Baking Skills

My burgeoning bread making skills are becoming useful in other areas. I have never been good with pies. Denise usually always made the pies. Her simple but elegant apple pie recipe is my favorite. Even when I did make a pie, I would usually start the crust and then in total disgust throw up my hands, yell and threaten to throw it away- at which point Denise would come in, salvage the crust and finish the pie.

This is mainly because my pie crusts were never perfect. Making bread has helped me overcome the need for perfection. I am learning that the "feel" of the dough is more important than anything and today, for the first time in a long time, I started and completed the crust for this apple pie. I am so proud- and not one single deleted expletive.

The clouds started rolling in this afternoon, and it is getting a little wet outside, but we are warm around the fire, with hot apple pie and vanilla ice cream to look forward to this evening.

The Tooth, The Whole Tooth and Nothing but the Tooth!

Awhile back, I wrote that UruguayNow listed our blog (along with 5 others) as a best of the Web Site.  I'm not mentioning, it this time, to brag, (no really), but because of their review or synopsis of our site.  I found it amusing.

"Wally Glass details his ongoing struggle, against mosquito, brushes with officialdom, a recurring tooth problem, etc....  with honestly & clarity of his observations..." 

Okay, the recurring tooth problem is mine. It's been going on now for 5 and a half months and it's amusing to me that, this statement would be a reason to read our blog! So now Honestly and with too much Clarity I bring to you the Tooth, The Whole Tooth and Nothing but The Tooth!

  December 2, 2009, I broke my rear upper Molar. I decided to try using my Medica Uruguaya Insurance and go through the "System" I was able to go to an emergency clinic by going First to my Doctor in our local clinic (Salinas) where she wrote a note saying it should be looked at right away!

The "Urgency clinic" is in the town of Solymar, fronting the ruta (the highway). An on site Dentist looked at it and filled it right away with a temporary filling, a Paste or "Pasta" as it's called in Español.

Before an appointment can be made to Permanently fill a tooth a "Revision" or review must be made in the main Clinic in Montevideo.  APPOINTMENTS for Revisions can ONLY be made on the first of each month (business day) That was 3 weeks away! but I was assured that if my Temp. filling came out  I could immediately go to The Solymar Clinic & they would again fill it. Two days later the Pasta fell out! All in all I had 3 temp. Pastas put in.

January 2, 2010. I got an APPOINTMENT for January 31, Revision in the Montevideo Clinic.

January 31, 2010. My Revision was a 5 mins. examine (or less) The Dentist said YES you can get a permanent filling put in (covered by my Insurance) I learned the insurance only covers 1 filling a life time.  With the okay to go, I now needed to be given an appointment for the Permanent Filling. The next available time slot was March 18! Meanwhile my Pasta fell out again but I just left it out and waited for the permanent filling to be put in at the now familar Solymar Medico Uruguayo Clinic.

March 18, 2010.  In a matter of minutes my new PERMANENT filling was in! No Dinero was charged. The only cost was my time and since I was retired, what did that matter?

March 20, 2010. My PERMANENT filling fell out!

Okay, FORGET THIS,  I'm going to see a Commercial Dentist because these fillings aren't staying in my tooth and I WAS being careful, even chewing on the other side of my mouth!

April,  I'm bummed out and I don't do ANYTHING for the entire month with a hole in my tooth!

May 6, 2010.  I go to Atlantida (5 kms away) to a Dentist recommended by an expat. This Dentist speaks English! He actually takes an X-ray my first! He recommends the tooth be PULLED! The other choice would be MORE than just a Root Canal or A Cap but a FALSE TOOTH! taking about 7-8 visits of Dental work to anchor it in! I asked the cost. The total (estimate) would only cost 5,600 Pesos UY but since it was a Back Molar near the ex Wisdom tooth, guess what I decided to do?

May 11, 2010.  I had my back upper molar PULLED! Cost 1 x-ray  200 Pesos ($10 US), 1 Tooth Extraction  750 pesos ($40 US) and 50 pesos ($2.50) for some non-aspirin based pain pills purchased from the local pharmacy. 

So you tell me, $50 US or for free (with insurance) Which was the better route?? LOL. I hope this recurring tooth problem saga is now no longer a major theme of our blog.

PS. As a lark read #5 on the post extraction care guide. Only in Uruguay!

Flat Top

No- this does not refer to an old Ford auto engine, nor to my latest haircut (as if I had enough hair on the top of my head to sport a "flat top"). This is a description of today's bread that I just took out of the oven. I am beginning to see that breadmaking is quite the art- one that takes practice to perfect.

This time, I was careful not to add too much flour before I kneaded it. Consequently, it was quite an enjoyable process. I fought the dough on the first loaf I made, as it had excess flour. You can always add more flour, but it is impossible to take it out, once it's in.

I think the key is learning what the dough is supposed to look and feel like. That is where the craft come into play. It rose, well enough, but after shaping it and putting it into the loaf pan, I sort of forgot and let it set for several hours longer than it should have. As a result, the dough had risen, then fallen back a little.

