Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

… among the most cringeworthy communications in the history of the alphabet!

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

An unpunished coup is a training exercise.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

Thanks for reminding me that Van Jones needs to be slapped.

The willow is too close to the house.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

He really is that stupid.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

You are here: Home / Food & Recipes / Cooking / Crumb Structure! (Open Thread)

Crumb Structure! (Open Thread)

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Aside from my family’s annual Drunken Aunties Cookie Night event, I didn’t used to bake very often. I’ve always loved cooking, but baking was too scientific for my taste.

But something about our present age has driven me to arm myself with flour, yeast, salt, oil, etc., to hold the darkness at bay. There’s something rational and comforting about the measuring and timing.

Is it because the fussiness of it makes sense in the chaos of a country gone mad? Or maybe it was binge-watching the Great British Bake-off that set me off?

Anyhoo, here’s some bread! Bread makes everything better, right?

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

67Comments

  4. 4.

    scav

    Yea Bread! I too have made loaves today. Mine were the Cooks Illustrated Nearly No-Knead ones, my easiest go-to one for daily consumption. And I’ve a rematch for houska scheduled for this weekend.

    ETA and, yes, bread makes it somewhat better. We had some of ours for dessert (with some ginger jam to really gild the lily).

  6. 6.

    SteveNKY

    my crazy old uncle makes a great feathery light homemade bread like his mother did. leave that out long enough, send to Missouri so someone who can chuck it at that governor.

  7. 7.

    debbie

    Betty, have you ever watched the American version of the Great British Bake Off? Nothing but whiny, self-centered bakers. No wonder the world hates us!

  8. 8.

    Mnemosyne

    I was #30 in today’s jury pool, so I never even got to voir dire before being dismissed for the year. They would never have put me on the panel anyway since it was a car accident civil case with a neck/back injury, and I have a whiplash injury from 20 years ago that bugs me to this day.

  9. 9.

    Mnemosyne

    @debbie:

    G is obsessed with British panel shows, which is how I found out that Nadya from TGBBS is still a star in Great Britain.

    I do feel sorry for the people who did the last American series, though — they got hosed because Johnny whatshisname got outed as a harassing creep. And we had a Black woman who won this year!

  13. 13.

    debbie

    @Mnemosyne:

    I definitely got a smarmy vibe off him. They only showed one episode here before Christmas. I think I know who you’re referring as being the winner. Good for her!

  15. 15.

    James E. Powell

    Anyhoo, here’s some bread! Bread makes everything better, right?

    “You probably need to eat something,” the baker said. “I hope you’ll eat some of my hot rolls. You have to eat and keep going. Eating is a small, good thing in a time like this,” he said. – Raymond Carver, “A Small, Good Thing”

    I wondering if maybe you’ve hit upon a way to deal with these days of rage & despair. I have to eat and keep going.

  18. 18.

    Mnemosyne

    @debbie:

    For the brief minute I got to see her, she reminded me of Kimberly on TGBBS (they had similar hair). It really sucks for her, but I think Creepy Johnny was in so much of it that they couldn’t just edit him out.

  19. 19.

    Emma

    OK, open thread, book recommendation. I am a sucker for historical mysteries. Publisher Weekly review alerted me to The Widows of Malabar Hill, by Sujata Massey. It’s set in Bombay in the 1920s, and the protagonist is Bombay’s first woman solicitor (based on two real women whose memoirs just fought themselves to the top of my reading list). The city itself is a character, and the tensions between the different Indian groups and between them and the British are woven into the story without overwhelming the human aspects.

    Now I want to see Malabar Hill in person!

  20. 20.

    Mnemosyne

    @Major Major Major Major:

    I need to pack tonight for a daylong story structure seminar I’m going to on Saturday. Technically I didn’t have to stay at the hotel it’s at the night before, but I didn’t want to have to leave the house at 7 am on Saturday morning to get there on time.

  21. 21.

    donnah

    Betty, that loaf looks perfect! I like to bake yeast white bread from the old Betty Crocker cookbook, but if there’s a time crunch, I bake a super yummy beer bread. The beer provides the yeast and the crust is crisp. I baked a loaf this week to go with homemade navy bean and ham soup. Comfort food!

  22. 22.

    Betty Cracker

    @Mike J: We’ve been making pizzas at home for years! My husband makes the crust — he’s the primary baker in the family. The best thing about our pizza: we roast a head of garlic and spread it on the crust before adding the sauce and toppings. **chef kiss** delizioso!

  24. 24.

    Gelfling 545

    @Mary G: I couldn’t do the kneading anymore but when I got a kitchen aid mixer I found it handled it nicely. I didn’t care for the bread machine product but the mixer did as well as I ever did by hand.

  26. 26.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Mike J:

    Once you start baking bread you’re going to start making pizzas .

    According to the previous thread, pizzas go for $50 in Norway. Arbitrage opportunity!

  27. 27.

    Betty Cracker

    Oooo! Rachel is slamming the Trump admin for its frequent misspellings in press releases, commemorative posters, etc. Go girl!

  30. 30.

    spudgun

    Huh, I’ve been doing the same thing! I’ve taken up baking as a hobby to keep the sh!ttiness at bay, but my thing is sweets – cakes, cookies, etc. I’ve never been a very good cook, but I’ve decided I want to get better at it and for me, baking sort of eases me into it. My ultimate goal is a soufflé!

    *nod to BillinGlendaleCA* I, too, have recently joined the Instant Pot cult and I’m looking forward to testing mine out this weekend.

  31. 31.

