In 15 short hours, spring break epic roadtrip 2011 will begin!
9 days, 8 states, 1700 miles, a million hugs.
Plans and plans:
driving, singing, munching, landing. violins, cellos, shops, food, southern accents, 60 degree TEMPERATURES! friends I haven't seen in a year, getting to touch a Vuillaume cello, station inn, popcorn, quartet party, movie, camping, (staying in town while the boys go camping), coffee dates at BONGO JAVA, roadtripping again, friend i havent seen since july, chicago! more violins, more shops. meeting up with a chicago based classmate (i love seeing people out of context!) back to red wing. BIRTHDAY PARTY. Hello, 23.
Back to school.
Epic.
Expect pictures.
(don't expect anything else for about 10 days though)
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Monday, February 28, 2011
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Apologies
We had off school on Monday, and a blizzard too, so my days of the week are all screwed up and I totally missed this week's Tasty Tuesday. I apologize, and I will make next week's Tuesday twice as awesome.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
post #101! hooray!
I guess I missed my 100th post, so here's celebrating 101 posts here on The Floating Violin.
Your photo today is a Dali-inspired clock art:
(apparently set something hot on my timer and melted it)
Your photo today is a Dali-inspired clock art:
(apparently set something hot on my timer and melted it)
Friday, February 18, 2011
On to new things!
Now that we have perfected sourdough.... (third time's a charm! the bread bible starter + the betty crocker recipe + letting it rise way longer than expected = really, really yummy)
I need some new recipes to try for Tasty Tuesdays - I need to get out of breadland and into dessertville! Or just anything besides bread...
Here's how:
Email a favorite recipe to thefloatingviolin@gmail.com.
It MUST be a favorite recipe - something you have tried before and know it works for sure!
Include TT in the title of your email so I know it's a recipe for my Tasty Tuesday!
Let me know how you'd like to be credited (I use initials, so tell me those, and also if you have a blog you'd like me to link to!)
To be eligible, you must be a follower of this blog or a blood relative.
Ready, go!
PS. No, seriously. Email me recipes.
I need some new recipes to try for Tasty Tuesdays - I need to get out of breadland and into dessertville! Or just anything besides bread...
Here's how:
Email a favorite recipe to thefloatingviolin@gmail.com.
It MUST be a favorite recipe - something you have tried before and know it works for sure!
Include TT in the title of your email so I know it's a recipe for my Tasty Tuesday!
Let me know how you'd like to be credited (I use initials, so tell me those, and also if you have a blog you'd like me to link to!)
To be eligible, you must be a follower of this blog or a blood relative.
Ready, go!
PS. No, seriously. Email me recipes.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Quilt!
Eliz and I have talked for a few years about making quilts together, but we had never been able to gather enough time to do it. But this week of visiting was the perfect amount of free time! Over the weekend, we drove far away to (the closest) JoAnn's to buy fabric. And ate lunch at the closest Chipotle (which neither C nor E had ever tried before!). (Maybe someday I will rant about how lame it is to live so far away from civilization - I like the small townness but I would prefer closer proximity to the cities) (that's really it, now I don't have to write a whole rant about it.)
Let me Tarantino it for you! Here is the end result:
And here is the rest of it. Don't worry, everything is in order from here!
Let me Tarantino it for you! Here is the end result:
And here is the rest of it. Don't worry, everything is in order from here!
Here are the pretty fabrics we used.
Warshing the batting!
Pretty things.
this machine did a great job until that there light burnt my wrist at the stake.
(dont worry. minimal scarring)
Black and white plaid sews darkbrown and white Irish chain.
top row done! hooray!
Eliz ironed the things and handed them to me and I sewed them.
We had a whole "draped over the chair" system that pretty well took care of business.
Had to make 50 billion of these squares. So many squares.
It's a good thing my brain thinks in squares.
at the end of day 2.
getting there!
the whole top done!
the hard part hasnt even started yet.
I look super goofy, only because I was trying to be the statue of liberty.
laid out the back, the batting, and the front.
spread, pinned, sewed.
grueling, but rewarding!
glamour shots of the fantastic quilting job.
The end! And I'm so very pleased with how it turned out!
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Sourdough: The Sequel
My lovely sister is visiting this week, and she is way better at all baking things than I am – so I was glad for her help with my second attempt at sourdough bread.
Eliz brought The Bread Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum, whom I think is just fabulous. She completely overloads the reader with useful information. When you muck through all the thorough and exact instructions for breadmaking, you can see her personality and lovely sense of humor in her writing.
