Jobby Job Jobs
Jun. 27th, 2022 12:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
taz_39Monday, from what I recall, was pretty chill (I'm writing several days after which I don't normally do).
I used my new Tootsie schedule to update my Google map and foodie spreadsheet. That was fun!
Then I had to go back in Megan's Foodie Finds to fill in some of the cities that have been added.
Even though some cities are just one- or two-day stays, I still document the nearest grocery and pharmacy and at least one restaurant in case there's time.
I then went back through to look at the whole list kind of at a distance, to make sure I'm not including too much "New American" or like three burger places in a row or anything like that (I DID find a set of days where I had three burger places in a row! So I took one out in favor of a speakeasy with good food.
In the afternoon I freaked out about the food aspect of my new job...it's not clear that we get lunch breaks.
So I ran to Publix for some nonperishables. Jerky, edamame, meal bars. I have chicken pouches and fruit cups, but it's not clear whether I'll have time for things involving silverware. I nervously packed a bag with the food and another with paperwork, little portions of my 42-page instruction manual that I hoped would be helpful.
Then Jameson watched IT while I watched Stranger Things.
------------------------------------------
I slept super poorly and was up at 5:30, because I have to be there an hour earlier than the first case. Sigh.
I ate the Osmanthus-flavored oatmeal from Yishi, and it was quite good (though still too sweet).
It was a floral, slightly bitter flavor.
Drove aaaaaallllll the way out to northeast Orlando. Usually a 40-50 minute drive, which I had planned for, but on the way a construction vehicle pulled out onto the highway and slowed us all to a crawl for at least a mile. I had to text my trainer to tell her I'd be late (I wasn't THAT late and she arrived at the same time as me so it was fine).
I don't know what I'm allowed to share or not, but to describe the workspace at least, it was a lot like any office building only the rooms were all deposition rooms. Each one had a mini-courtroom inside, with a judge bench and a big SSA logo on the wall. But there were no chairs for an audience or witnesses or whatever; just some conference tables, computers, TVs, and audio equipment.
My job was basically to facilitate a virtual deposition, while simultaneously recording the proceedings.
I watched my trainer do this and took lots and lots of notes.
As predicted, the hardest part of the day was not getting lunch and having to choke down food whenever possible.
As for the job tasks themselves, I think over time I will be able to do them. It's just remembering each task, the order of them, the completeness level that needs to be achieved.
It was a tough first day as far as sheer information overload. But, I've had so many many jobs in my life. This is just another one.
I got home around dinner time, and we ordered out.
--------------------------------------------------
I woke with a start at 10:30. That's very late for me! I must have needed the sleep.
A normal slow day of blogging, going for a walk with Jameson, running to Ross for a legal pad and a binder.
I got a message from my data entry boss just checking in; I told her I'm fine and she basically said "Bless you, child!". I think other workers are perhaps complaining about the lack of work. We weren't promised consistent hours, folks. Welcome to the gig economy.
Then I got a much more stress-filled email from my discount court reporting trainer.
Apparently I didn't quite upload some things correctly, and didn't fill out things on the website correctly.
Right now I'm in training so it doesn't "matter", but it certainly will matter if I want to get PAID.
I was glad that they called to correct me, but annoyed that I had to focus on work things on my day off.
Welp, if you stop making mistakes, Megan, that won't happen.
Another night of ordered dinner, and packing quick-snacks, and watching Stranger Things while Jameson played Fall Guys with his friends.
----------------------------------------------------
Up at 5:30am on Thursday. Breakfast and a sleepy drive across town to the SSA building.
Today I got to handle cases for the first time.
I was nervous, but wanted to do it because the sooner ya do the thing the sooner you can stop being apprehensive imo.
And ya know what, I did well. Completely due to having worked at CapTel, and partly due to studying court reporting.
At CapTel I had to listen to multiple speakers, speakers with accents, fast talkers, mumblers, poor audio, and loads of background noise, all day long. I had to learn to distinguish voices and listen very hard to understand what was said and accurately revoice it.
In this job I also have to listen very carefully to the testimony, but everyone on the calls is in an isolated room so there is minimal background noise. And everyone takes turns speaking too. So compared to transcribing CapTel calls, this seems easy even though every call has multiple speakers. The judge and vocational experts will even repeat themselves for clarity, wow! What a dream, lol.
