Silversea Water Cooler: Welcome! Part Five

[Emtbsam]

15 hours ago, drron29 said:

And some more hotel views in Sydney. This time from the Club Intercontinental. First at night then in the morning. It was a very wet weekend in Sydney.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We enjoyed the location of the hotel and the Concierge Lounge on the roof.  Sydney is a favorite place to visit, and we hope to return soon.  It is a bit of a hike from the east coast of the US!

[Lois R]

I guess I missed all these wonderful pictures😃.....food and scenery!

 

And the CC help desk helped me out today and I got my original screen name back😃 Jazz, thanks for your help as well.

[UKCruiseJeff]

10 minutes ago, Lois R said:

I guess I missed all these wonderful pictures😃.....food and scenery!

 

And the CC help desk helped me out today and I got my original screen name back😃 Jazz, thanks for your help as well.

 

There cannot be anything worse than losing one’s identity and nothing sweeter than getting it back again. Jazz is sweet.

 

🙂

 

Jefff

[jpalbny]

1 hour ago, Lois R said:

I guess I missed all these wonderful pictures😃.....food and scenery!

 

And the CC help desk helped me out today and I got my original screen name back😃 Jazz, thanks for your help as well.

 

Welcome back! I could not get used to the new moniker, so I'm definitely glad to see the authentic Lois again.

[Lois R]

16 minutes ago, jpalbny said:

 

Welcome back! I could not get used to the new moniker, so I'm definitely glad to see the authentic Lois again.

Thank you JP🙂

[DavyWavey70]

2 hours ago, Lois R said:

I guess I missed all these wonderful pictures😃.....food and scenery!

 

And the CC help desk helped me out today and I got my original screen name back😃 Jazz, thanks for your help as well.

Glad to have you back Lois. I Had similar myself recently. 

[Lois R]

7 minutes ago, DavyWavey70 said:

Glad to have you back Lois. I Had similar myself recently. 

Thanks Davy🙂

[UKCruiseJeff]

Good Grief ….. I must have inadvertently switch on Cooler invisible mode!

 

😬

 

Jeff

 

[Lois R]

1 hour ago, UKCruiseJeff said:

Good Grief ….. I must have inadvertently switch on Cooler invisible mode!

 

😬

 

Jeff

 

Hi Jeff, I see you🙂

[UKCruiseJeff]

17 minutes ago, Lois R said:

Hi Jeff, I see you🙂

 

Phew …. !

 

All I’ll say is “Mayport Shrimp”

 

Jeff

[Will Work for Tiramisu]

UK Jeff, I wanted to mention that I made your orange loaf - using eggs from our chickens, and grinding up old (2020) slivered almonds.  Nonetheless, it came out very well.  Thanks for your suggestion.  It would be great with some tea, and it does occur to me one could pour some Cointreau on there and have a veritable orange fest.  The following seemed to pop up from a previous post I was going to make, but disappeared.  I'm leaving it just for funzies.:

 

UK Jeff, Very interesting to hear your words re: not getting hung up on the science or details of bread making.  In the last 6 months (since I stopped "working"), I've been making a lot of bread (and some pizza dough).  I have a stack of bread books 12" high, and have spent lots of time learning the trade.  Currently, I often don't use a recipe, just plop in good flour, water, salt, yeast (I use some old 2012 Costco yeast I'm trying to use up, and some newer stuff).  No oil.  I let rise in a wooden bowl with a plate over the top; sometimes I get lazy and it rises for 30 hours instead of 8.  Oops!  But I look at it and listen to it, and it speaks back to you - a nice dough, as they say, literally feels like a baby's bottom.  I do other things for other types of bread, like WW (which I love to have around 24/7).  But - no need to let the mystique scare you away - making good bread is easy-peasy, particularly when you understand you are dealing with a living thing. I go to the store and see loaves of good bread selling for $7 - $11, and get a warm fuzzy feeling in my wallet!  

[lincslady]

Lois, I would hate to lose my glass of red wine, which Mysty so kindly arranged for me.  It  seems highly likely in my case, since I am such a klutz (I think that is the word) with computing.  I admit I thought it must be another Lois who arrived, so glad it wasn't.

