Apparently, I am not able even to successfully kill a plant. I have discovered that the tiny micro-parsley from last year survived in the backyard contrary to my efforts to cultivate the soil... and so it grows back, just outside my small plot. Smaller and tinier, but it is a survivor!

The Wyoming winter does not kill everything either. It always seems that spring is not coming, for ages, and then we get three days of spring followed by summer immediately. Saturday trip to the Snowy Range mountains was finished by hiking on the lowest positioned trail, which was a nice change from the winter-ish microclimate on top,

and honestly, the only hikeable trail there so far.

The nature is waking up over there even later than in Laramie, but with almost brutal force and determination. It was a day filled with soft light and warm air. No mosquitoes (yet), no other people, no injuries... an almost perfect day ended by another cooking experiment (breaded cauliflower).

 Sunday was filled with some physical work and I felt I deserved a good American dinner, particularly a burger. The half-pounder didn't seem that big in its raw form, but it stayed that big even after it was done...  and boy was it good with avocado, spinach and grilled veggies on the side! :D

Kveten, za kamnama zustanem

May is usually a nice month even in Laramie. It seems to play "catch" with us this year, though. Three snowstorms in three weeks... The green things (Plantae) seem to be ahead of us, almost jumping up in front of our eyes, when the moment is right, when the day is warm and sun plentiful. Not all of them like the occasional snow, seemingly regular in 7-10 day cycles. But some do not mind, like the tulips. They had the flower buds barely sticking out on Friday, and on Saturday afternoon: here they were! I am glad that half of the tulips is the mid-late variety, as they will probably bloom in a week or less. And I am especially happy that I planted them apparently alright and that they survived so far.

This past weekend I have successfully kick-started the sprinkler system together with C and now I am enjoying the feeling that I am taking care of the grass without having to move a finger :) I'll give a one more try to the reseeding effort in the backyard as well.
Miss Chompy seems to be missing her playmate Sashamonster, not liking to eat on her own, so this morning I tricked her successfully by mixing peanut butter, the dog-irresistible concoction, with her food. Whether it was a mistake or not shall be seen upon Sasha's arrival. I am looking forward taking the little rascal on an inline trip along the river again later today.

frrrgale emericky

May 1st ended the first year of my homeownership and I threw a party, delayed housewarming party, so to speak. Facebook posts of my friends P3 inspired me to try to make my version of frgale, at least as close as I can get. I found a recipe online, made my own plum butter (povidla) from fried plums (prunes) and also tvaroh (farmer's cheese) from yogurt. There were other things to be done, but this was my own challenge.
Of course I put some whole wheat flower into the dough, and made the dough a day ahead, it did not need much of kneading in the first place and was very nice to work with later on. One pie was just "tvaroh a posypka", second had some plum butter under the cheese and third one only plum butter topped with ground poppy seeds with sugar. Soaking raisins in hot rum is fun and I used the rum later to mix with butter for final glazing.

 I cut the finished pies into pretty thin wedges and they were delish. I bet even your grandma from Walachia would have a hard time to compete :)

Laramie, oh Laramie

Sometimes I just wake up early, when it's still dark outside, and after a while I realize I won't sleep anymore. So when I checked the weather forecast for the next few days and there is again chance of snow, I could have just sigh. It was like that last year as well, 362 days ago I signed the papers for my house and it snowed. BTW, I am amazed the house is still standing here, and also that I did not get completely crazy from it.
So, I am planning a variation of a housewarming party, and since it is one year too late, it's called the housecooling party. The insides are definitely not ready for any big celebration, there is always something to take care of etc... but one year is one year.
After an hour long "opinion exchange" with Hana, who cannot get outside her Walachian box, I decided to make my version of frgales and call them frgale, although they can also bear the name "gay pizzas" (since they are sweet and fruity). But than it is not fair to the poor Italians, since pizza is a salty pie... well, one cannot please everybody.
What is going to suck is the weather. I may still opt for making some non-barbecued dish, after all, but homemade burgers just seem to be the best choice...
After discovery of tulips budding out 2 weeks ago on the AIDS walk weekend, I watched them hen over chickens... and the snow last weekend did not make me happy.
As it turns out, tulips are hardier stock than I imagined.Now it's only a question, if they'll manage to bloom as well this year.

