Jorpblog

So I read this article about a revolution in bread-making. The best thing since sliced bread. Some guy had figured out a method so that even an 8-year old could make great bread. Here’s how it goes:

1) Mix flour, water and a teeny bit of yeast together–no kneading–and let rise for 18 hours in a covered bowl.
2) Take it out of the bowl, and cover it in wheat bran or corn meal or flour, fold it over onto itself a couple times on a cotton cloth–no kneading. Cover it in the cloth for 2 hours.
3) Pre-heat the oven with a lidded pot inside. Throw the dough into this pot and bake with the lid, then a little while without the lid.

I guess what’s revolutionary is that a loaf of bread uses 1/4 teaspoon of yeast and no kneading at all, no spraying with water or putting a pan of water in the oven. The dough is moist enough to provide its own water for the crust, and the small pot is essentially a small oven that traps the moisture. Other than waiting, there’s maybe 15 minutes of work. And in the end, this is bakery quality bread.

I can send the full article to anyone who’s interested. There’s some step-by-step photos on my flickr site. Or stay tuned for more variations–I plan on trying this with some different flours soon.

We heard our share of live music in Morocco. First of all, I never got around to getting a case for my bendir, so I carried it around with me a lot, and people would see a drum and want to bang on it. Being in Morocco, most of them could actually play, and a number of impromptu short jams began that way. It also got played a lot by people in our group and the musicians we hired (who often seemed to pick up whatever drum was closest to them).

Then there was a lot of jamming going on since our crew was probably 2/3 musicians who were either taught by or played in a band at one time with Quentin & Heather.

And at the anniversary party there were 4 bands, and in N’Kob there were 2. There was always live music in the Jemaa al Fna…

Anyway, here’s some short movies I took of some of it:

Band at the Anniversary party

Chicken Man playing in the Jemaa Al Fna with Carlos & Mike Morton

Gnawa Band playing at a Restaurant in Essaouira

More on the Gnawa later…

I’ve always liked long exposure pictures, and I’ve been taking them ever since I got my first SLR camera from my uncle over 20 years ago.

Back then, there was no 2 or 10 second timer, just the “B” setting, where it would stay open as long as I held the button down. But I found a way to get the camera to stay open by holding the button down and then twisting it halfway between B and the next exposure setting.

So on the glass table on my parent’s back patio, I pointed the camera to the moon, held the button in and then turned the knob so it stayed open for a few hours. It was the suburbs, so there weren’t very many stars visible, but the photo still came out ok, showing the movement of the moon.

Tonight, the pictures practically took themselves.

I’m sure I was aiming for something else when I took this shot, but I’m glad I missed. It was a cold, cold morning by the river when I was photographing the steam and the ducks, and I’m pretty sure there was a bird in the picture when I took it.

OK, so maybe I wasn’t so ambitious this year, making 4 out of 5 of my resolutions ones that I could solve in a single night in the kitchen. But for some reason, all my past attempts at brownies ended up as crunchy bricks of dried-out chocolate soup, very reminiscent of an igneous rock.

The scientist in me asks, what was different this time?
1) Scharffen Berger 99% cacao unsweetened chocolate.
2) A simple recipe.
3) Cake frosting from my last batch of cupcakes. [tip: freeze leftover frosting, it works great and loses none of its already non-existant nutritional value!]
4) Whole wheat pastry flower–I don’t think this made any difference actually, though I suppose they are marginally healthier

Next up…lasagna!

Often, on the way to and from work, I walk along the Chicago River path on the west bank between Lawrence and Argyle. It’s just 1/4 mile, and there’s plastic bags, beer bottles and other trash mixed in with the greenery. But I’ve seen so much wildlife in that small space, it’s been inspirational.

Lately, I’ve gotten so fed up with the CTA that I’ve been taking the metra train to Ravenswood and walking to work practically everyday, even in the cold. It was pretty suprising how much was still going on by the river despite the freezing temps.

So I’ve decided to take pictures all year and post the best from every month to my flickr page–a sort of longitudinal study that I’m calling the Chicago River Report.

In this set, taken the last day of January, I used a relatively long exposure to accentuate the steam rising off the water. At night it’s just as beautiful, but much harder to photograph.

Bagels are more rewarding than baking regular bread. It only takes a few hours, you can make a whole variety in one sitting, and don’t they just look so yummy!

I need to figure out pumpernickel bagels, which are my all-time favorite, but there’s no hurry…