Our Autobahn experience and a day in Salzburg

We are on vacation, a long one. Right now we are in Bavaria visiting family. What an experience! Family I haven't seen in 45 years and other family I've never met.
Yesterday we went to Salzburg, Austria. We drove on the autobahn. I was watching the speedometer (I was NOT driving) at the steady speed of 140 Km. The English conversion for this is around 89mph. Normal.
The autobahn is soooo smoooooth, and fast! About that time a red Ferrari BLEW by us. Now this car looks fast just sitting in a driveway.... Believe me.... On an autobahn it looks a LOT faster! It was probably going 200 Km which is around 124mph.
My question... WHY would anyone in America, with our 70mph max speed want a Ferrari? They belong on an autobahn where they can live free and really be driven the way they are supposed to. Once you experience the speeds here, keeping a Ferrari in America is like caging a tiger.
We are having a great time! Yesterday Salzburg with 7 churches one dating back to 1244, A walk through the catacombs, walking through Salzburg's BEST shopping street (no cars allowed) . The hilltop fortress (which we walked UP to see- there is a fanicular but we poo-pooed THAT) and for dinner.... wurst mit brot and weiss wein. Today... Walking tour of Landshut with family!
What an experience!

I am trashing my gas grill!

I was sooo stinking tired of my gas grill! Friday night I bought two beautiful rib steaks. I made a wonderful rub and while I made salad, potato and grilled asparagus I prepped the steak. I put them on the grill (low-indirect heat) set the table on the deck for a very nice dinner. When I got back to the girl ther was a total flame out, both steaks fully engulfed. Crap! I have HAD IT! While there ARE reasons to have a gas grill, good food is NOT one of them.
While at the fair on the last day last night there was a vendor selling Traeger grills. I admit.... I have looked at them for many years. THIS was a golden opportunity. He made me a screaming deal and I loaded the Junior into the MINI and brought it home. It is in my breezeway waiting for me to put it together. It smokes AND BBQ's!
I CAN NOT wait to get started!

Last day of WORKING at the Puyallup Fair

I JUST worked 13+ hours at the Fair. I had a great time but am VERY tired. No one was scheduled to do demo this morning and by chance I brought my demo kit.
My demo kit contains LOADS of pearls of many many types and all the silk I should want to do pearl knitting demos. I started doing my surprise demo at 10am and finished at 5pm. That's 7 HOURS of demo. I finished 3 necklaces, 6 bracelet strands, 6 pairs of earrings and tagged and bagged them all. I talked and shared with a load of people (probably >1000)! It was GREAT! Then I worked in the jewelry counters from 5pm till 11pm.
I LOVE watching people but man.....tired.
Tomorrow..... Going to do one last demo in the Hobby Hall from 7pm till 9pm. Come out for the last day one last chance and say HI.

The Puyallup Fair and working

The BIG Puyallup Fair started last Friday. I have some of my jewelry for sale at the very cool Artist In Action store. It's been loads of FUN but is very tiring. If all I had to do was this (which I totally love) it would be great. I also have a job that's REALLY demanding doing Infection Prevention for a large healthcare system. ALSO VERY cool! Hey, anytime you can have a positive impact on healthcare....its A VERY GOOD THING!
Both wonderful.....but together...... I'm tired. NOT as tired as Grad School :-). Last night I worked at the fair until 10pm. Then I had to make a meeting at 7 am today. Tonight....NOTHING! I went to Tacoma Boys (yaaaayyy TB!). ...got some wonderful Ahi Tuna and made poor, neglected Wayne a great dinner of shished tuna, onion, pepper and tomato with grilled radicchio salad, rice and grilled corn. Ahhhhh, nice dinner, both work sites are good!
Jewelry is selling well...good news with infections, good dinner and wine. It's all good!
Ahhhh, TGIF in about 1 hour.

For those who care..... I'll be doing demos of pearl knotting and just fun jewelry design at Artist In Action this Saturday from 1-6pm and then in the Hobby Hall from 7-9pm. Come by and say HI!