And if you want to feel really great, when you wake up early, rub your dog's (or anybody else's) belly, it brings luck and positive emotions!

10 years 365 days

Today was the last day of my 11th year in this country. My oh my, I started second decade by getting green card and a house...did not even have time to think about it last year... Also I feel more like an home owner this year, surviving the winter in a good shape and ready to do a bit more outside. This spring was at first crawling in quite slowly, and than all of sudden we have third week of spring and I am behind!

I was not glad to notice that some creature was digging into the mulch above the newly planted tulips at first, but then I noticed the purple-ended tips of the first tulips getting out. It will be so beautiful!

I've worked that little piece of "garden" next to the garage, incorporated into it some old pot soil in it, some sheep peat, some dry coffee grounds... it better produce some great veggies this year! I am thinking about some peas...but forgot to buy some.. and I already sowed in some chives and green onions. Tomatoes and basil is planted inside, window space allocated by the biggest window. I hope it's gonna work better this year. The hedge along the west border is trimmed and neighbor's side is cleaned as well. I could not resist and went ahead with the first barbecue of the season, not waiting for the May 1st party. And it was worth it.

gray scale

I used to think I was wearing my heart on my sleeve, but quite possibly that was only my own perception. I used to think that I liked someone to the point of loving or not. I had crushes, boyfriend, friends... With time, after I accumulated enough people in the category of "dating", I realized things were not so black and white.
At the age of 38 I met only handful of men after the break up with my partner. The first two are my friends now. Maybe three. Maybe four, but the fourth one lives far. Fifth one could easily be called an ass, but he tried not to be one and I have to give him a point for trying... apparently I am in forgiving positive mood today. Sixth one is out of my life now too, it was probably a wrong timing, although I felt right with him and about him.
The last one is a mystery, because one cannot even start describing him as wearing his heart on his sleeve. He IS the heart hanging on his own sleeve. He amazes me, disarms me, makes me want to be better, and I have not even met him yet. At the age of 38  he sent me a poem by text message! As I already said earlier in these pages I am saying now again: if I am going to hit the bottom, it's gonna hurt! This time I hope that neither of us is going to hit anything, especially the bottom. My imaginary arm wraps around him and I am discovering new pages in my soul, together with some old ones. His laugh is so similar to Blexi's, that it unnerves me, almost. Lets see what the Saturday brings.
In terms of continuing improving myself as baker-amateur, I decided to go and try the "traditional challah". It is like Czech vanocka only made without dairy (milk and butter). First time was it was fine, but did not have time to braid it.And the oil used instead of butter seemed to me to let it be greasy. Second time I did again just a half of recipe and used butter instead of oil. And braided it properly (thanks to internet).

I also let it rise more and since the dough was waiting for 2 days in the fridge, it was on the dry side. More reasons to dab some butter on it!

I am sure I'll never made is as nicely looking again. But maybe more tasty... the honey used instead of sugar is really subtle and the whole wheat flavor goes great with it, traditionally.

And now I need to bake several hundred of them, since the parchment paper with challah footsteps look like really cool wallpaper :). Doesn't it?

