The Attic

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Stay tuned!

Crazy Week...still Ooni-less

Edited to add:  That which was lost has, apparently been found.  Making a little noise does have results, apparently.  New delivery is tomorrow!  So, planning to make the dough for Saturday.  Should I invite people?

The new pizza oven, that was supposed to be delivered on Tuesday, is lost in space somewhere!  There was an email from UPS early in the week saying it was coming Tuesday, then a delivery schedule change by UPS (no date), and nothing since!  No updates, nothing.  Neither Ooni, nor UPS, has an idea where it is or when it will be here.  I have chatted online with several nice guys from Ooni and they say not to panic yet.  Okay, I won't.  I'll panic tomorrow.

The bright spot is that my calendar is completely empty for the next week and if there is no pizza oven to play with, I do have a new baking book: The All-Purpose Baker's Companion, which has recently been revised and updated.  I cannot believe I never owned the original version, but this should be better with metric measurements....I've gotten very used to baking by scaling ingredients and using grams.  It may or may not be in my sidebar booklist.  Can't remember how that works, I've been out of blogging so long!  Well, it should give me something to do over the weekend, but what?  Bread?  Cake?  Pastry?  You'll know when I know!

Stay tuned!

 

 

 

Pizza!

Not the post I was hoping to make today, but it's been that kind of week.  Stuff not coming (the new pizza oven) when it was supposed to, etc.  Also had a barbaric SEVEN A.M. physical therapy session to start the week on Monday (still sore), followed by a not-quite-so-early dental visit Tuesday to install a permanent crown that should have been done three weeks ago.  Today, I'm taking the day off!

Back to pizza: the new oven was ordered last Friday with delivery promised in 3-5 business days.  The shipping notification saying it would be here yesterday was very exciting, but that didn't happen.  What happened was a notification that shipping date had been "changed" (no reason) with the promise of a notice when it was on the way.  Twiddling thumbs, still waiting.  I'm about ready to contact Ooni.  Meanwhile, I was a busy little bee over the weekend assembling the new Ooni folding table, but I have to confess it was very easy.  Two bolts to attach the leg assembly (already put together) to the stainless top.  About 20 minutes.  Annnd, the photo is not loading. (Edited: More than one way to skin a cat, as they say!)

Anyway, a bit about the new oven:  I've had two of the Ooni gas ovens, the first of which was a gift and never worked right.  So, I gave it to someone who thought he could fix the igniter and I bought a new one.  That one worked great, but I decided that I didn't like the whole gas thing.  The bottles are heavy, the oven got too hot, but I would have stuck with it if they had not come out recently with an electric version that can be used indoors or out.  Much safer, I would assume, on my screened in porch.  And no gas bottles to deal with.  It's a heavier unit than the gas version, but I'll just have to deal with that one downside.  (Doubt I'll ever use it inside, but you never know.)  I had ordered the aforementioned table and the cover, both delivered very promptly, so good to go. Now I wait....

As for my history with homemade pizza, that went back to the early 90's, when youngest went off to college and I had to figure out something to do that would keep the Old Man happy.  He did like pizza!  I found a recipe in a magazine that was incredible and, frankly, much easier than the recipes I'm using now, but still very impressive pizza for a home oven.  Himself was bowled over.  To the point where he stopped buying pizza from his favorite place in town....yeah.  It was that good.  Not like the Neapolitan stuff I do now, but good.  (And cheap.  If people only knew how cheap, and relatively easy....pizza joints would go out of business.) Over the years I fine tuned the process, and then ten or so years ago my youngest son got his first pizza oven, then I gave one to his oldest brother, and now we are a pizza making family.  Youngest does it big time....thinks nothing of a pizza party on Halloween for the whole neighborhood, making as many as 40+ pies.  I know, I helped one year.  Now he's got a 15 year old who can pretty much do it from start to finish.  

If only I had the oven....fingers crossed I'll get news today!

Stay tuned.

 

The Forsythias are sything, the daffodils are daffing...it's SPRING, y'all!

