June 2023 – The Solo Geographer

Apple Bread? Not Quite.

More bread baking fun.

After another week of giving tours and being hot, I decided to bake some bread yesterday. I was too tired to write the blog post then, so I’m writing it now. I’m actually going to the zoo later this morning so I’ll probably make a post about that as well.

My bread today is Apple Yeast Bread! You put applesauce in the dough. I had a feeling as I was baking it that it wouldn’t be very sweet, and I was right. I was texting my mom during the process, and I made the comment that it was probably added more as a food for the yeast, along with the honey. Yeast needs sugar in order to grow, multiply, and release CO2, which is why bread dough rises. This is actually the concept behind carbonation in fermented drinks as well, such as beer and Champagne, kombucha, and traditional ginger beer. You keep those bottles closed as the yeasts eat up the sugar and expel CO2 and you get a nice bubbly drink! Now, honey has some problems when it comes to yeast fermentation, but that’s mostly if you use processed honey. I usually buy raw honey so even though it has antiseptic properties, it won’t be a problem for this bread.

I am actually trying to grow my own ginger bug but I’ve failed 3 times. Crossing my fingers for number 4!

Anywayyyyy, my bread recipe booklet is marketed as vintage, pioneer recipes. It makes sense that something that may be more accessible to homesteading women, like apples and applesauce, would be used if they weren’t able to get cane or molasses sugar. I remember reading the Little House on the Prairie Books and how far that the Ingalls would have to go to a store before they settled closer to towns.

So without further ado, my bread!

Gotta get that yeast slurry going. It always looks so strange but it’s the science never fails to interest me!

Lotsa salt.

I buy raw honey mostly because I like the unprocessed taste better, but I heard that sometimes processed honey can mess with the health benefits. My usage of honey doesn’t really cross over with that, but eh, I figured I’d throw that out there.

SURPRISE INGREDIENT!
Ladies and gents, this recipe called for shortening. I don’t like Crisco if I can help it, and, well, since these are pioneer recipes, I bought LARD. Yes, lard! It has a horrible rap, and you can thank Crisco for that. My family’s bakery does use vegetable shortening in some of our recipes, but man you can’t beat lard. If you’re not a vegetarian, that is. Anyway, I was excited to find they sell lard at Walmart now. I don’t know if they sell it at the regular grocery store I go to but I should check. Lard is actually better for you than vegetable shortening. Again, this is also if you’re not a vegetarian. I have veg friends and I’d never serve them something with lard in it. It’s not quite the same, but I have a huge aversion towards mushrooms and I’d lose it if someone fed me them to be sneaky and mess with me. It’s just cruel.

Powdered milk, hot water, and mix it all together!

Finally I added the yeast slurry. Then it was time to add the flour!

I had some troubles.

I had to roll up my metaphorical shirtsleeves and do the last cup and a half of flour by hand.

Can you imagine Ma Ingalls with a KitchenAid? She would have been all over that business. I remember reading a post awhile back about all these homesteading methods everyone (yes, everyone), should know including butchering your own hogs and cooking on an open fire. And while the thought behind it was you need to know these things in case the world goes to hell and we have to, IDK, become pioneers and go west and live in a one room log cabin, all I could think about was the Little House books and how much time they took to just survive. While I do know how to cook in a dutch oven and I love camping, you can’t take my KitchenAid from me. Also I’m not going to butcher a hog, not at ALL sorry. I can’t even put a worm on a hook when I go fishing.

I put it in my improvised oven proof box for an hour and it POOFED. Also peek at my dinner recipe up there.

PUNCH. My favorite part.

Back in the proofbox.

I was surprised at the 3 rises this bread has, and there was a slight problem with it later, but I’ll explain when I get there.

Also I didn’t really weight the halves so they were a bit different sizes. OH WELL.

As you can see, not only was one larger, I think it genuinely had more oven spring. The loaf on the right was denser. I’m not entirely sure how that happened since they were proofed exactly the same, but the loaf ban on the left is also a bit of a different shape and size and I think that was part of it.

My stove is still greasy from cooking dinner, sorry.
I was a bit freaked out when I pulled these, because the crust was rock hard. I even texted my mom upset. All I had to do was wait, though, because they softened as the bread cooled.

It has a dense crumb structure, but it still tastes just fine. The other loaf is even better. I think the denseness might have been contributed to the third rise. If you let a dough rise too much, the yeast won’t have any more sugars. So it stops rising because it stops producing CO2. I think that’s what happened with the smaller loaf. Regardless, the flavor is still good, it’s just a bit denser than a yeast bread probably should be. I’d like to experiment with it rising only twice, but I don’t want to use up that much flour in the future.

It doesn’t have hardly any sweetness, and it’s just a regular white bread. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I read the recipe, but in the process of baking it I was sure it would end up more like this and I was right. It makes pretty good toast. I’m not sure if I’d make it again mostly because it’s just a plain white bread. Regardless, I enjoyed the process!