e=mc^2

My theory of relativity deals with time: The time needed to pass until the next date seems disproportionally longer the further in the future the date is set to, and vice versa.
I am impatient, when it comes to dating. I can perfectly well explain many reasons for my impatience, but it does not help with the reality of dealing with myself 24/7. Yes, there are distractions, for example last night I tricked myself into being busy by cooking dinner my friends and spending the evening with them. Tomorrow I might go to a concert, tonight perhaps for a swim, if not for a bike ride, depending on the weather. But inside I know that all those distractions are just temporary and weak fixes and do not seem as an adequate supplements. So, I still can't wait for it to be a Saturday, and although I know I am setting myself up for a possible disastrous disappointment, I am willingly doing so, because I HAVE A DATE this Saturday, and it has not been canceled yet. I remember my recent other second date with someone else where things turned from pink to gray. I can't do much about it, only try to make sure that I won't do anything stupid. But I am excited and I feel good amount of excitement from my date as well, when we speak on the phone.
Do you remember the moments when you have met someone and everything felt just right, like you were almost falling in love at the first sight? Well, when you are almost forty, it seems almost impossible without feeling slightly silly, because our "life experiences" taught us differently. And rationally, since we all hope we are somewhat rational, we should take things slowly and be cautious. I disagree with my friend calling me needy, when I am impatient, impatient to either make one more step into a possible falling in love or as much possible hitting my bottom again hard. But I cannot believe, that all men are jerks and that nobody is willing to risk as much as I am. So, I am going to let lose, lift the foot from the brake and experience the free fall.
Poor Chompy is up to a few more sleepless nights with me. But she knows I already love her and that there is room for more.

time

My anger has cooled down, I am still in wondering about the reasons...  I will keep being curious about what makes people do things they themselves said they hated...Slaps from life almost always come from totally unexpected direction, but often for the same reason.
Things seem to be stalled for months and than in one week they start racing. Spring is here and I am not the only one feeling it. One could almost wonder, why is it either desert or when it rains, it pours?
I came to realization that a week is a healthy amount of time to clean oneself inside and to take a new breath. And by new breath I did not mean a new bread, such as cranberry-walnut one:

Or walnut onion, also delicious (don't look at me as if I am crazy!)

There is a program on NPR, and a total stranger, whom I know only through a few e-mails reminded me of it, called "This I Believe". I had a really nice evening with a guy today and this I want to believe: that he is not a jerk. No red flags, not a single sign of jerk-ism, so far. Maybe I want to believe too badly, I hope I still can. He seems worth trying the truth of "third time is a charm".
Good night!

roast beef for one

During the whole week, after that not so lucky last weekend, there seemed to be a light at the end of the tunnel (not literally, but I feel like overdramatizing right now). I did not have to face my demons most of the days, managed to stay calm and cool and was looking forward this weekend with one foot on the ground. As it happens, one foot is not enough.Well, the "weekend" happened, only with a different turn than I expected.
It does not matter what happened now, but I came to conclusion that when you want to tell bad news and also have promised to visit the bad news recipient, don't join those two things. At least not when the visit is promised to me. Phone is perfectly fine, especially when used early.
Plan B, Hana? 
It took me an hour to comb some hair out of the dogs (have a feeling Chompy is getting bold spots around her shoulders... could it be from the harness?), than out of me and when I went to look for the knife and started fixing the doorframes in order to finish my November paint job, I got tired. Well, the paint caulk needs to dry anyway, and I will try what Mitch suggested. So today is just prep work, I think. I hope to be done soon and take the girls out to Vedauwoo. They slept the whole time after we came from our second walk yesterday.
I tried making roast beef according to ATK (surprisingly Julia Child does not seem to have a recipe in her bible) and it does not seem noticeably more tender, but it is still good. The guacamole is chilling in the fridge, mashed potatoes with root veggies as well (and they were great), and I'll have the cranberry-banana-walnut "bread" for breakfast for another 4 days easily... make it 2 days...:)

And that in the background is future Pan Pugliese-Laramiese 3 :)

cloudless day

It was really a nice day, and so was yesterday. I guess it was a repayment for having to get up an hour earlier, especially appreciated after a weekend of not enough sleep. The last Sunday, a cloudy cold day, left me with some extend mixed feelings and definitely not 100% happy. I was happy to get home, walk with Chompy and lit the fireplace afterwards. It was a cloudy day in more than one sense. I faced some of my own demons and did not realize how fast I was going until I saw the cop turning around ... but it was not too bad. Well, being forced to step down from the "pink cloud" to the reality of Earth makes one wonder around,b doesn't it?
So, sunny days with air smelling of rotten leaves and rotten grass are greatly appreciated. So much, that I went to the garage, found the bag with dirt and re-potted the poor amaryllis bulb waiting for a new chance in the basement. And roasted chicken with root veggies smell from the oven and evening seems to start nicely.
Another try of basic hearth bread is started. I guess I did not document sacaduros made on Saturday, but you can believe me that they were yummy, especially when fresh.

