Let rise until duh- oh

Let rise until duh- oh.
Originally uploaded by revalani

I used the same recipe as last time, the classic Tassajara whole wheat bread with some millet flour added because I happened to have it. I realized partway through -- i.e., when I walked into the kitchen and saw this -- that I usually cut the quantity in half.

It turned out fine, despite the mess.Two of the three loaves and fifteen of the sixteen burger rolls are in the freezer.

I don't use butter per se very often, but a slather on fresh-baked bread is butter's highest calling. Yes, "slather" is a noun, at least in this household.

Look what I made

I can't recall the last time I baked a loaf of yeast bread, but a friend who's gone off carbs gave me a bag of millet flour, and the good ol' Tassajara Bread Book supplied loose guidelines about how much I could substitute for whole wheat. It sure turned out purty. Nice crumb, acceptable taste; next time, a little more salt, I think. I also made a batch o' buns and froze some to have on hand the next time turkey burgers are on the menu.

I spent some time in the studio, too, working on my art quilt group's current challenge. The theme is "trees," and the challenge comes from deciding which of the 18 gazillion possibilities to play with. (Look at how differently, and beautifully, Terry has interpreted the same oh-so-general idea.) I was struck by the pattern made by the trunks and lower limbs of a line of conifers on the golf course not far from here. I posterized, cropped, resized, merged, stacked, whacked and recombined one of the photos I'd taken, then printed several variations on fabric. I played with various arrangements on my design wall, and finally sewed the images together with strips of both commercial and hand-dyed fabrics. (You can click to enlarge the picture.) The brown fabric with squiggles that runs throughout the piece is the result of overdyeing and then discharging with thickened bleach from a squeeze bottle. I'd thought of it as a unifying design element, but it isn't strong enough to read that way. I think it wants some shadowing along the edges, either with pigment or threadplay, to accentuate the overall pattern. Quilting, once I get to that stage, should give it more definition, too.