Haven't had to turn on the house fan or AC yet, but it's coming.  I see an "80 degrees" in next week's forecast.  That means time to turn on the outside water and time to start planning the vegetable garden.  I didn't plant last year because it was too much with the hip surgery.  I did some pots and railing planters, but digging and bending were not possible.  I'm much more active and flexible this year, and have also discovered a new garden method using straw bales.  You condition the bales with a high-nitrogen fertilizer and water over 12 days, then plant and get out of the way!  I think I could handle that!  I have finally located the bales and can get them delivered, but then I have to convince either my son or the landscapers to lug them into the garden.  The book is called, not surprisingly, "Straw Bale Gardens" by Joel Karsten.  Loads of videos online, too.

I had an interesting conversation the other evening with the owner of a "music school" (as opposed to a music store, which sells instruments, and may or may not offer lessons) in a nearby town, looking to find a replacement for my former piano teacher.  Or, more accurately, teachers.  Long stories in each case, another time.  It started out sounding like this place would be ideal: I could choose between 1/2, 3/4 or hour long lesson, billing was by the month (not cash in advance every )8 weeks, flexible lesson times, easy access to the building, etc.  Then the man dropped the bomb: we require masks.  Okay, dude, deal breaker.  I have not, since day one of this pandemic believed that masks do anything positive, and in my case I know that an hour in a mask in a doctor's office will raise my blood pressure rather alarmingly.  In addition, I'm just over the whole thing, especially masks and "boosters".  Anyway, the man said he'd "check with his wife" and send me a text with their decision.  I knew what it was going to be if he had to ask his wife, and I wasn't going to budge....never got a text.  Moving on.  There are other "music schools" in the area, so I will continue searching. Today, however, I have to go to the rheumatologist for a shot for osteoporosis and this practice is the most ridiculous office I go to: they are still requiring "social distancing".  And masks.  Gaaah.

What else is going on?  Getting a few things ready for my son's Easter Brunch, working on the second baby quilt (binding), going through old clothes and practice, practice, practice for a trip to visit the cousins in a week.  One is a pianist, former teacher, and quite an expert on Mozart, so I am determined to get my Mozart Sonata (#16, K545, C Major) presentable.  I suppose, if the local piano teacher fails to materialize, I could always hike up to Massachusetts once a month for a coaching.

Happy Easter!

 

 

Funny Things

Last time I was here, I was blogging about back injuries. Funny thing.....I've now got another back injury. God only knows what I did this time (somehow, it's easier to deal when you know what you did to cause it) but after two days of agony, it seems, knock wood, to be easing up quite a bit.  Aleve helps a lot. So, strangely, does sitting at the piano. Sitting in my VERY expensive Norwegian recliner does not, dammit.

Also, last time here, or the time before, I was talking about my Ooni pizza oven. Funny thing #2, I never really got comfortable with it (also replaced it with a new one because the first one never really worked right) and have used it very seldom. Frankly, I make pretty good pizzas inside, so......! However, I might have found something better: the new Ooni Volt. It's electric and can be used indoors and outside! I am so tempted, and one of the sons even offered to buy my old one, but there's a big BUT. See first paragraph. Back problems, yada, yada. I can just about lift and move the old one comfortably, which is about 25 pounds. According to the specs, the electric version is almost ten pounds heavier. Hmmm, maybe not such a good idea. (I got a new coffeemaker from Amazon the other day, which is still sitting in the box on the front hall chest.  Coffeemaker. Can't lift it. See the problem?) I guess I could get another son to put the oven where I plan to use it....bwahahahaha!

A new hobby to report: needle felting!  Introduced to felting by Other Marcia (who doesn't seem to blog anymore) and love it. There is something about aggressively poking a needle into a bunch of wool that is so satisfying, especially when that glob of wool turns into a wonderful creature (I love doing gnomes) or object such as a pumpkin. Now that I've got quilting out of my system for a while (not for long: I bought a bunch of new equipment and another sewing machine) I want to try to make cats and mice and rabbits, oh, my. 

Till we meet again.....

Not sure this is still current, but I just updated my credit card and fingers crossed. It has been a while, so guess I have to start from scratch! I'll keep "The Attic" as blog name...it fits me as well as anything at this point. We will see, too, how long I stick with it.....there may be a short story coming, and as soon as I figure out the picture posting stuff, some photos.