insomniac

Chompy must hate me, she had to find the darkest spot in the bed, in this case the geometric center of the bed, since I am up at 4:30 a.m. A few months ago Hana suggested I could start a blog and I used it as my diary, in a way, in those first days, when I was thinking I was "kind-of-dating" this one dude... How important is the first in-person contact, one wonders... in that case it apparently did not work.
But I cannot sleep tonight again and I cannot blame overexercise as I could have on Friday. I cannot blame accidental overeating either. I can blame myself, yet I can't do much about it.
Sometimes you almost give up, as I almost did for at least a while, on active trying to reach out and search for someone. Two days before my "planned break" someone wrote to me a brief "Hello, how are you" e-mail and I got all of sudden very good feeling out of it. As if I believed he knew what he was doing, that he could see through the self-description posted by myself, and uncover at least a layer from the fact, that I am a human being with a soul and a heart. I have met this guy afterwards, two days ago, and what could have been an one-hour drag date from which we both would try to find a way out, turned out to be a whole afternoon of talking and fun of being outside in the park and around a lake. Many, many first date rules were broken, but we both laughed and enjoyed each other, laughed at the rules and were finding commonalities and differences between the two of us. It's far fetched to say we know each other, but my seventeen year old-frozen soul woke up and I found myself kissing him under a tree half way down the trail, the first place nobody could see us from above. I found myself letting go of the fears most of us have inside (supposedly as a protection against getting hurt). I found myself slapping his ass on a street when he asked for it, literally. And I found myself holding his hand in the car, warming up my hand and warming up to the reality of holding hands with a "person of bones and blood", person with desires, wishes, needs and heart to give. I still kept some of my guards up, although I was not constricted in any way and had a great time. My occasional glass-half-empty view vanished as he called the day after and not just to politely say that he won't come again. So, it is understandable that I am looking forward the coming weekend and my brain is imagining all the possible things that could happen, which did not happen for some time, and much more. It's almost 5 o'clock. He's getting up 140 miles from here. I don't know how exactly I'll go through the day after only 4 hours of sleep, but I guess I'll have to manage. It is not the physical closeness I am looking forward the most with this guy, although it is a big part of my excitement. It is the human closeness I feel he wants to get and to give. I have to tell you, if I am wrong, I will hit my bum really, really hard this time, because my feet are not on the ground anymore.

Yes, Chompy, I am going back to sleep, or so I hope.

spring is in the air

This week was petty nice, I have to say. Most of the annoying ice from the snowmelt water collected around the corners disappeared. It was warm at noon almost every day... and by midweek I got an email from a guy from Denver, who showed interest in me online the week before. On Friday the weather turned around and it snowed, but it was not too cold. I was like a pig from biking that one day. Chompy was not overly excited about having wet feet and I was pretty busy at work. Managed to go for a swim and than for a hamburger with some beer and that was how I celebrated my name-day ahead. Oh, every holiday has to be celebrated by work, so I prepared for making bagels again. They are a bit supersized.

Nevertheless, I slept like a c..p, my back hurt and burned from the swim and my belly kept making funny sounds from the hamburger. Maybe I am getting old...  I did not sleep half of the night so I was glad my first date with D-guy was not today.
The bagels turned out pretty good, this method does not make them very chewy, so next time I'll try the other way of shaping them.

