Well then, my mysterious reader, perhaps I should stop this blabbering and get back to the here and now. After all, this is a culinary blog, is it not? However, I know that some of my adventures will not be entirely food based, I must warn you now.
Okay, for today's culinary adventures: bread and more bread. I am currently in Northern California, and it is quite warm out, though not as blisteringly hot as it has been. This is fortunate, as we fired up the earth oven today to bake 16 loaves of bread that my sister and I measured, mixed, kneaded and shaped this morning. I love making bread, especially kneading it. The feel of sticky, gooey dough firming and developing shape under my fingers is a true delight, becoming smooth and silky so that you just can't stop touching it. We made 8 loaves of rich white bread, and 8 of a sponge sourdough (not a true starter). They turned out beautifully, the earth oven cooks them more quickly and uniformly than a conventional oven. The warm yeasty creamy smell wafting out of the oven made us feel like snatching them out of the oven, slicing them up and slathering them with butter. (We didn't though, we took our afternoon nap instead. Thus all the loaves are lined up on the kitchen counter, unmolested).
Thus my first post comes to a close, as cherry pie time has been announced (can't miss that!). I don't have much experience with this whole blog thing, so I hope you enjoy. And if you want to know more about the bread, I highly recommend Bernard Clayton's Book of Breads.
Oh yes, and pictures to follow later.
