Let Me Have My Vacation
Jun. 10th, 2021 08:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
taz_39A work-filled weekend for both of us.
More work for Jameson than me.
Thursday is opening night for Encore's production of Head Over Heels, and Jameson is the Music Director.
Every night he comes home with horror stories about the sound and lighting techs that the theatre provides (at like $20 per hour), who are apparently incredibly unhelpful and incompetent. I believe it. The number of times I've been part of a rehearsal which was held up because the sound guys were fiddling with stuff mid-rehearsal, or the lights were in the wrong spot at the wrong time, I absolutely believe it. Rehearsals are frequently (though not always) more about wrangling tech than working on the show itself.
That aside, it sounds like rehearsals have been going well. From what I've seen online the costumes are VERY quality, and the choreography is pretty complex. I'm really, really excited to see the show on Saturday! And it goes without saying, I'm very proud of Jameson for rocking such an important role and bringing everyone together to put on Encore's first major production since the pandemic began. I hope they sell loads of tickets. I hope everyone enjoys the show, including the performers.
Meanwhile, though, Jameson has run-throughs all week so I'll barely see him.
On Wednesday I got up earlier than I would like in order to begin Bread-Palooza.
Jameson's dad is coming to visit for a few days and requested ciabatta bread for his sandwiches.
I prepared the dough about two days ago, it was having a nice cold ferment in the fridge.
I pulled it out and started it on a gentle pattern of four folds every 30 minutes, four times.
This folding, as opposed to kneading, helps to preserve the air bubbles that give ciabatta an open crumb structure.
In between folds, I assembled the ingredients for the brioche cinnamon rolls.
The "master recipe" is the same as the brioche loaf, the dough just gets treated a little differently.
Here it is after kneading and before being set aside to rise for two hours. You can see how it's a little shiny due to all the butter crammed into the dough structure.
Here's the brioche dough after the rise. Lookin' good.
When the rise was done into the fridge it went so I could focus on the ciabatta.
Handling that dough was very difficult, it was VERY sticky and it seemed like the minute I laid down flour to keep it from sticking to the counter, it soaked it in. In retrospect I should have used a little olive oil instead. Next time.
Shaping was insanely difficult, the instructions were to stretch the dough while preserving the big air bubbles which was near impossible because the dough kept sticking to the counter. I finally wrestled it into a rough oval and cut it into six pieces, which I then tried to manipulate into mini rectangles, which pretty much didn't work. All my futzing with the dough probably popped a lot of air bubbles, but hey, it was my first time. When I had "ok" shapes I let the dough rest a final time, then threw it in the hot oven for 20 minutes or so.
It came out looking paler than I'd like, but I'm told ciabatta is supposed to be pale due to the low sugar content of the dough. Still, next time I'll be using a little olive oil to help develop both the shape and final look.
That aside, they actually turned out pretty good for a first try. Although not as open as you'd expect a ciabatta to be, there are still large air pockets in there, and the crust is crispy-chewy while the interior is soft. Some of the large air bubbles even have a sort of shiny appearance, which I know is a Good Thing although I don't know why, something about gluten development blah blah blah. Anyway, I hope Jameson's dad likes them. And if not, there's a Publix right down the street.
I cleaned up and had lunch, potluck meatballs with corn on the cob, cole slaw, and watermelon. Wish Jameson could have enjoyed it with me, but he'll have to be satisfied with leftovers.
After lunch I continued Bread-Palooza and pulled the brioche dough out of the fridge.
I rolled it out into a rough rectangle and spread a mixture of brown sugar, cinnamon, and butter on top with a spatula.
Then I rolled it up "like a yoga mat" (big assumption by the author there, that someone baking big sugary calorie-laden dough balls is also going to be rolling up yoga mats regularly) and sliced it into six rounds. This was a half-recipe, there are only three of us after all. A lot of people swear by slicing cinnamon rolls using dental floss, and while it sounds good in theory personally I've never had luck with either floss or dough cutter. My go-to for this type of slicing is the serrated bread knife, it retains the lovely spiral look of the rolls.
I placed the rolls in a pan lined with foil and more of the cinnamon filling, then covered them to proof for "1 and a half to 2 hours".
The house was rather warm, it being 96 degrees outside and 80 degrees inside from baking the ciabatta, so the rolls were ready to go by just slightly under an hour and a half. Look how fluffy they got!
Into the oven, where they started browning too quickly so I tented them with foil and turned the temp down 20 or so degrees.