After two walks with Chompy, some cleaning and some wood chopping, chilling in front of the fireplace seems like the only thing we can do right now. I am surprized she does not keep a grudge against me for brushing her earlier.
Spring is in the air, snow melted almost completely today and I feel like a seventeen-year old again. Butterflies in the stomach from tomorrow. 

being

I have finished reading the Kite Runner. I knew the book was sad, haven't seen the movie, but did see movies from Iran and they had very similar spirit in them. I liked this book very much, it is an excellent story and it made me cry several times. It also made me remember my old childhood sins. It made me feel good too, I guess as I felt that I understood the narrator, that I felt for him, that his story and his humanity spoke to me.

On Monday I worked on some data and decided to listen to radio show I've partially missed the Saturday before, on This American Life. I recommend this show to everyone. I came across an episode from a few weeks back, half of it was a story of chimp Lucy who was raised up among people from baby age, could use sign language, make tea, showed emotions and was completely attached to humans. It was one of those stories about how human desire to understand and study the rest of the world makes us to interfere too much, to screw thing us really bad. The story of Lucy is is tragic, extremely moving and touched the bottom of my heart, so to speak. I listened to it again today, not sure why.
http://audio.wnyc.org/radiolab_podcast/radiolab_podcast702lucy.mp3

I think it calmed me down. I guess it made me put my feet on the ground and let go of my small silly angers. I just wanted to share this story, it is not long. It is deep. I found the story beautiful.
Here are some pictures http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/.

Lucy from Radiolab on Vimeo.


I have also continued with baking projects from CJBB (crazy Jewess bread bible). Since there was a slow-cooker version of a french onion soup being ready on Sunday, I had to make baguettes to go with, haven't I?









They took 2 days to make. Although pretty good, it's not gonna become a regular recipe in my kitchen.
This poppy seed filled babovka on the other hand, that was a different story :-)

the dog bread and los cardones

So after receiving 5 pounds of poppy seeds (and scaring my roommate by that), I tried the Mantova olive oil bread. It contains plenty of other seeds, apart from the poppy, and lots of olive oil. They were falling out of the outer skin when kneading the dough and the dogs were happily licking the floor. It rose fine and it was really nicely smelling. Baked poppy seeds smell just heavenly. Too heavenly for a devilish taste of Sasha, who occasionally sneaks food from the table. This time she did it not due to a separation anxiety attack, as happened before. This time it was right behind our backs when we were putting food on the table in the dining room and the kitchen counter was unguarded for barely ten seconds. I cannot blame her. It was a good bread. And she took only two slices.

The next bread is one I made earlier and it is my favorite, a light rye bread. It has less than 20% rye flour and lots of caraway seeds, even though I use less than the recipe calls for. With a good bread flour it is very nice to work on and smells fantastic when baked. Plus this time, it was cracking for a long time, after it was out of the oven. That sound is really something.

It made me quite happy and sandwich from it was really good. It is different than a commercial rye bread at home, not gummy, not sour, but still very good, the biga fermentation does its job. It made me that happy that I decided to push forward with some work and after months I got back to measurements on the microscope. It is a routine work in the darkroom with only a green laser and the computer screen as light sources, plus some radio or music. I have had one and the same collection of music on my mp3 player for over a year. So, on Wednesday it was Annie Lenox. On Thursday, however, it came to Juanes, one Spanish song after another... I do understand a bit of the language, mostly am happy from recognizing words and verbs... And as I am sitting in the dark, clicking every minute on the keyboard and moving sample around, my brain calm and relaxed, Spanish words in my ears, I started remembering Argentina. I got back memories so vivid and fresh, the smell of the country after rain,  recalled visions from our daily trips from Quijano to Salta by bus, the Christmas dinner with Luis's family in that gas lamp-lit room in his brother's house, the streets, the light, the words, the taste, flavors... it all came back. These memories were mine true memories, and they were evoked from the Spanish in my ears, although I have not listened to this music in Argentina at all... it is as if some "Spanish part" of my brain woke up and all related to it became alive. Although it is a bittersweet memory, it is very vice and valuable. I was so surprised to remember so strongly that what happened two, three years ago, as if it was in front of me. It was fascinating, I could roam freely in my "Spanish brain" and recall this and that with an overwhelming ease... like rewinding a movie. I guess memories like this make easier to forgive ourselves for our sins on others.

