No-Knead Crusty Bread

So as it turns out, my passion for baking has come back to me in spades.

No-knead crusty white bread  from King Arthur Flour is an easy recipe to make with wonderful results.

Ingredients:
6  1/2 -7 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
3 cups of warm water 
1 T salt
1 1/2 T active dry or instant yeast

Method:
 If you are scooping the flour out of the bag, use the 6 1/2 cups; if you are sprinkling your flour into the measuring cup, use the 7 1/2 cups.

 Sift flour into a large (8 quart or larger) bowl; add yeast on one side of the bowl, and add salt on the other (salt and yeast are not exactly friends). Heat the water to around 105°F (no hotter than 112° or you'll kill the yeast). 

Add the water and mix thoroughly until dough will form a ball. If you are mixing by hand, use a wooden spoon or silicone spatula (it helps if the spatula is all one piece). If you are using a stand mixer, use the paddle attachment and remember to never mix any dough above speed 2. If you find that the dough is enveloping your paddle, it's ok to switch to the dough hook, but just make sure that all the little bits on the bottom are being thoroughly incorporated. 
Once thoroughly mixed, the dough will look like this:

 The dough will be sticky...

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap (a shower cap works really nicely) and allow dough to rise in a warm, draft-free spot for 2 hours.The KAF instructions say let your dough rise at room temperature, but I let all my doughs rise in my oven with the heat off. I have an oven with a pilot light, so it's a nice, cozy spot for the dough to get big and puffy. If you have no pilot light, but your oven has a light, you can leave the light on and allow the dough to rise in the oven (which is turned OFF, but with the light ON). Another nie alternative is to turn your oven on to 100°F or 200°F for a few minutes and the turn it off. Stick the dough in there (remember to make sure your oven is off as the dough rises) and pull out in 2 hours. 

After rising the dough should look like this:

Put the dough in the refrigerator (covered) and refrigerate at least 2 hours or up to 14 days. You will know if the dough has gone rancid. Your nose is your best friend when it comes to cooking, baking and general food safety. Yes, I know there are some germs that you cannot smell (botulism, E. coli, salmonella and listeria for instance) but if the dough has gone bad, you will know, trust me.

When ready to bake, prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper, or if you are using a cloche, line the cloche (or dutch oven) with parchment. Parchment is your friend when baking bread. Grab a hunk of dough (you can comfortably divide this dough recipe into quarters, halves, or thirds) and form into a round, or a log. Plop the dough down on the parchment and sprinkle with flour. Allow dough to rise for an hour at room temperature (longer in winter, or if your kitchen tends to be cold). About 40 minutes into the rise (or 20 minutes before you're ready to bake), place an empty METAL pan on the bottom rack of your oven (it is important that this pan be metal; glass or ceramic may break) and preheat the oven to 450°F. About 5 minutes before you are ready to bake, cut a few 1/2" deep slashes into the top of your bread using a sharp knife. this will allow the bread to expand in a uniform way as it bakes. 
Heat one cup of water (I usually put the water in a glass measuring cup and nuke it on high for 1 minute). Place your loaf on the top rack of the oven and add the water to the metal pan. It will make a very nice swooshing, sizzling sound. Quickly close the oven door and bake the loaf for 25 to 45 minutes (depending on the size of your loaf....larger loaves need longer baking times) until the bread is a deep golden-brown color. 

sometimes, things get wacky and your bread comes out looking like a snake head...

 isn't it cute?

This bread bakes up so easily and the dough is easy to make as well. Whether you are a seasoned baker or a novice, this a great bread!

Just look at that crumb...

I found it! I found it! I found it!

After all this time! I found it....and worked on it! and made a mistake! oh the joy! well, not really joy at having made a mistake, but joy at having restarted a project long overdue for finishing.

In other news, I am trying desperately to keep my various political opinions to myself and also trying to help my students learn something...so far the latter was the more successful of the two attempts.

