overnight rolls

Life has been busy since January.  I have been traveling most weeks.  It is either to my Dad's or with family.

My Dad has felt that he has declined since he got COVID.  I would agree.  He seems to be more fragile.  I do not think we will have him in our lives as long as we may hope.  I am trying to just spend more time with him.  It does mean I get to go for more walks in the woods.  I also feel like I have learned to travel more easily.  I am down to one carry on bag when I fly.  Even when I travel by car.  I just do not need to take everything anymore.  Simple is good.

I still take a crochet or embroidery project.  My hands need to be busy.  Mending is never ending so that is where most of my sewing attention is currently.  I am contemplating making my next spring suit.  A neoprene swimsuit basically.  The one I have has completely stretched out and I cannot find anything that I like in a shop.  My biggest problem there is that I have found five pieces of fabric I like.  Making a decision on fabric is sometimes the hardest thing.  I really only need one.  The idea of sewing with neoprene is not even as daunting as just making the decision of which fabric.

My Beloved and myself went to New Orleans for my birthday week.  Lots of walking, food, drink, and good people.  We stayed in a bed and beverage that had a roof deck with Adirondack chairs on it.  It was the straw for me to get the chairs I wanted for the front porch.  I am continuing the New Orleans tradition of having my morning tea on the front porch.  It make life better.  It is where I am writing now.  I can sit and have Blue or Bear sharing the space and it is not quite as overwhelming as being inside.  I also can watch the roses I planted grown.

One of the things I have found hard with all the traveling I am doing is having home baked fresh bread.  When we were in Homer, I came across a cookbook called The Nordic Baker.  The author has a recipe for overnight bread rolls which I have been using.  I can have fresh bread for breakfast even if it is not in the form of a loaf. 

I do find I have to share with the Bear.  I have to be very specific if I need to save some for say a camping trip.  I went by myself and this was the bread I took.  It travels well.  I have also taken the author's idea of an easy overnight roll and made a more enriched dough for the bun.  It worked well.  What I am saying, is that I have used this recipe as a framework and gone other directions with it.

overnight rolls

Note:  I modified this recipe from The Nordic Baker to use sourdough and more to my taste.  I have also kneaded in butter and used milk instead of water, added more sugar.  The only thing I have not tried with this so far is to add an egg but it would make something more similar to a brioche if you did.

2 tablespoons sourdough starter 

1 1/4 cup water (the recipe called for cold but I use room temperature water)

1 tablespoon maple syrup

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup rye flour

2 1/4 cup spelt or wheat flour (I have used both)

I mix everything in a bowl and then put it in a covered Pyrex to sit on the counter overnight, 8 to 12 hours. My winter kitchen works very well for leaving the dough on the counter.  My summer kitchen will need me to put this dough in the refrigerator for this time.  Make sure the dough is covered well.

This should be a wet sticky dough so kneading will probably not happen.  Just stir very well.  If not extra.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

Cover a baking sheet with a silpat or parchment paper.

Turn the dough out on a lightly floured surface.  Divide into 10 equal portions.  Do not work too much about shaping.  I push the corners under to make the rounder when I move them to the silpat covered baking sheet.

Bake for about 15 minutes or until golden.  Let cool for a few minutes and then serve warm.

I like them with butter and jam.  Or cream cheese and smoked salmon.  On my camping trip, I cut them in half and fried them in not butter to have for breakfast.  It is really a great way to have fresh bread.

something hard

Every time I think I have a handle on life, I am wrong.

I went to my Dad's mid August.  That was good.  I was there for about ten days with Koda Bear.  We did not do anything exceptional.

We hung out with my Dad.  We whacked weeds on the mountain.  My Dad and the Bear cut a fallen tree away.  Which for a 91 year old and an 8 year old was interesting to watch.  We walked.

Koda Bear and I walked a lot on the Centennial Trail out of Snohomish.  It is a rails to trails walk so it is fairly flat and straight.  Koda Bear used the razor a lot.

Then there was the day I said "Why don't we try the walk that was snowed in last time?"  That was a hard walk.  It took about two hours longer then advertised but Koda Bear was tired on the way down.  The knee I twisted in June was not feeling very good either.  We were just trying to not fall down on the way back.

On the way up to Excelsior Pass, it was up the whole way.  When we were almost at the top there were beautiful fields of flowers and the views were spectacular.  But about five hundred feet from the top, I had to stop.  I needed to rest, drink, and eat.  Which we did.  We made the pass.

Absolutely gorgeous views.  

We kept telling each other when we do something hard, crazy is not that much harder.  This was classified as a difficult hike.  It was really not a hard hike in terms of being technical.  It was just up the whole way.

I was not really ready to come back.  Koda Bear went both ways.  And since I have been back, the Tall Short Person and Koda Bear have both started school.  Koda Bear is being home schooled because the school district did not come out with a good plan and he had pneumonia last year.  I have expanded my role with Serenity Knives to more farmer's markets, more sharpening, and learning how to make resin scales for handles.  I am still making face masks.

I have started spinning again.  Trying to find some time to crochet.  Not much sewing other then face masks because face masks.  I am watching the plums to see when they ripen so I can make jam from them.  Watching figs too.  Observing plants for ideas of what to use for printing.  I signed up for an online course about eucalyptus as dye and I have no idea when I will get to play.  I work a lot of part days. 