There are days when you feel from the early morning that something is going to happen, and you are expecting it every minute ... and nothing happens. There are days when you do not expect absolutely anything and a simple thing, such as an innocent e-mail or a glimpse at an old friend online, makes you get on a spiral. Fascinating thing is that having a dog like Chompy is very therapeutic, at least for now. She substitutes the attention giving and and attention needing process which I need to feel at times. Having her is like having exits on that spiral-shaped highway.

Of course there are days when you get up early, because you planned to make a good dinner for your friend's birthday, start preparing everything ahead, so that when the guests arrive, you can spend time with them and not only in the kitchen, by noon you have the house cleaned and de-haired and laundry done and tablecloth washed and olive bread pretty much baked, dogs walked...  And by mid-afternoon it starts snowing and one by one your invited friends cancel. It just sucks, because there is a half of your own birthday cake and full dish of homemade tiramisu, which you've spent not only most of one evening on, but also some money on good ingredients. By the time they cancel altogether you want to explode and scream and when you walk the dogs again, you know you can do nothing but swear. Fortunately, the idea of staying home the whole evening with kitchen full of food, however annoying, gets replaced by another one, and for once you are happy for having the movie theater so close to the house. Having a plan B, as my friend Hana always says, works this time, even though it was a last minute plan. I guess anything lesser than Avatar would have left me pissed for all that effort earlier, for my naivety with which I didn't rebook the whole thing for earlier, even though I had a chance when the forecast did predict some snow... I guess it's the take home lesson, always overestimate the weather in Wyoming :) On a plus side, we have leftovers till Wednesday it seems...
BTW, my next bread is going to be a olive oil bread with lots of seeds.

becoming American

After quite positive experience with making the pretzels it was easy to decide the next project, bagels. Since it is only me and my housemate these days, I went for a half-recipe of the great Jewess and followed the recipe quite to the point, only adjusting my rising times accordingly. And I substituted half of the white flour with whole wheat. After the dough is made, one divides it into pieces and tolls them into balls. When the gluten relaxes, the easiest way to form the bagel shape is to push a hole through the balls with your finger and stretch the opening. 

 

The bagels get boiled in soda-sugar water for a minute per side 

 

and then rolled in seeds (and should be glazed, which is a step I omitted).

 

The baking is a bit strange, it ends by turning the oven off and then by leaving the doors opened for the last 5 minutes, which is not explained, but I did as asked and the bagels turned pretty good. 

 

Pretty good! :)

Well, to continue in my naturalization and also since I saw in the morning Baking with Julia where they were making muffins, I got curious whether baking my signature babovka in muffin shape would be any good. Also, by scaling down the recipe one does not feel so guilty, right? I made 1/2 coconut babovka batter with roasted walnuts and filled 9 muffin tins, it could have been easily been 10, but I got into licking the spoon too soon :)
 

These are the survivors next morning...just before my breakfast.

becoming Jewish

It was supposed to be a quiet weekend and I wanted to have the easy Sunday with some sweet bread for breakfast. I was also craving olive bread for some time and my stash of olives was slowly getting smaller, since they are so delicious in our salads. The latter one was not problem, I made it sourdough style many times before. I wanted to have the advantage of fast rising and yet sourdough soul, so I started the biga with my sourdough starter and let it go really long, the next day I made the dough and kneaded in the kalamata olives and it just looked exactly as it should have.

The bread is small, though, about a pound or less of the raw dough, so a bit less after baking. Since the rising was fast, I went for a free-style round boule, meaning it was round and it rose unsupported by anything round... not in a basket. Just sitting on the parchment paper.

The vanocka, however was a bit different story. Rose Levy suggested for her challah using 2x her brioche recipe (for the non-kosher challah). Since it is a breaded bread, I went for this recipe, hoping in a little miracle. Miracle was that I did not throw it away in the middle of the process. There is about 500g of flour and about 220 g of butter in this, not mentioning 6 eggs, making the dough very runny and sticky.

