Text 16847, 121 rader
Skriven 2011-10-22 02:59:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av NANCY BACKUS
Ärende: difficult 71
====================
 ML> herding 45 self-important tenured academics through the
 ML> elements of the Oxford style before the advertised 2011
 ML> release date turns into a pumpkin.
 NB> That's worse than herding cats!!   Good luck to her, and my
 NB> sympathies!  

She was still tearing her hair out last I checked.

 NB> We used to have Star Markets here, but they may not at all be related
 NB> to your lot...  The ones here got bought out by (I think, it's been a
 NB> while now) Loblaws and then turned into Apples and then all closed... 

Different Star, I believe. Funnily, Giant Food (mostly Maryland,
Virginia, DC) and Giant Food Stores (Pennsylvania and West
Virginia but also some in Maryland and some in real Virginia)
were for the longest time completely separate and often confused;
now, the Royal Aholds have scooped them both up and sort of
semi-combined them, so that they are kind of like America West
and US Air or D'Angelo's and Papa Gino's.

 NB> I heard that a new Wegmans just opened in Boston this weekend... are
 NB> you in town to go check it out...?

Hard to do.

1. It was lines to get in, lines to get out.
2. It was 25 miles as the crow flies from the outer edge of
Boston, despite any claim to the proximity, and I don't drive.

==

 ML> One hopes that the antibiotics used in farming don't cause such
 ML> problems or at least that the residual amount in the flesh is
 ML> small enough to be neglected. 
 NB> There is some thought, though, that giving animals the antibiotics is
 NB> contributing to the growing resistance the bacteria have to the meds.

I'm sure that's so. The more that critters are exposed to
nonlethal doses of the drugs, the stronger they'll get.
It's like desensitizing or immunizing the bacteria!

 NB> I know quite a few people that have troubles with the sulfa drugs...
 NB> also with the 'cillins.... 

Yep. They did more good than harm, worldwide over time, no
doubt, and I'm thankful I don't have much problem with them,
as this means I can do adventurous and/or stupid things with
relative impunity. But lots of people don't have this advantage.

 GJ> What a convoluted mind you have!  That train of reasoning based on
 GJ> Galileo's supposed muttered comment would never have occurred to me.
 ML> It seemed reasonably straightforward to me; but then some
 NB> Hmmm... seemed so to me, too... wonder what that says about me... [g]?

No point speculating!

 ML> it's often hard to tell: as my brother points out to me,
 ML> perhaps as a way of justifying his own thinking, a genius
 ML> finds patterns when nobody else can find them; a psychotic
 ML> finds patterns when there are no patterns.
 NB> And is he considering himself the former or the latter...?  (I'm
 NB> almost expecting the answer to be "yes"... [g])  

He's an odd mix - wants to have the cachet of being madder
than the rest, but if he's told he's crazy, he gets upset, too.
The results of his tests, such as he has vouchsafed to me and
such as I understand, is that he's nuts but also a drama queen,
something that everyone here probably has figured out.

 NB> Now if I had the means, I suppose I'd be adding a recipe for something
 NB> like Insanely Brilliant whatever...  ;)

I looked on the Web for insanely brilliant recipes and found
most things pointing to a no-knead bread from the New York
Times:

No-Knead Bread
Cat: insane, brilliant, easy
Yield: One loaf - 1 1/2 lb
Time - About 90 min plus 14 to 20 hr rising

3 c all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
1/4 ts instant yeast
1 1/4 ts salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed

In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 c water,
and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover
bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hr, preferably
about 18 hr, at warm room temperature, about 70F.

Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly
flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a
little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice.
Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 min.

Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work
surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough
into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth)
with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on
towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with
another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hr. When it is
ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not
readily spring back when poked with a finger.

At least 30 min before dough is ready, heat oven to 450F.
Put a 6- to 8-qt heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex,
or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully
remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough
over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that
is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed;
it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake
30 min, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 min, until loaf
is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

NY Times, November 8, 2006
Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery

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