Some updates

I thought I would be posting more often during the pandemic, but it's a habit I've gotten out of, apparently.  When I was here last it was to talk about my pizza oven, and yes, I finally did get it operating.  It needed a new regulator, which turned out to be a $10 part.  I used it a few times but.....the summer went downhill rather quickly thanks to TWO separate back injuries!  So, laid up most of the summer, still having issues, fun times.

As for the garden, it got a fence and ended up quite a bit larger, and I did get some wicked good tomatoes, but why, oh why, do I bother with squash?  I end up picking one or two before the bugs invade, and then realize....I don't LIKE squash.  Well, yellow squash.  Zucchini?  At least you can shred it and add it to stuff.  Starting to get the seed catalogs and will begin planning for this year's garden.  I think I'll stick to tomatoes, peppers, green beans and a few other things that may or may not end up in patio pots (radishes, lettuce, etc.).  

In August we had a 7-day power failure during a heat wave.  In order to get out, or even charge my phone, I had to manually open the garage door.  The very heavy, STEEL garage door.  That was the beginning of Back Injury #2.  Two weeks on a cane before I finally got to an orthopedist and some PT.  At that point, I made the decision I could NOT stay here without a generator and began the process.  More than four months later, the installation is finally complete. It's ugly as sin and ruins that whole, very visible side of the house, but that's where the power lines come in and that's where the panel box it, so that's where the generator had to go.  I'll plant something.  Or hire a guy to build a lattice screen.

The Elephant in the Room.  Still pondering just how to deal with that.  I may use this blog as a way to stay in touch with friends, or may not.  Stay tuned.

 

To Ooni, or not to Ooni. That is the question.

This was going to be it: the maiden voyage of my Ooni Pizza oven, a Christmas gift from Son#3.  I was going to put on my Big Girl Panties and deal with.......GAS!  I admit I'm a bit of a wuss when it comes to bottled gas, but the weather was okay and it was time.

 

This ended up not being the final arrangement (I have since ordered the Ooni table made specially for the oven), and I'm not sure the little deck is the best place, but it was just for trial purposes.  I made the pizza dough over the weekend (more on that later) and was set to go.  Except...........I couldn't get the damn thing to light.  I mean, even after watching a bunch of videos and finally reading the manual (oops) there was no ignition.  I was beyond frustrated.  Even Facetimed with the son (who has a RocBox pizza oven and not familiar with this one) but nothing.  I think it sounded like it was going to ignite once, but that was it.  I ended up "chatting" online with a company rep but when she finally just listed off all the things in the manual that I had already tried, I called it a day.  I can do a very good pizza in my house oven, so I packed the thing up and put it away for the moment.  (It's VERY portable....could probably take it camping.  If I camped.)

So, the dough.  For my birthday, Third Son sent me "flours".  12 pounds of Caputo "00" Italian flour.  The recipe on the bag is quite easy (dump everything in KitchenAid mixer and let it go for about 8-9 minutes.)  I cut the recipe in half for three pies, thinking I could give one to my neighbor and offer to make one for my SIL if she would come get it.  (I now have pizza boxes!)  Because everything got moved indoors, the two extra dough balls went into the freezer for another time.  After mixing, the dough sits out in a bucket for a few hours, then can be used right away, or plopped in the fridge for some slow, overnight "fermentation".  Then it comes out a couple of hours before baking and gets formed into balls, which go into special trays to rise a bit more on the counter or in the fridge.  

Dough ball in tray (above), dough circle ready to top (below).

 

Topped with sauce*, pepperoni and cheese. (Yes, it's on parchment: I got tired of cleaning all that burned cornmeal out of the oven years ago.)

And finally, baked and ready to eat! 

I could have eaten the whole thing.  Didn't.  Have three slices saved in freezer for another day.

