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I was just 6 years old when Elvis died, but still have some memories of that day. My Dad got home from work, and came in to the kitchen. He told Mom that Elvis died. As they talked about this news, I recall wondering "Who was Elvis?". Was it someone they knew? I wish I could remember their conversation, but my recall isn't that deep. I just remember that this event was so notable, that Dad and Mom had to talk about it as soon as Dad came in the door. It must have been quite a shock. I didn't really know until years later that Elvis was this cultural icon, and that we had some of his LPs downstairs next to the turntable.

It's strange sometimes, the things that make lasting memories for a kid.

I heard about Michael Jackson's death this afternoon via a Twitter update that asked "Is Michael Jackson dead?". I thought, well - if he is, then it will be one massive news story. I didn't follow up to verify this news until I was leaving the office. It was true.

While I was walking home, I thought back to that night when Dad got home, and wondered if I should go in, and tell Charlotte that Michael Jackson died today. She'd probably wonder, "Who was Michael Jackson?". She's only 3. In her world, Michael Jackson will never exist. Maybe one day I'll sit with her and play some cuts from my Dad's Thriller LP that I have kicking around here somewhere. I'll think back to what that phenomenon was like for all of us in the 80s. Maybe I'll even go out there somewhere online, and find some cuts from the Thriller video, and show her all the dance moves. She likes dance. Maybe Justine will share with her what it was like when the Thriller video debuted on Friday Night Videos, and there was such a massive build-up for it because they were going to play it, all 15 minutes, without commercials.

When I got home just after 6 PM, Charlotte had already gone to bed. I grabbed Wolfe up in my arms and turned on the news. Sure enough, there was lots of TV coverage. It is quite a shock. But my kids won't remember this day....

It felt to me like Wolfe must have gained 2 pounds overnight. Something about getting him out of bed this morning, and down the stairs was more strenuous than usual. Perhaps he is going through a growth-spurt ? Or perhaps because it was 440 in the morning, I was not quite ready to deal with the day? In any case, he is a very healthy boy, and full of laughs and giggles. Has a terrible habit of pulling hair, and trying to climb up the stove. He is not yet walking, but that should happen any day now. I will likely get the call at work, when he has finally decided to take his first steps.....

I can see that convocation is happening, as the graduands are in full and colourful University Regalia, just outside my office. A very exciting time for the degree recipients, and their families! Congrats to all grads....

Kind of back in one of those periods where I'm making homemade bread on a regular basis. Want to keep up a pace of at least 3 loaves per week to feed the clan down here. After spending so much time in the kitchen during parental leave, I kind of want to keep that home-baking dream alive a bit, if I can. Is going to be tough I think. We'll have to see what we can schedule. We've got no shortage of flour (25 kg), or skills, just time. But, once you get the mixing done (thanks to the KitchenAid mixer), the dough just kind of does its thing, with only a bit of attention to shape, rise, and bake the loaves.

I managed to nail down a couple of formulas from Peter Reinhart's book, A Bread Baker's Apprentice. Got some organic bread flour I like, and can now turn out loaves with reasonable confidence that they won't go sideways. This past weekend, I did a multi-grain loaf (with cornmeal, oats, wheat bran, rice, whole-wheat flour), and a couple of whole-wheat loaves, pictured here. This should do the trick for sandwiches for this week....

Parental leave has come to and end, and I returned to work today.

Just had a dough disaster this afternoon. We're suspecting the whole-wheat flour was the culprit, but something clearly went sideways. Decided to make a whole-wheat loaf with what was left of the high-protein whole-wheat flour I had kicking around here. Just so happens the formula called for high-protein whole-wheat flour. Bravo! I'll take 9 ounces of that and toss it in, I thought to myself, optimistically. Well. After a bunch of kneading, just could not get the gluten to develop, and the dough to form up right. Something was up. Perhaps the oat soaker? Perhaps the poolish went sideways overnight ?

Anyhow, we decided to let it rise anyways, and up it came. But, the nose knows. The primary fermentation clearly left us with a well-fermented aroma on the dough. And I did not want to make any more beer bread this week! No! Anyhoo, this dough was going to be for loaves 4 and 5 of the week, but we decided to toss the dough right into the trash. So sad.

