Hermit Blog

Today’s Bread Experiment - Brownie Bread

Tue, 9 Mar 2010 09:39:10 -0700

1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons water
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 egg yolk
1 whole egg
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3/4 cup sugar
3 cups bread flour
2 1/2 teaspoons yeast
1/2 cup walnut pieces (optional)

Add all ingredients in the order specified by your bread machine manual, except nuts. Process on basic bread cycle. At end of first kneading, add nuts (or next time I’m trying chocolate chips).

Enjoy!

Hmmm... not as in love with this as I thought I would be... kinda doughy in the middle. Next time I’ll try the medium or dark cycle. Still, very tasty!

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Baking Extravaganza

Mon, 8 Mar 2010 11:12:08 -0700

Ok, it snowed about 4 inches of wet, heavy snow... but today the sun is out, and it’s about 33 degrees right now... not cold, and inside the house is about 70 degrees (thanks to passive solar heating!), but it LOOKS cold out there... So I’m starting off the day with some baking.... I baked a loaf of challah bread for friends last week, and they’d like another, I think... so that’s in the oven, and in the bread machine is a loaf of brioche for me.... how can you not like a loaf of bread that has a quarter of pound of butter and eggs in it?

Standing by the range, feeling the warmth of the oven radiating out, smelling that wonderful bread aroma, and filling the flour canister, I thought about how we take things for granted... and how we hunger for those things that say ‘home’ and ‘good old days.’

One of the flours I use when I bake comes from a small town mill in Cortez, Colorado... I know flour is flour is flour for the most part, but I like supporting the small businesses out there that do things the old fashioned way... it even comes in cloth, not plastic nor paper, bags.

The very act of baking, in itself, is an homage to those days when no one would even think of buying a loaf of bread in the grocery store... if you didn’t make it yourself, you bought it at the bakery. And the bread actually had flavor and texture.

The smell of my kitchen right now is glorious... and it makes me think of Mom, Grandma, and my Aunt Tena... Now the snow is coming down again....

Yep, my kitchen definitely says ‘home’ today... until the bread is done, when I get back to sanding and mudding... that does NOT say ‘good old days...’ though maybe one day it will...

(The internet’s been flaky all day today... can’t get into facebook, can’t update my web page, and I keep having to go out and clear wet snow off the satellite internet dish... we’ve gotten about 10 inches of snow as of about 5:30... )

My Amazon Storefront Closes...

Mon, 8 Mar 2010 04:24:31 -0700

I received an email from Amazon this morning: In response to Colorado’s passage of the ill-conceived HB 10-1193, they’re closing all affiliate accounts based in Colorado. That means that I’m no longer making any commissions from any of the sales by Amazon generated through my site.

It doesn’t affect any royalties that I am paid for my blog, or the two recently published books... those will still continue (so buy more please), but all those pleas I made to you to buy gift certificates, or the Kindle reading device, or any other piece of merchandise, through my storefront, well, you can ignore them.

I’m annoyed with Amazon for giving no advance notice, and for not enlisting assistance from their Colorado-based associates. But I’m more annoyed with the law itself.

Before I launch into an explanation of this, let me encourage everyone to pay attention to this issue. Colorado wasn’t the first, and it won’t be the last, to attempt this sort of thing.

Lots of us shop on the internet, right? And we all like not having to pay state sales taxes, right?

But wait... the ‘not having to pay state sales taxes’ is not true. The online retailers don’t COLLECT sales taxes from you when you buy online and they don’t have a presence in your state, but that doesn’t mean that you, the consumer, don’t owe them.

What Colorado’s bill was attempting to do was to get information from Amazon and other large online retailers that would identify purchasers of their goods, so that Colorado could attempt to collect sales taxes from YOU the consumer, on purchases made from those retailers.