Artist In Action at the Puyallup Fair

I was accepted into the Artist In Action (AIA) Store at the Puyallup Fair this year. I'm selling some of my jewelry most of which is hand knotted freshwater pearls and unique things like fossils, semi-precious stones, amber and other very cool items on a strand. I was in AIA as a fiber artist selling hand spun yarns and hand woven items about 20 years ago. This feels almost like a home coming.

I love sharing what I do. Tomorrow I'll be demo-ing at the Hobby Hall from 4:30-6:30. Pearl stringing and knotting is the order of the day. Stop by and say HI! I'll be working on the set I'll be wearing at the NEXT family wedding next year.

ahhhh, the FUN side of yeast

I am so amazed at the power of yeast. The fun side of yeast, actually. The NOT SO FUN side of yeast is what I deal with at work...meaning infections. NOT SO FUN.

Yesterday I made 3 beautiful loaves of whole wheat sourdough bread and 25 pizzas for our Quality Department Gathering yesterday. We, of COURSE used the wood fired clay oven. It worked beautifully and was a lot of fun.

The bread and pizza dough began a full week earlier. Here's the story:

Many years ago I started making bread....BEFORE the OVEN (BO). I used the yeast I bought at the store and all purpose flour. It was pretty good....hey....ANY bread made at home is better than almost anything you can get at a grocery store - at least then. NOW....people are asking for better bread and stores are responding with better bread. Excellent crust with good crumb and it even tastes good. STILL not as good as home baked.

THEN...not so much - 20 years ago. So, I started making bread when I had the time (at the time I worked part-time). With 3 boys and a husband you can imagine how long it took to disappear. It was pretty good! There were a few times when I ran out of time and didn't get around to actually baking the bread. The dough took on a life of it's own.....while I wasn't looking. It started smelling soooo good....sour.....like sourdough. Now I KNEW about sourdough but hadn't made any. Golden opportunity! Knocking the dough down, reformed the loaf and baked. WONDERFUL! So, research into sourdough told me (at that time....a trip to the library) that I needed a save some dough and keep it for a starter for next time. RATS....baked all of it. Further research said to try again. HEY, the miners and loggers in the west had been doing this for years without going to Safeway....I could too. So, tried it again.....old dough BUT it tasted different. WHY.....a different strain of course! This one was better in fact. OK, I saved some and kept it in the refrigerator. I re-used the started the next time and always saved some in a glass jar in the refrigerator - for next time. Awesome. Sometimes it would die.....sad. NO Problem.....make a new one. Yeast is cheap! AND.....turns out my kitchen has it's own strain......for bread. I leave a mix of water and flour with some sugar open in a bowl and it automatically grows a strain of yeast that is perfect for bread. You might say my kitchen is COLONIZED with the perfect sourdough yeast.

See......yeast....the fun, yummy side.

The sourdough bubbling away

The loaves resting and rising in the bakers cloth

Today....I'm starting an other batch of dough to bake some bread for our yearly family gathering tomorrow. Took some of my trusty starter out of the crock I just bought from King Arthur Flour (the best flour - bar none). It's solid with red accents and has an honored spot in the back corner of the refrigerator. Mixed up a "Biga" of the starter with warm water, flour and sugar. Let that sit in my warm kitchen overnight.....oooooooh, magic happens! It's nice an bubbly! Added some more warm water, more flour, a bit of honey....olive oil and salt......mixed it up.....covered it again to grow/rise. More magic....Now it fills the bowel! I'll punch it down, take it out and mix in more flour to turn it into a nice soft cushy ball. Turn it into a well oiled bowl and refrigerate it overnight (tonight). In the morning, I'll divide it up into loaves - 3 or more...depending. Let them warm and rise in my linen bread cloth. About 3 pm I'll fire up the oven again. When it's about 500 degrees F the loaves will go in and I'll spray some water into the oven. This will INSTANTLY turn to steam. (It's important I don't have my face near the door - super HOT steam) and close the oven door. After 10 min I'll peek and maybe turn the loaves for even baking. Close the door again and wait about 20 more min. Check the loaves by tapping. They should be nice and toasty brown and when tapped....sound hollow. Take them out....let them cool (about 30-40 min). Then they're ready to slice to use with my goat cheese, fig and balsamic jam, and honey........ahhhhhh.

Are you drooling yet?

More PICS to follow!