Ms. Beranbaum describes sourdough as being “the final frontier” of breadmaking. (she also calls it the breadmaking “holy grail”) Her appreciation for how difficult it is to make proper sourdough made me feel better that my first attempt didn’t go quite right – and to be honest, this attempt (although VERY yummy) was also not quite there yet. But apparently the longer the starter continues to be fed and used and fed some more, the better and more sour the bread will turn out. It is on its way, and I’ll tell the steps we took to make the starter.
Day One:
On Wednesday evening, we decided to start the bread, since the whole process takes a few days. We mixed a scant cup of flour, 1/16 teaspoon of yeast, and half a cup of bottled water (and a few more drops to moisten it a little more at the end). We mixed it until the flour was moistened and a stiff dough was formed. How do you measure 1/16 tsp of yeast? Like this.
She specifies to use an “immaculately clean bowl” when doing this, yet allows us to mix with our hands, which Chris points out is not completely sanitary anymore, so what is the point of making sure the bowl is so immaculately clean?
Day Two:
The batter had begun to bubble. (as it was supposed to)
We removed about half of it (scooping it with a clean spoon and throwing it away), and stirred in ½ cup of flour and ¼ cup of water (bottled). Again, we covered it and left it to bubble away in the warmth of the top of the refrigerator for another 24 hours.
Day Three:
Same song, third verse, a little bit faster and a little bit worse! The dough was more fermented.
We scooped out half of the batter, threw it away, added ½ cup of flour, and ¼ cup of bottled water. Covered and left to bubble some more.
Day Four:
Yep, same thing again.
Ms. Beranbaum suggests at this point to name your rising dough, as it has begun to live and breath and is every bit as high maintenance as a pet. (She named hers "Billow." I named ours "Harvey.")
Day Five:
Today we began the process of making the bread. We turned the liquid starter into a stiff starter, at the suggestion of Ms. Beranbaum. We achieved this by mixing one cup of the starter with ¾ cup of flour. (The rest of the starter went into the fridge to be fed and coddled for the next batch of sour dough.)
Surely there is a faster way to make a loaf of bread. It rose eight times over two days, and it wasn’t until the last rising that it began rising horizontally instead of vertically, and began to appear as if it might not work. The end product was tasty, though not ideal in look or temperament.
Ms. Beranbaum describes sourdough as being “the final frontier” of breadmaking. (she also calls it the breadmaking “holy grail”) Her appreciation for how difficult it is to make proper sourdough made me feel better that my first attempt didn’t go quite right – and to be honest, this attempt (although VERY yummy) was also not quite there yet. But apparently the longer the starter continues to be fed and used and fed some more, the better and more sour the bread will turn out. It is on its way, and I’ll tell the steps we took to make the starter.
Day One:
On Wednesday evening, we decided to start the bread, since the whole process takes a few days. We mixed a scant cup of flour, 1/16 teaspoon of yeast, and half a cup of bottled water (and a few more drops to moisten it a little more at the end). We mixed it until the flour was moistened and a stiff dough was formed. How do you measure 1/16 tsp of yeast? Like this.
She specifies to use an “immaculately clean bowl” when doing this, yet allows us to mix with our hands, which Chris points out is not completely sanitary anymore, so what is the point of making sure the bowl is so immaculately clean?
Anyway, you end up with this moist ball of dough.
It's also useful to have a brother-in-law/husband reading on the couch during this process.
We covered the dough and left it on top of the refrigerator for 24 hours.
We'll be back right after these messages!
....
Need to cover a bowl and make it airtight??
Normal plastic wrap not sticking right
and getting you down?!
It's time to switch to Glad Press-N-Seal!!
I. Love. This. Stuff.
Seriously, it has changed my life.
It's a little more expensive but a lot more awesome.
I made a chai mix in a normal drinking glass -
covered it in press-n-seal -
shook it up as if it had an airtight lid.
Yes, it really is that good.
Go buy some.
aaaaaaaaaaaand we're back.Day Two:
The batter had begun to bubble. (as it was supposed to)
Day Three:
Same song, third verse, a little bit faster and a little bit worse! The dough was more fermented.
Day Four:
Yep, same thing again.
Ms. Beranbaum suggests at this point to name your rising dough, as it has begun to live and breath and is every bit as high maintenance as a pet. (She named hers "Billow." I named ours "Harvey.")
Day Five:
Today we began the process of making the bread. We turned the liquid starter into a stiff starter, at the suggestion of Ms. Beranbaum. We achieved this by mixing one cup of the starter with ¾ cup of flour. (The rest of the starter went into the fridge to be fed and coddled for the next batch of sour dough.)
Surely there is a faster way to make a loaf of bread. It rose eight times over two days, and it wasn’t until the last rising that it began rising horizontally instead of vertically, and began to appear as if it might not work. The end product was tasty, though not ideal in look or temperament.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)