The Mayor is feeling a bit discouraged this Valentine’s Day, due to some disappointing news from his hand surgeon. We had hoped he’d be able to play at the state tournament, but she put an end to our hopes today. Unfortunately, even though the pins are being removed in two weeks, there hasn’t been enough healing and regrowth of the bone for him to safely play the tournament. Realistically, we’re looking at a return to the ice well into the spring. Naturally, he’s pretty upset as he had hoped to play with his team.
He assuaged his disappointment, however with some sweet treats and a Publix sub for lunch. Originally, he asked to go to Publix for a gift bag. Curiously, he came back with a gift bag, some sodas, a pub sub, and some candy. Do you think he shared any goodies with me and the puppies? Not. He did, however, offer to pick me up some Starbucks this afternoon. Despite the lack of quality sleep lately, I may take him up on the offer since it doesn’t seem to matter anyway. We’re all a bit discouraged around here today. I do have a new treadmill and stand mixer coming today, which is pretty exciting.
If there was a biography about you, what would the title be?
If there was a biography about me it would be: “Hot Mess Express, lessons in perseverance.” I don’t think the title needs much explanation.
Is there anything more aggravating than health insurance? I don’t think so. Today’s aggravation with Cigna comes from them doubling the price of my Synthroid on top of doubling my premiums. Of course, the generic is free, but unlike most drugs, Synthroid and its generic partners are not the same. Unlike other drugs, where generic may be just fine, doctors recommend you stick with what you start with. To change later would be disruptive due to differences between the drugs. This does work both ways, so if you start with the generic, you stay with the generic.
Cigna has been on my shit list for a while now. Firstly, I can no longer use the pharmacy I’ve used for 18 years. I guess they don’t want me using a pharmacy that has a majority stake in Aetna. Moreover, they’re refusing to pay for Hubby’s MRI because apparently, they know more about knee injuries than his orthopedic surgery. I guess they’d rather the surgeon root around in the operating room figuring out the scope of damage instead of the surgeon knowing and planning for it ahead of time. It’s an utter crock of shit.
What I’d like to say to Cigna
It’s aggravating because who has the time to fight with their insurance company? I’m grateful that my hubby’s injury isn’t emergent. At this point, we’d be better off playing roulette at the casino to cover our medicine bills than trusting Cigna to do the right thing by my family. After all, I’m on the hook for both the Mayor’s surgery and the Hubby’s. To be fair, I don’t think an insurer that faithfully covers their clients’ medical bills exists in this galaxy. If you find one, it’s like finding the Holy Grail. Anyway, I guess my overarching point is that Doctors should be dictating standards of care, not insurance companies and large hospital systems.
What were your parents doing at your age?
At my age, my parents were working their butts off, so my brothers and I could go to college. Their hard work and dedication to us allowed each of us to be successful. Now, I’m attempting to do the same thing with my boys. Also, when they were my age I used to make fun of them for going to bed early. Now here I am in bed by 9:00 pm every night. I guess we do eventually become just like our parents, which is just fine in my book because my folks are amazing.
The day after the Super Bowl should be a national holiday. After all, it’s estimated that over 16.1 million Americans will call out sick today with the Super Bowl Flu. Although I only made it past Usher’s performance before heading to bed, I fully support another Monday off work. We work way too much in this country instead we should focus on things that matter like our family, puppies, and baking.
Speaking of baking, I made two more loaves of sourdough French bread. They turned out amazing and are currently residing in my new breadbox. I also made chocolate star sourdough bread, which tasted much better than it looked. Honestly, I’m not sure what happened, but instead of looking like a star, it looks like a mutant octopus. Oh well, it just means that I’ll have to try again. Next time I’ll ask for the intercession of Saint Elizabeth the patron saint of baking. Now if today were a holiday, I could have tried again today. But no, here I am at work like schmuck.
I did make some potato crisps and spinach puffs for the big game, which we enjoyed with some brisket the hubby made. As for commercials, my favorite was the Dunkin’ Donuts ad with JLo, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, and Tom Brady. I did enjoy Usher’s halftime performance, especially the closing number. However, why can’t they get the sound right for the halftime performers? Year after year the audio sucks, which detracts from the whole experience.
If you had the power to change one law, what would it be and why?
If I had the power to change one law, it would be to suspend parking fines for elephants here in Florida. I thought I would pick something silly. Otherwise, there are so many stupid laws on the books that I’d be here all day.
Getting started with sourdough can be quite intimidating. As I shared a few posts ago, I started my sourdough journey at the start of the year. To get started there are a few things you should buy or ensure you have on hand. I did include them in my prior post, but so you don’t have to toggle between the posts. Fortunately, you may have a lot of these items on hand.