They came out looking pretty good! I'm convinced you really can't mess up cinnamon rolls.
They did kinda expand sideways/lopsided because the pan was a little big for them, but I don't really care. They aren't for a photoshoot. Next time I can build them a little foil "wall" or something to help with that issue.
The extra filling spread on the bottom of the pan caramelized, and I think that'll probably be my favorite part of this operation.
The recipe does not call for icing, but I'm not some monster who DOESN'T make cream cheese icing to go with my cinnamon rolls.
I made some, and I'll look forward to reheating and eating one of these tomorrow for breakfast.
The original plan was to make the ciabatta and cinnamon rolls on separate days, but since there ended up being time for both before steno class I figured why not do both and have done.
I cleaned up the kitchen, put the trash out, cleaned both bathrooms, ate dinner, and went into steno class.
Class was ok, but I am still feeling dejected because I'm not progressing well.
After class I enjoyed planning out my drive to PA.
I'm one of those people who LOVES to plan road trips. I love to know where I'm gonna stop for gas, where I'll eat, how long I'm gonna drive before taking a break, etc. Part of the reason I love to plan this out is that I HATE getting stuck in the middle of nowhere with some sh*tty Shell gas station as my only option for a bathroom or a snack. When you've traveled the country by car and train as much as I have, you know what matters, and a clean safe bathroom really, really matters. Being able to find something healthy to eat matters. Being able to take breaks in safe locations matters. So I love to plan road trips, and make the trip itself a luxury rather than a chore.
In that vein of thought, my plan is to leave straight from work on Monday and drive for roughly four hours until I reach Savannah GA between 8-9pm. I'll pick a hotel near the airport most likely, and since an extended visit with my Aunt has been cancelled I'll enjoy waking up at a NORMAL time like 9am. There are Tanger Outlets nearby but tbh, I'm way more interested in grabbing a scone and coffee from a nearby British cafe and then hitting the Goodwill down the street if there's time. Then I'll continue driving, attempting to arrive in NC around dinnertime. I'll have dinner with my Aunt and Uncle in which we'll complain about not having enough time for a real visit, then drive a few more hours to a hotel TBD in Virginia. The next day I'll wake up at a NORMAL time again (gosh, it just tickles me pink that I'll get to sleep past 5:30am multiple nights in a row!) and finish the trip to PA in roughly 5-6 hours depending on traffic.
Aah! I'm so excited! And that's just the drive!
I'll get to sleep! Indulge in hotels! See my Aunt! And spend a whole week with family!
This is something I used to do anually without a thought. How telling is it that I'm over the moon about such a mundane trip?
Jameson came home around midnight, and we went to bed. He probably didn't sleep much with opening night being the next day and all. When I have a concert coming up I don't sleep well, either.
Thursday, we both got up at 9 and I reheated cinnamon rolls for us, slathering them in cream cheese icing.
No pictures because I nommed it hard. It was so good. Diabetus! But worth it.
If I had one complaint, I feel that they were a little dry. Next time I'm going to bake them at a lower temperature and see if that helps.
Then I putzed around a little, reluctant to finish all the prep for Jameson's dad's visit and for my work week. But it's gotta be done.
I did my meal prep, then went to the grocery for a few things (ham and coffee for Jameson's dad, travel shampoo and vitamin D for me) and ate lunch when I got back. After lunch was moving all of my stuff out of the guest bathroom and bedroom (it's not that much stuff) and stocking both with towels, blankets, toilet paper, anything a guest might need that I could think of.
When that was done I took myself out into the sweltering Florida midday heat to prune the tall grasses dangling over our sidewalk, so Jameson's dad doesn't have to machete his way to the front door. Then of course I weeded a bit and swept the walk.
In the garden it's depressing at the moment, hence why I've had fewer updates. It's been an unusually hot dry summer so far, and most plants are not taking it very well. No peppers, no tomatoes, no lemons, no limes.
The meyer lemon is at least trying. I hope it'll be able to hold onto the fruit long enough for it to actually grow this time.
Most saddening of all is my poor passion vine. Almost a year ago I noticed cracks in the largest vines, and tried to ask for advice about this in my facebook groups. Was it caused by the HOA landscapers and their weed-whackers? Was it a nutrient it was lacking? A disease? I got loads of apathetic commentary and no advice, as usual. From my own research, I figured it could be a specific disease which causes that sort of issue, and if that were the case there'd be nothing I could do about it. so I did nothing. And now half the plant has died, and all of the main vines have large cracks, and I don't think the plant is going to survive.