It’s a complicated issue, and one that needs fixing at the national level. 50 states coming up with ideas about how to collect tax revenue that they’re legally entitled to will just cause chaos, and frankly, loss of jobs and incomes. The notion of a state rendering invoices to consumers for small amounts of sales taxes is mind-boggling. If you buy that song from iTunes, at 99 cents, and the state learns of it, they can pursue you for, brace yourself, 2.9 cents. Suppose they’ll spend more than that on postage or collection fees?

I agree that Colorado is entitled to the sales tax on that item... and it’s only fair to those local stores who have the burden of collecting sales taxes that we do something to level the playing field. But deciding to subpoena sales records of companies that have ‘affiliates,’ like me, based in Colorado, so that they can attempt to collect sales taxes from consumers, like you, is just a bad idea.

For more information on this issue, and ideas about how to level the playing field, check out:
• http://www.newrules.org/retail/rules/internet-sales-tax-fairness
• http://www.bookweb.org/advocacy/salestax
• http://www.streamlinedsalestax.org/

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Never Better...

Sun, 7 Mar 2010 19:20:24 -0700

Still no Angelo today... and today was Troy’s memorial service... Before dawn, the temperature was in the teens... by 11 it was in the 50s with lots of sun... and by the time Troy’s service began, the temperature was dropping, and the cloud cover was nearly 100%.

The service was beautiful... some beautiful, poignant, and even funny remembrances of Troy from friends of all ages... I don’t think there was a dry eye in the house...

I got home, and it started to rain... I thought of all the funerals I’ve been to, and how often rain played a part...

A perfect setting for a big evening of great depression and sadness, I thought...

And then I remembered one story, a story told by my friend Dee at the memorial service. No matter how Troy’s day was going; whether there were unhappy customers at the restaurant, or whether his bicycle needed a new tire, or whatever the crisis of the day was, they had a standard dialog... It started with Dee asking Troy, “How’s it going?” And Troy’s standard response was “Never better.” Soon, it got to be a joke between them. Dee soon began responding the same way, “Never better.”

On this night, with the gentle rain falling on my metal roof, I can almost hear Troy asking, “How’s it going?” and challenging me to give the right answer.

“Never better.” I’ll say it, not because it’s true right now, but because I want it to be true. And in that wanting, and in believing and in praying, maybe, just maybe, we’ll all make it be true.

“Never better.” Pretty wise words from a 17=year-old. And words I’ll be repeating, in his honor.

I spend about $1000 a year to keep this blog up and running,  and to keep internet access. Do you find it entertaining
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And now Volume 2 Is Published....

Sun, 7 Mar 2010 07:24:18 -0700

As of this morning, both the first and second volumes of The Hermitage at Ojito Creek are available at the Amazon website.

Volume 2 collects the blog entries from my website (lightly edited and cleaned up) from 2008, a year that saw the completion of the exterior of the house finishes, and a year that brought a functional bathroom, doors, a greenhouse, and a cat to the Hermitage.

The first volume covers 2004-2007.

For those who have only recently discovered this website, it’s a fun way to catch up. For those who’ve been following along for a long time, it’s an opportunity for some nostalgia.

• The Hermitage at Ojito Creek - Volume 2, 2008
• The Hermitage at Ojito Creek - Volume 1, 2004-2007

Don’t have a Kindle? You can buy one here. Or you can read Kindle books on your PC (they don’t have a Mac version yet) by downloading this free application. Got an iPhone or iPod Touch? You can read it using the free Kindle app, which is available here. And it’s even available on the Blackberry, if you use this free app.

And of course, you can subscribe to the current daily updates by reading the blog on your Kindle.

If you buy the book, I’d appreciate your taking the time to write a review, by going to the bottom of the Amazon page for the book.

A small portion of each sale comes to me as a commission (if you buy the Kindle through the link on this page) or as a royalty (if you buy the book or subscribe to the blog.).

Thanks for your support. It means the world to me. I’ll let you know when Volume 3 is available.

And if you have a friend who has a Kindle, how about sharing the
news about the book and the blog with them?

I spend about $1000 a year to keep this blog up and running,  and to keep internet access. Do you find it entertaining
or helpful?
 Click here for details on how YOU can help me
keep it running...