What you need:
Sourdough Starter Jar Kit that includes two starter jars, recipes, jar labels, a starter guide, and a marker
Banneton Bread Proofing Basket which comes with: an oval proofing basket, bread-making tool supplies including scoring lame, metal and plastic scrapers, basket liner, and cleaning brush
After you get your goodies, the first step in getting your sourdough started is starting your starter. There are a lot of different recipes for sourdough starters, which can make it overwhelming. For my starters, I used the guides that came with my kits.
Sourdough Starter recipe:
What you’ll need: flour, water, starter jars and kitchen scale
Day 1: add 50g of water to the jar followed by 50g of flour. Mix with a spatula until you obtain a creamy texture. Mark the feeding level before covering it with a towel and placing it in a warm place without drafts. Come up with a fun name for your starters. Mine are Dough Pesci and Marlon Brandough.
Day 2: repeat day one steps (try to feed your starter at the same time daily.)
Day 3: you should start to see some signs of activity now, like bubbles on the surface or an increase in volume. Discard 1/2 of the volume and repeat the steps from day 1.
Day 4-7: discard 1/2 of the volume of the starter before repeating the steps from day 1. You should see an uptick in activity with larger bubbles and a slightly acidic aroma.
Day 7: it may be ready to use. I was able to make bread at 7 days with mine, but the bread got better as the starter aged.
If you bake often, like me, keep feeding it daily. Remember the most important part of feeding is to discard at least 1/2 of the starter. If you don’t discard it, there won’t be enough to keep the starter fed and it will die out. To keep up with my baking needs, I feed it about 100 grams of flour and 90 grams daily and have moved it into bigger jars.
If you’re not going to bake immediately, you can put the starter in the fridge and feed it bi-weekly. I’ve noticed that most sourdough recipes include instructions for dealing with starters coming from the fridge.
I live in South Florida, so there is plenty of moisture in the house. Keep in mind if you live in a drier climate, the amount of flour and water you need may be different. Play around with it a bit to find what works for your kitchen. I chose this starter recipe because it was pretty pedestrian, which I needed. I didn’t want an overcomplicated recipe that I may screw up. In the end, my starters flourished, so I guess I was worried for no reason.
Meet Dough Pesci and Marlon Brandough
A couple of closing notes on the starter:
Discard into the trash or set aside the discard for use in recipes. There are a lot of great recipes out there that use discard.
Be careful if you have pets, as the discard will ill your dogs or cats.
Don’t discard the discard into the sink as it can muck up your plumbing.
What’s your favorite candy?
My favorite candy is chocolate. I love it and could eat it all day every day. If only eating it like that wouldn’t make me both severely obese and diabetic. I am a chocolate snob and have Norwegian milk chocolate Freia delivered monthly. Everyone my kids ask where they are, I’m a bit cagey with them. While I am happy having a piece or two a day, they’ll kill all of the bars in a day or two. I’m also a big fan of Milka and Cote D’Or chocolate bars. Also, I’d never say no to Leonidas or Neuhaus chocolates.
The daily grind is wearing me down today. Maybe it’s the special kind of stupid people I’ve been dealing with today or perhaps a lack of sleep, but I’m tired of the grind. At this point, I’d like a nice vacation to an island or national park far from civilization. Most days the people I talk to at work are amazing. I’ve made at least three new best friends already this week. Today they’re just demanding and rude, they’re not nice people.
I work out during my lunch break, which is always a good way to reset my energy. Today’s workout was an ass-kicking treadmill workout from Sherica on Apple Fitness +. Since I just got back to running Sunday after a few weeks off, the runs have been tough this week. Thankfully, I saw a huge improvement today versus the runs on Sunday and Monday. Hopefully, the upward trend will continue when I run again on Friday.
Now I have both puppies chilling with me as I finish my work day. I’m hoping my afternoon goes better than my morning. To be more specific, I hope I’m down for the day with the token transfers. Fortunately, my dogs are here to help me survive the afternoon. I’ve also been looking through my Utah trip pictures, which always makes me happy. One of the words of the day is staghorn, so I thought I’d probably write about Zion. This was, of course, until I realized that stag horn is a type of fern, not a sheep. Doh!
Bighorn sheep with not a staghorn in sight
Do you need a break? From what?
Yes, from people. I don’t know what is in the water today or if the moon is full, but people have been exceptionally special today. And they’re not special in a good way. They’re special in the worst way.