As for my next bread recipe, I don’t know. Maybe one of the quick breads? They also have fried breads that I’m eager to try. You’ll find out soon enough I suppose! Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a great day.

The Simple Joy of Baking Bread

Enjoying the smell of baking bread. . .

I got back from Moab last night.

Correction: I got back from Moab at 1 A.M. this morning, but I don’t like to split hairs (That is a total lie). I slept in late (for me), got my nephew and I lunch, sent nephew off back home to his parents and his pup, and picked up my own pup. I meant to grab a lot more photos of my desert adventures but, um, I didn’t. Though I did see Kevin Costner (through a spotting scope) filming one of the Horizon Sequels while camping on the river, so you know I had a good time.

I decided that this afternoon, I’d attack a bread recipe from the book I mentioned in my first post. This isn’t actually the first recipe I attempted. The first one I tried about a week before I left on my vacation and it was a dismal failure. I think it was a kneading issue. I tried Molasses Wheat Bread and it was. . . not good. So this time I decided to do a simpler recipe and it was great!

So I present: Sally Lunn Yeast Bread!

I had no idea who Sally Lunn was, though the book said she was an Englishwoman who sold her baked goods on the streets and her recipes came to America. With this rather sparse biography, I decided to look her up. Apparently, she might not have even existed. Regardless, the bread lives on, and it’s delicious!

First, I had to dissolve yeast.

Then I had to make an iced latte.

I meant to get a photo of all the ingredients but I forgot I had planned to do this and just measured them as I added them to the mixer. But butter is important.

Add a bit of sugar and cream together.

A coupla eggs.

My sister has chickens, and we got fresh eggs every day in Moab (or could have, I only ate eggs twice while I was there because I usually only wanted coffee in the mornings).

Then I added flour and milk in alternating batches as I mixed them together, ending off with the dissolved yeast.

I beat it all until the batter/dough was smooth and sticky.

Mmm sticky and springy

So then I left it in a slightly warm oven to rise for two hours. Halfway through, I actually added boiling water to a pan underneath to transform the oven into a rudimentary proof box. I learned this trick in culinary school, actually, and it works like a charm.

Soft and still sticky!

“Punching” it down with a polycarbonate spoon.

The recipe calls for a tube pan, which I don’t actually own. I found a bundt pan and used that instead. I had to “pour” the batter into the pan, though it was too sticky to actually do that, but it worked.

Ready for the second rise!

Back into a warm oven with a bit of water in pan, this time only for an hour.

It rose like a champ. I poked it at this stage and was delighted at how airy it felt. It’s hard to describe. But I could tell it wasn’t dense (which was hardly a surprise, considering it rose to the top of the pan!).

I put it into an oven and baked away for around 40 minutes. It was right on the money. Also, it was soooooo nice smelling this bread bake. It’s one of my favorite smells in the world, and I blame that fully on the fact that I spent so much of my childhood in my family’s bakery.

Pardon my messy stove.

Beautiful brown crust.

I texted a photo to my dad and he wanted to try it. My mom is out of town, but it should still be good by the time she gets back. Dad and I tried it with butter and it was so good! What really warmed my heart was when he said it looks like his grandma’s bread. He also said it tasted like hers too. I love the idea of connecting to the past through something as simple as baking bread. It’s part of why I’m blogging this process. I love making food and sharing it!

Look at that crumb structure!

When I brought it back home I remembered that I bought some prickly pear jelly in Moab. I decided to try it on the bread and it was delicious. Prickly Pear is hard to describe. It’s sweet and a bit tart. It was the perfect counterpoint to this egg yeast bread.

So I’d say this recipe is a success! I have to go back to eating healthy tomorrow, as I indulged in junk food WAY too much on my trip. However, I will definitely be eating a slice or two of this bread until it’s gone!

Slickrock and Sun

Sunny day of hiking.

I’m in Moab, Utah with 3 of my nephews! We’re visiting my sister Laura and it’s so dry. It’s not as hot as it usually is when I visit, which is a relief. But it is sunny and we have to drink so much water all the time. Back home, where 85% humidity is the norm, we don’t have to drink nearly as much. I do drink plenty at home because I walk and climb Monks Mound so much for my job. But here it’s even more

Yesterday, our first full day in Moab, some of us went to Sand Flats Recreation Area for a little hike. It was beautiful!

The trail we hiked is called Pinyon trail. It wasn’t too long, only about a mile loop. The sky was so blue!

Appa had fun exploring.

There’s still a lot of snow on the La Sal Mountains. We might go up there to fish later this week.

Damon is thrilled lol.

This is a yucca plant with fruit. The fruit is not exactly what you’d expect, it’s hard and firm like a pumpkin as my nephew Teddy said. They’re pollinated by the Yuccca Moth.