Now, the sauce is pretty simple.  I don't make a cooked sauce with a lot of ingredients.  In fact, in the summer, when I can get decent fresh Roma tomatoes, I simply slice the tomatoes and let them drain on paper towels a bit.  Romas aren't that juicy or seedy to begin with.  I also try to use fresh herbs (parsley, chives, rosemary, marjoram, oregano, whatever I have) and will sprinkle those right over the draining tomato slices.  But, the rest of the year I just use a can of diced tomatoes, drained, and pureed a bit, not too much, with a stick blender.  My favorite at the moment are Muir Glenn Organic with basil and garlic.  Just enough seasoning. That's it.  Couldn't be more simple.  Cheese can be anything from shredded mozzarella (I like Cabot, low moisture), or a 6-cheese "blend", or, of course, fresh mozzarella.  Didn't have any last night, so I used the packaged shredded.

Anyway, the indoor baking is a wee complex, but I have both a stone (middle rack) and a steel (top rack) in my lower oven.  I crank it up to 550º and let it go for at least 30-45 minutes before I even think of putting a pie in.  I start on the stone, with parchment, for about 4 minutes, then switch the oven to broil and move the pie without parchment up to the steel, right under the broiler.  As soon as it starts to bubble, back down to the stone, reversing the oven back to bake.  It seems to get it perfect.  Your oven may be different.

The noisy neighbors weren't around last evening, so I was able to enjoy my pizza on the porch, unlike the night before, but that's another tale.  Now to figure out what's wrong with that Ooni.

Keep calm and make some pizza, peeps!
 

Progress Report

Sort of, because the "progress" has been slow and not much.  That's because I haven't heard back from the landscaper about price or timing of digging this thing for me.  Patience is not one of my talents, and I'm not getting any younger, not to mention that it's almost May, so yeah, I've been antsy.  Maybe not the best word:  I sure don't need ANTS when I finally have a garden!

So, what's an old lady to do?  Start digging.  I've been poking away at it and think it's finally starting to resemble a garden!  I'm starting to be able to visualize the size and shape, but am rapidly reaching the end of my capabilities.  I did a number on my back the other day trying to move a wheelbarrow full of sand.  Yikes, is that stuff heavy!  But, here's where things stand:  the old greenhouse floor is GONE (pavers, sand, weed cloth), and I've started digging what has been compacted for years.  Much of the sod is gone where I want to expand, but I really could use a guy for that part.  And removing the old sidewalk stones, long overgrown with grass.  I'll keep poking when the weather is decent and see a trip to a nursery for some compost, soil, etc, in manageable portions.  What I'm not up for is a truckload of something dumped in my driveway!  

Next will be trips to garden centers for some tomato and pepper plants.  That needs to be sooner rather than later the way things are selling out!  A month ago everyone was baking bread....now, you guessed it, everyone is a vegetable gardener.  Seeds have been sold out at certain favorite sources (Parks, Burpee, Harris, etc), so it's gonna be a pretty simple garden this year.  Maybe next year will be more exciting. Meanwhile, since I still don't have any of the masks I ordered, my grocery store visits haven't really started yet, so I got myself on something called Misfits Market.  They send boxes of less-than-beautiful veggies on your schedule (I signed up for the small box, every other week) and my first one arrived yesterday.  I was pretty pleased.

Top layer

Next layer

Bottom layer

Not bad for $22 bucks, delivered to my front door.  Couple of things I might not have chosen if I had gone to the store, but overall a good box.  It should start to get more seasonal, but if this garden turns out okay, I can always cancel

Now for the before and after garden pictures, to date.

Okay, that didn't work well.  Need to work on photo placement in Typepad.  But, you can see in the second photo that it's all dug now, except for a tiny corner in the lower right that is still sod.  I hate lifting sod.  I'm tempted to expand a wee bit of the foreground to make it an even 10' x 10', but then I run into the aforementioned buried sidewalk stones.  So, maybe not.

Now to explore fence possibilities.

 

 

Will close with a question on masks.  If masks make us "safe", why did we have to close down and stay at home?  And if masks don't make us "safe", why the hell do we have to wear them?

Get outside, people!

Ends and Odds, as the Old Man used to say...

Weird couple of weeks here, from the weather to the attitude.  I'm trying to keep occupied and must say it's a WEE bit easier to get through a day.

Weather: typical of this part of the world, we went from snow (seriously, in mid-May) and freezing cold (furnace on) to hot and sunny (furnace off, house fan on) in less than a week.  Back to rather chilly today, but I must say that warm sun felt pretty good yesterday!  Looks like it's cooling down again, but I think that furnace is off till fall.  I'll deal with it.

