Downton Abbey: Season/Series 4 Trailer

Despite the rather disappointing end of last season, I'm still a Downton fan. So, I thought I'd share the trailer for the upcoming season. It still won't say when it's coming out in Britain, but it is coming out in the US on January 5th.
Enjoy!

City Bread, A Second Attempt

City Bread

As I mentioned, I made some more city bread this weekend. I did not make the same mistakes this time, but the crumb still wasn't perfect. I also let the bread sit for 2 hours before cutting into it. The flavor still did not mature as much as I would like until about 5 hours.

Spiral Scoring

I also probably should have left it to brown a little longer. However, the internal temperature was 212 degrees F and the crust sang beautifully when I removed it from the oven.

Yum!

I also increased the amount of whole wheat from the original recipe. It was 2:3 ratio whole wheat to bread flour.

The ears did not bloom enough, sadly

I doubled the recipe and made a second loaf. It was a batard-- sort of. I don't have a batard basket, so I line a loaf pan with a floured cloth. It came out reasonably well this time, but we have a lot of bread around so I am going to freeze it.

Batard

The bread is about 82% hydration which is an awful lot. I am not great at working with it, so the crumb is not perfect. However, it is soft and moist but still light.

Crumb

There was actually some better crumb on the inside, but I did not have a camera with me at the time.

We ate about 3/4 of the bread.

We decanted a bottle of wine for three hours before drinking it. it was lovely.

Girls in the Vinyard, Cabernet Sauvignon 2005

We set out a splendid picnic with one of the last cucumbers from the garden.

Picnic

Great episode of Downton Abbey. More next week.

Fruits of Our Labor

Yay!

I made some bread over the past few days. The bread is a modified version of a Peter Reinhart recipe in Artisan Breads Every Day. I will post the recipe soon. It was absolutely fantastic. My family had a picnic while we watched the first episode of the new season of Downton Abbey. The first episode was pretty amazing-- even thought I've been reading spoilers all week it still went a lot of different ways that I imagined (especially with Mr. Bates' story line). It was a little bit uneven in the pacing, but still great. Can't wait for next week! The show and the bread were fabulous. The bread was a sourdough, but it was really sweet and nutty in it's flavor. My dad gave the crust of the bread a 9/10, which was pretty fantastic.

Crust was Fantastic.

Not Perfect Crumb, but YUM!

The bread was about 60:40 white:whole wheat. It was just lovely.

Picnic Spread

We also included one of our fresh home-grown cucumbers in the spread.

Cucumber from the Yard

Downton Abby, Revisited

I mentioned in a previous blogpost that I absolutely loved a series called Downton Abbey. The second season is coming out in England next week. Very excited, I have been reading some spoilers. I will put the most extensive of them here and there are also a couple of fun interviews. Being an incredible fan of the show, I've been thinking about it a lot. This is rather silly of me, but there is one thing that bothers me about the second series as it seems like it will play out (spoiler alter, beware):

The main story in the first season concerns the impending inheritance of Downton Abby by a solicitor named Matthew Crawley and many attempts to find a husband for the eldest of the Earl's daughters, Lady Mary. They, of course, after hating one another fall in love and Matthew proposes. Due to various complicating circumstances, Mary never gives him an answer and Matthew leaves. The ending is rather elegant, actually. Matthew leaves Mary at the Garden party and she seems to realize what she is losing, but it is ambiguous. I think the final episode eloquently combines the unpredictable element with a hopefully possibility in a realistic manner.

I appreciated the ending of the first season. If the season had stood alone, I would have been happy. Now I am nervous. I know from the spoilers that Matthew has a new fiancee in this coming season and Mary is courted by another gentleman. In principle this makes sense; Matthew is an eligible bachelor and Mary is rather spiteful. I worry, however, that the show will try to convince us each of them-- or at least one of them-- might end up happily with someone else in order to challenge audience expectations. I am, of course, not a fan of shows being predictable and Downton Abbey has done a magnificent job of creating brilliant unpredictability (especially Episode three which I just re-watched with Servia). However, I think that after an entire season building up to the perfection of the match, it would seem disingenuous to try to convince the viewers otherwise. Furthermore, the type of attempt which breaks up two so well suited characters rarely works (e.g. Sense and Sensibility, the second half of Little Women, the late match-up of Eowin and Faramir in Lord of the Rings, etc). The one exception, of course, is Emma, but Jane Austen works many threads well from the beginning.

I just don't think I'll be able to buy it if the writers try to move them apart as though they have moved on. Characters like Lady Edith are happy at the prospect of a comfortable life with someone kind, but Lady Mary is passionate and obstinate and Matthew simply seems to find this irresistible. Although I could imagine both of them trying to make some other relationship work, and even doing reasonably well at it, ultimately, upon seeing each other again, they would find themselves drawn to each other.

I know this is all very silly and as a writer's daughter I should be examining the story more and being less of a fan. However, I have faith in the writers because they have woven a brilliant story so far. Maybe they will settle it in a way that is both delightful and unusual.

Season 1 Review: Downton Abbey

A few days ago my family finished watching Downton Abbey, a series for which I provided a short midpoint-review. The series focuses on the servants at a manor, Downton Abbey, and the "upstairs family." The family consists of Lord Grantham, a man trying to keep the peace and arrange the future of his rather dramatic house, his three daughters, and his unconventional American wife, Cora. His estate is entailed to the next male in the line, which happens to be a distant cousin-- a middle class lawyer named Matthew Crawly-- who Lord Gratham must train to be the next heir as his mother and Cora band together to try to fight the entail.

The story is slow, but charming, and provides wonderfully three-dimensional characters as well as unexpected twists and turns. The serving staff provides a wonderful foil and contrast to the family above and the moments of interaction between the two groups shows the class divisions and tensions in pre-World War I England.

The series was charming, especially from the third episode on. The one disappointment was that they left the story extremely open ended. However, it appears they are preparing for a second season. I highly recommend the series and hope that the sequel is equally engaging.

Update 02/02/11: I re-watched the series with Cerinthus while I was at my Alma Mater, and he really enjoyed it as well.

Midway Review: Downton Abbey

My family has been watching Downton Abbey. It is a British show on the BBC. It's a period piece with a sort of Gosford Park quality to it. It focuses almost equally between the "upstairs" life of the family at Downton Abbey and the "downstairs" servants. Both my family and I are enjoying the series. Although it has a fair number of obvious manoeuvrings, it also has a lot of unpredictable twists and turns. Sweet, slightly humorous, and well written. I am only about halfway through the seven-episode series, but I find it to be thoroughly enjoyable.