C.J. Cherryh's Blog, page 154

Been doing all right with homemade bread…going to try pizza.

Pizza dough dates from the time of the Romans. It's a double fistful of everything…in the old way of measuring, the way Roman soldiers used to make bread in the evening, something like sourdough, 2 fistfuls of flour, two capfuls of olive oil, a little aqua pura [water], a pinch of salt, a shot of honey, and a little of the sourdough mix, allowed to rise a bit, then cooked at fireside on a hot rock. To translate into modern terms, 2 cups of flour [one whole wheat, one white], 2 tbs of olive oil, pinch of salt, tbs of honey, enough water to make it mix in an elastic, non-sticky way; and 2 tsp of yeast. Stir, hand-shape to a ball, adding flour at need.

Only I'm going to put back what the Romans had and we've lost: wheat germ. About a cup of it. Because it's inert, it doesn't count much in the recipe, and it 'extends' the mix into something larger. Allow to rise once, then shape by hand. Punch in center, spread outward, or—if you're brave—use its elasticity to flatten it by spinning it on your hand. The old Romans simply pressed a knife or blade into the risen dough ball, to pre-make easy-break divisions of bread, like pie slices. We found loaves in the ovens of a bakery in Pompeii, or at least, their ghosts. The people had been going about their normal morning—until the apocalypse.

I used to be able to 'throw' pizza like the guys in the pizzeria 'windows', but that was many decades ago. We'll see.

How-some-ever, on our diet, using a little Prego sauce, Paul Newman's, or its equivalent, {if I were being good, I'd hand-make that, too), I plan to lay down some low salt, low fat, low calorie stuff, like chicken bits and raw mushroom with Italian spices, then some acceptable cheese, not overdoing it, and produce an Italian-style pizza, which is much lighter on 'goodies' than the American version.

With a 425 bake on a pizza stone (ceramic: if you like crispy bottomed pizza, a must) it should rise and be nice. Not like Domino's, but good.

The koi are beginning to appear…we had lunch outside, at 48 degrees…

Our back yard is sheltered by the fence, the wind was still, and though we wore coats and shivered a bit, it was nice to sit out by the pond for lunch. We saw many of the koi from the windows—looking good, with clear skins. Last year when Denys emerged from hibernation, he had a thick growth of green algae on his skin that was just very bad: he was lethargic and sick, and would come up in the shallows, lie partially out of the water and gasp. He was so bad I tried to catch him to medicate him, and was thinking I might have to put him down—but every time I had such thoughts, and approached him, he'd be off like a flash, into deep water, using up precious energy. So I began to leave him alone, and just tried to assure he got food, once they started taking food. And it took over half the summer, but the skin improved.

So when he went into winter I wasn't sure I'd see him again: fish that die in the winter usually just disintegrate and get consumed by bacteria. But I think that was him: he's hard to tell from Giraud and, at a distance, both of them can be hard to tell from Renji, but I'm pretty sure that was him, and with a clear skin, if that was him. I will be very happy if that's the case. He's not a pretty koi, but he's our koi, and we want him to be healthy.

So far, on the roll call, I've clearly seen Ari, Maddy, and Amy, Renji, Ichigo [aptly named with the strawberry spot between the eyes], Rukia, Ishida, either Banichi or Jago, and Byakuya. I'm still looking for Kenpachi, Orihime and Grant, and a clear sight of either Denys or Giraud. OSG knows them.

An interview I did:

On Port Eternity.

A new Seeking North episode is up…

Jane's 'Skinners' has got a new episode, and Lynn is working on her 'New Directions' for April. I'm setting up for 'The Wizard and the Lineman' for May. The link is over in the left sidebar.

This weekend's moon is a perigee moon—look up!

http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/03/18/nasa.moon/index.html?hpt=C2

It will be the largest full moon in some 20 years. If it looks closer—that's because it is.

We've been so grateful: Jane's doing pretty well over on Amazon…I

…at least is still afloat, and you've all been very kind to us. It's all thanks to you guys. And of course the fact that Jane wrote a great book! We're also hopeful that people who buy that book will figure out where we are over here and come see us in all our riotous glory. Don't forget to 'approve' each others' reviews—

The net is off the koi pond, and we've seen a lot of our fishes—so glad about that. They're looking good, and I'm dumping in some biological stuff [sewage, I swear, by the smell!] that I didn't use last year, and hope that also will help. The water's needing a serious water change—on a particularly warm day Jane and I are going to kit up in galoshes and drain the pond down quite a bit, then refill with clean water [and buffer and dechlorinator].

The front yard project awaits trees. But mostly rock. Patricia and Mike Briggs have lots of rock and have offered help. And we're hoping to get that looking a lot better.

Meanwhile the house is an absolute wreck—cleanup after Christmas got stalled out by Closed Circle necessities, and here we are.

But doing well and happy.

OK, friends, —NOW YOU CAN HELP US!!!

Jane's Groundties is up on Amazon Kindle. We are doing this so we can let more people know that Closed Circle exists, —not to mention make a little money in the process; and she needs some good reviews to help her stand out.

Please, please, if you support her book, this is the time to make a big difference. A string of readers behind her will make an impact, and you can do it. Just go to Amazon, Kindle, and search for fancher. The search choices also help bring her up in the search engine.

playing hookey from the rink today…

Jane's still working on the technicals of the book release and I'm starting the next outline, so both of us are mentally occupied—

Rainy and near freezing. But I've got to head out to the store to get some necessities or we starve. One thing about a mostly-fresh vegetable diet, no frozens, it does mean you have to go to the grocery store often.

Had a new one last night, South Beach AND Jane's diet legal: bring to boil one diced chicken breast, skinless, in small saucepan. 1/4 cup mild green chili (verde) sauce [canned], 1 small can Ortega green chilies, diced, one heaping tbs sour cream [light], 2 low carb tortillas—grande. Heat tortillas, put in long ramekins, open, spoon hot chicken mix into same, fold tortillas into burritos, top with handful of shredded jack-cheddar mix, microwave 2 minutes each. Top with tsp sour cream and a few jalapeno slices and a dash of hot dark chili powder for kick and color. Serve with side salad. THAT tasted like the best of Mexican restaurants. Definite do-again.

Got my keyboard replaced…and a looooooooooong session with…

Dell chat, poor kid. I wanted her to say, on record, that I could sub something like a screwdriver for the 'scribe tool' called for in the manual; the 'scribe tool' is something Dell servicecritters have, but they've lately declared this keyboard on the advanced Latitudes a 'customer replaceable' item, and haven't revised their manual.

Now I'm not going to take a screwdriver contrary to instructions to my livelihood-machine and screw it up, nay: I want a Dell rep to tell me it's ok to do it without my prompting him. I'm trying to get same out of a young lady who is probably a)young and b) has probably not personally repaired anything in her life.

Shall we say, 18 minutes into chat, we finally got the magic sentence on record. And Jane and I replaced the keyboard in about 5.

Now I have caps again! Hurrah!

The snow turned to rain, is snow again, and the koi are tootling about.

Pointing up the fact that the wilderness is still wild…

Our local station has TWO stories in the state about hikers finding human bones yesterday, one on the shore at Point Defiance, in a sleeping bag, one deep in the Gorge…sheesh. What a morning. Spring has sprung, and hikers are out—but it's snowing right now.

And, be it noted, two of the koi came out to have a look this morning—so they were NOT done in by the malfunctioning heater. Hurrah!

i did get my new keyboard. I'm going to look into replacing it today. That will be a relief.