In today’s edition of First World Problems, I present to you my Roomba I3+ EVO and Braava wet jet combo. I upgraded my Roomba after Lord Vader died an unceremonious death after driving through a large puddle the Piggie had left on the floor. This combo represented a big upgrade from my original duo: the Roomba 960 vacuum and the Braava jet 200 mop. Well, at least it was supposed to be an upgrade.
Lord Vader was not a self-emptying Roomba, but he was reliable. You put him on the charger, he charged and at the appointed time he vacuumed. With my new combo Pinky and The Brain, it’s not so simple—neither of the new combo charges with any reliability. I have to double-check that they’re on the charger properly and charging. Sometimes Pinky goes to the dock and its brushes keep spinning making a mess of the docking station.
Perhaps they should ponder cleaning my floors
Now poor Brain can’t seem to find its way off the docking station. Recently, whenever I’ve gone to start the Brain, it says it’s stuck on a cliff and can’t move. If only Pinky was a little more fearless, he would overcome that cliff. This defeats the purpose of having a vacuum and mop that can run daily simultaneously. I could go on and on about this subject, but I won’t bore you with my First World Problems.
The most important invention in your lifetime is…
Oh boy, this is not an easy one. There have been so many things invented in my life that it is hard to nail down. I think I’d have to go with the internet. For better or worse, it has put information at our fingertips and let us become connected to people around the globe.
I was a busy bee baking up a storm this weekend. Saturday I baked some sourdough French bread, while yesterday I baked sourdough loaves, croutons, and blueberry muffins. Now my house is full of baked delights. At this point, I think it’s probably time to add a bread box to my countertop, so I can properly store the loaves. Currently, gallon-sized zip lock bags store them individually. I did, however, order some special wax paper to wrap them in.
While the bread was proofing, I began reorganizing my pantries. I still have a ton to do, but at least I have consolidated all my baking tools. That’s the nice thing about baking breads, you’re not an attendant to it all day. The inactive time outweighs the active part when it comes to baking bread. We still have way too much clutter in the house that we need to work through. I’m not working next weekend, so the junk drawer and the cabinets above it are on my radar.
Special shoutout to my middle boy Goalielocks for winning another beach volleyball tournament with his partner Izaiah. They’ve done well for themselves this season. I’m excited to see where they take it. Jake also started a new job, which is exciting for us. It’s also much more relaxing than worrying about a kid down range. I have a lot to be grateful for in my life that is for sure.
Describe your most ideal day from beginning to end.
My ideal day would start with my large cup of Dunkin Donuts coffee. I’d sip my coffee while watching the Great British Bake Off with my puppies. After coffee and a little GBBO action, we’d head for a hike or walk. My ideal day takes place out west or in Norway where there are beautiful mountain hikes that I’d love to explore with my family and dogs. After a day of hiking, we’d eat dinner outside on the deck enjoying the crisp mountain air and the clear skies. My ideal day would end with me in bed reading before falling asleep.
For some time now, hiking the Mighty Five has been on my bucket list. It was always going to be a matter of finding the time between the hockey trips, work, and visiting Jake. Last fall the stars aligned, I had taken time off and bought tickets on Delta to visit Jake in Utah already anticipating him going down range again. Fortunately, things changed and he wasn’t going abroad again. Consequently, I decided we should take the time to hike the Mighty Five. After all, it would have been criminal for him to live in Utah for four years and never take advantage of the National Parks in his backyard.
My trip was eight days, which gave us six days to traverse southern Utah and all five of the parks. To plan the trip, I used the Wanderlog app, so I could share our itinerary with our family. This way if something happened on a hike and they didn’t hear from us, they’d have an approximation of where we were going to be that day. This was an important tip I came across when researching the trip. Several trails in these parks must be respected as they can quickly turn dangerous. Also, the parks are in remote areas and cell service isn’t a given.
Looking down the Virgin River at Zion National Park
To fine-tune the itinerary, I leveraged All Trails, the park services app, and several blogs to figure out the best trails to hike. This proved quite helpful although there was some disagreement between the park services and All Trails as to the difficulty of some of the hikes. Before you reach the park, it’s imperative to download the trail maps to your phone. While the trails at Zion and Arches were very well marked, it was not the case at the other parks. Each park has its guide to the park and trails denoting the difficulty of each trail.
Beautiful Bryce Canyon
There is a little extra planning that needs to go into both Arches National Park and Zion. If you want to hike Angels Landing, apply to the lottery. You can no longer hike this trail without a reservation. Similarly, you’ll need to be extra prepared to hike the Narrows depending on water temperature, depth of the virgin river, and weather conditions. As for Arches, you’ll need to reserve a timed entry window for admittance into the park during the high season. Like Angels Landing, the Fiery Furnace hike requires a reservation.