The good news is, two years ago I had planted some passion vine seeds which ended up germinating. I gave away most of the seedlings, but did keep one for myself. It's doing well, and hopefully won't catch whatever the other vine had. No idea if it would put out fruit, it'll be at least another year before we can find that out.
Here are the last two fruits from my dying passion vine. They are heavy and so purple they are almost black.
The only other "happy" plants are still the basil, which is a towering monstrosity and more than I'll ever use, and the carnivorous plants, which thrive in lousy conditions.
Look how cheerful.
With everything pretty much ready for Jameson's dad's visit, I gave myself a little down time.
Typed this up, watched some anime, did some online window shopping.
A little more than window shopping because for ages I've been wanting a pair of BetaBrand pants, and they finally went on sale for 30% off plus I had a 30% off coupon! Which brought them down from some ungodly price ($75-$100) to something still-expensive but at least within reason ($30-$40). Yisss.
Then it was what was supposed to be two hours of steno practice, which turned into an hour because my computer froze partway through my homework and I had to start over from scratch. ARGH! I'm seriously considering a new laptop exclusively for steno, something with a solid state drive (SSD). My time is already crunched without this BS. At least I got my homework done, and emailed my teacher to let her know of potential upcoming absences due to traveling to visit family. I know for sure that I'll miss one class, the others I should be able to make.
It was getting dark out and our rain chances had gone from 70% to 30%, so I went outside to water everyone, emptied the dishwasher, and spent the rest of the night trying to relax and trying to visualize the coming week in my head.
Jameson's dad arrives tonight around midnight (his flight got delayed so it's actually 2am. Can't wait to only get three hours of sleep tonight, yaaaaay).
On Friday my car needs to be looked at before this long road trip, I'm bringing my steno machine so I can practice, I don't care how many weird looks I get.
Saturday Jameson's dad and I get to go see Head Over Heels! Looking forward to that!
Sunday, might actually be a "normal" day in which I can squeeze in a little more steno and finish packing.
And Monday, I'll go to work and start driving to PA immediately after clocking out.
Wish me luck y'all. I've got a nephew to see.
More work for Jameson than me.
Thursday is opening night for Encore's production of Head Over Heels, and Jameson is the Music Director.
Every night he comes home with horror stories about the sound and lighting techs that the theatre provides (at like $20 per hour), who are apparently incredibly unhelpful and incompetent. I believe it. The number of times I've been part of a rehearsal which was held up because the sound guys were fiddling with stuff mid-rehearsal, or the lights were in the wrong spot at the wrong time, I absolutely believe it. Rehearsals are frequently (though not always) more about wrangling tech than working on the show itself.
That aside, it sounds like rehearsals have been going well. From what I've seen online the costumes are VERY quality, and the choreography is pretty complex. I'm really, really excited to see the show on Saturday! And it goes without saying, I'm very proud of Jameson for rocking such an important role and bringing everyone together to put on Encore's first major production since the pandemic began. I hope they sell loads of tickets. I hope everyone enjoys the show, including the performers.
Meanwhile, though, Jameson has run-throughs all week so I'll barely see him.
On Wednesday I got up earlier than I would like in order to begin Bread-Palooza.
Jameson's dad is coming to visit for a few days and requested ciabatta bread for his sandwiches.
I prepared the dough about two days ago, it was having a nice cold ferment in the fridge.
I pulled it out and started it on a gentle pattern of four folds every 30 minutes, four times.
This folding, as opposed to kneading, helps to preserve the air bubbles that give ciabatta an open crumb structure.
In between folds, I assembled the ingredients for the brioche cinnamon rolls.
The "master recipe" is the same as the brioche loaf, the dough just gets treated a little differently.
Here it is after kneading and before being set aside to rise for two hours. You can see how it's a little shiny due to all the butter crammed into the dough structure.
Here's the brioche dough after the rise. Lookin' good.
When the rise was done into the fridge it went so I could focus on the ciabatta.
Handling that dough was very difficult, it was VERY sticky and it seemed like the minute I laid down flour to keep it from sticking to the counter, it soaked it in. In retrospect I should have used a little olive oil instead. Next time.
