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“A report last year by the Sustainable Packaging Alliance, commissioned by Woolworths, found reusable bags have a lower environmental toll than single-use bags, but only when used 104 times – or once a week over two years. The impact on global warming of a reusable polypropylene bag used only 52 times is worse than a standard plastic shopping bag.”
Archive for February 3rd, 2010
why you ought to own an ojai face organic cotton tote.
February 3rd, 2010 
chris 
Posted in Screenprinting 
Tags: art, cotton, design, i'msojai, Ojai, ojai face, organic, reusable, Screenprinting, tote bags 
No Comments »John Gardner on the Fictive Dream
February 3rd, 2010 chris “In the writing state—the state of inspiration—the fictive dream springs up fully alive: the writer forgets the words he has written on the page and sees, instead, his characters moving around their rooms, hunting through cupboards, glancing irritably through their mail, setting mousetraps, loading pistols. The dream is as alive and compelling as one’s dreams at night, and when the writer writes down on paper what he has imagined, the words, however inadequate, do not distract his mind from the fictive dream but provide him with a fix on it, so that when the dream flags he can reread what he’s written and find the dream starting up again. This and nothing else is the desperately sought and tragically fragile writer’s process: in his imagination, he sees made-up people doing things—sees them clearly—and in the act of wondering what they will do next he sees what they will do next, and all this he writes down in the best, most accurate words he can find, understanding even as he writes that he may have to find better words later, and that a change in the words may mean a sharpening or deepening of the vision, the fictive dream or vision becoming more and more lucid, until reality, by comparison, seems cold, tedious, and dead.”
– John Gardner, “The Art of Fiction”
- via toomuchnick
the fun art of baking bread
February 3rd, 2010 chris 
whole wheat baguette with sunflower and golden flax seeds. So nutty and delicious. Crispy crust and light chewy crumb.
In the past week or so, i’ve baked about a dozen loaves of bread. I was inspired to take on this challenge again from a reminiscence of some excellent artisan loaves that I baked about a decade ago while in college. I remember the process involved several doughy bricks before I was able to get to a tasty, hearty loaf. But once I had it figured out, I was all over the bulk seeds and nuts at the store, pouring through recipe books in the library and kneading my way into another, waistline expanding mass of carbs. So delicious.
Lately, my quest has been to create a decent french boulangerie styled baguette. It’s about the only kind of bread I’ll buy in the market these days save for a dark rye loaf we get occasionally at rainbow bitch that is loaded with sunflower seeds and other yummy denseness. But the final inspiration came from a $9 artisan loaf that we bought at the farmer’s market a few weeks ago. Yes, I was driven by fiscal conservation. And my love for hands on art projects.
I started, of course, with a google search for “best baguette recipe.” I figured there were probably scores of them and I needed google to help me sift through the chaff. I’m still working up to the ChewsWise award winning recipe, and I’ve ordered a kitchen scale to help in the accurate measurement of ingredients.
two of my early baguettes. good dimension but lacking in texture and flavor. nonetheless, quickly devoured.
I started with the Food Network baguette recipe. Its pretty basic and straightforward, and gave me a good grounding in what to expect from rising dough and what I could get away with, like letting it rise all day while I worked out in the barn studio and letting what’s left – after the first few loaves have been baked – rest over night in the fridge.
Tonight, while munching on the loaves in the pic at the top of this post, I mixed up a little poolish with yeast water and all purpose flour. Got to keep this dough coming daily until I tire of getting fat, then I’ll go back to steamed vegetables, soup and daily walks.
What are you making in your kitchen?
Posted in Kitchen, Writing Tags: artisan bread, baguette, baking, bread, inspiration, organic, recipes, sourdough No Comments »
