The Feminist Pub (continued).

[UptoapointLordCopper]

Been busy. Came back today to have a look but the Pub thread was full! Shall we continue here?

Third episode of Borgen on tonight.

LOL. I use Dan Lepard's sourdough starter from the Handmade Loaf and it has never gone wrong. Dan's my baking hero. But I agree - I do these things for fun. It would be less fun if breakfast depends on it. Hurrah for bakeries.

Magic indeed.

Things I think are magic:

bread
cake
curry

Curry and nan bread. Double magic, or is that magic squared?

Oh yes, naan bread is most definitely magic.

Ah naan bread. I would put in the hours for decent naan bread.

I explored making my own pumpernickel, even got advice from here (where else? ) on where to get rye kernels - all was going swimmingly until I got to the bit in the recipe which said 'fill mixture in baking tins and bake for 16-18 hours at a low heat'.
No.
Just no.

Lidl offer v nice pumpernickel which fullfills all my dark rye bread needs.

Bread is generally very needy isn't it. Whenever I try I'm never available at the right time. I'm having a panic because it's risen and I need to knock it back and we're still at the playground or something. And if I don't do that now it won't be baked in time for the school run. Or whatever.

Now cakes I can on board with. Give them love and attention, bung them into the oven. Give more love and attention (if icing) at a later time of your choosing.

Ooh, I love that the thread has turned to bread via Marian Keyes. I love Marian Keyes (though she's variable).

I've never made sourdough but I'm getting inspired to try. I make a really easy loaf that isn't remotely needy but it's the kind you can plait so it looks as if you have made an effort when you did very, very little. My kind of thing.

I can't bake cake.

I only do bread in the bread maker. V un-needy. Put stuff in, switch on, walk away .

I have bravely graduated from pre-pepared bread-mixes (Lidl - best German-like bread IMO) to making my own. With pumpkin seeds and shit. And millet and spelt and all sorts that my DC don't approve of, but they are not getting anything else .
They do eat it. And get white rolls at the weekend. Everybody's happy.

Yes, Marian can be variable. I think it shows that she has had some fairly harsh life experiences herself and that she knows what she is talking about - even, or particularly, when her characters are laughing in the face of adversity. 'Tis a life skill IMO.

Plaited bread, eh? That sounds great - would you share, LRD?
I have a very easy (or five) Cup Cake recipe (not cupcakes) - give me a second...

Mmm, I love seedy bits in bread.

I have got a kenwood mini now because my mum is lovely. But I spent a good few years just kneading it by hand and I didn't have bread tins, which is why I got lots of practice with the plaited kind. I have made it in crappy ovens in shared housing with students all over, too.

(Me, scoffing with 'Ruby Tandoh, I did this shit years ago? Never!)

(Actually, seriously never since I can't do cakes, but there we go.)

Pacific- Yes, I love my bread maker. I'm not generally a Cameron fan, but when he said he set the bread maker overnight and liked waking up to the smell of bread I thought "ooh, we do have something in common". I do flour, yeast, sugar, salt, oil and water. I don't put shit in mine generally . Millet and spelt sounds v brave.

One cup yoghurt cake

Phew, took a while to find this - my recipes are all from a German website.
The principle is always the same: start with 1 pot of yoghurt, the empty pot is then your measure for everything else.

Easy-peasy! And fast

Crosspost.

pac, I would think you can plait almost any dough that's not too liquid, but it's basically Linda Collister's challah.

14 oz flour
7g sachet of yeast
1/2 tsp salt
2 medium eggs
50ml oil/slightly less melted butter, as you like
100ml tepid water
2 tbsp malt extract or honey
I like poppy seed and an egg glaze on top.

Mix the dry ingredients, then mix in the egg, fat and honey. Obviously, add more flour if it looks as if it needs it. If it's too dry (never happens), you'd add more tepid water ... obviously!

Let it rise for about an hour. I quite often give it a head start with a hot bowl TBH, because I am lazy. If you're sure you won't drop the bowl in water, you run a few inches of warm water into the sink and pop the bowl with the bread in it in there.

Once it's risen, divide into four (or six, if you feel confident). Roll each piece into a strand about 30 cm long. Pinch all four together firmly at one end.

Pull the strand furthest away from you over the other three, then tuck it back away from you under the last one it's just gone over.

Pull the strand that's now nearest to you over the three further away, then tuck it back under the one it's just gone over.