Life seems busier then it was before.  Out of control even.  Then last week we were wondering if Laura was coming our way.  I still react to helicopters after Harvey so I was not looking forward to that.  It has been an interesting year.  I do not really need a routine but I would like some calm and slowing of the season.  Oh well.  That is not going to happen!  Though this space does feel like a sanctuary for the first time.  I do not guarantee I will be here more but I will continue to come back to it.

walking

We went to my Dad's last week.  It was good.  He really would like to see us every month and we are going to try.  But we live at one of the hot spots of COVID-19 right now.  We will see.  I have chosen not to coach because it is not worth my health.  I keep making face masks.  And I few other requests.  I am going to spend a lot of time at my sewing machine.  I am going to be making the same things all the time but that will be where I will be.  I will need to walk.  It helps with the anxiety.

Walking is what I like to do.  When we were at Dad's, we went for a couple walks.  The first was to Goat's Lake.  It is gorgeous.  It made me think that I was in shape.  We ended up with this view.

A couple days later we did the Excelsior Pass Trail.  It is one of those trails that I swear the National Parks, National Forests, and National Wilderness people put in place with if you can get through the first fifteen minutes you should be okay.  This was steep.  I did not feel in shape on the way up.  Gorgeous but we hit snow.  We did not get all the way.  I may want to try it in August or September.  

The biggest problem with the snow is that I am pretty sure I twisted my left knee.  I walked without moving it for a couple days and I am having to baby it now.  I should put my knee brace on but I am being stubborn.  And I do not want to be asked about it.  But it does hurt badly to walk across the house.  

I just love walking so both of these were more about going for a walk.  I never care if we get to the destination or not.  Koda Bear loves running down the trails.  Blue wants to be able to keep up but he is just not big enough.  But if I walked at his pace I would think I was in shape!  It is hard to walk in the heat of Houston after being up there.  I think I will slowly walk all the paths in the Mount Baker Wilderness.

Now, I get to figure out how to make a couple more requests.  Welder caps.  Scrub caps with room for pony tails.  Learning how to sharpen clipper blades is on my list for this month.  It could be very busy.

my odd travels

My bag and I went on our travels.  It was the first time I slept in the back of the new Subaru.  And I was glad to be above the ground because the ground was saturated!  But saying that, I did not realize how different the angles were in the new car versus the old car.  I am going to have to go about making my bed differently in the future.  I kept trying to slide out the back!

Noticed I said the ground was saturated.  I ended up in New Orleans with rain.  Lots of rain.  So instead of trying to cook outside in the rain, I went into a restaurant.  The one I hoped to go to is no longer but I went to another that was quite good.  Aranas on Magazine.  It was loud but so loud I could not interact with anyone if I did not wish to.  I sat at the bar and ate and crocheted.  I talked with the chef about knives.  I had actually spent time in a bar with him many moons ago.  I always said I would try his place and now I have.  I was very surprised he remembered me.

The next day I tried to go to the art show that I wished to.

Come to find out, the gallery was attached to a public school in the Bywater neighborhood of New Orleans and was not open.  I was disappointed.  But I did find out interesting historical facts.  The gentleman portrayed in blue on the mural was Homer Plessy.  In 1892, he board the all white car of a passenger train.  The decision of the Supreme Court in his case was the foundation for Brown vs the Board of Education and desegregated schools.  To me, this is huge because I was part of desegregation in the late 1970's, early 80's.  I was the white girl who got bused to the inner city school.  It was interesting to see where some of what I experienced started in a historical sense.

And there were good views of the Mississippi river.

Otherwise, I tried some good food and drove home.  I am going to try to recreate those sugar brioche in that picture.  So good.  I am close!  That recipe is going to be interesting just because I use it for so many things.

I need more traveling in my future.  I may try to go to that show later in the month.  I may just try to go camping out west.  Both are possibilities.  The odd travels are interesting and I do enjoy them.

Palo Duro Canyon

It has been awhile since I got to go camping at Palo Duro Canyon State Park.

Part of that is that it is a ten hour drive from Houston.  It requires a long weekend to get there.

It is desert so it can be hot.  The day we arrived it was forecasted to be about 110 degrees Fahrenheit in the canyon itself.  It is nice that it cools off during the night.

We did go for one of the longer marked hikes in the canyon.

The rock formation called the Lighthouse was the destination.  Most of the hike is very easy.  The last quarter mile had my bad hip not happy with me.  I had to rest more then I would have liked to wish to let pain stop.  I was at the extremes of movement for my right hip.  But I made it.

I even made it with a crochet project in my pack.  Fruit, water, and crochet. I could not ask for more.  Though one ball of yarn did decide to go over an edge.  At least it was not too far so I was able to have help getting it retrieved.  

I usually do not get to hang out much when I am camping.  Especially when there is someone else with me.

My family likes to go.

This time, with the heat and the drive and what life has thrown at us recently, there was a lot of sitting.  A lot of walking too because we always walk.

Hanging the hammock and having books helped.

It was really hard for me on Monday to say, yes back to Houston.  A large part of me wanted to go west.  Five hours to Taos.  A diner I like.  Mountains.  A yarn store I like.  Maybe soon.