Even with a lot of planning, go into the trip knowing that you may need to be flexible on your expectations. There could be changes in the weather or rock falls that impact your ability to complete certain hikes. Moreover depending on what season you’re in, there could be road closures up in the mountains. The best time to plan a trip is spring and early fall. This will give you decent weather without all the crowds of high season. We were there in early October and the parks were still super busy. And of course, bring plenty of water both with and without bubbles. Jake and I would enjoy cold, crisp sparkling water at the top of every hike.
Hickman Bridge at Capitol Reef National Park
We started our trip at Zion staying in Cedar City, which is about 45-55 minutes north of the park. We have two full days at Zion. However, I would have gladly spent more time there. The next park we hit was Bryce Canyon, which was under two hours from Cedar City. We stayed in Cannoville, Utah, which is a tiny town that doesn’t have a post office or cell service right off Utah’s Scenic Byway 12. This was our base for both Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef Park. Our last stay was in Moab, which is near both Canyonlands and Arches National Park.
Canyonlands National Park
I planned for a full day at Bryce, Capitol Reef, and Canyonlands with 2-2.5 days at both Arches and Zion. Additionally, I planned 2-4 hikes a day or about 10-13 miles. Jake and I both trained for the trip, so we’d be able to tackle the more challenging hikes. I’d recommend that anyone looking to hike these parks do the same. We could have spent several more days at each park. Moreover, we could have spent another month exploring the incredible landscape around these parks. Interspersed between the national parks are several incredible national monuments, national forests, and state parks. There is something incredible to see at every turn.
Delicate Arch at Arches National Park
What I didn’t expect was the incredible drives between the parks. The drive from Cedar City to Bryce Canyon was breathtaking. Scenic Byway 12 was one of the most harrowing, yet beautiful drives I have ever taken. From the steep drop-offs and beautiful views of the canyons in Grand Staircase Escalante to the beautiful high mountain road with free-range cattle and changing foliage, southern Utah is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. The drive alone between Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef is worth the flight to Utah. I’ve written about our time at Zion and will be writing about our experiences at the other parks. If you’re on the fence about a trip to the Mighty Five, get off the fence and do it.
Something on your “to-do list” that never gets done.
The one thing that never gets checked off the “to-do list” is dropping off the donations at Goodwill. They seem to sit and sit in the garage for months or even years on end. I’m not even sure why that’s the case as it’s not difficult to drop the stuff off. Yet here we are with stacks of bags to be donated.
After the holidays, I decided I wanted to keep refining my baking skills by adding sourdough to the mix. Consequently, I loaded up my Amazon cart with all the goodies and accouterments one would need to start their sourdough journey. Amazon has millions of options to help you here which can be overwhelming. I’ll walk you through the items I bought later in the post.
Baking with sourdough is a labor of love and patience. It can take a couple of weeks for your starter to get going and be strong enough to use for bread. Once I received all my goodies from Amazon, I got to work on my starters. I started with two starters in case I messed up one of them. The first one I started, I used a culture I had bought from Amazon. The second one I started, I used the recipe that came with the sourdough starter kit. As for the recipe, it couldn’t have been more simple as it was just flour and water.
Patience is a virtue I don’t have, so you can imagine how anxious I was to get baking. Once the starter had been established for a little over a week, I decided it was time to rumble. Consequently, I found a sourdough recipe in my Better Homes & Garden cookbook that was fairly straightforward. The first loaves turned out a bit stodgy but tasted good. I have now made the recipe three times with each attempt looking and tasty progressively better. They say that sourdough practice makes perfect and honestly my family loves all the fresh bread.
I did try Paul Hollywood’s sourdough baguette recipe a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, I got desperately ill between the first rise and the second rise. My hubby had to finish shaping the loaves and getting them set for their overnight rise. The following morning I did manage to get them in the oven looking semi-respectable.
If you’re looking to get started on a sourdough journey of your own, here are my must-haves:
Sourdough Starter Jar Kit that includes two starter jars, recipes, jar labels, a starter guide, and a marker
Banneton Bread Proofing Basket Kit which comes with: an oval proofing basket, bread-making tool supplies including scoring lame, metal and plastic scrapers, basket liner, and cleaning brush
Airtight container to hold flour for a starter. I created a 50/50 mix of white and wheat flour.
Write about your first computer.
My first computer was a Dell desktop that I custom-built and bought for myself as a college freshman. I was so proud of my purchase. At the time, it was a cutting-edge computer. Now it would be an absolute dinosaur. At the moment, I’m rocking with a MacBook Pro having left my PC days just for my nine to five days.