 

It is 4 a.m., the time of night when I have just woken up and Davey is probably thinking of going to bed.  A mug of tea laced with a little Scotch for me now, then maybe back to sleep for a while.

 

Have a good day/night everyone.

 

Lola

 

 

[DavyWavey70]

2 hours ago, lincslady said:

Lois, I would hate to lose my glass of red wine, which Mysty so kindly arranged for me.  It  seems highly likely in my case, since I am such a klutz (I think that is the word) with computing.  I admit I thought it must be another Lois who arrived, so glad it wasn't.

 

It is 4 a.m., the time of night when I have just woken up and Davey is probably thinking of going to bed.  A mug of tea laced with a little Scotch for me now, then maybe back to sleep for a while.

 

Have a good day/night everyone.

 

Lola

 

 

I’d say considering by about 4. 😁

 

[FlyingScotSailors]

11 hours ago, lincslady said:

A mug of tea laced with a little Scotch for me now, then maybe back to sleep for a while.

Sounds good, except maybe for the tea. 🥃

[UKCruiseJeff]

11 hours ago, Will Work for Tiramisu said:

UK Jeff, I wanted to mention that I made your orange loaf - using eggs from our chickens, and grinding up old (2020) slivered almonds.  Nonetheless, it came out very well.  Thanks for your suggestion. 

 

UK Jeff, Very interesting to hear your words re: not getting hung up on the science or details of bread making. 

 

Thanks WWfT - that is a great precis of pragmatism and I enjoyed it. 

 

Forgive me being a clutz with multi-quote but more and more technical stuff seems to defeat me.  But you'll get my reply I'm sure to both of your bits I'm sure.  

 

I so wish I had chickens.  My life would be a touch more complete.  We get fresh eggs every few days or week or so and my wife's first decision is to dump whatever I had planned for supper but to have a lightly boiled egg and have some bread.  I do not begrudge that. They are fresh Burford Browns.  And she must what she wishes. 🙂

 

My own overall personal direction is to continue to simplify.  If there is anything remotely like the words " ...... with a twist ...." then I develop a twitch and go back to simplicity. This is true of stuff like the orange cake and my bread.  What I want is the taste of orange and almonds - so that is what I distil down to a cake.  As you might detect I need not too much of an excuse to add the effluence of incohol to anything, but I'm trying to relearn.  So I eat the cake and drink the incohol.

 

I'm so pleased to read of your dough journey.  I think that bread is sort of visceral and prime-evil.  If you think about it, there has never been a moment in our worldly development that all of us need to find common ground.  And if I had to pick one thin it is "our daily bread".  Rice cements less people.  So does potato.  But "give us our daily bread" is the largest common denominator.

 

If I was calling a peace summit for those in conflict I'd invite them for breakfast and give them some bread and talk about bread for a while.  99.999% of the world that make and eat bread have got on for thousands of years and probably none of them have ever looked at a bread recipe book.  Because it is actually simple.  the other 00.0001% (I think!) consult clever peoples recipes and mess it up.  Hence my backward journey to first principles.

 

Anyway.  I'm always going backwards and it is what keeps me going forward.

 

WWfT, do you actually make Tiramisu?  How about some pictures of that and what else you make?

 

Jeff

[UKCruiseJeff]

11 hours ago, lincslady said:

Lois, I would hate to lose my glass of red wine, which Mysty so kindly arranged for me.  It  seems highly likely in my case, since I am such a klutz (I think that is the word) with computing.  I admit I thought it must be another Lois who arrived, so glad it wasn't.

 

It is 4 a.m., the time of night when I have just woken up and Davey is probably thinking of going to bed.  A mug of tea laced with a little Scotch for me now, then maybe back to sleep for a while.

 

Have a good day/night everyone.

 

Lola

 

 

 

Lola, I now "turn-in" at roughly 4am.  I cannot make sense of it but it improves slightly with some Absolut Vanilia.   Sleep is a really weird thing.

 

You have a greatest day.