While studying court reporting I had to type transcripts as fast as possible and keep up at a rate of between 80-100wpm (with a goal of getting to 220wpm eventually). The formatting of many transcripts was Q&A, where a lawyer or judge is questioning a witness or defendant. In this job, EVERY transcript is Q&A format. There are a few opening statements, then it's basically Q&A between the judge, the claimant, the attorney, and the expert. Having already experienced switching back and forth between speakers while typing these up for steno school, I simply applied the same skills set here.
As a result, my transcripts were pretty dang good on the first try. I had to make a handful of corrections because of the "silent" keyboard, which has annoyingly mushy keys, and a few more because I don't yet know all of the court abbreviations and lingo in use. But other than that, I think it took 15 minutes to edit four whole transcripts. Not bad, I think!
My trainer seemed very surprised and pleased.
The next session will be in-person cases, and that will be totally different. More to stress about!
Meanwhile Jameson had an exciting opportunity come up this afternoon.
I can't share details yet, but let's just say he had an interview and it went well.
I'm extremely excited for him, and hope this bodes well for his future!!
We both had a long day, and it was nice to order a pizza and share our adventures between bites.
Then Jameson played Dying Light 2 while I typed this up and worked on my foodie thing.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Friday. Already!
I woke up feeling kinda down.
For two reasons:
1. Residual guilt over my trainer. Her first language is not English and I am very sure that she became frustrated with herself after watching me create a spotless transcript on the first go. I get the impression that she often has to stay late to clean up her own transcripts because she doesn't understand some things that are said during the actual hearing (which doesn't negatively impact the case, it just creates more work for her personally). My heart was still hurting for her and my dreams that night had to do with trying to help people and animals and not being able to, which I think was subconscious coping with those emotions.
2. Jealousy of Jameson! It's only a tiny baby jealousy. There is no question that he is past due for some good news. What I am jealous of is the fact that his skills set means he is qualified for a six-figure income. I do not like that I am "supplemental" when it comes to earnings potential and value in the workplace. I want to be valued enough to be offered a good wage. But the reality is, I'm NOT that valuable and never will be, and I need to accept that. Jameson has an amazing skills set. He's had to wait a long time, but now someone is finally acknowledging him and reaching out to hopefully give him a great opportunity. So, feeling jealous is pretty silly, and I wanted to face that emotion and sweep it into a figurative dustpan.
I ate breakfast and pondered these things, and when Jameson got up I threw 'em out, hopefully for good.
Wrote up an email to the Tootsie band, because Yael (trumpet) and I have collaborated with Brianna (one of our admins) to create a shirt!
This is a cartoonized version of our MD, holding a Beef on Weck sandwich and wearing his favorite Olivia Rodrigo shirt.
The long-short of it is, the tour launched in Buffalo where beef on weck sandwiches are a thing, and our MD somehow turned "Beef on Weck!" into our band hype chant before each show. Inside joke!
I think it's cute as hell. By the end of the day we had eight shirt orders, so I'll wait through the weekend and on Monday will place the order.
I've also comissioned a few enamel pins of this artwork on Etsy, which I'll send to the MD and those of us who were in on the collab.
As I worked I kept a wary eye on Optimus Prime. He's got an axe AND a gun. I'm duly intimidated!
Later on we went for a walk in the brutal FL heat. It is still close to 100F. I was going to get groceries but it's just so damn hot I'll probably wait until tomorrow. We talked about Jameson's exciting opportunity, speculating and wondering. Whatever-it-is will involve travel, and both of us being overly practical we talked about motion sickness items for him. We're so lame haha.
Back home I had a message from my boss about training for Story Processing, and gave her my availability for that.
She wants to do it next week which is a little tight for me (courtroom work plus a dentist appointment and trombone repair) but I think we can still make it work.
It was raining pretty hard by the time evening rolled around (I was glad, banana plants will be watered) and I ventured out to get us some Panda Express. I also had a glass of wine because, well, because. Then a little TV together, and gaming for Jameson and MFF work for me.
Believe it or not I often end up researching just one or two cities per night because the research is so involved. Some cities have grocery chains that don't show up in a generic google search. In others, I have to pore through "Top 15" sites and select only a few restaurants to feature in my info sheet. This requires looking at a lot of menus and prices, searching distances from theatres using Google Maps, and determining if the food is unique enough to warrant, say, a two-mile walk potentially through snow or rain or a heat wave. It takes a lot of time, but I do enjoy the selection process and organizing the info once I have it.
