The Yellow Clown Magpie Tales #118

The Circus With the Yellow Clown, 1967, Marc Chagall

Oh my heart oh my head

My feet can't dance

They're made of lead

The girl in blue 

She wants romance 

Cowardly in yellow
I won't take a chance.

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A Knotty Twist on Homemade Bread

I lifted this recipe off the internet and adjusted it

so I could use my homemade bread dough kept in the fridge.

I make this dough every week and have included that

bread recipe below this recipe: 

Easy Parmesan Knots

• 1/4  batch Artisan Boule dough-about the size of a grapefruit 
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• 2 Tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
• 1 clove garlic minced finely
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 Tablespoon finely minced parsley
• Flour and cornmeal
• 1 cup boiling water

Sprinkle flour and corn meal on board and dough

Pat dough into a 12"x6" rectangle

Cut dough into 6 12" strips

Tie each strip into a knot, tuck ends under

and let rise for 40 minutes.

Sprinkle a bit of sea salt on top of rolls

20 minutes before pre-heat oven to 450F

with baking stone and shallow roasting pan 

placed below stone. 

When dough is ready and oven is at 450F

carefully slide rolls onto stone and

carefully pour water into roasting pan.

Bake for appx 20-25 minutes

Meanwhile mix garlic,oil, and spices

Remove rolls, brush with herbal oil

sprinkle parmesan cheese over and eat! 

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Here's the link to the book:

http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/

before beginning-be sure you have a large plastic container to store dough

in the refrigerator-I use a 20 qt with lid bought at the grocery store

you will also need a baking stone, a roasting pan and a rimless cookie sheet or pizza peel

 Basic Master Boule Recipe:

3 cups warm not hot water about 100 degrees

1 1/2 T granulated yeast (1 1/2 packages if you dont buy a jar)

1 1/2 T kosher salt or coarse salt

6 1/2 unsifted,unbleached all purpose flour-measure with scooping and leveling off with knife.

 Very important to do the measuring that way.

cornmeal for pizza peel or rimless cookie sheet

1 cup HOT water 

Measure water and put into big mixing bowl (5 qt bowl) add salt and yeast-

not necessary to completely dissolve.

Measure out flour in another big bowl separately. Add all at once and mix with wooden spoon until completely mixed-no dry flour showing-you can finish mixing by wetting your hands a bit in water and using your ands to finish mixing. DO NOT KNEAD

You are done when there are no dry flour patches showing. Just a few minutes does it. Takes longer to measure the flour than to mix it.

Dump sticky mess into your big plastic container with lid not quite firmly on. Leave for 3 hours or so til doubled and put into the fridge. Leave for at least 3 hours to chill.

After 3 hours you can grab a grapefruit size of dough and quickly put on cookie sheet coated with a bit of flour and cornmeal. shape into a ball by rotating ball of dough in your hands gently pulling top to bottom and making a nice ball- dont worry about how the bottom looks. Let sit on cookie sheet for 20 minute. After 20 minutes turn on oven to 450 degrees.

 Put baking stone on rack in middle and broiler pan on rack below. Preheat for 20 minutes. 

Then place dough onto hot baking stone and pour 1 cup of HOT water into broiler pan.

 Close door and bake for 30 minutes or so-til nice and brown on top AND bottom.

 It's ok if top gets a bit dark. Take out-cool on rack and enjoy. Lots of fun! Buy the book!

Eric Alders Monday Photo Prompt 5-14-2012

The high road

The low road

The road less taken

All roads lead to Rome

Unless I am mistaken.....

For more takes on Eric's photo go here:

http://bifocalunivision.blogspot.com/

Magpie #117 Memories of my Mother

Tribute to Helen Elizabeth Hauss Worsley

 My Mother died 26 years ago this October 15th.

I've never stopped missing her nor appreciating the lessons she taught me.

One of my fondest and strongest memory of her was when we all went

cabin camping up at Olallie Lake at the base of Mt Jefferson in Oregon.
She was already ill, but was a good sport and came with us. 

Our cabins were rustic and without electricity or running water but

they did have wood stoves to cook on.

So all one afternoon my mother and my brother Paul tended the fire

and made sure our dinner of scalloped potatoes and baked salmon

was cooked to perfection. It was a wonderful meal and is a delicious memory.

My mother gracefully made things look easy and effortless.

We always referred to that meal in the woods as Mothers' Loaves and Fishes dinner.

Happy Mothers Day to all !

Eric Alder's Monday Photo Prompt 5-7-2012

Monday's Crush Hour

Vroom zoom crash bash
Heedless driving slapdash
Reckless endangerment
Unforgiving hard pavement
Oie
Aie Chijuajua
Mon dieu
Good grief
What the hell happened
It's a mess beyond belief
~~~~~~~~
!

Magpie 115-

image: River Irwell by R.A.D. Stainforth

Reminds
Inner
Vagabond
Ever
Rippling
~~~~~~~

Bite Me...Eric Alder's Monday Photo Prompt 4-30-2012

Overheard conversation between two brothers:
LB: "Ohhhhhh does that shark bite with those gnarly teeth?"
BB: "Yeah they're purty white and sharp as a jack knife"
LB: "But do those sharks hide waiting to fight?"
BB: "No Mac- they wait for that red billowy color that exites."
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