Climbing “slickrock” which is actually super grippy sandstone. I looked it up, and it’s called slickrock because the settlers had a hard time with their metal rimmed wheels and their shod horses. It’s also probably a lot more slick when it gets wet. As for our rubber soled shoes, it’s super easy to climb!

Sand Flats Recreation area is also home to the worldwide famous Slickrock Trail. Mountain bikers come from all over the world to experience this trail. I like bike riding, but I’m not that adventurous! I need more practice so I don’t get tired on my flat streets back home.

Teddy found a Hot Wheels on the trail! He brought the truck in his other hand, and we found this “wild hot wheels” in the sand. It was a cool find even funnier considering he found a hot wheels in Moab last summer in the rocks at the condo we stayed at with my folks. I have his face blocked out because I don’t have his parents’ permission to post it and he’s a little too young to decide for himself.

My sister enjoying the view.

At the top of another slickrock!

This is the ephedra plant, also called “Mormon tea” round these parts. It has medicinal properties. You may recognize the name since it’s pretty regulated as a medicine/supplement in the US. Just chewing it like a piece of straw is no big. Teddy really likes it, though I think it just tastes like a random plant.

Teeny tiny prickly pear cactus! There’s a lot of these plants around, but this one was tiny and cute so I had to show it with my (already small) hand for scale.

I didn’t get as many photos of the trail as I would like, and I completely forgot to get a photo of the biological soil crust, but maybbe I will later on during the trip. We also went to Moonflower to walk about but we got attacked by mosquitos and there was poison ivy all around.

We had to cap off the day with MoYo, or Moab Fozen Yogurt.

The three of us decided independently to not smile for this photo. You can just barely see Jimmy’s bright red hair next to Damon. Yes I’m wearing a different shirt (I was getting a bit chilly as the sun was going down!

Today we’re packing up to go on the river (either tonight or tomorrow) and Teddy CAN’T WAIT. Neither can I!

Tangerines, Sugar, and the Perils of Gas Stoves.

A few weeks ago I bought some pony pixie tangerines online from a family owned grove in California. I ate most of them, they were delicious, but I got sick of them (it was a pretty packed box). So they languished in the bottom drawer of my fridge until I remembered that you can make candied orange slices.

Or tangerines in this case. They’re tiny.

So I grabbed my trusty mandoline and went to work. I sliced them about 3/16ths. (5 mm… that’s easier. 5 mm). I blanched them in boiling water but I think I packed the pot too much because some of the slices were still bitter. OH WELL LIVE AND LEARN.

I made a simple syrup, heated it, and added the first batch of slices. My brand new candy thermometer came in handy. The recipe said to heat the sugar up to 250 degrees F so that’s what I did.

My sugar went WILD. Also I got moisture inside the tube of the thermometer so that was a joy to work with.

I had to make up some more simple syrup as I was almost to the bottom of the pot after the first batch. I think the second batch turned out a bit better.

Batch 1. One of the slices is all messed up because I was trying to not slice my finger off on the mandoline. I also decided to candy some of the end pieces of the orange, but the first batch was a bit too bitter to eat all of that pith, so I may toss them.

All the slices! And yes that is my finger in the top corner. I was a bit out of sorts because of what happened during the first batch.

Yeah…. I’ve had a gas stove in my house for over ten years and this is the very first time something caught fire. I had the towel too close to the pot as I was using it to check the thermometer (I almost burned myself on the metal clip) and welp. Flames. It actually took me a hot minute (lol) to notice it caught fire, and when it did, my first thought was to dunk it in the ice water holding the blanched slices.

Then I grabbed it and stuck it in the sink and turned it on. Crisis averted. Upon second thought, maybe I should have dumped the measuring cup of water that was sitting right there… Nah, that’d make too much sense.

The slices are still drying out some, and it may take until tomorrow. I’ll buy some chocolate and dip the more bitter ones and have a party. If I make it again I MAY slice them slightly thinner. Or maybe I’ll try LIMES. I love limes so much. One of the bread recipes in my book is for lime bread and I’m so excited.

I have the next couple of days off work so I plan to bake bread on one of those days. And sew a pair of shorts. I leave for Utah in a week and I have so much to do!

Hopefully the next post will be a bread baking adventure!

Spelunking, sort of.

The Solo Geographer goes caving.

There are a lot of caves in Missouri. A LOT. According to Mo.gov, there are over 7,000 of them. To put on my Geographer hat (overlapping with a Geologist hat, as Geography tends to do), I’ll tell you why that is. Missouri has what’s called a karst landscape, that is a lot of limestone and dolomite. These minerals are easily (comparatively) worn away by slightly acidic water. This water slowly but surely dissolves rock, creating impressive underground landscapes.