Why am I back to this blog again? well for two reasons: firstly, I'm sick and so have the time to sit in front of the computer on a saturday afternoon and secondly, I was looking at others' blogs with admiration and I remember my much neglected and audienceless one...

so here's what the project looks like so far...

and now I would like to know why the image is sort of sideways....oh whatever, at least it's there....

life is crazy

so I went looking for the pattern to the project I was knitting and alas, I could not find hide nor hair of it anywhere! sigh... I had known that thankfully, I had stored a copy of it in my computer, though sadly, I have no idea where I stopped in the pattern...This requires some backtracking to figure out exactly where I left off....
wish me luck...
perhaps, there will be pictures to follow

times they are a changin'

though you'd never know it as human history has repeated itself oh, since the beginning of time? and that raises another question: did time exist before people, or is it a human invention?
So yesterday was a great day, despite not having started out as such: work in the morning and then a fun-filled afternoon of housework and housework; I was thinking of going to finish viewing the rest of the Three Faiths exhibit at the library, but then decided that I really didn't feel like going out and dealing with people. Then I got a phone call to come out and play ^..^
I went to dinner with a new-found friend of mine and we had a grand time :-)

My quest for understanding the history of religion continues...
I was researching the Freemasons yesterday which was really a result from my serch on christian mysticism which, truth be told, was utterly fruitless; well, ok not UTTERLY, but damn close to it. I found it realy interesting that the Jews have the Kabbalah, the Muslims have Sufism and the Christians, well, they got a lot of nothing. I found a couple of interesting sites on Christian mysticism, but there's no "branch" or "sect" that specifically deals with mysticism per se. Though I did discover that Gnosticism come pretty close....this warrants further research...
The semester is alost finished! Both me and my students were kind of shocked to figure out that we only have three or four class meetings left! I assume they're all busy working on their presenations now...I asked them to let me know what they were planning on presenting, but haven't heard anything from anyone....perhaps this warrants an e.mail?
In other news, winter, I think, is upon us (oh the joy) and I have noticed that I only think to spend hours behind the computer screen in the cold weather....any puzzle? any wonder?
I think not...

monotheism sweeps the world

should I get my broom?
I went to see a fantastic exhibit yesterday at the NYPL (sometimes they can be so fantastic) on the three Abrahamic religions. I learned a lot! It reminded me that when I was an undergrad, a favorite prof of mine gave me a book on exegesis in the middle ages in Europe (of course). But I learned that many bibles and other religious book (psalters, hymnals, books of hours) had been written in Ethopian...who knew? I'm sure some people knew, though I was not one of them ^..^
Anyway, I plan to go back, as I had only enough patience to get through about the first half of the exhibit and then it got crowded in the library (I hate when that happens). But this little adventure of mine has inspired me to remember to take full advantage of hte city in which I live. I have Friday afternoons free, and well, I should really exploit that time and use it to my advantage; there is so much to do here! I haven't been to the Met in ages....I think it's high time for a return trip.
I also learned of the interesting importance of Gabriel in all three religions (makes me wonder if there isn't some sort of conspiracy going on here....) in Judaism, he apparently was a go-between (but not like Galeotto) for Moses when he received the commandments on Mount Sinai, not to mention the laws and other tuff that G-d told him to do; in Christianity, he told Mary of her virgin birth (pregnancy?) (the Annunciation); in Islam, he was again the go-between for Mohammed when he was talking to G-d. Gabriel's role as messenger in each religion is intriguing to me for several reasons: firstly, I have always had an attraction to the Gabriel, whatever his guise; secondly, when my brother was born, my father gave me the opportunity to give him a middle name....I chose Gabriel; thirdly, I have always been able to pick the guy out of a crowd (no kidding). This certainly requires further research. I wonder why each religion "chose" Gabriel as the messenger...perhaps the Jews did it first, and the other two needed to follow suit (kind of like what the Christians did with the Pagans...but whatever, I say nothing); or perhaps there really is something to it.....maybe I will meditate on this for a time and come back with an answer.
I also learned quite a bit about the various commentaries on each "book" which in the beginning (no pun intended) were scrolls until people (thank you Gutenberg) figured out that the book format is easier to carry. Actuall, it isn't thanks to Gutenberg, as many of the torahs, bibles, qur'ans, psalters, prayer books, etc. were hand-written all the way into the 20th Century in some cases. Judaism mandates that the Torah and the Megillah remain in scroll format when they are used for ritual purposes. In reality, I think it was the Protestants who encouraged education in that they were the first Cristian sect (though I'm not sure about the Orthodox) to require that participants be able to read, and to read the bible as a means of enlightenment.
I learned that sometime between 200 and 500 CE the Talmud was codified and the oral tradition was redacted; sometime between 70 and 120 CE the writing of the Synoptic Gospels took place and by 900 CE, the Qur'an was completely codified with vowels and diacritical marks...
Interesting that by 397 BCE the text of the Torah was finalized and being read (thank you Ezra the Scribe).
I also recently read a really interesting article about Cleopatra in the New Yorker....mental note: find a link to that. The New Yorker keeps trying to get me to renew my subscription and is luring me with the promise of free gifts...perhaps I will exploit their offer and get my free gift for renewing early.
You know what they say; the early bird gets the worm. My big question has always been: who wants worms?