The best part is, this is just the blueprint. Once I have our hotel info everything changes again.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Friday, woke up annoyed but my mood soon improved as it was cooler out today and I had red bean oatmeal to try and a trip to multiple groceries to make.
I ended up eating the final flavor on Monday morning, so here are the pictures:
Pretty packaging! This is the Yishi Foods sample pack, one cup of each flavor for about $17.
This is the Osmanthus with turmeric, hempseed, and almonds.
The flavor was floral and just slightly bitter. The texture was very good from the seeds and almonds.
I would order this one again.
The Matcha flavor had powdered coconut milk, hemp and flaxseeds.
This one had the best texture due to the fat from the coconut milk. It tasted great!
Sweet Red Bean with dates, goji, cherry, and almond.
I didn't really taste the goji or cherry, but the date came through.
This one was kinda runny, maybe I overhydrated it. It was good flavor but the texture was a little gritty, not my fave.
Black Sesame with almonds, walnuts and chia.
As predicted this was one of my favorites. Toasty nutty flavor, great texture. I'd definitely get this one again.
Taro Bubble Tea with black tea, chia and blueberry is not pictured because it looked like normal oatmeal.
This was my least favorite because it was overly sweet, and it smelled too similar to mashed potatoes which was just weird.
But Yishi has said they are working on tweaking this flavor; they plan to reduce the sweetener and add more oats for better texture and flavor balance. So I am willing to try it again once they've made those changes.
These were all really fun to try and had me looking forward to breakfast!
This was the sampler pack; if I buy any of these full-size, it will be the Osmanthus or the Black Sesame.
-----------------------------------------------------
Anyway, once Jameson was up I went to the grocery.
First Target for Jameson Ginger & Lime, which Jameson wanted to try, and wheat flour for me (none of the other stores had it in stock).
Next Walmart for my favorite seltzer water, poblanos, and salsa verde (neither Target nor Publix had these).
Then Publix for everything else, though I'm embarrassed to say I forgot to get any vegetables! Good grief. I'll pick some up another day.
Back home, put everything away and had lunch.
We went for a walk in the afternoon, chatting and checking out the neighborhood.
Video games for Jameson, arguing online for me.
Dinner was white chicken chili with air fryer buttermilk biscuits.
The chili recipe was a hybrid between a Food Network recipe and one from Half-Baked Harvest.
I used most of the HBH ingredients, but added coriander per the FN recipe and also used a rotisserie chicken.
It turned out pretty good though a little thin. I would have liked to let it stew for longer so it'd be thicker, but chili is one of those foods that tastes better the next day anyway. It was delicious and I'd make it again.
The biscuits came together well considering I'm horrible with lamination.
The layers are not very distinct. This is something that needs practice on my part.
But the flavor was great and we loved how they were crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside.
I'll be making these again too.
It rained and that was nice.
----------------------------------------------------
Sunday I was kinda antsy, and decided to make another loaf of oat bread since I'm down to two slices of the last loaf.
This was a different recipe, the one from Bread Baking for Beginners which calls for cooked oats and the addition of brown sugar and cinnamon. I've made it a few times before and have never gotten it quite right, so why not try again.
I remember to document a lot of the steps.
Here is the dough after being mixed but before kneading.
Here it is after having a 3-hour rise. The little dimple on the right is from a sample I took to do the "float test" to see if it was ready.
Here's the dough after initial shaping. Normally I'd have it do the second rise but the recipe said to let it rest 30 minutes so, ok.
Here it is after the 2nd rise, in the Pullman pan. I should have let it go another 15 minutes or so but I was impatient.
Gave it an egg wash and into the oven.
45 minutes later, hot out of the oven.
Initially it looked really great. Nice tall loaf, great for sandwiches.
There is some tearing around the edge of the loaf, that's because I ended the 2nd rise too early, but it didn't separate so no harm done.
But after an hour of cooling it looked like this:
This has happened to me before. Sometimes the loaf wrinkles a LOT (like today) and other times it's just a small dimpling.
And sometimes it doesn't happen at all.
I wrote to the author of the cookbook, who is shockingly responsive for being a pseudo-baking celebrity.
