Doughnuts with Bacon

Turns out you CAN improve anything with bacon.

Bread basket

My bike got a new bread basket. I suppose it could carry other things too, but why would you want to?

Frisch-Gurken

I'm as big of a snob about pickles as I am about bread. I've long since given up on buying them at the local supermarket, but today we found some in a german deli we go to for lunch sometimes. The whole place smells very authentic and has a huge selection of meats and cheeses. It's not vegetarian friendly at all, the only salad being a fleisch-salat which my coworker has ordered before. Somewhere between fleischsalad and frisch-gurken, he now calls pickles fleisch gurken. No need to hit that last link for german speakers.

Building materials

I had an idea this morning. After finding a week old baguette in the kitchen I wondered if I could bake a more rectangular version of it and then intentionally kiln dry it to produce a bread two-by-four. Strength to weight ratio would be excellent. Then I remembered the houses we saw last week in Arizona made from paper pulp bricks. They had a certain springy feel but I don't see why I couldn't bake my own bread bricks which would be even lighter. I'd seal the whole edible deal of course with varnish; we all remember what happened to the gingerbread house; but all in all it seems possible. And I promise I wouldn't use frosting for mortar. How's that for sustainable?

Awareness

The bread shelf at the Italian Bakery was empty, but by now I know how the system works. I asked if she had any in the back, and she said she would go check. She returned with a good half dozen large loaves, not in a basket, but piled in her bare hands with 2 or 3 resting on her bosom. She set them down and dusted the flour off her sweater, then bagged one and rang me up. While I'm more used to wax paper, gloves, hairnets and tongs to provide that barrier between what I eat and who makes it for me, I found myself quite ok with it all. But I noticed that I noticed, and it made me think of small children who are not aware of things we have not taught them yet.

Chinese throwing stars

That's how I ordered it. She just smiled, but then again she always smiles, so it's hard to say if she even noticed my joke. We call her "the smiley one". She used to work for the french lady, who I just found out sold the place. No wonder she hasn't been around. I'm gonna miss her crooked smile. And her razzings. And her buns. Oh, wait, those are still on the menu.

Bread upgrade

This morning's breakfast was in a desperate need for an upgrade. I won't point out the obvious by indicating which toast I bought and which I made, but instead tell you where my bread snobbery comes from; it's my mother. It might be genetic. Once we were out to dinner and when her food arrived she opened up her purse and produced some mamica bread. She must have known the place had crappy bread and planned ahead. I thought it a bit tacky and was slightly embarrassed. I'm 37 now and finally understand. As we get older our tolerance for crap shrinks, and that includes tolerance for crappy bread. Kids, don't judge your parents!

Christoffel bier

While this isn't about bread per se, it's about it's close liquid cousin. This is a temporary post; just on here long enough to be picked up by my friend mrleedy. He keeps a beer review blog and invited me to guest blog for his beerblog.
This beer adheres to the strict Reinheitsgebot according to the ingredients listed on the front label, which is always a good start. The beer itself was a golden straw color and both malt and hops were well balanced. I was afraid it might be too hoppy since it is "dubble gehopft" but not the case. Overall it was a nice beer but nothing special. I bought it primarily for my namesake and this review was just an excuse to get to say "dubble gehopft".
On a slightly unrelated note, last night was the properly televised State of the Union Adress on TV. I watched it while enjoying a recommended Goose Island Winter Ale. It was a very inspirational speech. This might be my new favorite beer. I cant decide if the speech made my beer taste better or if my beer made the speech better, but either way I felt optimistic and encouraged.

Food I like to say (and eat)

This was a sandwich from a new butcher shop that opened recently. It's beef cheeks on a kaiser bun. We've been calling each other "beefcheeks" at work for years now, ever since we discovered it on a mexican taqueria's menu. The first time I ordered it was purely because I wanted to say "beefcheeks". There's a lot of food I order just because it's fun to say. So I've compiled a list of food fun to say; and remember some require more enthusiasm than others:

Beefcheeks
Bokchoi
Ciabatta
Compot
Falafel
Fleischsalad
Machaca
Monkeybread
Schnitzel
Spanakopita
and finally,
Zeppoli!