Math Games

Back when I was in sixth grade, we had a warm up everyday on the whiteboard when we came into class. For a few months in the middle of the year, our project was the "Four 4s," where we had to make every number from 1 to 100 with the combination of four 4s in any mathematical sequence. I had a dream last night which involved switching math games with a friend. I eventually suggested the "Four 4s." I got stumped at 13; I am a lot better at math when awake. I wrote a few down and added a couple of alternatives.

 At the doctor's office today I started working on them while I was waiting and I am now stumped at 31.

Over the Past Weeks

I have been incredibly busy starting school and returning to teaching after a few weeks of break. I thought I would catch everyone up on some general updates.

School: I am only taking three classes at the moment, but it is a full course load in terms of units. I am taking Sallust's Bellum Catelinae, Greek Prose Composition, and a seminar on classical research. It is a reasonable amount of work, although the vast amount of work in prose composition makes up the majority of my load. I am also planning on reading little bits of Homer with Properitus II once we finish the Crito. I also am going to attempt to work on my thesis revisions and start on my term paper for my classical research seminar.

Teaching: I am teaching a new class. It is an interesting group because I teaching in a different geographical area than usual (near school rather than near home).

Bread: I made another loaf of my newest sourdough recently. It was also fantastic, but I forgot to take photos. I am going to try to make Francis Olive's City Bread this weekend because it looks fantastic and I should have a little bit of time.

Wine Snob: Another Argentinian Malbec

Malbec

This wine, the Gascon 2010 Malbec from the Medoza Region of Argentina, was really lovely. I tend to like Argentinian Malbec and this one was recommended to us by the person who sold us the lovely shelves that now hold the majority of our wine. We didn't decide to have the wine until about 20 minutes before dinner so it tasted a little, I don't know, condensed at first. I am not sure what the proper term is, but basically the flavors were less discernible but became increasingly differentiated the longer the wine sat out.

It was a medium bodied wine with a slight tannic bite and the taste of black cherry with a pinch of pink pepper. Instead of finishing, it seemed to vanish at the end of the taste. I really enjoyed it though I think I would let it breathe a little longer next time.

Like One of those High School Movies

So I had my orientation today. It was like one of those horrible high school movies where the geeky girl does everything wrong and the day is a complete disaster. I took my placement exams for Greek and Latin at 8am this morning. Greek was a mess. It was a piece from Lucian and I just completely missed the vocabulary and it was a disaster.  The Latin was better, it was some 4th century AD historian and I actually knew a significant portion of the vocabulary.

Of course, that wasn't the end of it. Due to a mix-up, I ended up really early for the luncheon. Worse, afterward the professor who was grading my Greek exam ran up to talk to me. I felt so completely embarrassed. Luckily he hadn't graded it yet, but that actually made me feel worse because he was so nice and he was going to soon look at such a complete disaster.

Going to see a production of the Trojan Women tomorrow. I will write a review.

A New Sourdough

Boule

I mentioned in my blogpost yesterday how much I loved this bread. It's really fantastically sweet-- which may be a combination of the flour mixture and that I managed to use the starter right at the peak of it's feeding when it smells slightly sweet. I am including the recipe here so anyone can try it. It is a modified version of Peter Reinhart's San Francisco Sourdough Bread from Artisan Breads Every Day. This bread spends an incredible amount of time rising, but it does not require a significant amount of interference.

Ear-- finally able to use the lame properly

 This bread is 76% hydration. However, I used a lot of all-purpose instead of bread flour this last time so I might up the hydration to 77% to compensate. I also need to incorporate a bit more air when I am kneading as my last two breads have not had quite the open crumb that I desire.

Not perfect crumb, but still quite good

Ingredients: 
Starter

•  56.5g 100% hydration starter
• 227g Whole Wheat Flour
• 150g Water, room temperature

Dough

•  All of the starter
• 445g Water (warm)
• 567g Unbleached Bread Flour (I used a combination of bread flour and-- when I ran out of that-- a high-protein all-purpose flour-- King Arthur's)
• 18g Salt

Directions
Starter (Day 1)

• Mix the ingredients for the starter together about 8 hours befor you plan to use it.
• Make sure you mix it with a for or something that will help incorporate a little air.
• Cover the bowl or jar and leave it to mature overnight at room temperature. Otherwise, the starter can rest in the refrigerator for up to three days.