I could talk all day about different types of caves, the water table, and minerals, but I’ll save that for your Wikipedia browsing. Or, maybe you’ll get inspired by this post and go find a cave to explore! Any cave that gives public tours is most likely going to have a knowledgeable tour guide.

I’ve been to caves a lot in my life. I remember going to Onandaga caverns in school. I’ve been to Meramec Caverns several times. I went spelunking in one of the systems in eastern Missouri during summer camp. That was the first time I got to really go caving. We wore hardhats, long pants, sturdy shoes we could get messed up, and headlamps. It was WILD and awesome! I also went to the glowworm caves in New Zealand, which was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.

Fast forward several years, and I ended up on one of the best trips of my life: Costa Rica. The travel agency I used hooked me up with a spelunking expedition in Cavernas de Venado. This was the most hardcore caving I’d ever done!

Me in Cavernas de Venado. This was in 2021, so masks were still enforced. My tour guide spoke little English, I spoke little Spanish, and the two other people I was with translated as best they could, and we all had a wonderful time. Next time I won’t wear skinny jeans spelunking! We got SOAKED as we had to crawl through feet of water and duck down to avoid hitting our heads at the same time. Somehow my phone survived!

I work as a seasonal interpreter at Cahokia Mounds. Interpreter as in I interpret the site, sharing history, the culture of the people who built the mounds, and helping visitors understand the importance of the mounds. Sadly I am not fluent in another language, so not that type of interpreter. My main duty is to give tours, though I’ve also written educational materials and made some props for education bins. Anyway, that’s a roundabout way of explaining that I have a different work week than many people (thought not too different from owning a bakery!). I work Wednesdays through Sundays, as opposed Mondays through Fridays. Our bakery is Tuesday through Saturday so kind of a middle ground. ANYWAY, since it was Memorial Day on Monday and my nephews were out of school, they went with me to the Lake of the Ozarks.

Packing up with two teenage boys, two dogs, and all our stuff was a bit cramped, but we made it. At least we weren’t camping and I didn’t have to lug my huge Rtic cooler! My parents have a condo right on the lake, so we got to enjoy free lodging. We took it pretty easy on the weekend, though I forgot my swim suit like a doof so we couldn’t go swimming. And I didn’t really have the money to rent a boat or jet skis, so we couldn’t do the lake stuff (maybe next time!). We did do go karts and mini golf.

But the highlight of the trip was when we went to Bridal Caverns. I wasn’t entirely sure want to expect since I hadn’t been to any of the caves in the Ozarks. I wondered if it would be as polished and built up as Meramec. Meramec, by the way, is significantly bigger than Bridal Cave. Also the infrastructure of the walkways is a lot more built up. Bridal Cave was super cool. Our tour guide Hattie was marvelous, and we chatted a bit before the tour about being tour guides.

There’s just something about the natural world that gets to me. I feel the same way when I go out west, or when I went to New Zealand, or even when I went on an ocean cruise. I just love it. I guess my chosen field makes sense, then.

We actually had to stoop down to get through part of the caves!

When you have 2 teenage boys who are cracking 6 foot, that presents a problem! My 5 foot tall self had no problem. There were also a couple places we had to turn sideways but I didn’t get photos.

That wooden plank is actually an old ladder! You can just barely see the “rungs.” I’m not afraid of heights, but I’d probably break my neck climbing that thing.

It’s remarkable with a little water can create, isn’t it? The teeny tiny stalactites are my favorite. They’re called soda straws since they’re hollow. The saying is “stalactites cling tight” to tell the differences between them and stalagmites. But when I was a kid, they told us stalaCtites, C for ceiling; stalaGmites, G for ground. So I still think of them that way.

Bridal Cave has this really cool underground “lake.” If I recall the tour correctly, it didn’t exist until they created the Lake of the Ozarks when they dammed the Osage River.

If you are ever at the Lake of the Ozarks and need something to do on a rainy day, I highly recommend Bridal Cave. It’s really interesting with some unique features, and has some great stories. The gift shop isn’t quite as big as others I’ve seen, but we did indulge in rock candy and the boys got fun stone necklaces. We’re going to Utah in a couple weeks and we’re for sure going to hit the rock shop when we go, and that entire store deserves it’s own post! I can’t wait.

I’d also like to check out Stark Caverns next time I’m out at the lake. I don’t know when I’ll get out that way with work and my other summer plans, but I always enjoy going to the condo and relaxing for a couple of days. Even if I don’t do anything at all, it’s nice to go someplace different to clear your head.

We left for home soon after our cave tour, but it was fun, and I always love geeking out over interesting landscapes, above or below the ground. Just you wait until we go to Utah! I don’t know if I’ll take my fancy DSLR camera with me since I need to fix some settings, but I’ll definitely take lots of photos of our adventures. Before that, I think I’ll make a cooking post or two.

Til next time!