I asked if she knew what would cause this...humidity, and steam from the inside of the loaf, perhaps?
Her response:
Right on the money. Next time I'll either let it cool in the oven after removing it from the pan or try covering it with a towel (some people online said this can help). At least it had nothing to do with anything I did! Yay. Always nice to get positive reinforcement.
The crumb was pretty good for a non-enriched bread, further confirming that I didn't do anything wrong.
Nice and consistent. It's pretty moist, fluffy yet hearty, and chewy from the cooked oats. Very nice.
And of course it made the house smell fantastic.
Get this: I shared these exact photos to the bread baking group I'm a part of on facebook, and immediately got criticized on almost every single photo.
"Why did you let it rest for 30 minutes? That's unnecessary" said one person.
"You overproofed it and that's why the loaf split" said another. (Not true, splitting happens when you underproof usually).
"You overproofed it and that's why the loaf shrank" niggled a third. (I definitely didn't overproof anything this time).
"Why did you add the oats/sugar/cinnamon separately?" whined someone who couldn't be bothered to read the caption I left explaining exactly why I added them "separately".
Why are people such assholes, hm? Why does everyone have a need to pass judgement?
Whether what I share is good or bad, someone always needs to have a say in my actions or find a way to belittle and put down.
This is why I hate people.
Granted I'm judgy just as much as anyone, but I certainly don't go around commenting on peoples' photos to rip them apart like this. Why do people think that's ok to do?
I followed the directions and got a beautiful loaf of delicious bread.
Everyone who has something nasty to say about that can suck a dick.
We didn't go for a walk today, it was raining on and off.
Besides the bread I mostly just worked on MFF and watched TV with Jameson and tried to avoid thinking about all the things I need to do next week.
-----------------------------------------------------
Monday morning. My training with the data entry job was rescheduled for Wednesday which is fine.
We just ate lunch and I sent out the Beef on Weck shirt order, which took way longer than expected because I had questions that required a call to customer service. But it's all good, and hopefully people actually order them rather than sticking me with the cost of nine custom shirts.
Now I'm going to review some court reporter job stuff, because all of my cases tomorrow are in-person and I haven't done that kind yet.
If it doesn't rain we will go for a walk.
I used my new Tootsie schedule to update my Google map and foodie spreadsheet. That was fun!
Then I had to go back in Megan's Foodie Finds to fill in some of the cities that have been added.
Even though some cities are just one- or two-day stays, I still document the nearest grocery and pharmacy and at least one restaurant in case there's time.
I then went back through to look at the whole list kind of at a distance, to make sure I'm not including too much "New American" or like three burger places in a row or anything like that (I DID find a set of days where I had three burger places in a row! So I took one out in favor of a speakeasy with good food.
In the afternoon I freaked out about the food aspect of my new job...it's not clear that we get lunch breaks.
So I ran to Publix for some nonperishables. Jerky, edamame, meal bars. I have chicken pouches and fruit cups, but it's not clear whether I'll have time for things involving silverware. I nervously packed a bag with the food and another with paperwork, little portions of my 42-page instruction manual that I hoped would be helpful.
Then Jameson watched IT while I watched Stranger Things.
------------------------------------------
I slept super poorly and was up at 5:30, because I have to be there an hour earlier than the first case. Sigh.
I ate the Osmanthus-flavored oatmeal from Yishi, and it was quite good (though still too sweet).
It was a floral, slightly bitter flavor.
Drove aaaaaallllll the way out to northeast Orlando. Usually a 40-50 minute drive, which I had planned for, but on the way a construction vehicle pulled out onto the highway and slowed us all to a crawl for at least a mile. I had to text my trainer to tell her I'd be late (I wasn't THAT late and she arrived at the same time as me so it was fine).
I don't know what I'm allowed to share or not, but to describe the workspace at least, it was a lot like any office building only the rooms were all deposition rooms. Each one had a mini-courtroom inside, with a judge bench and a big SSA logo on the wall. But there were no chairs for an audience or witnesses or whatever; just some conference tables, computers, TVs, and audio equipment.
My job was basically to facilitate a virtual deposition, while simultaneously recording the proceedings.
I watched my trainer do this and took lots and lots of notes.
As predicted, the hardest part of the day was not getting lunch and having to choke down food whenever possible.
