It's Been a While

I've been losing a war with pastry in my kitchen. Admittedly, I haven't really done much baking in the past, at least nothing I'm terribly proud of aside from a few delicious boxed yellow cakes with store-bought chocolate frosting. Actually that's not true! A few months ago I made blueberry scones and took them to work and everyone loved them. But scones'is easy. I've attempted chocolate chip cookies from scratch and they always melt into one giant cookie-puddle that tastes really oily and gross. Grotsky like Tran Pak. So I don't know why lately I've been so obsessed over baking and bread and pastry dough, but it's only re-confirmed that I'm only capable of recreating Tran Pak in baked form.

Have you ever had a baguette from Hush Harbor Bakery in Atascadero? Or a fresh-baked baguette in France? Probably doesn't sound very interesting until it is. Meaning you have. Perfectly crunchy/crispy golden exterior (that doesn't hurt your teeth when you bite into it) that gives way to soft, airy, and light doughy crumb inside. That's the stuff I've been craving. So I tried to make french bread. I honestly thought I could do it. So I gathered all 2 ingredients that I needed to make some bread, yeast and flour. I had done a little research and found a recipe that looked easy enough and that produced a nice-looking loaf. Made and fermented half of the dough the night before, added it to the fresh dough on the day of, let it proof, rolled it out baked it in an oven with a jury rigged steam injector (which consisted of a cast iron skillet filled with boiling water by jake which ended up giving him second degree burns on his hand) and baked that shit with a grin thinking I was about eat some legit french bread. What came out was not french bread. I suppose it tasted like french bread. It was rock hard on the outside, not softly crunchy, and it was a pale off-white, not golden. Inside, it was dense and chewy. Tran Pak! I still have 2 loaves in my freezer.

I also made Michael Ruhlman's rhubarb pie with some gorge rhubarb I bought at farmer's. Guess what...Tran Pak'd it! It was basically a cracker (crispy and white) which happened to have some rhubarb filling in it. Ugh. It did look gorge tho.



In more devastating news, the peas I had planted at the beginning of spring have died. My radishes that looked so beautiful were the size of peas when I pulled them from the soil. I pulled a carrot I planted at the end of fall. It was the size of my pinky and tasted like a penny.

http://www.tranpak.com/

Since my last post, I've started at least 6 delish posts with pictures and recipes but haven't finished them for some reason. I will soon along with some new tasty treats that like a weekly vegan recipe! I've got a vegan (indian style) curry that's t.d.f.

Tangentially, I've been obsessed with Burial's music for a good while now and he just put out a split 7" with Four Tet that absolutely boggles my mind. How tf does he program these drums? They come in around 2:40.

Spent a good chunk of this long weekend nerding out on wikipedia over UK Garage, 2-step, Dubstep, Jungle, Drum & Bass, Dub, Grime, UK House, Funky, etc, etc, etc. Kind of can't get enough of it. Also, holy isht The Field's new album is gorgeous. Just this one last clip. Soon I'll just start posting huge sendspaces.