politics, anyone?

so the political discussion never materialized....oh well, today is a new day and more discussions will happen! Interested to see what will be....
I planned presentations and the last few weeks of class with my Italian students yesterday; it was really nice to finally see them excited and motivated about something. Of course, I think it has more to do with extra credit than anything else....whatever, we'll see what happens. I'm kind of looking forward to seeing what they will produce. They were actually interested in doing more work than less work, which I thought was funny based on their past performances and past motivational levels.
Today is promising to be a beautiful day, though cold. Have I mentioned that I hate winter? speaking of which, I have a knitting project left over from last year that I really must take up again....if I could only find the damn pattern! Perhaps it's time to look for that....

some handguns, a couple of rifles and an organized militia

will I really start maintaining this blog again? don't I ask that question every time I visit here and the first answer is always yes! I will blog! and the reality turns out to be the exact opposite.
I had an interesting debate this morning over the second amendment to the US constitution (it's nice to speak with a native English speaker every now and again....keeps things in perspective for me) which perhaps will continue at some later date as we didn't have much time to actively debate anything besides the expression of opinions...
I find it intriguing....this idea of states' rights vs. federal rights and wonder why there should be discrepancies of such epic proportions...but more on that later....afer we reconvene and continue our debate (though that may not actually happen)
I also wonder why students find it necessary to refer to their profs as u in e.mails....this is completely baffling to me.
So now I must go eat an apple and find my way up into the bronx for my italian adventure....
more news later (with any luck that later will be sooner than later...)

today is a brand new day

It's ealry in the morning here in NYC....the sky is overcast and the temperature has dropped considerably since last week...sigh...I fear the summertime is over and that makes me really sad.

Can't wait to see what tomorrow will bring...

the post-graduate center

I was wondering when I first approached the building just what sort of program these post-graduates had graduated from: Narcotics Anonymous was the first thing that crossed my mind: then I thought of Alcoholics Anonymous, and then realized that recovering alcoholics look MUCH better than the likes of these folks....

well, disappointingly, the post-graduate center actually turned out to be a church converted into a MENTAL HEALTH FACILITY where no one even knew what neuroscience is and the director of which looks like she's wearing a bad wig; which in and of itself is not a bad thing, but her strange eyeglasses and plaid dress didn't help her case as the director either, but made her appear to be a patient at said institution. I am as big a fan as any of the cleverly designed disguise, but there comes a point when you must ask yourself: am I cleverly disguised as an escapee from a mental institution? 

though I cannot tell you how befitting it is that this mental health graduate converted church den of iniquity is actually that close to the school where I work (far too much I might add).

In other news, I got a new job (yes, yet another one) and I start teaching an Italian group in the mornings on 20 october: I am hoping beyond hope that the baby classes work out (I call them babies even though they are really toddlers but whatever); that would occupy saturday morning for a while

I find it amazing that people wanting to learn Italian want to work in the morning and people wanting to learn english for the most part only want to attend school at night: I ask you, how productive are you as a student after a long day of work at eight o'clock in the evening?

I for one suck at that hour: I'm good to have a conversation that requires little to no brain activity on my part, but otherwise.....well, I'm not really so lucid (that's a lie I am lucid I just don't particularly want to be teaching at that time)

We'll see what happens....

an all-around interesting day

the highlights of my day:

I am subbing for two classes this week: one at the ungodly hour of 8 am and the other at the more reasonable hour of 10 am...