Still, the bread was delicious. Better than the first loaf, and very light and airy. Now, if I can only get the timing right. I also can see that bread making requires a level of organization that appeals to me. I haven't quite gotten the hang of it, yet, but I am working on it. For instance, if you want "no knead" bread today- you had to start yesterday. If you want kneaded bread in the morning- you have to make it at night, or very early. However, I think the sheer enjoyment of learning a new skill and having fresh, homemade bread on hand will balance out the work involved.

I am pretty sure that this is not a financial savings. Probably when all is taken into consideration (heating the oven, supplies, etc.), I will probably end up paying more for each loaf than if I bought it. Remind me again- why am I doing this? Oh yeah- for the joy of cooking.

No Knead Bread

Today, I tried the "No Knead Bread" recipe made famous by Jim Lahey (Sullivan Street Bakery). It takes overnight, but there is no kneading involved. It is touted as a bread easy enough for a 4 year old to make, and in fact, I have seen YouTube videos of a four year old making this type of bread.

I think I need to hire a 4 year old. This bread proved to be a little much for a 64 year old to make. Essentially, I started out, OK. The night before I made my mixture of flour, salt, yeast and water and it ended up a a rough and rugged ball of dough (not the smooth dough for normal bread recipes).

Today, the dough seemed to have dissolved into a thick pancake batter, but it had bubbles and I went ahead with the recipe, taking it out of the bowl. It was so wet!

"How wet was it?", you ask. "it was wetter than a real wet thing"- sorry, I was going to come up with a real zingy simile, but I just couldn't think of one. It was wet. As you can see, I foolishly chose to work an a nice sized cutting board, but it proved to be too small. Next time, lose the cutting board and work directly on my granite counter.

So, I mushed it around, let it rise again (didn't do too much), then schlepped it into the preheated pot to bake. I baked it for 30 minutes covered, and 15 minutes uncovered. This is how it came out. Now I am actually surprised, since it didn't look like it would be any good when that mushy stuff rolled into the pot I cooked it in. But I have to admit, it is a pretty good looking loaf of artisan bread. We were supposed to cool it off, but who can wait that long? The crust was very crunchy and the inside nice and soft. I can picture me eating this with any kind of soup we will be making this winter. While I thought it was going to be a flop- it turned out pretty good.

On another front, I also "fed" my sourdough starter with another 1/2 cup of flour and 1/2 cup of water, after stirring in the liquid forming on top (alcohol) and taking 1/2 of the old stuff out. Seems to be going according to plan, but unless I can learn to make decent bread- sourdough starter isn't going to help. Bread is bread, so I need to hone my skills and sourdough starter won't make bad bread good, just different.

Internet Speeds

I have used Antel's DSL service for almost 2 years, now. I signed up for 2048 Kpbs service, with 100 minutes of free international calling credited to my phone bill (cost: 1463 pesos or $77). I never actually used the 100 minutes, entirely (which cost me 195 pesos/month) and frankly have never been impressed with the 2048 service, either. Now in Seattle, we enjoyed cable internet speeds (dramatically better than any DSL service we could get in Uruguay) for about $40 per month- so we have been spoiled.

So, Wednesday I decided to change my plan. I eliminated the international long distance (I will use Skype minutes, instead) and reduced my service to 1024 Kpbs (883 pesos or $46), just to see how much difference it would make. I will save $30/month, which is a significant amount, especially if you don't need something. Yesterday, I had to actually sign in to my new account, and after a few minutes of fiddling around, got internet back online.

Today was the first full day of service at the reduced speed. The result. Pages load faster and my download rate is as fast or faster than before. The conclusion- paying $20 more per month doesn't get you better service. Save the money and get 1024 Kpbs service.

It Lives!

This is day 3 of the great sourdough experiment. And lo and behold, when I peeked under the moist towel that had been covering my future sourdough starter, there were many bubbles on the surface and a somewhat sour smell- all to be expected.

Apparently I have a live culture underway. The bubbles are the result of the live yeast and are the byproduct of the yeast "eating" the flour I have provided. Apparently these would be yeast farts- though I will not point that out to potential consumers of my sourdough bread.

From now on, each day I will take out half of the mixture and add back 1/2 cup of water and 1/2 cup of flour to keep feeding the starter. In a week or so, I will have a viable "mother" starter that I can use in place of commercial yeast to produce bread. Then the fun begins.

Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread

Today I made my first loaf of bread. This is day 2 of the sourdough starter and nothing needed to be done, so I thought I would try my hand at a standard loaf of white bread. Normally recipes make 2 loaves at a time, but since this was my first, I thought I would halve it and see what happened.
Besides making bread, today- I also had to unblock the drain line from the kitchen to the septic system. I worked on it all day long, with a combination of hot water and a garden hose. Eventually I purchased a length of plastic tubing that I used to push out the grease and that turned the trick and cleared the way. I have learned what I need to do, now. The pozo negro (septic) does not need to be emptied, so we are doing quite well.

Now, back to the bread. I probably made it a little too dry (too much flour). It did rise, but not as much as I expected. I think that kneading the dough is going to be quite an upper body workout. Now if I could just figure out how to need with my feet, I would be quite a balanced routine. I think kneading with the feet however, would impart a special flavor to the bread that I can do without.

It did bake up nicely, and looked pretty good- but you can tell that I am just a beginner. Once I get my mind working on the problem, I think I can do better.