Bread baking: that has slowed down considerably which really makes me question my sanity for buying 50 frigging pounds of All-Purpose flour when what I'm now baking (only once a week) is a sourdough baguette that uses bread flour!  Not one of my better moves.  It is a great recipe, and I suppose I could try with the regular flour.  The only loss would be the sourdough starter....this recipe uses TWO cups of starter and that has helped me gain control of the little monster. Behold My Pretty!

My scoring/slashing technique is getting better, for sure!  I keep making little changes to this recipe, like the size of the individual baguettes, and pan versus no pan, but it's definitely going to be my go-to baguette recipe.  I have a request from my son to do them as grinder-style rolls for Philly Cheese Steak sandwiches....I can do that!

The garden:  still waiting for the guy (my lawn cutter/landscaper) to either give me an estimate or tell me he can't do it.  Or to get his ass over here to start digging.  Rather than sit and watch the weeds grow, I've gotten out there and transplanted things, dug sod, moved sand, pulled weed block cloth, dug up brick edging and I'm really getting cranky.  (He was also supposed to send a guy or two to do some weeding for me.  Guess how that is working...) Usually he's pretty good about getting back to me, and usually does a good job, but every so often I have a tough time getting a response.  Usually sending him an email saying not to worry, I'll get his competitor elicits an immediate response!

So, this was what the area looked like a while back.  I tried to use the floor of the old greenhouse as a patio, but never used it.  That area is perfect for a small veg garden...full sun till late afternoon, near the water supply, etc.  Red lines show extension.

I started pulling the pavers...not as hard as I thought it would be!

Getting there!

As of yesterday.  I could get the rest cleared out pretty quickly if not for the sand.  HEAVY!  Pretty tough to shovel, and lugging the wheel barrow is tough on my shoulders.  Once the rest of the sand is gone, I can probably pull up the weed cloth.  The sod lifting is not easy for me anymore, and on one side there is a big problem of some flagstones that used to be a path and are now mostly buried under grass.  It's nice and cool today, not too sunny, so I'll see what I can get done.  I'd love to get the pitchfork out there to see what the soil is like!  

Isolation: I have to admit it's really getting to me.  I tried a bit of "breaking loose" the other day, but it wasn't a great experience.  I hopped over the state line to a nursery I like, just for a few herbs and some flats of lettuce, but I don't have a mask.  When it was colder, I was using an old cotton scarf as a bandana/face covering, no problem.  On a warm day?  UGH.  I really couldn't breathe and was getting panicky.  That was a very quick trip!  I also popped into a big pharmacy in hope of finding some Diet Canada Dry ginger ale.  Nope.  And, since I haven't been in a store since early March, I was quite oblivious to all the One Way lines!  Oops.  Fortunately the store was almost empty.  I really didn't want to spend the money, and resent the mask mandate, but did order one, plus some "gaitors".  If they don't work as masking, I can use them to keep my hair out of my face.  (Meanwhile, until they arrive, I found some old silk square scarves in a drawer, and will try those.  Seem to be a bit more comfortable. May venture out to the  grocery store in the very near future.)

Piano: up and down.  An oldish piece is resisting all attempts to get memorized.  One lousy page!  I am tearing my hair out over that.  I'm bored to tears with other old stuff and am ready to put them away for a while.  The other new things are hard and will take a while.  At least I'm back to it and finding it easier to concentrate.  I have to say, there are things I definitely like about the remote lessons and am not in any rush to go back to my teacher's studio when things "open up".

On the agenda: getting rid of all the cardboard from Amazon that has taken over the garage during this nonsense.  While the garbage is easy to take safely to the "dump", the recycling center is a different story.  I might have to pay someone to get rid of the cardboard.  The house needs cleaning.  Clothes need to be switched from winter to summer.  And on it goes.

Be brave, kids.

ETA...sorry for the repetition.  I should always go back a few posts before writing something new.  Apparently, I posted that same sequence of photos already.  Call it Covid Brain.  (It's a thing, alright?!)