Proving dough...

In case you want to join me in viewing delight, you can watch The Great British Baking Show online!  Hah!  Without any help from anyone, I remembered that I wanted to watch it and found it online.  Granted, I still couldn't figure out how to watch it on my television, but the antenna problem would have prevented me from enjoying it anyway.  I just marvel at what the lay cooks do during the challenges.

Something I learned from catching up on Episode Two, Bread:  In England, dough doesn't "rise"; it "proves"!  How apt!  The proving of the dough tells if you kneaded it properly!  And the baking tells if you proved it well.

I've chosen an antenna and ordered it, still bothered that I have to spend money on it.  It reminds me how with every visit save Mary's, going back to living in Alexandria, one or more of my things ends up broken with visitors.  SIGH.  The most annoying and grievous loss was this hand-blown hummingbird feeder that I had hanging in my tree.  A visitor went to take it down because it was empty.  I asked the person to simply leave it and let me take care of it later.  The visitor asked, "What?  Do you think I am going to break it?"  Then plucked it from the tree ... and ... promptly dropped it on the concrete sidewalk.  I adored that hummingbird feeder and can never replace it.

In the kitchen, I had a set of three ladybug votive candle holders sitting in a windowsill.  Three separate times, a visitor knocked one of the holders off the sill.  I moved each of the remaining holders, but all three were broken.  I really liked the holders and wish they were still here to cheer me up.

When I was a little girl, my grandmother would always have a cup of coffee in her tall GREEN mugs.  I received four of them after her death, even though I do not drink coffee.  The sight of them stirred memories of the good times with her, not the bad.  However, all but one of them were broken by visitors.  I have the remaining one tucked safely away, but regret that I cannot keep it out for me to spot from time to time.

The renters all had their own share of breaking things ... including my car window.  SIGH.  Too, with the renters, I had things go missing.  The loss of a hand towel from a complete bathroom set was a bit hard to swallow because the brand, Fieldcrest, is no longer available.  My mother had given me a set of three mesh bags to put delicates in when doing laundry.  I now only have two bags, the most convenient size gone missing.  I suppose it is good that I have few delicates, being decidedly old-fashioned in my underclothing and no longer wearing hosiery.

I could go on, but the reminders here are a bit tough to take.

I have tried, assiduously, since college, to hold loosely to things.  However, I think that, with all the breaking and gone missing, I have become a bit too-tightfisted with my possessions.  In December, I will have two teenage boys here.  Already I have been working on a list of things to put away.  And today I went ahead and put passwords on all my technology ... especially since one family member has a tendency to plow-ahead-first-and-ask-permission-later when it comes to making changes to technology.

I think the buying and securing has left me stewing and feeling uncomfortable with my own thoughts.  I did also, however, finish buying a few more cooking supplies I had earmarked for the upcoming curries I would like to make.

I learned that I should be using palm sugar (instead of brown sugar), which conveniently has a lower glycemic index.  That is good for me since eating my neighbor's fudge (something I should have politely declined) sent me in to a hypoglycemic tailspin and has broken the equilibrium I have been enjoying blood sugar wise.  I ordered another type of curry paste, fenugreek leaves, cardamon pods, cinnamon sticks, tamarind paste, and tandoori masala.  I am going to need another spice shelf.  I learned that the best way to use to cardamon pods is to take a needle and thread and string them together so that you can fish them out rather easily when the recipe is done.

I would like my next curry to be a massaman curry, but am torn between chicken and beef.  I also think I would like to try to find a brown basmati rice, however in my searching I have yet to find what I think might taste good to me, texture wise.  I have no problem eating curries without rice because I am not a rice person.  When I was a teenager, we had rice many times a week, or so it seemed.  We had many types of rice, but I basically graduated from college all riced out.  Serving as a missionary in Africa, where rice is a staple, put me over the top.  I went more than a decade avoiding any and all rice.  Still, in my curry reading, I learned that there are brown rices beyond my imagination and might be a good match for my digestion and blood sugar challenges.  Not, mind you, that changing foods can really mitigate the vagaries of dysautonomia all that much.

With the all ordering and another medical bill paid, I am down to $13.55 until the 27th.  I would like to fetch a few groceries this week, my refrigerator becoming rather empty, but I do not need them.  Milk, perhaps.  I have one prescription waiting on me at Target.  Nothing else owing, I believe.  Surely I should not be counting my eggs before they hatch, but I am rather pleased that it looks like, despite all the shopping I have accomplished throughout the month, I will have meet the extreme austerity goal I set for myself so that last month and this month balance out on average.  No budget guilt for me!!

With all the shopping, knowing I couldn't buy copious amounts of groceries until next budget cycle, I chose the slower shipping on each order.  By the time everything ships, I think I will have enough promotional credits to buy a new Kindle book.  Hmmm ... what should I read?

Watching the bread exercise redoubled my desire to try the hand pie sandwich recipe I found (like hot pockets), but I still have not settled on a filling for the first go-round.  The breadsticks on the episode did not call to me, but I was fascinated at watching all the different methods of kneading dough.  Have you ever seen someone "slap" knead??  Watching all the bread make me even more keen to try this recipe for pepperoni pull-apart bread.  The recipe is gone from Pioneer Woman, but I rather conveniently emailed the page to Becky, who adores pepperoni pizza, so I still have the directions.  It is rather chicken of me, I think, to still stick with flat breads instead of learning how to properly knead dough and make bread.

Proving dough intimates me.

How soon is not-too-soon would it be for me to have the second serving of Coconut Chicken Curry?  And then the third???




PS  Next time I plan to make it with yukon gold potatoes ... mmmmmmmmmmm.

PS2  In case you thought I was exaggerating about how STINKING HOT it was here, my electricity bill for the past month was the highest for this period since I moved to Fort Wayne ... highest by far.

PS3  Please, please do not give me fudge.