Pepperoni pizza

Pepperoni pizza on a rainy night.

A little about the Portuguese Broa dough used for this crust. The Broa dough is part cornmeal and makes a wonderful pizza crust thin or thick as well as the hot pocket wrapper or a nice crusty bread to go with soup or stew. I mix 1 cup cornmeal with 2 1/4 cups bread flour, 1 3/4 cups water, 1 packet yeast, 1 1/2 tsp sea salt – mix well, cover and let rise for 8 hours, then put it in crock in the refrigerator for up to 7 days. I grab a small peach sized piece for a hot pocket, an small apple sized amount for a one person pizza or a large apple sized piece for a mini-boule bread. The dough is VERY moist. I add enough flour to hands, board and/or rolling pin to shape the dough.

Hot pockets bake for 16 minutes.
Pizza – I pre-bake the crust for 7 minutes, add toppings and bake for another 7-8 minutes
A small boule or ciabatta for 20 minutes.

All at 470 with a pan full of water on a separate shelf to crisp up the hot pocket or little bread.

***YIKES!…one more “detail”… for a boule or ciabatta or any shaped bread, shape the dough and let it “rise” for 30-40 minutes. The “rise” for this high moisture dough is more of a flatten out than a rise. Slash the puddle of dough several times before putting it in the oven. Automagically, that little puddle of dough will rise during baking and come out looking like real bread! No rise for pizza crust or hot pockets/calzone.

Singin’ in the rain

We woke up this morning to above freezing temperatures and rain.

By afternoon the snow was the consistency of mashed potatoes and the temperature was 36F.

The rain and balmy temperatures had Karl lookin’…

…playing in the dirt…

and singin’ in the rain.

The woods I live in

My name is on the deed and I have probably called them my woods on occasion but I have always felt more steward than owner and I believe that is as it should be.

I had these woods logged – for the health of the woods and for fire safety…theirs and mine.

For the past 5 months plus 11 days especially, these woods have been my steward.

I have been able to relax with Karl in the last weeks, but there were weeks when I kept him very close – watching, being with him. I walked the woods in pitch dark, tethered to him, trying not to interfere with him and not once did I trip or fall…something I am able to do easily in daylight hours on my own :)!

One night, he had an intestinal bug – I believe unrelated to everything else. It came on quickly…you know the thing – the vomit/diarrhea bug that makes you want to sleep on the bathroom floor. We were out in the woods through the night, nearly on the hour until 3 a.m. when it started to slow down. It was November. It was snowing. Thankfully it was not cold – not arctic cold as it had been the week before.

I have never been afraid in these woods – day or night. I am watchful and I listen. I watch Karl and the birds and the deer and the only thing I have ever felt was peace.

The woods I live in.

An hour after Sunrise.