September 2009. Can’t wait.

Fake-grass-rug on the balcony.

Yesterday my new rye sourdough was done and strong enough to use. This is the first bread from the new starter. I decided to try out the kneading technique from Richard Bertinet’s Dough since I find it so fascinating. When looking at his instructions and thinking about the mechanics it all makes sense, but for some reason I doubted it once I started. A few minutes in doubt turned to amazement - to have the dough change texture like that in my hands, much more so than with traditional kneading. I can really recommend it. Bertinet says that it takes about eight minutes when you’re used to it, but for me it took at least double that, maybe longer. Kind of lost track of time. Look at those holes! I just made a cross section for the picture, but slices later revealed even larger ones. Kind of a big moment for an amateur like me. And the taste? Hands down the best bread I’ve ever made.

My latest attempt at San Fransisco sourdough. The holes didn’t came out as big as I’d hoped, but there is nothing wrong with the crust! To be honest, I think this is my best bread so far.

Made granola last night. I thought I messed up and burned it, but it seems to have made it through anyway. Tasted fantastic, exceeded all expectations actually. My goal was to learn how to make it as good as the one I used to get at Healthy Pleasures, near Union Square in New York (that I have been craving ever since). And to tell you the truth, not far off on the first attempt. Yay!

Sometimes you hear stuff that sticks with you. This week’s quote is without a doubt what Monique Wadsted said to a reporter during the ongoing Pirate Bay trial. “Oavsett lagstiftningen så är det inte tillåtet att tjäna pengar på andras upphovsrättsskyddade verk utan att betala för sig”. Which losely translated from swedish reads, “No matter what the law says, you’re not allowed to make money on other peoples copyrighted material without paying for it”. Come again, Monique? No matter what the law says? Errrm, you mean to tell us that we can’t look to the law to determine whats illegal or not?

Yesterday evening was spent giving a danish rye bread recipe, that I had lying around, an honest try. Actually this was my first attempt baking a dark bread. It looks alright, the texture is nice, but it doesn’t really taste the way I was hoping. Next time I’ll try another recipe.

Raspberry jam cookies. A friday night pleasure. These kind of cookies remind me of a light-green tin jar, with a pink flower on the lid, that my grandma had in her kitchen when I was a child. Wonder if she still has it.

I’m still trying to decide what color palette to use in my new kitchen. Since the kitchen tiles are black and I have no plans of replacing them at the moment, and my huge table is grey I was trying to figure out what colors to go with inbetween. Need to imagine my hardwood floor to go with that, though. Think I’m closing in.