Saturday, January 22, 2005
I’m “never” sick but yesterday morning I woke up with a big chest cold. I got through the day and even pushed myself a bit. I was supposed to be painting part of the current production today and didn’t want to have to come in. I did what I normally do with a cold, and went to bed early with a stiff hot whiskey and lemonade under my belt (there’s always a medicinal bottle of Jack Daniels in the house for these occasions). I slept for ten hours—almost double my normal night’s sleep—but this morning I’m no better, and it’s moved into my head as well.
It’s 2 degrees below zero in Boston this morning with the big mid-western snow storm on the way. The prediction tonight is 2 to 4 inches of snow an hour driven by gusts up to 65 miles an hour. Fritz thinks I shouldn’t even try to go to the modern dance concert I have a ticket for tonight or perhaps even come up to the monthly Sweat Lodge at his place tomorrow. We’ll see, but right now all I want to do is sleep.
Jake was kind enough the other day to share a favorite bran muffin recipe on his blog NoFo, and as I love the things (I bake a lot, including all my own bread) I bought everything his recipe called for, some of which are not your typical bran muffin ingredients. He promised they’d be really great and that’s exactly how they turned out. All Bran and Bran Buds cereals are the heart of the recipe along with the usual flour, sugar, butter and baking soda. The liquids are boiling water (to turn the All Bran into a soft mash) and buttermilk.
I made a couple of changes and additions as I always do to any recipe—not always the same changes and additions every time, either. Because I love the taste of it in breakfast breads, I substituted light brown sugar for one third of the regular sugar and whole wheat flour for a quarter of the (unbleached) white flour. I like fruit in bran muffins so, while it wasn’t called for in this recipe, I added about half a cup of chopped Turkish dried apricots. The muffins baked up moist and light with a rich flavor and nice texture. The recipe yields two and a half dozen in the size muffin tins I have. For the recipe, go to NoFo (link at right) and scroll back a couple of days.
We are--or were--under warning of a possible terrorist dirty bomb attack here in Boston. The threat is being dealt with in a very good way so far, no panic, serious investigation, but we’re also being told that the tip given to the FBI is typical of hundreds of others that come in all the time and that so far there is no corroboration. I COULD be cynical and wonder if this announcement being made the day before the second Inauguration isn’t another “wave of the bloody shirt” at a time when the majority of Americans feel the war is going badly and shouldn’t have been started in the first place. But I won’t—I’ll just mention the fact.
It’s 2 degrees below zero in Boston this morning with the big mid-western snow storm on the way. The prediction tonight is 2 to 4 inches of snow an hour driven by gusts up to 65 miles an hour. Fritz thinks I shouldn’t even try to go to the modern dance concert I have a ticket for tonight or perhaps even come up to the monthly Sweat Lodge at his place tomorrow. We’ll see, but right now all I want to do is sleep.
Jake was kind enough the other day to share a favorite bran muffin recipe on his blog NoFo, and as I love the things (I bake a lot, including all my own bread) I bought everything his recipe called for, some of which are not your typical bran muffin ingredients. He promised they’d be really great and that’s exactly how they turned out. All Bran and Bran Buds cereals are the heart of the recipe along with the usual flour, sugar, butter and baking soda. The liquids are boiling water (to turn the All Bran into a soft mash) and buttermilk.
I made a couple of changes and additions as I always do to any recipe—not always the same changes and additions every time, either. Because I love the taste of it in breakfast breads, I substituted light brown sugar for one third of the regular sugar and whole wheat flour for a quarter of the (unbleached) white flour. I like fruit in bran muffins so, while it wasn’t called for in this recipe, I added about half a cup of chopped Turkish dried apricots. The muffins baked up moist and light with a rich flavor and nice texture. The recipe yields two and a half dozen in the size muffin tins I have. For the recipe, go to NoFo (link at right) and scroll back a couple of days.
We are--or were--under warning of a possible terrorist dirty bomb attack here in Boston. The threat is being dealt with in a very good way so far, no panic, serious investigation, but we’re also being told that the tip given to the FBI is typical of hundreds of others that come in all the time and that so far there is no corroboration. I COULD be cynical and wonder if this announcement being made the day before the second Inauguration isn’t another “wave of the bloody shirt” at a time when the majority of Americans feel the war is going badly and shouldn’t have been started in the first place. But I won’t—I’ll just mention the fact.