Shaping was insanely difficult, the instructions were to stretch the dough while preserving the big air bubbles which was near impossible because the dough kept sticking to the counter. I finally wrestled it into a rough oval and cut it into six pieces, which I then tried to manipulate into mini rectangles, which pretty much didn't work. All my futzing with the dough probably popped a lot of air bubbles, but hey, it was my first time. When I had "ok" shapes I let the dough rest a final time, then threw it in the hot oven for 20 minutes or so.
It came out looking paler than I'd like, but I'm told ciabatta is supposed to be pale due to the low sugar content of the dough. Still, next time I'll be using a little olive oil to help develop both the shape and final look.
That aside, they actually turned out pretty good for a first try. Although not as open as you'd expect a ciabatta to be, there are still large air pockets in there, and the crust is crispy-chewy while the interior is soft. Some of the large air bubbles even have a sort of shiny appearance, which I know is a Good Thing although I don't know why, something about gluten development blah blah blah. Anyway, I hope Jameson's dad likes them. And if not, there's a Publix right down the street.
I cleaned up and had lunch, potluck meatballs with corn on the cob, cole slaw, and watermelon. Wish Jameson could have enjoyed it with me, but he'll have to be satisfied with leftovers.
After lunch I continued Bread-Palooza and pulled the brioche dough out of the fridge.
I rolled it out into a rough rectangle and spread a mixture of brown sugar, cinnamon, and butter on top with a spatula.
Then I rolled it up "like a yoga mat" (big assumption by the author there, that someone baking big sugary calorie-laden dough balls is also going to be rolling up yoga mats regularly) and sliced it into six rounds. This was a half-recipe, there are only three of us after all. A lot of people swear by slicing cinnamon rolls using dental floss, and while it sounds good in theory personally I've never had luck with either floss or dough cutter. My go-to for this type of slicing is the serrated bread knife, it retains the lovely spiral look of the rolls.
I placed the rolls in a pan lined with foil and more of the cinnamon filling, then covered them to proof for "1 and a half to 2 hours".
The house was rather warm, it being 96 degrees outside and 80 degrees inside from baking the ciabatta, so the rolls were ready to go by just slightly under an hour and a half. Look how fluffy they got!
Into the oven, where they started browning too quickly so I tented them with foil and turned the temp down 20 or so degrees.
They came out looking pretty good! I'm convinced you really can't mess up cinnamon rolls.
They did kinda expand sideways/lopsided because the pan was a little big for them, but I don't really care. They aren't for a photoshoot. Next time I can build them a little foil "wall" or something to help with that issue.
The extra filling spread on the bottom of the pan caramelized, and I think that'll probably be my favorite part of this operation.
The recipe does not call for icing, but I'm not some monster who DOESN'T make cream cheese icing to go with my cinnamon rolls.
I made some, and I'll look forward to reheating and eating one of these tomorrow for breakfast.
The original plan was to make the ciabatta and cinnamon rolls on separate days, but since there ended up being time for both before steno class I figured why not do both and have done.
I cleaned up the kitchen, put the trash out, cleaned both bathrooms, ate dinner, and went into steno class.
Class was ok, but I am still feeling dejected because I'm not progressing well.
After class I enjoyed planning out my drive to PA.
I'm one of those people who LOVES to plan road trips. I love to know where I'm gonna stop for gas, where I'll eat, how long I'm gonna drive before taking a break, etc. Part of the reason I love to plan this out is that I HATE getting stuck in the middle of nowhere with some sh*tty Shell gas station as my only option for a bathroom or a snack. When you've traveled the country by car and train as much as I have, you know what matters, and a clean safe bathroom really, really matters. Being able to find something healthy to eat matters. Being able to take breaks in safe locations matters. So I love to plan road trips, and make the trip itself a luxury rather than a chore.
In that vein of thought, my plan is to leave straight from work on Monday and drive for roughly four hours until I reach Savannah GA between 8-9pm. I'll pick a hotel near the airport most likely, and since an extended visit with my Aunt has been cancelled I'll enjoy waking up at a NORMAL time like 9am. There are Tanger Outlets nearby but tbh, I'm way more interested in grabbing a scone and coffee from a nearby British cafe and then hitting the Goodwill down the street if there's time. Then I'll continue driving, attempting to arrive in NC around dinnertime. I'll have dinner with my Aunt and Uncle in which we'll complain about not having enough time for a real visit, then drive a few more hours to a hotel TBD in Virginia. The next day I'll wake up at a NORMAL time again (gosh, it just tickles me pink that I'll get to sleep past 5:30am multiple nights in a row!) and finish the trip to PA in roughly 5-6 hours depending on traffic.