As for the job tasks themselves, I think over time I will be able to do them. It's just remembering each task, the order of them, the completeness level that needs to be achieved.
It was a tough first day as far as sheer information overload. But, I've had so many many jobs in my life. This is just another one.
I got home around dinner time, and we ordered out.
--------------------------------------------------
I woke with a start at 10:30. That's very late for me! I must have needed the sleep.
A normal slow day of blogging, going for a walk with Jameson, running to Ross for a legal pad and a binder.
I got a message from my data entry boss just checking in; I told her I'm fine and she basically said "Bless you, child!". I think other workers are perhaps complaining about the lack of work. We weren't promised consistent hours, folks. Welcome to the gig economy.
Then I got a much more stress-filled email from my discount court reporting trainer.
Apparently I didn't quite upload some things correctly, and didn't fill out things on the website correctly.
Right now I'm in training so it doesn't "matter", but it certainly will matter if I want to get PAID.
I was glad that they called to correct me, but annoyed that I had to focus on work things on my day off.
Welp, if you stop making mistakes, Megan, that won't happen.
Another night of ordered dinner, and packing quick-snacks, and watching Stranger Things while Jameson played Fall Guys with his friends.
----------------------------------------------------
Up at 5:30am on Thursday. Breakfast and a sleepy drive across town to the SSA building.
Today I got to handle cases for the first time.
I was nervous, but wanted to do it because the sooner ya do the thing the sooner you can stop being apprehensive imo.
And ya know what, I did well. Completely due to having worked at CapTel, and partly due to studying court reporting.
At CapTel I had to listen to multiple speakers, speakers with accents, fast talkers, mumblers, poor audio, and loads of background noise, all day long. I had to learn to distinguish voices and listen very hard to understand what was said and accurately revoice it.
In this job I also have to listen very carefully to the testimony, but everyone on the calls is in an isolated room so there is minimal background noise. And everyone takes turns speaking too. So compared to transcribing CapTel calls, this seems easy even though every call has multiple speakers. The judge and vocational experts will even repeat themselves for clarity, wow! What a dream, lol.
While studying court reporting I had to type transcripts as fast as possible and keep up at a rate of between 80-100wpm (with a goal of getting to 220wpm eventually). The formatting of many transcripts was Q&A, where a lawyer or judge is questioning a witness or defendant. In this job, EVERY transcript is Q&A format. There are a few opening statements, then it's basically Q&A between the judge, the claimant, the attorney, and the expert. Having already experienced switching back and forth between speakers while typing these up for steno school, I simply applied the same skills set here.
As a result, my transcripts were pretty dang good on the first try. I had to make a handful of corrections because of the "silent" keyboard, which has annoyingly mushy keys, and a few more because I don't yet know all of the court abbreviations and lingo in use. But other than that, I think it took 15 minutes to edit four whole transcripts. Not bad, I think!
My trainer seemed very surprised and pleased.
The next session will be in-person cases, and that will be totally different. More to stress about!
Meanwhile Jameson had an exciting opportunity come up this afternoon.
I can't share details yet, but let's just say he had an interview and it went well.
I'm extremely excited for him, and hope this bodes well for his future!!
We both had a long day, and it was nice to order a pizza and share our adventures between bites.
Then Jameson played Dying Light 2 while I typed this up and worked on my foodie thing.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Friday. Already!
I woke up feeling kinda down.
For two reasons:
1. Residual guilt over my trainer. Her first language is not English and I am very sure that she became frustrated with herself after watching me create a spotless transcript on the first go. I get the impression that she often has to stay late to clean up her own transcripts because she doesn't understand some things that are said during the actual hearing (which doesn't negatively impact the case, it just creates more work for her personally). My heart was still hurting for her and my dreams that night had to do with trying to help people and animals and not being able to, which I think was subconscious coping with those emotions.
2. Jealousy of Jameson! It's only a tiny baby jealousy. There is no question that he is past due for some good news. What I am jealous of is the fact that his skills set means he is qualified for a six-figure income. I do not like that I am "supplemental" when it comes to earnings potential and value in the workplace. I want to be valued enough to be offered a good wage. But the reality is, I'm NOT that valuable and never will be, and I need to accept that. Jameson has an amazing skills set. He's had to wait a long time, but now someone is finally acknowledging him and reaching out to hopefully give him a great opportunity. So, feeling jealous is pretty silly, and I wanted to face that emotion and sweep it into a figurative dustpan.
