Year 19, Week 33, Day One (week 1033)

Year 19, Week 33, Day One (week 1033)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
08-24-19 Saturday

I made bread today. The recipe is designed to make two one-pound loaves. I took a quarter of it after I kneaded it the first time and made two balls which I stuck it into the freezer.  I can honestly say that I FOLLOWED (most of) THE INSTRUCTIONS on raising the dough for once. 
I let it rise, punched it down (literally pushing my fist into the center and heard a sign of escaping gas), folded the corners over, flipped it upside down and rose it again. That is close to how you punch down the risen loaf.  I then cut it into four pieces and I then filled four small loaf pans. One was smaller than the others. After they rose again, I baked them. 
For the normal sized large loaves, they would bake for 40 minutes at 400. I did it first for 20 minutes. They did not want to come out of the loaf pans so I baked them another ten minutes. I had to run a knife around the outside of the pans and a couple I had to pry them out. I used oil rather than shortening on the pans. That appears to make a difference 
When making it, I found I was out of white sugar, so I used brown sugar instead. It worked nicely. There is a hint of flavor the brown sugar flavor in the bread but you might not notice it. I made this batch with no milk in it, and I didn’t miss it. The milk is mainly to make it rise a bit more when baked. I learned something here. I was testing the recipe for someone Jewish who would come for a meal. They are not allow to have meat and dairy in the same meal.
I’ve sliced up the three “large” loaves and will take them with me to a gathering of friends. The small loaf is to be saved for later. I definitely will make more. It is not really hard. 
I used my mixer with the dough hooks. As the dough came together they pulled the dough up into the base of the machine. They really needed to be twisted the other way. I watched for the dough to pull up, and before they got to the top of the beaters, I would stop to allow the dough to drop down again while I manually mixed the stuff at the side of the bowl, then ran them again. 
This recipe is from a 1949 cook book. Over time I have made some changes in the basic recipe and still worked. This is best batch of bread I have made.  One thing I have found with bread, is it is hard to make it unpalatable. They might end up being as solid as a brick-bat, but they will still taste good.
The few minor mistakes I made did not effect the actual bread. These are about the size of the fleshy part of your palm. It is great for snack sandwiches.  

A few weeks back, a friend dropped off a mirrored end table with marble top and asked if I could fix it. Today mom and I tackled it. We removed many parts, started the repairs. It will be saved. I have some more work to do on it but it will come out fairly good. It the whole back is made of press-board, not the best material for furniture but we are saving it. I should finish it tomorrow. It is too good to toss. This is easier than I expected.

I roughed out some more of my rocking  horses. I now have eight completed blanks. Mom said to use the drill with a big bit to remove the wood between the legs. I was trying to be abstinent but gave in. The horses are much farther along now. The last couple, I cut the space between rockers as a V rather than more squarish and it is easier to remove the wood. I will have to re-cut a couple of the others. 
I’ve decided they will not be as a detailed horse with all the bumps and curves, but more toy like. I think they will be pretty good. Six months more time and I could do them in more detail.


My nephew and his wife are going to have their new baby dedicated tomorrow.  Mom and I will go to that. 

Dorian is moving in our direction, moving really slow. The center of the storm is about level with us. We got a few of the circling outer bands this morning but most of them have missed us. That is going to be a strong storm once it hits the ocean again. 

Year 19, Week 33, Day One (week 1033)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
08-25-19 Sunday

I had mom bring three loaves of sliced fresh bread to a meeting last night and she brought back about a third of what we took. They seemed to like it. We had some during lunch and my niece liked the bread too. 

We had the dedication of my grand niece. My other niece told mom on the phone that they were shocked at how many children there were. I did not count but it was a couple dozen children at the dedication. The church could hold about 2000 people by the look of it and there was a quarter less than that by the seats in front of me.

I picked up some steaks and burgers during the week. I sliced the steaks, and burgers, and now have the brats in the freezer for next week’s BBQ. I have about 42 burgers and about 26 steaks (guessing now on the amount).  I had two packs of 18 brats. I had two bags of dogs (maybe nine each) from last time. I have a package of 40 dogs in the fridge. 
Before I started slicing the meat, I emptied my freezer and re-packed it. I always do that when I am stocking up. It is good to be reminded about what I have. For example, I found out that I have 3 small lasagna in there. That was a surprise. I expected only one. These lasagna are in foil baking pans the same size as what I used for the bread. When Mom and I share, it is enough for both of us. I like to fix up the lasagna, and freeze it uncooked. Since you have to take the time to thaw the cooked lasagna, you are really only saving a little bit of time (actually, these tend to require 2 hours to cook when frozen because of how I made them). I also re-packed my freezer to make more room.
My freezer is full, so I am ready for a multi day power out now.....

There was a little palm tree in the back yard of mom’s neighbor. It is a messy tree, more like a weed than anything. He and mom decided it needed to come out since it was about 18 inches from the new fence. 
Each time I visit, I would dig some of the dirt out. I got it what I considered low enough and  cut the top off that little palm tree. I am not totally sure if I cut it low enough. I may have to dig deeper and do it again. Will see. I don’t have a good ground game. I had to bring out a chair to help me get down on the ground and then use it to get up. 
That end table I am fixing is coming along. I  used brown felt pens to color the damaged feet to something close to the stain color it was done in. Not a great job and it killed the felt pen, but it looks a lot better than it did. I will give everything a good washing and then give them a couple coats of varnish. It will be nice then.  It will still look old, but it won’t look damaged.

Having been in cold air conditioning most of the day, It felt good being outside (not in the sun but in the shade was nice). My brother decided he wanted to go in. He is outside all week long as part of his job. We watched TV and talked a bit. I was on my tablet he was looking at a book. My niece and Mom went and got a new Television for their house. The TV my brother has developed a problem that model had where when they get old, they start turning on and off on its own. Makes watching TV a royal problem. They thought they were out of this sales special, but they did find one. The stores hate selling the specials.

I will see what happens next week. Our Labor Day BBQ is being planned. I have the meats ready and have made sure other stuff is available.
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