TaT #1: Baking Bread

I'm still looking for suggestions for the 2nd half of my list!  I've gotten a few, but I'm not quite at 30 yet, so there's room for more.  Thanks to all my friends who came up with interesting things for me to try, btw.

Anyways, since I've already done two things on the TaT (Thirty around Thirty, yeah?) list, I figured I should post about them here.  The first one, baking bread, happened before I actually created the project, but since it was something I'd been wanting to do for a while, it seemed to fit.

So, why baking bread?  Well, I love bread, and you can get really great artisanal bread, but it's so expensive!  Plus, I had just gotten a dutch oven (this lovely one, for a fraction of the price of a Le Creuset and with great reviews!) and I needed something to do with it.  When I googled "vegetarian dutch oven recipes," one of the ones that came up was this one for no-knead bread.

I won't retype the recipe here, since it's a pretty clear original, but I'll tell you my modifications and results.  First, the bread came out great! As you can see in the photo, it looks like real bread from a store!  The only thing I would change about the recipe itself is to add more salt, or some flavorings.  There just wasn't enough salt in it, even for me, and I don't like things very salty.  From a bit more googling, it sounds like other people had similar comments, so I plan to try something slightly different next time.

A few other caveats/impressions.  First, although the recipe is easy and takes very little effort, it does take time.  The dough has to sit for 12-18 hours, and from what I read, 12 is not actually great.  I let mine sit for about 16.  Then, however, you do 15 minutes of stuff to it and then it has to sit for another 2 hours!  I was glad I noticed that when I did, otherwise I would have been unpleasantly surprised and rushed.  I ended up letting mine sit for about 3.5 hours on the second rising, and it seemed fine (when I told my hair lady about the second rising, she exclaimed, "zombie bread!" It was awesome.).  So, it seems that the timing is flexible, but definitely long.  Second, you can use active dry yeast if you don't have instant yeast, but if you do, you have to stir it into water first, then add water and yeast to the other dry ingredients.  I suppose I don't know what would've happened if I hadn't done that, but according to the internet, it would've been sad.  Finally, next time, I will use a little less flour on the outside, because it didn't need quite that much not to be sticky, and I don't like how it got everywhere.

So, overall, a definite success and a recipe I will certainly use again!

The first half of the offical "30 around 30" list!

OK, the "30 around 30" list is now half-complete! Here's the first half, I'll do another post when it's all done.  I'm still looking for more suggestions!  I'll link to the individual posts once I've got the master list up.  Cindy suggested that things I've done since about October or so can count for this challenge, since it's "around 30," so if I can't come up with enough things to fill out the second half, I'll add a few of those.  I'd really like to come up with more, though!

1. Bake bread (done on 1/28/13, post to come)
2. Try aerial silks (ongoing, started on 1/28/13, post to come)
3. Sew a skirt
4. Bake meringues
5. Write a fantasy short story (let's say 10,000 words-ish)
6. Learn how to play the wooden flute
7. Learn Italian!
8. Knit a scarf
9. Make an origami moose (apparently, it's possible!)
10.  Run a 5K (maybe?  I'm scared of this one...)
11. Host a sit-down dinner for 6-8 people (this would require having a place to do so, though)
12.Try Bikram yoga
13. Have a real Do Nothing But Read day
14. Create and keep up a sleep-related website/blog/thing
15. Paint an accent wall (if we move and it's allowed)

P.S. If you're reading this in my LJ, I'm sorry if you're confused!  I think I forgot to mention that I have this blog that I sometimes update, and now I've set it up to cross-post!

A real return to blogging?

Well, obviously, I've been not so good at the whole blogging thing. I think part of it was a lack of time, and part was a lack of projects that I wanted to share. I'm still cooking, and sometimes it's new stuff, but somehow, it just hasn't seemed that exciting. But, I have a new set of projects and some new ideas about keeping the blogging going, so maybe it can work!

What is this new thing, you may (door may not) ask? Well, inspired by Cindy's "30 before 30" project for this year, she and I decided that I should do a "30 around 30" project of my own. Since I'm turning 30 in March, the whole "before" thing wasn't gonna happen, but this seems like a good compromise.  So there we go! I'm also going to try and get back into the blogging thing in addition to this project, but at least it'll provide some structure,

So, what 30 things am I going to try this year? This is where you come in! I'm looking for suggestions for new projects to attempt! So far (and yes, these will be their own blog posts), I've baked bread and taken an aerial silks class. What else should I do? I've taken trapeze and I've gone both skydiving and bungee jumping, so those are out. Already on my to-do list are sewing a skirt and baking meringues (which I know isn't supposed to be that hard, but has always felt terribly intimidating to me). But now I need 24 more items to do! Thoughts?

Test post to see if the cross-posting works.