    Brachiator

    At a recent tax seminar, the instructor spoke about issues related to the recent legalization of cannabis (the preferred term) in California. It was wild watching a strait-laced CPA talk about buds and leaves, stems, skunk, and how there would be no exise tax on resin scraped out and smoked again (and recycled resin is not a commercially available product).

    Which also brings to mind the question, might we expect some recipes for cannabis edibles to be posted here soon? ;)

  33. 33.

    MoxieM

    That looks awesome! (I love kneading, and miss my humongous butcher block countertop. sigh.) Well done, bread is an art. also, butter!

    ( N.B., My last previous dog would have sold her grandmother for any bread-related product.)

  37. 37.

    Brachiator

    @raven:

    Bread machines and exercise machines are the most sold pieces of junk at yard sales.

    Must be due to some kind of knead and jerk reaction.

  42. 42.

    Gelfling 545

    @donnah: Oh, my! Whenever I can I like to bake their 1950’s recipe. My daughter gave me a vintage copy last Christmas. My sister still has my mother’s copy. That was the recipe she always used. When I make myself a sandwich using that bread I’m transported in Proustian fashon back to grade school lunctime and longing for chocolate milk to complete the picture.

  44. 44.

    Gelfling 545

    @Betty Cracker: I made my first pizza ever last weekend. I’ve baked bread forever but for some reason never did pizza. It was surprisingly easy & really good.

  46. 46.

    chris

    @Mike J: My BIL makes no-knead bread all the time. So I introduced him to Valentino’s pizza crust and I think he’s gained a few pounds. It makes a fine crust and I can go from zero to cooked pizza in less than an hour. I like to roll it thin and roll up mozzarella in the edges.

  47. 47.

    Lyrebird

    I’ve never used the pie filter before, but I thought I’d try it out on last thread’s main troll. Love!

    Remember Warrant? That was a good band. Any band with a song about pie knows what’s important.

    Thanks cleek and @Major Major Major Major!

  48. 48.

    Brachiator

    @Major Major Major Major:

    the line at my neighborhood dispensary has been out the door all week and one time around the corner.

    I saw stories about first day crowds. I wasn’t certain whether it had gotten better. The first crazy lines of iPhone sales comes to mind.

    Of course there’s still the slow processing of licenses. It’s crazy, but not as chaotic as it could have been.

  49. 49.

    Faithful Lurker

    @Mary G: I can’t recommend the NYT (sorry) no knead bread recipe enough, the Cook’s Illus, recipe link above is almost as good but the general idea makes terrific bread, with a wonderful crust with no kneading.

  51. 51.

    Another Scott

    @Mary G: I really like our Panasonic bread machine (I think I got ours from the Panasonic online store). It dispenses the yeast separately, and it warms all the ingredients before starting the process, so recipes are very reproducible. I haven’t tried the “rapid” recipe, so it takes 3-4 hours, but that’s fine for us. The “paddle” comes out very easily and doesn’t make a huge extended divot in the loaf (though there is one, of course).

    We had an old Breadman for years that worked ok, but the belt eventually started slipping and making all kinds of racket (especially with whole wheat loafs). The Panasonic is much, much better.

    HTH a little.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  54. 54.

    Aleta

    @donnah: >yeast white bread from the old Betty Crocker cookbook<
    I agree that was a great bread and a simple recipe; my mom used it for years.

  55. 55.

    frosty

    @Emerald: I don’t like Twitter much because I can never figure out whether to read top to bottom or bottom to top, but that was great. He really got everyone true to … well not life, but at least his plot. I’ll probably never read the next iteration, but I enjoyed this one.

  56. 56.

    Bonnie

    Yes, bread . . . and butter make everything right with the world. Or, my second favorite toast and butter.

  57. 57.

    Mnemosyne

    @MoxieM:

    ( N.B., My last previous dog would have sold her grandmother for any bread-related product.)

    Our youngest cat loves bread, especially fresh sourdough. It’s a little weird for a cat, but AL posited about some of her other characteristics that she may be part Siamese (she has the right body type) and they’re known for having unusual tastes.

  59. 59.

    Shana

    @Mnemosyne: I hope you brought lots of reading material, cell phone cord, and a good sense of humor.

    I’ve started making challah again, every few weeks instead of buying Zomeks challah at my local Wegmans. Man it’s so good.

  60. 60.

    Mnemosyne

    @Major Major Major Major:

    I take it that “discovery writer” is the more polite term for “pantser”? ?

    @Brachiator:

    Kevin & Bean had a famous dispensary owner on and apparently people with established businesses and no violations got priority for licenses. She has apparently been in business in West Hollywood since medical marijuana was legalized.

  61. 61.

    Michael Bersin

    @Aleta:

    There’s been so much breaking on this story (some directly via social media) that we’ve gone through all of our file photos of Greitens (r) (without reusing one in the same day).

    Gov. Eric Greitens (r) has kept old media at a distance, relying a lot on social media. The comments on this in response to his posts over the last day are jaw dropping – a lot of public approbation, but also a lot of right wingnut defense and excuses.

  62. 62.

    Mnemosyne

    @Shana:

    It wasn’t too bad except for the guy who just couldn’t stop chattering and refused to recognize the universal signal of opening my Kindle. I think he felt sorry for me because I’m still on crutches (hopefully for only a couple more weeks) but, jeez, dude, give it a rest!

    The judge was a hoot. I always like judges who go out of their way to make the jurors comfortable and be sure they understand what’s going on and what the rules are. He had a long conversation about welding with one juror that I realized was to double-check the guy’s comprehension of English since he had a pretty thick accent. But since the juror was able to explain how weld a trailer together (which is his day job), the judge seemed satisfied that he would be able to understand everything, so he stayed.

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