Aah! I'm so excited! And that's just the drive!
I'll get to sleep! Indulge in hotels! See my Aunt! And spend a whole week with family!
This is something I used to do anually without a thought. How telling is it that I'm over the moon about such a mundane trip?
Jameson came home around midnight, and we went to bed. He probably didn't sleep much with opening night being the next day and all. When I have a concert coming up I don't sleep well, either.
Thursday, we both got up at 9 and I reheated cinnamon rolls for us, slathering them in cream cheese icing.
No pictures because I nommed it hard. It was so good. Diabetus! But worth it.
If I had one complaint, I feel that they were a little dry. Next time I'm going to bake them at a lower temperature and see if that helps.
Then I putzed around a little, reluctant to finish all the prep for Jameson's dad's visit and for my work week. But it's gotta be done.
I did my meal prep, then went to the grocery for a few things (ham and coffee for Jameson's dad, travel shampoo and vitamin D for me) and ate lunch when I got back. After lunch was moving all of my stuff out of the guest bathroom and bedroom (it's not that much stuff) and stocking both with towels, blankets, toilet paper, anything a guest might need that I could think of.
When that was done I took myself out into the sweltering Florida midday heat to prune the tall grasses dangling over our sidewalk, so Jameson's dad doesn't have to machete his way to the front door. Then of course I weeded a bit and swept the walk.
In the garden it's depressing at the moment, hence why I've had fewer updates. It's been an unusually hot dry summer so far, and most plants are not taking it very well. No peppers, no tomatoes, no lemons, no limes.
The meyer lemon is at least trying. I hope it'll be able to hold onto the fruit long enough for it to actually grow this time.
Most saddening of all is my poor passion vine. Almost a year ago I noticed cracks in the largest vines, and tried to ask for advice about this in my facebook groups. Was it caused by the HOA landscapers and their weed-whackers? Was it a nutrient it was lacking? A disease? I got loads of apathetic commentary and no advice, as usual. From my own research, I figured it could be a specific disease which causes that sort of issue, and if that were the case there'd be nothing I could do about it. so I did nothing. And now half the plant has died, and all of the main vines have large cracks, and I don't think the plant is going to survive.
The good news is, two years ago I had planted some passion vine seeds which ended up germinating. I gave away most of the seedlings, but did keep one for myself. It's doing well, and hopefully won't catch whatever the other vine had. No idea if it would put out fruit, it'll be at least another year before we can find that out.
Here are the last two fruits from my dying passion vine. They are heavy and so purple they are almost black.
The only other "happy" plants are still the basil, which is a towering monstrosity and more than I'll ever use, and the carnivorous plants, which thrive in lousy conditions.
Look how cheerful.
With everything pretty much ready for Jameson's dad's visit, I gave myself a little down time.
Typed this up, watched some anime, did some online window shopping.
A little more than window shopping because for ages I've been wanting a pair of BetaBrand pants, and they finally went on sale for 30% off plus I had a 30% off coupon! Which brought them down from some ungodly price ($75-$100) to something still-expensive but at least within reason ($30-$40). Yisss.
Then it was what was supposed to be two hours of steno practice, which turned into an hour because my computer froze partway through my homework and I had to start over from scratch. ARGH! I'm seriously considering a new laptop exclusively for steno, something with a solid state drive (SSD). My time is already crunched without this BS. At least I got my homework done, and emailed my teacher to let her know of potential upcoming absences due to traveling to visit family. I know for sure that I'll miss one class, the others I should be able to make.
It was getting dark out and our rain chances had gone from 70% to 30%, so I went outside to water everyone, emptied the dishwasher, and spent the rest of the night trying to relax and trying to visualize the coming week in my head.
Jameson's dad arrives tonight around midnight (his flight got delayed so it's actually 2am. Can't wait to only get three hours of sleep tonight, yaaaaay).
On Friday my car needs to be looked at before this long road trip, I'm bringing my steno machine so I can practice, I don't care how many weird looks I get.
Saturday Jameson's dad and I get to go see Head Over Heels! Looking forward to that!
Sunday, might actually be a "normal" day in which I can squeeze in a little more steno and finish packing.
And Monday, I'll go to work and start driving to PA immediately after clocking out.
Wish me luck y'all. I've got a nephew to see.
