Abby Normal

No pictures but most of the chili is gone. Waffles were a hit. Steve came through with grilled cheese and tomato soup this afternoon. Rocking this cabin.

Does anyone have any idea how to do this on a Mac?

A stove top with an oval dutch oven sautéing onions next to a cutting board with chopped jalapeños and a knife and various ingredients and stuff on a counter

meat in a dutch oven browning but there's also a spicy onion mixture

meat with tomatoes added. after some beans and some simmering this might actually be some chili

Today I made chili with 6 (SIX!) lbs of meat cut with impossible burger, and began packing up the car. 🍽️

Berries and tomatoes in plastic bins on a counter

A bowl of dirty water

Cleaned berries and grapes on a white towel

Cooked waffles laid out on racks

8yo is on winter break so we’re getting a cabin with two other families. Each fam is taking a third of the prep cooking to bring up so we can just relax but eat home cooked food. Tonight I’m batch making waffles and cleaning fruit and veggies (6kids eat a lot of berries)🍽️

Ken burns American Revolution. I like to watch this old house (my wife calls it competency porn). Lots of good cooking which may be less interesting to you.

A ★★ review of Honey Don't! (2025) I really wanted to like this movie and I liked a lot of individual parts but I did not care for this movie The dialogue was so arch it moved into uncanny valley territory and while I loved Qualley and...

Honey, Don’t!

boxd.it/d7nsiv

Had to buy this. Pile of books I swear I *will* one day read on my nightstand grows

A brown dog with white chest and socks on his back under a cover asleep in between two people

Sometimes a dog’s gotta sleep

Love having a conversation with a client and their HR about why LinkedIn's infusion of AI has made the search unusable, and that's in part why it's taking so long for me to do my job.

Use this wire cutter recommended screwdriver every week www.amazon.com/dp/B0FDMRFH8...

@edzitron.com first time, long time, etc. A recruiter that just realized that as bad as LinkedIn was for years, at least I could conduct search. Tried today and because of AI, they no longer let you define a repeatable search, and I can't know how many candidates have been returned. It's useless.

I'm a specialized recruiter - I went to LinkedIn for first time in a long time to search only to find they want me to us AI as it's "more helpful" but they no longer provide me with information that I guess isn't helpful like "how many candidates are we showing you and how many have you seen?"

how did it go today?

Flour Water Salt Yeast kensartisan.com/flour-water-... is great because it helped me LEARN and taught me a completely different, essentially no knead approach using preferments. Also it's all done by baker's percentage, which is very helpful.

I mucked around for years with a lot of different recipes and techniques. IMO Kingarthurbaking.com is one of the best in no small part because you a call/chat with them and they'll answer questions and help you tweak recipes. Ken Forkish's Flour Water Salt Yeast has taught me so much.

Preferments and levians (sourdoughs) have wider proofing windows and also tend to take longer to mold and stale.

Possibly? I’m not much farther along than you in the process so I don’t want to get too ahead of my skis.

Use the finger dent test. You probably over proofed with stodgy bread. Yeasted breads you have a smaller window when it’s warmer, can be an hour or less. If you press with floured finger and it bounces right back it’s not ready. Bounces slowly it’s ready. Doesn’t bounce it’s over done but yummy.

I’m sure it doesn’t hurt for it to be damp esp if you’re in a dry climate. But for overnight proofs I’ve always used plastic wrap in fridge because it’s a better seal (I assume?). In Forkish’s books he calls for room temperature overnights in plastic tub. Covering prevents a skin on the dough.

You do want to cover it for proofing. Depending on the dough I use plastic wrap, the top of a tub, or a cloth liner and basket

A ★★★½ review of 28 Years Later (2025) This review may contain spoilers. Visit the page to bypass this warning and read the review.

boxd.it/d1vidR

Gladys introduced herself as if women’s did that every day.

And maybe they did

There’s so much shit in the world. Train Dreams really helps.

Not sure there are many movies I’ve watched more than this one, but it’s one of many

static1.colliderimages.com/wordpress/wp...

The coldest I’ve ever been while cooking and I grew up in the northeast. Beer literally froze while I was grilling. But it worked out. 🍽️

Sometimes you have to eat 🍽️

Haven't seen The Godfather in years--long enough ago that I bought the Michael Corleone cut when it was released, then replaced the trilogy with 4k 50th anniversary set that included the Michael Corleone cut, and I'm just unwrapping it tonight because Mrs. G said she was in the mood.

I picked five at random, and donated 50 each. Doesn't feel like much, but it'll be more if you chip in too.