recipe:
starter, water, and flour - mixing is getting tough!
Then I put the last 100g of flour on my kneading mat and worked it into the dough. After round one of kneading, the dough looked like this:
pane cafone dough, after kneading
Now, there wasn’t actually supposed to be a second round of kneading, but at that point I thought: “hmmm, it’s a little weird that I didn’t put any salt in the bread…what does the recipe say?
the recipe...oh, look! salt.
Ooops! Two teaspoons salt…I guess I should add that.” And so I sprinkled two teaspoons of salt on the mat and kneaded the bread for another five minutes until the salt was pretty well incorporated. It looked mostly the same as after kneading round one, except with some spots of color because I used pink-speckled mineral salt.
The dough was supposed to rise for at least five hours in the initial proofing stage, and by the time we came home from lunch and shopping it had been about seven hours. As soon as we got home I punched it down:
punched-down after first proofing
And shaped it into a loaf on a flour and cornmeal covered peel.
start of second proofing
I would have been far smarter to put it on parchment instead of flour, since it was quite sticky and I needed Chuck’s help to get the loaf into the oven. After another three hour rise, it went into the oven as a much larger (and slightly misshapen) loaf:
just after going in the oven
After about ten minutes, the oven spring was, as noted in the recipe booklet, amazing:
spring!
After an hour, I took it out of the oven, beautifully brown and gigantic, with a nice hard crust:
pane cafone, after baking
A few hours later, we sliced it open and enjoyed some delicious sourdough:
crisp crust, springy crumb
This is definitely some of the best bread I’ve ever made – the crust is wonderfully crisp, the interior is moist and springy, and it has a subtly sour flavor. Since the bread isn’t slashed before baking (an explicit instruction in the recipe), there is a separation of bread and crust from a large air pocket in the thicker part of my loaf, but otherwise I’m incredibly happy with the way this one turned out.
Next week’s sourdough adventures will feature sourdough pizza – apparently pizza dough was one of Chuck’s main motivators in buying me sourdough cultures from Italy!
Yosemite Hike: Lembert Dome, Dog Dome, and Dog Lake November 27, 2008
What better time than Thanksgiving to start catching up on my long-neglected Yosemite posts! I can’t believe our trip was only two months ago, it feels like so much longer!
On the first official hike of our Yosemite trip, we headed to the Tuolumne Meadows area of the park – a long, slow drive out of the valley to the north and to higher ground. It was the day before our planned trek to Half Dome, so we figured that this hike, which mostly took place at elevation higher than the top of Half Dome, would be a good warm-up.
Pandora is ready for the hike!
We started just after 9am in cool, crisp mountain air. (My car thermometer claimed it was less than 50 degrees, but I didn’t quite believe it was THAT cold!) The steepest climb of the hike was at the beginning – we spent the first 0.7 miles trudging slooowly up forested switchbacks, breathing heavily as we ascened in the thinner air. It was good to start out at a slow pace – I think it helped us acclimate to the elevation by not over-exerting.
- Chuck takes in the view
After the junction at .7 miles, we turned off toward the domes; the trees started thinning out as we bassed the broad back of Dog Dome, and we soon came to the saddle between the two.
the back of Dog Dome from the trail
The path to Dog Dome from the saddle was closed, so we tackled Lembert Dome, the higher of the two, first. There was a trail heading off around the Dome, but we decided to try the more direct ascent, which involved a little bit of scrambling up the Dome and a lot of rocky fun.
the start of our path up Lembert Dome
Nearing the top: Lembert Dome
We found a pretty good path to the top – there was only one spot where Chuck had to help pull me up – and celebrated our ascent with lots of pictures and some beef jerky.
A View from Lembert Dome
Chuck at the top of Lembert Dome
Pandora Enjoys the View
Me with Pandora on Lembert Dome
After a few minutes, we headed back down, taking a more indirect (but easier) line back.
We found an accesible path to Dog Dome on the way back to the saddle, and were able to walk right up its far gentler slope, no scrambling required.
A tree grows on Dog Dome
These cairns lead to nowhere!
