The Lyorn's Den

Notes to self:

For yeast dough, put the butter in when you start the second stage. Later, and it won't bind well. Kneading by hand will fix it after a while.

For shortcrust, use cold or soft butter.

For crumble, use very cold butter in thin slices, or it will become shortcrust.

Pay attention when baking. It's not a forgiving craft.

***

I *do* know all that.
Really.

I just went outside to see the falling stars, which should be very numerous and visible this night, but the sky was hazy, and the city too bright, even from the not-reached-but-streetlights yard.

Other things:

It's too hot. Weather forecast says temperature will drop by 10 or 15 degrees on Friday or Saturdays. It seems impossible.

Work is crazy. With 1/4 of our team on vacation, I could put in 10 hours a day and the pile of things to do would *still* get higher. Also, shit keeps happening and I had a miserable headache today.

Yesterday night I stumbled on a story I had started before the longest writer's block ever struck, six years ago now, and I barely recognized my own voice in it. Was I ever that brilliant? It's scary.

Saturday we had a role playing game, flederkatz GM'ed Deadlands. Fun. Too short. We killed a few monsters that wanted to eat us, and broke into a secret base, and left as unnoticed as we came. (We think.)

We now have a chance to think if the guys we are after are really the bad guys. On one hand, kidnapping orphans and stockpiling what seems to be a hidden marine base in a place that is at peace only because of poverty and exhaustion is not looking good. On the other hand, we do not know exactly what happened to these orphan's parents (presumed dead after an earthquake where part of the town dropped into the sea) and we haven't the foggiest whose base it is, except that it seems well-maintained. There might be more than one group active here. Actually, one could make a very good point for two. So, shall we call in the cavalry?

Also, I got some of the best prune plums ever, and made the best Zwetschgenstreuselkuchen ever, helped by the heat, which made the yeast happy, and by confusing the amounts of sugar and flour for the Streusel, which meant that they got crunchy-caramel-like, and some butter melted out of the Streusel at baking.

I know, I know, "Quiche? What kind of food is that for a monster to eat?" And even worse, it's vegetarian ( pear and camembert quiche )

Yesterday we had oven squash and rice. I have been asked for the recipe, so here it is.

( Oven squash and rice )

For dessert, we had ( Apple rolls )