Tupper Lake, November 6, 2012 by Jeff Boucher

Saturday, January 15, 2011

A year later......

Hard to believe (for me at least), that I started this blog one year ago today. 

As Frank Barrone would say, "Holy Crap Marie!"
I think back to last year and honestly I don't remember why exactly I started it that day.
It was easy to set up on Blogger, and so I did. 
I was just getting into baking bread, and had discovered a ton of outstanding food blogs on the net, so I said, "Why not me?"

My mission statement, which is on top of the page is still pretty much the same. Write about what I'm cooking, Syracuse sports and anything else that crosses my mind . 

My pics are not professional. I've got a Kodak camera. I don't worry about lighting and presentation. There's thousands of blogs out there that take it seriously, way too seriously. Each one has ads on the side and they're trying to make money. I've got no problem with that, but neither do I have the time. 

This is purely for fun and social connections.

I've made some good friends (Dr. Fugawe comes to mind) and get into some great discussions on sites like Slice.

So for what it's worth, I'm enjoying this.

Oh, here was tonight's dinner.
Chicken cheese hoagies w/ peppers and onions.
Good stuff!

Then I decided to bake some bread.
Did it all in the Kitchen-Aid.
Standard white bread recipe.
I let the first rise go a bit too long (I followed the recipe). I'd turned on the oven for a minute or two, shut it off then put the dough into the oven, covered with a damp towel. The recipe said at least an hour-1st mistake-should have checked it at 45 mins. It was a bit over risen but I punched it down divided  half and made two loaves.  Put it into the loaf pans and put it into the oven for the 2nd rise. 2nd mistake-Covered both loaf pans with the same towel. Recipe said until doubled in size, around an hour. After the first rise I knew I had some fast acting yeast/dough action. So I put it back in the oven, covering both pans with the same towel.   Knowing it wouldn't take an hour to double, I checked it a 30 mins. Dough was up over the edge of the pan. OK- Big mistake here- it's been rising in the oven, now I've got to get it out and pre-heat the oven. So what did I do? First tried to take the towel off, which was stuck to he highest part of each loaf.
When I realized it was stuck I pulled both pans out and carefully removed the towel.
Bottom line, I lost the center of each loaf. Lesson learned.

Before it was baked. Oh yeah, I need better loaf pans too.

End result-doesn't look that bad, except no crown.

So finally, it's cool, cut it and...

There's the butter shot Doc!

So to recap-been doing this for a year, will keep on keepin' on, and thanks for reading!
(If you made it this far!)



4 comments:

  1. There's a good deal of self-satisfaction in knowing that you're a 'purist' blogger - you're getting paid in ways the others don't even understand - luxuriate in the glow, my friend.

    Don't worry about the mistakes - they are all life's best teacher at work! Love the butter shot! In fact, I think I'll go do one of my own.

    Congrats on your anniversary, Tup.

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  2. Happy Anniversary Tupp. It's been an interesting year with lot's of great fun and food. Keep up the good work.

    Madman

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  3. Happy blogoversary!! Now to celebrate, how about getting an email subscribe option for me??? I never remember to check blogs unless I'm notified by email that there's a new post. I hope you've been well--I've been thinking about you and wondering how your weight loss is going! Are you still working on that? P.S. Nice bread shot! mmmm

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  4. You kind remind me of ... me! Congrats on a year of blogs. You are my favorite pizza blog guy now. Any chance you are a cyclist too? That would be too coincidental.

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