Decided to make a corn-bread for dinner anyway, to try and restore some confidence. That came out OK, so at least we wound up with 1 loaf OK. I think the next one will be a multi-grain loaf. That I will start tonight....with a multi-grain soaker....

That loaf of bread that went sideways......has ended up in grilled-cheese sandwiches....and actually, the over-fermented nature of the bread actually adds a nice angle to the lunch....it's like having a warmed-cheese sandwich, and a beer, all at the same time....

I will be keeping this in mind for future bread errors....

It's Wednesday afternoon, and I'm mixing the the third loaf of bread I've made this week. At this rate, I might be able to do 5 loaves before the week is out ? Not sure. Depends how much kitchen time I can get back in, and with all this rain, who knows how things will go.

Will try to maintain a 3-loaf/week pace once going back to work. I'm trying to perfect a formula that will more-or-less guarantee a particular style of multi-grain loaf, one fit for large sandwiches. Yes, large sandwiches with homemade bread, will hopefully end up in many lunches that I will sink my teeth into this summer. On those walks from campus, down to sunny Cadboro Bay. Oh, will the sun come out some time this summer ? We'll see...

Anyhoo, the first loaf this week was a flop. Didn't rise quite as high as those perky loaves that came out last week. Also had that yeasty overtone that drowned out the taste of the grains. Not good. The 2nd loaf was better. A blend of Red Fife sifted wheat, and some whole-wheat flour. A better result, although it took a while to get there. This next loaf, loaf number three I have high expectations for. I hope it doesn't let me down....

I've had enough of the dawdling. From our 3-year old. When will it end ?

The parenting resources I've been consulting recently advise one to take a break, if needed, to cool one's jets. I am taking a break now.

Just creaming butter and sugar now for the next batch of cinnamon buns. I am going to attempt to repeat the wild success of batch number 1. Lemme grab the photo and show you....

Wow. I see 2 years ago, I managed to blog 5 times in 1 day. Can't really keep up that kind of pace these days, zipping between tasks. Not spending much time at the keys these days, but for checking email.

I have just unloaded Wolfe briefly upstairs with Mommy, and am about to make some breakfast, before zipping out to see the chiropractor. Time for some neck/back tuning.

I've had enough of the whining. From our 3-year old. When will it end ?

Lots of great info here on using fats in your baked goodies. The tip I needed tonight was on how to cream butter, if you have just taken your butter out of the fridge, and need to make cookies pronto (typically for a Mommy with a sweet-tooth).

The tip is to grate the butter, and let it sit out at room temp for a few minutes to soften.

I was having a parental moment during the dinner hour, while I was on my hands and knees, down on the kitchen floor. The dinner hour is usually full of challenges, and this evening was starting out no different. Wolfie is learning how to feed himself these days, and this sometimes leads to a scene we call "the feast on the floor". Tonight it was some lentils, spinach, and onions strewn all about.

I got down there to sweep up this feast pronto, while the lentils were still whole, and before anyone could step on them, grinding them into the hardwood. I find that dried peas and beans that have been squished into the floor usually take a bit more effort to chip off and sweep up.

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Just getting back from the Songs and Stories event down at The Superior. A great Friday morning activity that gets the whole family out for a good time. Mom and Dad can do a nice coffee and treats, while the kids get to sing, and march, and dance, and listen to stories.....Charlotte calls it the "Music Box Cafe"...

Ok, got the new KING size Kenmore HE washer/dryer pair installed yesterday. These babies are massive, taking up way more cubic footage in the laundry closet. Wow. I've never seen a residential washer/dryer so massive! They are in the stacked configuration and are taller than me! I have to get up on my tip-toes to see the top of the dryer!

Ran the first loads through today. So quiet! I did all the cloth diapers in 1 load, with tons of room to spare. Hey, I could have chucked in the neighbour's cloth diapers. And maybe even another neighbour?! Maybe I should start up a local diaper service while I'm on leave!

Editor's note: Ok, this laundry-talk is making you crazy.

Checking out the washer User Guide here, where they give you a recommended load suggestion for towels: 10 bath towels, 10 hand towels, 14 wash cloths. We don't even have that many towels!