The ridge leading to Lembert Dome, from Dog Dome
Fun Rock Lines on Dog Dome
We got some more good pictures (yay, pictures of rocks!), then headed back down the trail to start the easier stretch of our hike. At the junction again, we headed off toward Dog Lake, uphill a little more and then down again. We passed a shallow pond along the way, right at the base of Dog Dome.
If a tree falls in the woods...
I like pictures of bark!
After a leisurely half-mile through the forest, we came onto the shore of the lake, where we dipped our hands in (it was chilly!) and got some more pictures before heading back.
Dog Lake...starts getting colder in September...
Pandora decides not to go for a swim!
Lembert Dome, Dog Dome, and Dog Lake, Yosemite National Park
September 15, 2008
Hike Stats:4.38 miles, 1153 feet elevation gain
A Rainy Day November 27, 2008
We woke up to a nice, cool, clear-but-cloudy post-rain morning, but since then things have deteriorated into a genuine southern california winter rainstorm and flooding in the streets (hey! I thought it was only allowed to rain in February around here!). Luckily the rain isn’t continually heavy enough to sustain the flooding, but when it was at its peak an hour ago, there were 6-8 inches of rain in the intersections and the water across the street was spilling over onto the sidewalk. We also saw some very very wet runners coming home from their Thanksgiving Turkey Trot – this is one day I’m happy to be staying inside and away from the roads!
I can almost see the harbor through the rain
Driving through the water
Not the best day to have a Vespa!
Whirlwind Weekend: Austin November 24, 2008
So, let’s say you have two and a half days to spend in Austin, Texas; can you: visit two taco shops; eat at two barbecue restaurants; sample beers from four local breweries; visit two museums; see some music; buy some cowboy boots; buy a couple of local books AND get your picture taken with a giant orange longhorn? You betcha! Follow along for the tale of one whirlwind weekend in Austin!
Texas Capitol, Night
We landed in Austin around 2:30 in the afternoon on Saturday. Since we left San Diego ultra-early, I hadn’t bothered eating breakfast, so naturally we headed straight for tacos. We stopped at Taco Xpress, the first of three(!!) stops on our trip that Rachael Ray also visited on her Austin $40 a Day episode.
Taco Xpress
Taco Xpress was fun, with colorful decor and an impressive variety of tacos. To maximize our exploration potential, we got 1 each of four different types of tacos: Al Pastor, Barbacoa, Pollo Guisado, and Beef Fajita. The rich and tender barbacoa was my favorite, followed by pollo guisado. First noted differences between San Diego and Texas mexican food? The emphasis on tacos rather than burritos in Texas, defaulting to flour tortillas instead of corn for the tacos, and the salsas in Texas were less chile-based than in San Diego.
First taco fix complete, we headed over to our hotel, the Mansion at Judges’ Hill to get settled and plot the rest of our day. The hotel was all decked out for the holidays, and the courtyard reminded me a little bit of all the off-street courtyards dotting New Orleans.
After researching our music options for the evening, we headed out to wander around downtown, and made our way to Casino El Camino for dinner. (This place was featured by Guy Fieri on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. It was a very Food Network day for us.) There, We split a Amarillo burger (with roasted chiles, chipotle mayo, and pepperjack cheese) and some chili cheese fries, and enjoyed some brewed-in-Texas Shiner Bock. The burger was ok, but the chili cheese fries were excellent! After dinner we headed over to the Amsterdam Cafe for our Austin music experience, choosing an intimate performance by two singer/songwriters, Jackie Bristow, just settling into Austin from New Zealand via Los Angeles, and Elizabeth Wills, returning to Austin from Colorado. We had a lot of fun at the show, as both singers shared stories and inspiration as they performed, and the folk/country music was well suited to the small setting.
Jackie Bristow
Elizabeth Wills
On Sunday, we woke bright and early (just kidding, we slept in til about 9!), and headed out to breakfast – tacos again! This time, we went to Torchy’s Tacos, which I discovered in the Austin Chronicle’s Best Of Austin awards. The goal of this visit was breakfast tacos, plus the Green Chili Queso that won raves from the Chronicle. For good measure, I added a fried avocado taco to our order, just because I’ve never seen those on a menu before!