Keep repeating. Pinch ends together. Let it rise again.

(This may also be really obvious but I didn't know!).

Takes about 40-50 minutes at 190.

Ooh ... that looks delicious, the yoghurt cake. German SIL would love it, too. Will definitely try, thank you!

Oh, wow, that sounds amazing - I shall try.
Hm, maybe tomorrow. Dh at work and we need bread.
I have a project - thanks

Do it!

It's dead easy and looks very fancy. I wish I had a pic, actually.

I need to push my comfort zone with the cake but I think that will be new year when it's not just me eating it.

I don't make bread. I did once at school and it seemed like a lot of effort for bread that wasn't as nice as the bakery stuff. My dad has a breadmaker that he uses a lot, but again I'd rather just buy it.

I do like cake though. I've been baking with dd2 today, we made a basic Victoria sponge recipe and made it green (using blue and yellow colouring because there wasn't any green in Morrisons) the baked it in Christmas tree shaped moulds. She had a lot of fun decorating the resulting green tree shaped cakes with various sweets as 'baubles'. I think we'll do that again before our extended family gathering next Sunday, and Christmas shaped biscuits.

I quite like some of Marion Keyes books. I can't remember which ones I've read but some were good and some were not. I'm more into 'Urban Fantasy' books about vampires and werewolves, it's surprising how many of those have fantastic female leads who kick-ass with relationships being relegated to the sidelines (although there are just as many where the sexual relationship is the main focus)

It's very quiet in here today. Did everybody make bread instead of coming to the pub?

Nope, no bread making here today.
Also no present wrapping.
No card writing (for the neighbours).
No general house tidying.
Hm.
I did put the marzipan on the Christmas Cake darn cake

I have just now done the Big Christmas Shop and would be Done if I had got the turkey I wanted. I am tempted just not to have turkey at all. We have a rather nice side of salmon. Hm again.

On a feminist note, I cam home 10pm and the kitchen/dining room was still a bomb site. DH had had the littlies in the bath when I left, did bedtime, retired to the front room with his wine and watched TV.
So, I emptied the car, put stuff away, emptied the dishwasher, sorted out the left-overs, wipes the table etc etc, only for him to come and join me when I was done to ask "did you bring any chocolate?".
I am cross.
But he knows it.
So I am letting him stew .

All I accomplished today was taking some dvds back to the library. They were over a week late and it would have been cheaper to buy the bloody things than it was to pay the fines.

I'm glad your dh knows you are cross, but it would have been better if he hadn't made you cross in the first place. I did our big shop last night (we aren't having turkey, we're having chicken), so dp bathed dd2, put her to bed, then cleaned the kitchen and put the shopping away as soon as I arrived home. I'm keeping mine, he's quite nice really

I'm stewing over a comment made by an aquaintance today. She is convinced that family-friendly work policies are discriminating against childless people. I did point out that actually they are supposed to be designed to help people overcome the restrictions they face due to having children, such as childcare availability, etc. I also suggested that if it becomes the norm for people to be able to work more flexibly then childless people should also be taking that up to get a better work-life balance. She did not see my points at all and insisted that childless people get dumped on and have a completely unfair deal. She massively begrudges people maternity leave (and paternity leave) as she thinks that she should be legally entitled to request a similar amount of time off to pursue her lifestyle choices (her work-place would actually be quite amenable to her taking a sabatical as long as it was taken at a reasonable time and they had plenty of time to recruit cover, but they wouldn't be able to pay her)

Well, yes, I also think it's really unfair that a work colleague had several months off because of the cancer they suffered.
I should be allowed time off too - to navel gaze or stamp collect.
It's not fair.

What a crap argument .

I am off to bed. DS3 and 4 will be up at 7 even though they don't have to be...

I've been at a pre-christmas drinks party! My lovely friends are not to blame for this but some of the guests saw mother with child(ren) and definitely assumed 'no career'. DH eventually started saying 'Oh, Lego knows much more about that than I do, it's much more relevant to her job than mine'.

I also overheard a conversation between two older women who were saying (presumably talking about my friend and me) 'oh I'm so glad we didn't have to worry about rushing back to work after the children were born'. I was very tempted to tell them I am much happier working than being on maternity leave but that might have ruined my 'earth mother of 3 DC' credentials.

I am not comparing cancer to children btw

Have been in homeland thread , not pub! Night all.