Final Dough (Day 2)

• The starter, by now, should be all bubbly and smell slightly sweet.
• Dissolve the starter in the water.
• Then add the unbleached flour and the salt and mix into tacky ball. Let the dough rest for five minutes.
• The knead the dough by hand for 3 minutes. Try to incorporate air.
• Then do the first Peter Reinhart stretch-and-fold. Do four total with 10 minutes in between each.
• Depending on how warm your kitchen is, let the dough rest out (covered) for 1.5-2 hours before placing in the refrigerator. It was about 75 degrees in my kitchen and I let the dough sit out for 2 hours. Place it in the refrigerator overnight.

Shaping and Baking (Day 3)

•  Take the bread out of the refrigerator 5-6 hours before baking. Let it rest on at room temperature for 2-3 hours, depending upon the room temperature. The bread was still very cold at 2 hours, so I waited the extra hour.
• Then turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and divide it. It can make two 1.5lb loaves or three 1lb loaves. Preshape.
• Let the dough rest for 20-30 minutes, and then do the final shaping. Cover the loaves and let them rise for 2-3 hours. My loaves needed three hours. The first loaf we baked after two hours and I think that it could have used a little extra rising time, while the second one we baked at three hours and it turned out better.
• 20 minutes before baking, heat up the your oven with your stone-and-broth-pot or dutch oven to 500 degrees F.
• Turn your dough onto a floured peel and score it right before you put it into the oven. Turn the oven down to 450 degrees F (425 convection). 
• Let the dough bake under steam for 30-35 minutes, making sure that the edges of your scoring marks have turned golden.
• Then bake it for 20-25 minutes without steam, ensuring that it has an internal temperature of 212 degrees. It should be fairly light in weight and dark brown in color.
• Wait at least 30 minutes before slicing.

 Enjoy!

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

School Bread

It's been a while since I've been in school. Although I have been working and continuing my education, without a full day of formal classes life is a little more relaxed. Some days I had the day to read and make the wonderful Tartine Country Bread or my whole wheat breakfast bread. However, studying for these exams, I realize that these days, with the exception of special occasions, are coming to an end.

Yet, I simply cannot give up my bread, especially as winter approaches and meals of soup and bread are so appealing. So what to do? Well, there are some recipes that take as much time, but less intervention. I have had a lot of success with breads from Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Every Day, and so today I am trying to make (a modified version, of course) of his San Francisco sourdough. Pictures and analysis to come. I also will try some breads that take a little less time such as Wild Yeast's Norwich More Sourdough which I attempted recently.

I have also been considering venturing into the territory of no-knead bread. Although this does not have the stress-relief of kneading, it also has less of the clean-up stress. I have been very skeptical in the past (with the exception of the no-knead challah I make). One bread that captivated my attention was an Italian No-Knead featured on Yeast Spotting recently. That may be my next experiment.

More Astrophysics: Planets in the Distance

A few weeks ago, I posted about the Yale astrophysics class to which I was listening. I haven't had time recently because I have been studying for exams, but I did read a New York Times article this afternoon in which I realized I actually vaguely understood the science behind the discovery.

I am going to make an attempt at explaining this from memory, although science people please correct me if I explain this wrong. So in general, astronomers do not detect planets by seeing them. Instead, they measure electromagnetic waves and use Doppler shifts in order to determine the size, speed, and distance of stars an the planets that orbit them. In certain cases, the planets are oriented so that they pass directly between the telescope monitoring them and the star they orbit. In these cases, there are significant dips in the electromagnetic radiation whenever the planet crosses in front of the star and it allows scientists to determine that the planet is there and stuff about it with a great degree of accuracy. It's pretty cool. This is especially fabulous because the planet is actually circling two stars, hence the planet has been named Tatooine. Unfortunately, this planet's alignment is changing due to it's orbit and it will not pass directly in front of the star any longer.