Baking bread

I've spent the morning baking bread. Sourdough, to be exact. I have tried over the years to make a good loaf of sourdough, and have had many problems getting the starter to work properly. Then I found the Tassajara Bread book, a bread cook book from a Zen monastery in originally printed in 1970s. It is very big on the sponge method of baking, where you mix some of the flour and the yeast etc together and let it sit to proof, before adding the rest of the flour and other ingredients. I had very good results with this as soon as I tried it. My bread looked as it came from a bakery, for the first time (usually the loaves taste fine, but look, well, amateur).

For this sourdough bread, you make the starter much as you do with other recipes, but when you get to the bread part, you mix the starter with flour and water, then let it sit overnight before mixing in the rest of the flour. I had a starter going in Texas, but something went wrong - maybe it was too hot, or maybe there were just some very funky yeast spores in the air - but the sponge always ended up smelling more like sulfur than sour mash or beer. I used it anyway, and the bread turned out OK, but not really good. So, I threw out that batch of starter when we left. This week I have been growing a new starter, and it smells just right. Last night I started the sponge, and this morning, it didn't smell bad! Wahoo! It was a bit thinner than the sponges I made in Texas, but since they didn't turn out well, that is probably a good sign. The loaf shaped up and rose nicely.

And, you ask, how did it turn out? Really good! It has a lovely color and shape, and it tastes like a nice, light sourdough loaf of bread. Much better than my last couple of attempts in Texas.

Archiving tips

You know, I named this blog "An Archivists Miscellania," but I have yet to actually say anything about archives. So, today I will provide some tips that can help save you and your descendants some time and trouble.

1. Label your stuff: This goes for everything you want to save/identify in the future, including pictures, computer files, and paper files. If your child can't identify those people in that picture, it will be useless, even if one of the scruffy little boys grew up to be someone interesting, or just their grandfather. Computer files easily disappear if they are not well-labeled. It helps if the file name is related to the contents, and if you fill out the "Properties" field (found under the file tab in Word) with some pertinent details. Dates are always good. The same goes for paper records - if your taxes are filed in a clearly labeled file, and you get audited, they will be much less stressful to find than if they are in a box labeled "old stuff." For your own personal records, there is no right or wrong way to label, but the idea is to make everything accessible and usable.
   
2. Don't write on the photos when you identify the people in them. This ruins the picture for future generations, and will contribute to its general deterioration. There is no such thing as an archivally safe writing implement. Instead, you can photocopy the picture and write on that, or use a slip of paper that you can keep with the picture.
3. Don't glue photos into an album. Don't use double-sided tape. Don't use those "magnetic" photo albums. Do I really need to explain why?
4. If you intend to become a famous writer someday, and are producing lots of drafts and unpublished manuscripts, for the sanity of your archivist - label them! Give us a title, a date range that you were working on the draft, the order of the drafts, something or anything that will help us organize your papers. You don't need to change the way you work i.e. don't alter the original order, but once in a while, sort through the papers and leave some clues.
   
5. Don't store your papers in the bathroom. It has been known to happen. As have the various water-related mishaps that occur in bathrooms. Besides being kind of gross, the water can severely damage your materials and encourage mold and insect damage.
   

There. That should do it for today. Just remember, if you want to save it, label it!

Ahh, baseball

The other day we went to a Rochester Red Wings baseball game. They are the local minor league team, and are much revered in the area. Since the season is almost over, we figured we ought to go now while the weather is good, rather than waiting until April or May, and possibly get snowed out! It was a nice night - balmy and clear, with a full moon (too early for the eclipse though), and the stadium appeared to be sold out. And, the home team won, which is always a plus (unless of course you are actively rooting for the visiting team, as we usually were at hockey and baseball games in Texas).

We started off the evening with a flowering onion...I really wanted one, and made up my mind that I was going to get one. As usually happens with such things, it was better as an idea than a part of a meal. I would have prefered ordinary onion rings. Oh well, you have to have some junk food at a baseball game! For MA and Liz, yes, I did also have a Zweigle's White Hot, and it was good. Now we just have to get some and cook them ourselves...

The great thing about minor league sports is how close you can get to the game. We got almost the best seats in the house (A little to the left would have been a bit better for seeing around the batter and ump, but I'm not quibbling). The guys in front of us were scorekeepers for the visiting team - the Pawtucket Red Sox. Otherwise, front row.