I ate breakfast and pondered these things, and when Jameson got up I threw 'em out, hopefully for good.
Wrote up an email to the Tootsie band, because Yael (trumpet) and I have collaborated with Brianna (one of our admins) to create a shirt!
This is a cartoonized version of our MD, holding a Beef on Weck sandwich and wearing his favorite Olivia Rodrigo shirt.
The long-short of it is, the tour launched in Buffalo where beef on weck sandwiches are a thing, and our MD somehow turned "Beef on Weck!" into our band hype chant before each show. Inside joke!
I think it's cute as hell. By the end of the day we had eight shirt orders, so I'll wait through the weekend and on Monday will place the order.
I've also comissioned a few enamel pins of this artwork on Etsy, which I'll send to the MD and those of us who were in on the collab.
As I worked I kept a wary eye on Optimus Prime. He's got an axe AND a gun. I'm duly intimidated!
Later on we went for a walk in the brutal FL heat. It is still close to 100F. I was going to get groceries but it's just so damn hot I'll probably wait until tomorrow. We talked about Jameson's exciting opportunity, speculating and wondering. Whatever-it-is will involve travel, and both of us being overly practical we talked about motion sickness items for him. We're so lame haha.
Back home I had a message from my boss about training for Story Processing, and gave her my availability for that.
She wants to do it next week which is a little tight for me (courtroom work plus a dentist appointment and trombone repair) but I think we can still make it work.
It was raining pretty hard by the time evening rolled around (I was glad, banana plants will be watered) and I ventured out to get us some Panda Express. I also had a glass of wine because, well, because. Then a little TV together, and gaming for Jameson and MFF work for me.
Believe it or not I often end up researching just one or two cities per night because the research is so involved. Some cities have grocery chains that don't show up in a generic google search. In others, I have to pore through "Top 15" sites and select only a few restaurants to feature in my info sheet. This requires looking at a lot of menus and prices, searching distances from theatres using Google Maps, and determining if the food is unique enough to warrant, say, a two-mile walk potentially through snow or rain or a heat wave. It takes a lot of time, but I do enjoy the selection process and organizing the info once I have it.
The best part is, this is just the blueprint. Once I have our hotel info everything changes again.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Friday, woke up annoyed but my mood soon improved as it was cooler out today and I had red bean oatmeal to try and a trip to multiple groceries to make.
I ended up eating the final flavor on Monday morning, so here are the pictures:
Pretty packaging! This is the Yishi Foods sample pack, one cup of each flavor for about $17.
This is the Osmanthus with turmeric, hempseed, and almonds.
The flavor was floral and just slightly bitter. The texture was very good from the seeds and almonds.
I would order this one again.
The Matcha flavor had powdered coconut milk, hemp and flaxseeds.
This one had the best texture due to the fat from the coconut milk. It tasted great!
Sweet Red Bean with dates, goji, cherry, and almond.
I didn't really taste the goji or cherry, but the date came through.
This one was kinda runny, maybe I overhydrated it. It was good flavor but the texture was a little gritty, not my fave.
Black Sesame with almonds, walnuts and chia.
As predicted this was one of my favorites. Toasty nutty flavor, great texture. I'd definitely get this one again.
Taro Bubble Tea with black tea, chia and blueberry is not pictured because it looked like normal oatmeal.
This was my least favorite because it was overly sweet, and it smelled too similar to mashed potatoes which was just weird.
But Yishi has said they are working on tweaking this flavor; they plan to reduce the sweetener and add more oats for better texture and flavor balance. So I am willing to try it again once they've made those changes.
These were all really fun to try and had me looking forward to breakfast!
This was the sampler pack; if I buy any of these full-size, it will be the Osmanthus or the Black Sesame.
-----------------------------------------------------
Anyway, once Jameson was up I went to the grocery.
First Target for Jameson Ginger & Lime, which Jameson wanted to try, and wheat flour for me (none of the other stores had it in stock).
Next Walmart for my favorite seltzer water, poblanos, and salsa verde (neither Target nor Publix had these).
Then Publix for everything else, though I'm embarrassed to say I forgot to get any vegetables! Good grief. I'll pick some up another day.
