Yuletide + New flatmate + Bread recipe

[luzula]

1) Guess who's got two thumbs and a first draft of her Yuletide story? ME. \o/ Ha, and I was worried about being able to write at all. I guess now I can work some more on my bonus Yuletide story.

2) We have a new flatmate! Or will have, anyway--one of my flatmates is moving out at New Year and we had to find someone new. It was pretty painless; we held a bunch of interviews and me and my remaining flatmate agreed at once about who we wanted to ask. She said yes, so that's settled. Also she has a cute dog.

3) Hmm, what else? Life is pretty much as usual. I have my standard bread baking in the oven; maybe I'll share the recipe:

Mix 2 deciliters of plain yoghurt with 12 deciliters of warm water, add salt and a little bit of yeast, and then 2 liters of coarsely ground rye flour. Put the bowl in a plastic bag and let it stand for 24-48 hours. This makes for a great fake sourdough! Then mix in fine wheat flour until the dough is firmer (but still almost loose enough to "flow" off the spoon). Butter and flour three rectangular bread pans and put the dough in. Let rise for an hour. Then bake in 200 degrees Celsius for 1 h 20 min. Remove from pans and wrap bread in towels immediately; let cool. Then put the bread in plastic bags and let it mature for a day before eating.

Comments

[espresso_addict]

Sorry not to respond -- I received your e-mail & have printed the story, but offline life is kicking me in the proverbial at the moment -- I will get some comments to you shortly.

[luzula]

No problem! It's a long way to the deadline, after all.

[espresso_addict]

Thankfully! I'm nowhere near finished on mine, despite working on the thing all month.

[luzula]

Well, sometimes stories grow, and sometimes they want to be short. Mine turned out to be pretty short (well, unless your feedback makes it grow...).

[espresso_addict]

Mine would like to be a novel; I am hoping to hold its desires in check!

[exeterlinden]

Wow, you've been efficient with your Yuletide! ;) I have started writing three treats, which are all <500 words at the moment, but I don't know if I'll have time for them all - I've got three job interviews coming up these next two weeks (which is both \o/ and /o\!)

Also, I can attest to your standard bread being yummy :)

[luzula]

What you ate was not actually the same bread as the recipe above--for some reason, that bread always came out bad when I baked it there. Maybe it was the oven, maybe the colder room temperature. Who knows. But it's working at the new place, which is good!

So, meetup. I think what I'm going to do wait till next week to decide. I'm going away and traveling a lot over this weekend, and if I'm feeling too tired after that, I'll stay home. But if I am feeling energetic and up for more travel, I'll come. It'll probably be more expensive to book tickets late, but the problem isn't money, anyway. I hope that's okay!

If I don't come, I hope we can do a Yuletide beta session over Skype in December, anyway. : )

[exeterlinden]

You are fine to just let me know on the day about the meet-up. We are going to be there, and the door will be open :) And we can definitly do a Yuletide Skype.

Ak, and now I'm curious to taste the REAL staple bread...

[luzula]

Well, it's a Danish recipe. Or, well, it's in a Swedish recipe book but claims it's Danish. *g*

[exeterlinden]

Huh! I'm going to try it, I think.

[sproid]

Hurrah for getting a first draft written! And for a new flatmate who has a cute dog, she sounds like a very good choice. I hope you all get along well when she moves in.

I started reading the Lady Trent dragon books, after your post a while ago about the second one in the series, and am rather enjoying them :) I'm hoping the library will get the 3rd one so I can take it home over Christmas!

[luzula]

She came by last night to sign the contract, and she and her dog still felt like a good choice. : )

I'm glad you're enjoying the Lady Trent books--I'm waiting for the third one from the library, too.

[seascribble]

Ooh, perhaps I will bestir myself to convert your measurements and locate some rye flour, that sounds delicious and low labour.

[luzula]

I remember trying to find rye flour when I was visiting malnpudl in California, and it was so hard to find! In Sweden it's a staple. Then again, an American would probably have the same reaction to trying to find corn flour in Sweden.

And yeah, it is actually pretty low labor, although it is spread out over several days so you have to plan a little.

[desireearmfeldt]

Yay words!

[luzula]

Yeah, it was surprisingly painless to write for Yuletide this year.

[desireearmfeldt]

Oof, wish I could say the same. Still pulling teeth over here... :)