I had to awaken at 6 to give myself enough time to come to life and let the caffiene circulate for a while before actually having to deal with anyone (like on the metro in the morning which is always ugly, or 7th avenue which I have discovered is not so hideous during the off hours)

In the 10.00 class, I got to see a video of one of my students (who will forever be known to me as plaid-shirt) dissecting a fly brain: he studies the flies and their behavior...don't ask 

it was actually kind of cool though; I have never seen a fly brain all up close and personal like that...and under the microscope their eyes look red..but like bright, fire-engine red...who knew?

in that same class, we had a demonstration of salsa dancing (thank you Francisco), and we all demonstrated our motor reflexes (you know that knee thing that the doctor does to you to make sure your spinal cord and sensory nerves are developing correctly) 

I had the students ask me rather stupefied what I majored in because we were talking about entymology and how arachnids are an all-together different kind of creature than insects...

PS I had fun in that class

afterwards, I discovered a nice church in the neighbourhood where I work...I can forsee many hours of peace in that church are ahead of me if I continue working at this school (which by the way, is not my favorite institution so far)...I also found some center for post-graduate study that from the outside looks like it might once have been a church....this definitely warrants further investigation..I'l let you know what happens with that

Then tonight I went to see Carmen Consoli at Joe's Pub

hmmmm.....dissected fly brains and live music all in one day.......makes a girl kind of tired

verifiche

voi dovete essere felice a sapere che il Master procede benissimo! alcuni giorni fa, ho fatto la cosiddetto verifica finale del modulo di cui mi occupavo per due settimane: ero nervosa, ansiosa, e incerta sul contenuto perché pensavo di non averlo capito bene: invece, quando ho ricevuto la risposta della mia prof (che chiamiamo i tutor perché siccome apprendiamo in rete, il ruolo del prof svolge altre attività e richieste molto diverse dal ruolo del prof tradizionale) ho fatto benissimo!! Lei mi ha scritto che le mie risposte erano ben sviluppate con chiarezza ed esaustività!! (parole sue; ve lo giuro). Dovete sapere inoltre che trattiamo qui dei concetti della linguistica generale ed applicata: un tema non mica facile da capire! quindi sono felice e affronto questo nuovo modulo con calma e tranquillità; anche perché adesso trattiamo dei temi su cui ho già lavorato parecchio: facciamo ora l'apprendimento di una L2 o LS. Ci occupiamo delle varie teorie psicologiche e neurolinguistiche, due campi che ho già studiato all'università; mi chi non sa, una delle mia facoltà all'università era psicologia con una concentrazione sulle neuroscienze; c'era la richiesta pure per fare un tipo di specializzazione durante il percorso della facoltà di psicologia e ho fatto la mia proprio nel campo di "apprendimento"! EHI!! ho fatto benissimo e sono davvero contentissimaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

L'estate finsce

e anche se sono triste a vederla partire, devo dire che a me piacciono tutte e quattro le stagioni: l'estate però è la mia preferita! sole, mare, amici, fiori, frutta, giri, vacanze...c'è sempre una cosa bella da fare in estate!!! l'inverno però è un'altra cosa completamente...allo stesso tempo che mi piace l'inverno non mi piace l'inverno...è freddissimo per mesi (odio il freddo), diventa difficile muoversi per la città non solo per la neve o la pioggia ma soprattutto perché si deve mettere tanti vestiti per non prendere freddo che porta anche la febbre, il raffreddore, e tutto ciò 

Ma certo che c'è la bellezza della neve (che ne abbiamo parecchio a NYC) quando è fresca fresca come se fosse una coperta sulla città: c'è poi il silenzio della notte e le piccole stelle che brillano in un cielo che è di un colore blu così profondo che appare quasi nero come se fosse petrolio; 

l'autunno porta i colori della terra che mi piacciono tanto tanto; bordeaux, carminio, arancione fiamma, bronzo, castagno, granata, oro, marrone, beige, seppia, ocra, viola, rubino...e ci sono alberi qui vicino i quali foglie diventano scarlatte a tal punto che l'albero sembra che sia in fiamme

e anche non possiamo dimenticare la primavera: quando il mondo cresce ancora...dopo mesi del grigio dell'inverno, c'è una specie di rinascita come il mondo si sta svegliando da un sonno profondissimo...

