Okay, I admit it, when I saw the news, I got a little weepy. I’ve written before about how the Kentucky Derby kills me every time, and there are times, like watching Barbaro in the Preakness that having grown up surrounded by horses and horse shows, in houses cluttered with boots and tack, having spent most of my childhood in barns with people who live and breathe horses — even if you were a kid like me mostly reading a book over in the viewing room waiting to go home, you wind up with an eye for when something has…
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Hi folks — welcome to the new and improved LivingSmall. This should be the last move — we went from Blogspot to Typepad, and now we’ve moved to WordPress, which allows one to use blogging software and host it anyplace. There wasn’t anything wrong with Blogger or Typepad, but they were starting to feel restrictive. I haven’t been happy with my template for a while now, nor was I crazy about the idea of all my work being hosted out there in anonymous-land someplace. WordPress requires a little more work on my part, but it’s open-source, and there’s no Big…
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I had to go to California last week — the Corporate Job was calling. My office in CA is right next to my favorite store in the world, the Ranch 99 Market. The Ranch 99 has many wonderful things including fresh shellfish in little tanks through which fresh water continually flows, a stupendous selection of condiments, and Hong Kong-Style roasted items. The Mighty Hunter wanted a roast duck, so the morning I was leaving I bought one, and with a significant amount of pantomime communicated to the man behind the counter that while I wanted the head and neck cut…
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I’ve been tinkering with this recipe for weeks, and I’ve come up with a recipe I’m thrilled with. It’s easy, rises beautifully, and gives a loaf that’s got a great shattery crust, and a holey chewy crumb. And it’s so easy — five minutes to mix the dough in the morning, stick it on top of the fridge for 24 hours (my house hovers between 60 and 65 degrees, so a longer rise is necessary), then plop it on a board, shape it, and I’ve been letting it do the last rise wrapped in a floured towel and held in…