Working hard or hardly working?
Yes, I am in the studio: accidental photo. I must have just come in, dropped my purse on top of the pile of Curated Quilts and Quilt Folk magazines, and am contemplating what is on the design wall across from me. (The cardboard box contains a cabinet for the kitchen, all of which are scattered around waiting for the rippers-out/installers to call me).
But alas, I cannot seem to concentrate on any one thing. Ever have the same experience?? Six different ideas and I am too scattered to start something new. So I am working on a third panel for this future piece, which you are probably tired of seeing.
Top left will not be staying there -- I am just getting started making and plunking on the wall. It has been sitting around for months until I was in the mood to work on it.
Meanwhile, back at the apartment I have been busy in the kitchen. My brother Jon had sent me his baguette recipe after he was here for a visit. Haven't tried it yet because I got it into my head that i needed to make sourdough baguettes. In any case, I bought a baguette pan. Have you ever seen one? Neither had I, until now.
Many years ago I made sourdough starter by mixing flour and water and putting it out on my porch. Before I knew it -- bubbles! I fed it, it grew bigger, and so on -- in just a few days. Fast forward about 40 years... from New Jersey to Florida. It has been about ten days and my sourdough starter still isn't where it should be. Plenty of bubbles but it hasn't grown any bigger. Climate? Water? who knows? But I've learned patience since living in Florida (everything and everybody is slower and the traffic lights last for five minutes (only when they are red!). So, I figure that eventually the starter will move.
Here are two batches, sitting in the oven with the light on to give them some warmth.
Tomorrow morning around 8:00 I will dump out most of it, reserve 4 oz, add 4 oz flour and ½ cup of water and wait another 12 hours to feed it again. Eventually, maybe I will have something that will work.
What has your bread-baking experience been like?
xo