adesso però il mondo sta per addormentarsi; l'autunno è l'inizio di questa fase del ciclo e l'unica cosa con cui mi consolo è che l'estate torna ancora fra poco (ma dai... neppure un anno che devo aspettare...)

un ricordino

due foto della spiaggia a NY.... la mitica Jones Beach

metterò più foto in seguito....per ora, me ne vado verso il fiume per godere un po' questi ultimi giorni dell'estate!!

bacioni dalla grande mela

technology, oh how I loathe thee

sometimes, techonology is just not on my side. Sigh. Take this morning for instance: I am all geared up to take my exams, to dowload the final so I can begin work on the questions, and Firefox has decided that it feels like being recalcitrant and doing whatever the hell it feels like doing (today this has taken the form of not risponding). Well, you know Firefox, there are many moments in my life when I too feel like not risponding (for instance, when my boss asked me the other day about how I was going to vote in the next election and then proceeded to extoll the virtues of George Bush Senior...I was, needless to say, totally flumuxed by this commentary and wondered silently if I was being tested by some strange and evil diety trying to make its presence known to the world) but not being a web browser, I DON'T HAVE THAT OPTION!! Why do you do me this way?? why oh why??? I implore you oh gods of hypertext, please let firefox function!!

Do I need to make some sort of virgin sacrifice to get the damn thing to work? How many times can one send the same resoconto to Apple without seeming completely redundant? Maybe I should restart the whole operation and start again from scratch?

any suggestions?

learning online

hey!! so the online courses are fun! I'm beginning to get the hang of instant messaging and forum posts and ignoring confusing messages from other students!! YAY!!

as you may have guessed, the Masters program really did start (as detailed in a prior post) and I am happily plugging along on the path to knowledge (tangled with brambles and thorny impediments thought it may be). I have a few more sections to get through before I take my first exam....

so now, I am off to learn and be educated! (oh, and finish the laundry! WOO HOO for clean clothes! BOO HOO for being the one who has to clean them!)

so apparently, keeping up a blog is much more difficult than I once thought: I log in today only to realize that my last post was something like two months ago...how did that happen? so much for my brilliant idea of updating regularly. Although, this would seem to indicate an already established pattern in my life of initiating some activity and then taking my sweet time to complete it.... a trend? perhaps. (might I point out my love for the sentence fragment?)

In other news: the Master's program starts on 1 september (I swear being bilingual is sometimes problematic from the standpoint of mixing uses and functions and forgetting that rules which apply in one language are not translatable to the other) 

I have downloaded the patto formativo and am ready to begin the course of study (nervous though I may be): this is going to be a lot of work. I have the academic schedule and this wil facilitate my progress - a calendar of events so to speak - which details all the modules, exams, deadlines, and requisites...WOO HOO!!

I am off to the beach today...after pulling the week from hell this past week (think thirteen hour days and a seven day work week...yikes!) I need some form of relaxation to unwind and staccare la spina (though not in the literal sense)

more news later....who knows, maybe if I start posting twice daily I will be able to recuperate from not having posted anything in months.....

I'll keep you posted (though I'm sure readership is nil)

baci dalla grande mela dove si va al mare 

ciao ciao

il tempo passa...

allora...mi trovo ancora a New York (una città che è davvero incantevole; vi allego qualche foto forse) visto che è stato un pò di tempo da quando ho fatto l'aggiornamento del mio blog e alcuni amici mi hanno chiesto di farlo, eccomi di nuovo.
ci sono tante tante cose che mi sono accadute da quando ero a Perugia (ma ovviamente, no?) e vi racconto solo alcune per questa la mia prima volta qui dopo quasi un anno!
mi sono laureata recentemente e c'era mia cugina alla cerimonia; c'erano anche i miei (ma non era ovvio?), gli zii, ed alcuni amici (che sono davvero cari) comunque è stata la giornata forse più bella della mia vita (manca quella in cui sono nata)
Sono diventata professoressa di italiano (anche di inglese!) come lingua straniera: un lavoro che è davvero gradevole! mi trovo completamente al mio agio e in un ambiente molto adeguato ... si può vedere che mi piace? ihihihihihi insegno per due scuole private e mi piacciono sia gli studenti sia i colleghi
Faccio parte di un gruppo teatrale con cui recito una commedia di Dario Fo: abbiamo avuto alcuni problemi fin'ore ma comunque è un'esperienza da non perdere nella vita; si può imparare tante cose non solo su se stesso ma anche come riagire ad avere un rapporto con gli altri cioè come si fa ad avere un rapporto che non è esattamente un'amicizia neppure un rapporto professionale, ma è una specie di tutte e due insieme. Quindi è un'esperienza interessante...
Vi devo dire che mi trovo molto bene in questo periodo della mia vita e sono contenta, felice, e sento in armonia con l'universo...

