Thursday, January 26, 2006

Thinking is bad for my health

At least my mental health...I realized this afternoon that in 29 Februaries the only people to ever give me a real V-Day card or present have been family members*. That's pretty sad.

Other things I should avoid thinking about include summer plans, my career prospects, spring break, non-refundable airline tickets and my bank account, financial aid applications, and why my cat has suddenly decided that breaking out of the house sounds like a grand idea.

To avoid thinking, I've decided to attempt sour dough bread. Ok, I decided this several days ago, it takes awhile to get the starter going, but this afternoon I got the dough together and I am currently avoiding my crim law reading while waiting for the dough to rise. One nice thing about law school is that the good people over at LexisNexis and WestLaw give you free accounts. If you are not a legal person, this means nothing, but it's sort of like lawyer crack. They offer you prizes and cash and free online research and printing for 3 years, then send you out to a firm, a confirmed online research junkie, to run up astronomical bills you first year as an associate. To give you some idea, a single search can cost as much as $100. Anyway, I had a bunch of points on Lexis and was able to redeem them for Alton Brown's baking book, which got here earlier this week (see how this ties back to the bread? I'm not totally insane!). I've been lusting after this book for months, so I was quite excited that I was able to get it for free, as a byproduct of obsessive case reading, and as an added bonus is has a nice, non-scary recipe for a sourdough starter. We'll see how it turns out in a few hours, but I love the way this book is written. It satisfies all of the geek/science nerd parts of my brain without getting so technical that my law school addled brain can still follow it. He actually explains how everything works, which is important to understand in baking, and something that most baking (and bread in particular) books overlook. If you've ever seen GoodEats on the food network, you know what I'm talking about. Plus the recipes are interesting, and if the other recipes of his I've tried are any indication, tasty.

I just need to get an actual pizza stone. My terracotta tiles cracked with last batch of bread I baked. Not a huge deal, but it's a pain to work with cracked tiles. Unless someone knows where I can get refractory tiles or kiln shelves in the Tidewater area?

*Actually, last year, M. did give me a package of cherry chocolate cordials, but he gave me those a day late and they were in a Safeway bag. And those stupid cards with the nasty candy people are forced to leave on your desk in 3rd grade hardly count.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I've done Lexus searches before, but on, surprise surprise, gas meters. What surprised is me is the shear number of gas meters that hit by cars. And people who freak out about meter readers and the methods they sometimes use.