It did not toughen up after refrigerating, as it should have. I could not knead it and so there were little chunks of butter distrubuted randomly throughout. I braided the vanocka as I refreshed my memory about 6-braid vanocka online, and it looked awfull and needed tons of flour to prevent stickiness. I wonder if I have not forgot something during making the dough, but I cannot come up with anything, really. So since the braided version looked awful, I put it to a babovka form and let it rise there

and baked that way. It turned pretty good, very airy, not too sweet and with crispy edges, which is unmistakeable sign of fat in the dough.

 

The weird things on top are sliced almonds and the brown spots in the dough are raisins. I'll make vanocka again, but I guess I'll go for a Czech recipe.

My friends also left for India, for a 500-people wedding (pretty small for Indian customs, I hear). Miss them already a little. I am sure they are not missing my crazy dog.

It's party time

My friends and I decided to throw a party to the couple soon to be married in India. Pooja asked me some time ago about a possibility of baking Black Forrest Cake with/for her and so I took it as the central theme of my kitchen effort for this event. Apart from that we decided to keep it German friendly, by having pickled herring, sausages in sauerkraut, pretzels and rye bread.

The rye bread was sourdough, since I wanted it to be more rye-i than other basic recipe from the book. Sourdough starter was fed with rye flour and although it did not look particularly alive even after 12 hours, the smell was fantastic. The dough had to wait in the fridge, which I do not like so much with rye sourdough, but I had a good feeling this time it will work fine. The next day I just let it warm up and shaped a battard and let it rise, which with the rye starter was noticeably faster process. I cut down the caraway seeds, one tablespoon is plenty. And although it does not look perfect on the cut, it is very flavorfull and with just the right amount of hard/chewy crust. 

 

The pretzels were relatively easy, only the dough is pretty stiff one, only some 51% hydration, and therefore it was a bit tough to knead. On this one I would actually appreciate having a mechanical help. I did a test batch the evening before, which was supposed to yield 12 small ball-shaped breads, but I made 4 medium pretzels instead. The stiffness of the dough helped keeping the shape and dipping in hot soda solution was therefore a no-problem task. Next time I will try the lye solution, though. When I made the next batch, I needed at least 12 pretzels and therefore I trippled the recipe. It was just fine and since I used hotter soda solution and let the pretzels sit in in for about half minute each, they seem to be a bit shinier. I had help with these and it is fun to make them. They are chewy and to me taste just fine.

Le cake was a bit of project. Cherries were marinating in brandy-syrup for about a week, I had enough chocolate and eggs and cream, so I was ready to roll. The recipe called for a half batch for the cake itself, but I baked the full one just in case and since I  was supposed to cut away the top and bottom layer afterward, I wanted to have a space for error. I ended trimming the tops and bottoms and using the whole middle parts as they were, having more syrup than called for was a good idea since one sprinkles it on the cake before covering with the frosting. The frosting gave me a bit of headache. I opted for a light ganache, which is cream melted with chocolate, whipped together. I guess it was due to the higher fat content and good quality chocolate (only cocoa butter in it), I overwhipped it exactly as the book said... and so I re-melted and cooled again and repeated ... and I overwhipped again, this time I knew it was due to not melting it hot enough earlier, since the granular structure formed right away just by cooling down. Third time is a charm and I was very very careful and it was just fine. The ganache was not perfectly smooth visually, but melted in the mouth like a chocolate, yet the sweetness was the one of bittersweet chocolate. The bottom cake layer gets covered with this and cherries are put on top and next cake layer gets seated in and soaked in syrup and covered with the ganache again. Cool for 4 hours in the fridge covered with foil and then make rosettes with cream and put cherry into each.... and the top was supposed to get sprinkled with shaved chocolate, which I forgot in the fridge, eactually, but the ganache was chocolate-y enough anyway. It is a pretty darn good cake. Maybe next time I'd do just the stabilized cream, as in the original recipe. If there is next time.