Torchys Green Chili Queso
Torchys Tacos: Bacon and Potato, Fried Avocado
The queso was addictive as promised, and the breakfast taco with potato and bacon was sheer yumminess. The fried avocado taco was a bit odd – I tried the avocados by themselves, and can see how that would make a tasty appetizer or garnish, but I think they got a little lost among the lettuce, tomato and cheese piled on top.
We spent Sunday afternoon museum hopping: we visited the O. Henry House museum first, and got a personal tour of the four-room museum. If interior pictures were allowed, there would be many close-ups of wallpaper included below, as the turn-of-century reproduction wallpaper featured at the museum was stylish and fun.
O. Henry House
We then visited the Austin Museum of Art, where we enjoyed the Texas Chair Project exhibit, featuring 80 different artists who created their own interpretations of a chair – each work was created in 6 months or less, and was required to fit in an 8x8x8 inch box – although some chairs got around this requirement in creative ways!
The Texas Chair Project
After our museum hopping, we stopped by Lovejoy’s for the first of our Austin-based beer sampling. We tried their Brown Ale (which my extensive tasting notes say was “kind of bitter, a little sour”), and 604 Stout (“dry, buttery flavor/mouthfeel”). Those are some good tasting notes! One of the cool things about Lovejoys was the delightfully weird art adorning the walls. My favorite was “Metamorph”, a large portrait of a sad-looking girl with antlers, but “Batalope” was fun too. From the Austin Chronicle:
BART FARAR: JACKALOPE MYSTERY THEATRE Recent works by this excellent artist in watercolor, ink, and pencil on wood. Reception: Wed., Nov. 5, 6-8pm. Exhibition: Through Nov. 30. Lovejoys, 604 Neches
We also headed down to the Congress Avenue Bridge to try to see the famous bat emergence, but unfortunately most of them seem to have migrated south for the winter already.
From the Congress Street Bridge at Twilight
Following our failed bat-watching adventure, we headed south of the city to The Salt Lick, a barbecue joint and our second stop in Rachael Ray’s footsteps for the trip. Eating at the Salt Lick, I am both happy and sad to report, was my first Barbecue-In-Texas-is-infinitely-better-than-in-San-Diego experience.
Yum-O! at the Salt Lick
I had the three-meat plate, so I got to sample all of their deliciously smoked goodies. The brisket was pretty good, but my favorites were the sausage and pork ribs – the ribs especially were amazingly tender and tasty – the meat was so good that I used hardly any bbq sauce (although both flavors were rather tasty – more savory/tart than the sweeter sauces that are more common in SD). The homemade pickles were also good, and so was the blackberry cobbler we shared for desert. It’s a little bit out of town, but the Salt Lick is definitely worth a visit.
After sleeping off our barbecue coma, we woke up on Monday morning ready for some breakfast and shopping! First things first – coffee and a full southern breakfast. We headed over to Hoover’s Cooking, another find from the Austin Chronicle “Best of Austin” lists.The Chronicle was touting the “hoe cakes” – pancakes made with cornmeal in the batter – so of course I had to get those:
Hoovers Cooking: Hoe Cakes and Grits
Plus (since I don’t know when I’ll next be in the south) it seemed like the perfect time to try grits, so I got an order of the Cheddar Garlic Grits (plus bacon. breakfast is always better with bacon). So that we could sample a wider variety of Hoover’s tempting pancakes, Chuck got Chicken ‘n’ Cakes, with sweet potato pancakes:
Hoovers Cooking: sweet potato pancakes and fried chicken
I did like the hoe cakes, but the sweet potato pancakes stole the show – they were rich and lightly sweet, and though I’m not sure I would identify the sweet potato by flavor, they were tastier than the average pancake. The grits were tasty too, although the garlicy kick threatened to overwhelm. I balanced it out with a little tabasco mix-in for a spicy garlic treat. (verdict on grits: they’re like cream of wheat, but with corn. they’re good spicy, would probably be ok with some brown sugar or maple syrup too (just not at the same time as garlic!)).