 

Jeff

[Lois R]

13 hours ago, lincslady said:

Lois, I would hate to lose my glass of red wine, which Mysty so kindly arranged for me.  It  seems highly likely in my case, since I am such a klutz (I think that is the word) with computing.  I admit I thought it must be another Lois who arrived, so glad it wasn't.

 

It is 4 a.m., the time of night when I have just woken up and Davey is probably thinking of going to bed.  A mug of tea laced with a little Scotch for me now, then maybe back to sleep for a while.

 

Have a good day/night everyone.

 

Lola

 

 

Hi Lola, yes, it is me.......one of me is enough LOL

[lincslady]

3 hours ago, FlyingScotSailors said:

Sounds good, except maybe for the tea. 🥃

Funnily enough, when I got in the kitchen I thought what the heck and just had whisky and boiling water with a little demerara sugar (it was only the cooking whisky, not my Highland Park) and went back to sleep fairly quickly, surprisingly.

[Will Work for Tiramisu]

UKJeff,

Well, since you asked, here is todays output.  Equal amounts unbleached bread flour & whole wheat, milk, honey, oil, salt & yeast.  5 minutes with the dough hook in the mixer, total rise time about 5 hours, make the loaves and into the oven with a pan of water.  I freeze the smaller loafs, and take them out as needed.  

[silkismom]

59 minutes ago, Will Work for Tiramisu said:

UKJeff,

Well, since you asked, here is todays output.  Equal amounts unbleached bread flour & whole wheat, milk, honey, oil, salt & yeast.  5 minutes with the dough hook in the mixer, total rise time about 5 hours, make the loaves and into the oven with a pan of water.  I freeze the smaller loafs, and take them out as needed.  

How do you package them for freezing? I just started making sour dough loaves.

 

[UKCruiseJeff]

WWfT,

 

Great looking loaves. I bet they’re fragrant.  Are they soft and sweet?

 

S,

 

 If you prefer sourdough can keep for between 3 days and a week or so - helped if you add a little olive oil do it doesn’t dry too quickly.  Hope you post some piccies. 

 

Jeff

 

[Will Work for Tiramisu]

Silkismom, I take them out of the oven, let cool on a rack for a bit, then cover with a towel (I think maybe this keeps some moisture in them).  Once room temp, I put them in plastic bags, sealed in some way (depends on size of loaf and bag), and put in freezer.  They seem to be good for up to 2 weeks.  Sometimes, if in a hurry, I'll run water over them, and put in 350f oven for 10 minutes or so, to refresh.  

[drron29]

The king wanted to go fishing, and he asked the royal weather forecaster the forecast for the next few hours. The palace meteorologist assured him that there was no chance of rain.
So the king and the queen went fishing. On the way he met a man with a fishing pole riding on a donkey, and he asked the man if the fish were biting.
The fisherman said, "Your Majesty, you should return to the palace! In just a short time I expect a huge rainstorm."
The king replied: "I hold the palace meteorologist in high regard. He is an educated and experienced professional. Besides, I pay him very high wages. He gave me a very different forecast. I trust him."
So the king continued on his way. However, in a short time a torrential rain fell from the sky The King and Queen were totally soaked.
Furious, the king returned to the palace and gave the order to fire the meteorologist. Then he summoned the fisherman and offered him the prestigious position of royal forecaster.
The fisherman said, "Your Majesty, I do not know anything about forecasting. I obtain my information from my donkey. If I see my donkey's ears drooping, it means with certainty that it will rain."
So the king hired the donkey.
And thus began the practice of hiring dumb asses to work in influential positions of government.

The practice is unbroken to this date

[jpalbny]

37 minutes ago, drron29 said:

And thus began the practice of hiring dumb asses to work in influential positions of government.

 

LOL... Hey, wait a minute. I work for the government. I hope you're saying that I have no influence? 😉 

[drron29]

10 minutes ago, jpalbny said:

 

LOL... Hey, wait a minute. I work for the government. I hope you're saying that I have no influence? 😉 

In my experience real medicos have absolutely  No influence on Government or the Health bureaucracy.