Ciao Perugia

WOW!! I can't believe I'm leaving!! It's been an absolutely amazing time here......I'm going up to Genova to visit my family.....more pics from there.....

and so I leave you with some stunning images of Perugia....hope you had as much fun here as I did....... Baci dall'Umbria e ci vediamo ancora quando arriverò a Genova!!........

the Griffin of 1477......500 years before I was born!

Corso Vannucci

La Fontana

Porto d'Ercule

Sala dei Notai e la Galleria Nazionale d'Umbria

Corso Bersaglieri

the view from the roof of the università

this is a false grade.....look closely though and you can see the aqueduct....ah.....the genius of Roman engineering!!

Sala Grande....that painting in the back is a futurist painting (can't remember the name of the artist) but it used to have a depiction of Mussolini in it....til the fascist regime fell and then they painted over him......il Duce probably wasn't too thrilled...

San Francesco.....

La Madonna

The walk home from university.....

San Francesco al Prato....

God, Umbria is really beautiful....

Arco del sole ? the scudi at the top fast became a symbol of Perugia....this wall was originally constructed by the Etruscans....and added to by the Romans.....

the cityscape is really breathtaking from up high....

illegal pictures of Apollo from the sala dei notai.....the ceiling is just incredible though!!

I don't think I even knew the name of this chruch but it's right at the end of corso bersaglieri.....this is where I turn right to get to university......Piazza Fortebraccio is just down the street.....

I will miss it sooooooooooo much!!

Ciao! ci vediamo alla prossima...

Foligno

may I introduce to you the flattest town in all of Umbria.....

I was completely amazed to see people on bicycles here!! I mean a woman riding through the piazza on a bicycle!! and an old man even!! eh, wait that doesn't sound right....the old man was riding a bicycle I meant....

see how flat??!?!? ok, well maybe not from that shot, but I swear, it really is FLAT....but this is a nice segue into the gratuitous church photos (of which there seem to be many)

here's the outside (from street level)...

and the inside.....

I wish I had a baldacchino like this in MY house!

never missing an opportunity to showcase everybody's favorite virgin.....

I especially love the moon and snake at her feet.....robbing the pagans again I see?
There is also a military base here (which thankfully I didn't have an opportunity to photograph) and this was a relatively short trip....next stop: Spello!!

Spello

So as I blog on, I realize that I pretty much take pictures of all the same things in different cities......
there are however slight variations....for instance, I was running like a MADWOMAN to catch the train back to Perugia (in spite of the fact that a very scary bald man with an earring offered to drive me back and if not all the way to Perugia as he originally suggested, then at least to the train station......I politely declined in an attempt to avoid all the potentially horrendous endings that the situation could have....my being dead was the number one thing on that list of accidents to avoid).....so I didn't take a picture of the sign in the train station at Spello as I have done in almost every other city I've visited.....I'm weird like that....I start doing a random thing at some point along the way and then it becomes a sort of ritual....
but I digress (as I do in every post) on to the images!!
Spello is on a really steep hill....

But the security is tight.....the people in the middle ages were apprently very wary of unwanted intruders

unfortunately, the signage can sometimes be a little bit confusing...

the requisite church......this one is obviously not as decadent as some others that we've seen...



and what would a medieval town be without the delightful strade strette???

And then of course, like every town on top of a huge hill, Spello has some amazing panoramic views......there's a little park that's way up on top of the hill (in fact the whole city is built on a damn steep hill....didn't I tell you Foligno was the only flat city in all of Umbria??) and from this overlook a whole lot of land is visible:

oh wait, isn't that my house in the distance over there???!?!?

and no kidding, it really is that close to Perugia.....