After breakfast, we went to the University of Texas co-op, where they sell EVERYTHING you can dream of, branded with a Texas Longhorn theme. Seriously – Jansport backpacks, Nike golf gear, cowboy boots, doggy sweaters, even crocs! – they’re all Texan now! The Caltech bookstore, I am sad to say, cannot compete.
Moo!
After the co-op, we headed to local bookseller BookPeople – a little bit smaller than Powell’s in Portland, but also less overwhelming! We browsed around for probably two hours, and I limited myself to only two books, both Texas-related (but I put a lot more on my Christmas wishlist as a result!).
My BookPeople Bounty
Next stop: more barbecue! For lunch we went to Lamberts Barbecue in downtown Austin. They call it “fancy barbecue”, and use interesting spice rubs for a fun twist on Texas classics. Between the two of us, we sampled the brisket, beef ribs, and pork ribs (plus mac and cheese). I didn’t write down my beer selection there, but I *think* it was a Live Oak IPA (or maybe the (512) IPA – tasting notes fail!) – in any case, it was a good IPA from one of the local breweries, and a good pairing with the barbecue.
Beef ribs and brisket at Lamberts
As much as I loved the pork ribs at the Salt Lick, I think the beef ribs at Lamberts were my favorite meat of the trip – so tender, with incredibly rich flavor. Really, everything there was good, and in a barbecue-induced ecstasy I decided that I should live in Texas (maybe if i live there I can even keep an okapi in my backyard! I hear the wildlife regulations aren’t quite as strict…).
And then, the moment you’ve all been waiting for: the final Rachael Ray stop on the trip, the moment I’ve been dreaming about ever since that fateful $40-a-day episode: Allens Boots! I’ve been intending to buy cowboy boots for a while, and since we were going to Texas anyway, it only seemed natural to get them there…
Row upon row of boots!
With an almost endless expanse of boots, it was a little bit overwhelming to pick just one pair! After trying on a few, I finally picked the most perfect ones, although I’d be happy to make Allens Boots a birthday tradition!
My boots! Plus some jewelry...
As you can see above, I also got some jewelry at the Museum of Art to round out my “Happy Birthday to Me” presents. I like jewelry from museum shops – they always have stuff from fun local artists. And, I like cowboy boots!
Shopping mission accomplished, barbecue and tacos consumed, and an early morning flight waiting for us the next morning, the last thing to check off our Austin itinerary was a stop at the Draught House pub and brewery. A little bit north of the city, the Draft House has dozens of beers on tap, and is the perfect destination for sampling the local brews.
(512) Pecan Porter
My tasting notes from DraughtHouse:
- (512) Pecan Porter: this was the one local beer I was really hoping to try, and my excitement was well rewarded! My notes say “pecan scent, rich flavor”, but my remembered happiness is greater than that succinct description. It was my favorite of the evening.
- Saint Arnold Christmas Ale: “Christmas-y, copper”. Note to self: take better notes. I only had a few sips of this one, but “Christmas-y” means “good”.
Pepperoni Jalapeno Pizza, Double IPA and Century Stout
- Draught House Double IPA: “sweet scent/flavor, crisp bitterness, lingering bitter aftertaste”. If I remember correctly, not as flowery as a typical West Coast double – maybe different hops are used to give it the sweet scent insead.
- Draught House Century Stout: “strong coffee aroma; dry, strong roasted flavor”
- Oskar Blues Ten-Fidy Imperial Stout: ok, so Oskar Blues is in Colorado, but how you can dis someone who says “It’s time we mess with Texas”? I remembered Oskar Blues from last year’s Stone Anniversary festival, and since I haven’t seen it on draught in San Diego, ten-fidy was fair game. And, totally worth it. The extensive tasting notes say: “roasted coffee flavor, sweeter than Century”…really, these were all good beers, and I’m glad we got to try them. I think my pocket notebook would be improved if it had beer-tasting templates instead of blank sheets of paper. Someone should invent that.
Chuck enjoys his Christmas Ale
So there you have it – two and a half days, seven tacos, barbecue, beer, books, and boots! (but no bats!) We had a great weekend in Austin, and I want to go again!
