Pizza

Pizza is my holy grail. It is hard to make good pizza. I’ve had some major flops, but am getting better with practice. I made FWSY‘s Saturday white over the weekend and set some dough back. Ready for some pizza porn?

Dough pressed down in the middle. Keep the edges puffy.
Dough

Stretching with knuckles
Stretch

Stretched.
Flattened Dough

Dressed. Garlic, butter, and a little olive oil. Fresh mozzarella topped with black pepper.
Dressed

Cooking. That oven spring! Probably needed more stretching or needed less dough.
Cooking

Done. This pizza was for my wife. She loved it.
White Pizza

Slight leoparding on the bottom. I’m very happy about that, but would like to see more. Maybe I need a different stone.
Leoparding

Here’s my pizza. Nearly the same as above, but with some vine tomatoes added in. Mine was left in too long, I think.
Tomato Pizza

Pretzels

The recipe I used calls for baking soda water. These turned out pretty well, but I hear a lye dip will give better crust and color. I’d substitute whites for yolk next time.

Puffy dough after an hour rise.

Shaped. I’m not the best pretzel shaper, but these look ok.IMG_4940

Hot out of the oven. Looking good. Looks like the single and double twists look the best. Got one good triple twist. They need mustard!

As Adam Early in the Morning

As Adam early in the morning,
Walking forth from the bower refresh’d with sleep,
Behold me where I pass, hear my voice, approach,
Touch me, touch the palm of your hand to my body as I pass,
Be not afraid of my body.

-Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass.

I’m working on a reddit puzzle and it brought me around to Walt Whitman. I read Leaves of Grass one summer between my sophomore and junior year. I think I may need to read it again. Good stuff.

Bread

I bake bread now. It’s my thing. It’s a skill that needs a lot of practice, and I’ve been baking weekly since February to hone my craft. It’s very common to find a poolish or biga sitting in my closet waiting for morning. I also try to bake something new at least every other week. This week, I baked hamburger buns for the 4th. They turned out fucking awesome, except I suck at kaiser knots. More practice needed.

Anyway, here’s a bread gallery. I take a lot of pictures as I bake, but mostly loaf and crumb shots.

I bake. I bake. I bake!

The Long Dark – Photography

I’m obsessed with The Long Dark. It’s a really beautiful game. I take a lot of pictures in real life and quite a few in TLD. Here are a few of my best shots and the rest can be seen here. I usually need to drop gear to lose the HUD. A lot of these are from Coastal Highway. It’s my favorite region as it has favorable weather, great hunting, and great bases from which to pack out and return.

Farmhouse at Daybreak – Pleasant Valley
Farmhouse at Daybreak

The Golden Hour – Coastal Highway
The Golden Hour

Cabin in the Woods – Coastal Highway
Cabin in the Woods

Timberwolf Mountain at Twilight from Echo Peak West – Timberwolf Mtn
Timberwolf Mtn at Twilight

Quonset in Light Snow – Coastal Highway
Quonset in Light Snow

Mystery Lake – Mystery Lake
Mystery Lake

Yellow Haze – Coastal Highway
Yellow Haze

Milieu

mi·lieu
/mil-yoo/
noun
noun: milieu; plural noun: milieux; plural noun: milieus

1. the physical or social setting in which people live or in which something happens or develops

–“She might stay home, might marry and live as a housewife. And if her milieu does not sanction such a solution, there are, she knows, milieux which do. —David Mamet, Jafsie and John Henry: Essays, 1999″

Synonyms: background, setting, environment, mise-en-scène