Back home, put everything away and had lunch.
We went for a walk in the afternoon, chatting and checking out the neighborhood.
Video games for Jameson, arguing online for me.
Dinner was white chicken chili with air fryer buttermilk biscuits.
The chili recipe was a hybrid between a Food Network recipe and one from Half-Baked Harvest.
I used most of the HBH ingredients, but added coriander per the FN recipe and also used a rotisserie chicken.
It turned out pretty good though a little thin. I would have liked to let it stew for longer so it'd be thicker, but chili is one of those foods that tastes better the next day anyway. It was delicious and I'd make it again.
The biscuits came together well considering I'm horrible with lamination.
The layers are not very distinct. This is something that needs practice on my part.
But the flavor was great and we loved how they were crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside.
I'll be making these again too.
It rained and that was nice.
----------------------------------------------------
Sunday I was kinda antsy, and decided to make another loaf of oat bread since I'm down to two slices of the last loaf.
This was a different recipe, the one from Bread Baking for Beginners which calls for cooked oats and the addition of brown sugar and cinnamon. I've made it a few times before and have never gotten it quite right, so why not try again.
I remember to document a lot of the steps.
Here is the dough after being mixed but before kneading.
Here it is after having a 3-hour rise. The little dimple on the right is from a sample I took to do the "float test" to see if it was ready.
Here's the dough after initial shaping. Normally I'd have it do the second rise but the recipe said to let it rest 30 minutes so, ok.
Here it is after the 2nd rise, in the Pullman pan. I should have let it go another 15 minutes or so but I was impatient.
Gave it an egg wash and into the oven.
45 minutes later, hot out of the oven.
Initially it looked really great. Nice tall loaf, great for sandwiches.
There is some tearing around the edge of the loaf, that's because I ended the 2nd rise too early, but it didn't separate so no harm done.
But after an hour of cooling it looked like this:
This has happened to me before. Sometimes the loaf wrinkles a LOT (like today) and other times it's just a small dimpling.
And sometimes it doesn't happen at all.
I wrote to the author of the cookbook, who is shockingly responsive for being a pseudo-baking celebrity.
I asked if she knew what would cause this...humidity, and steam from the inside of the loaf, perhaps?
Her response:
Right on the money. Next time I'll either let it cool in the oven after removing it from the pan or try covering it with a towel (some people online said this can help). At least it had nothing to do with anything I did! Yay. Always nice to get positive reinforcement.
The crumb was pretty good for a non-enriched bread, further confirming that I didn't do anything wrong.
Nice and consistent. It's pretty moist, fluffy yet hearty, and chewy from the cooked oats. Very nice.
And of course it made the house smell fantastic.
Get this: I shared these exact photos to the bread baking group I'm a part of on facebook, and immediately got criticized on almost every single photo.
"Why did you let it rest for 30 minutes? That's unnecessary" said one person.
"You overproofed it and that's why the loaf split" said another. (Not true, splitting happens when you underproof usually).
"You overproofed it and that's why the loaf shrank" niggled a third. (I definitely didn't overproof anything this time).
"Why did you add the oats/sugar/cinnamon separately?" whined someone who couldn't be bothered to read the caption I left explaining exactly why I added them "separately".
Why are people such assholes, hm? Why does everyone have a need to pass judgement?
Whether what I share is good or bad, someone always needs to have a say in my actions or find a way to belittle and put down.
This is why I hate people.
Granted I'm judgy just as much as anyone, but I certainly don't go around commenting on peoples' photos to rip them apart like this. Why do people think that's ok to do?
I followed the directions and got a beautiful loaf of delicious bread.
Everyone who has something nasty to say about that can suck a dick.
We didn't go for a walk today, it was raining on and off.
Besides the bread I mostly just worked on MFF and watched TV with Jameson and tried to avoid thinking about all the things I need to do next week.
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Monday morning. My training with the data entry job was rescheduled for Wednesday which is fine.
We just ate lunch and I sent out the Beef on Weck shirt order, which took way longer than expected because I had questions that required a call to customer service. But it's all good, and hopefully people actually order them rather than sticking me with the cost of nine custom shirts.
Now I'm going to review some court reporter job stuff, because all of my cases tomorrow are in-person and I haven't done that kind yet.
If it doesn't rain we will go for a walk.