Charlotte had an unfortunate spill in the kitchen, and wiped out into a cabinet. Her front-teeth made an impact, which resulted in immediate dental concerns. Took her down to the dentist yesterday, and the prognosis is good. Front-teeth a little loose, but that is to be expected anyway. Turns out she's got the big-girl teeth coming in right now, so those baby-teeth weren't going to be sticking around long anyways....

Yah, was up from 0230 to 0345 with Mr. Change-My-Diaper-and-Teething-Really-Bad. Not too fresh by the time 0600 rolled around, when usually Charlotte or Wolfe want to get up. This morning, Wolfie was full of beans, while Daddy was struggling to make sense of the morning. Oscar helped by rising around 0630 to start barking for breakfast. Thanks, pal. Shut up, and I'll get your num-nums.

Just now getting things cleaned up from breakfast (cream of wheat, with fruit and nuts), and going to head out the door to play-group down in the Village.

We're chowing on some nice salami, goat cheese, and brie. Tasty appies. Turns out that Wolfe is digging it too. He's got those new chompers coming in, so why not, eh...?

Thrifty Foods recently held a fabulous contest on their Web site, where they were inviting web site visitors to enter online to win the fabulous prize of a new Kenmore Super-Capacity front-load washer-dryer pair. I am happy to announce that we are among the winners of this fabulous contest, and will soon have our new laundry appliances installed in the James Bay shack!

I'm doing most of the laundry these days, and am doing quite fine with the existing Samsung front-loaders that we have now. They are certainly not super-capacity, and we've recently been talking about getting a larger pair, so we can decrease the number of loads we're doing. This could be one way to make that effort more efficient.....however, buying a new pair is not exactly in the budget at this time.

Editor's Note: are you sure you wish to blog about laundry ?

Anyhoo, will get those units installed next week, thanks to Thrifty's. Looking forward to it....luckily, our really tall-and-skinny laundry room should be just big enough to fit those babies in stacking style....

Ok, this is week 6 of 13. Wolfe is one of those boys that is very determined to tear this place apart. He's crawling, standing, grabbing, pulling, stretching, shredding, pushing, pulling, and generally punishing anything he can get his hands on. Under very close supervision last week, he climbed the 14 steps up to the 2nd floor of the shack. Hmm. It's not like he is content to sit around and thumb through his favourite board-books. No, he'd rather dump the book basket and chew on them all!

Note to self: Nothing is safe. Batten down everything.

Went out searching for whole bean coffee in the Village this AM. Thrifty's has the Kicking Horse Coffee 1 lb. bags on special this week.

Found my way into James Bay Coffee Co., and was pleased to find that they are retailing the Saltspring Island Coffee whole beans, so I grabbed 1/2 pound of Metta Espresso. You got to like it when the roast has its own web page.

I see Serious Coffee, just down Menzies also has a number of their roasts available in-store, and some of those are organic as well. Might try the Warmland roast sometime.

Didn't have to visit the local 'bucks shack.

Took home the bean for prompt grind, and pump through the Gaggia for the day's first latte....

Got a wee one crawling around on the floor, entering himself with the music-bag. It is a rather fun-filled sack of musical instruments. I have a pot of dahl going on the front-burner, and the back-burners idling for now. Thinking about throwing a broccoli frittata together for dinner. Or maybe a pot of pasta, topped with a Broccoli/Mustard sauce, a fam favourite. Either way, I've got to use that broc hanging out in the fridge. Reminds me also of the last bit of that bunch of green chard that I've got to use up. Hmmm.....will probably end up in the frittata.

We didn't go out this morning, because it was hovering around freezing, so staying inside was the plan for the day.

I'm rising a bread sponge over on the side-counter, that 's going to become a multi-grain loaf. I'm using this 20 kilogram bag of sifted red-fife wheat flour that we got from the True Grain Bakery, and liking that quite a bit. Not only was the bulk-price ($72) quite nice, but the breads I'm making with it have quite an authentic flavour. A real bready/nutty flavour, that reminds you of what bread is supposed to taste like.

Got CBC Radio 1 on the stereo, pulling in current news and views. I'm sure this is a fairly typical Canadian household scene....

Have been doing a tour through the rather large collection of cookbooks that we have in the house. You could say we have a small library of them, stacked up in a Billy Bookcase right there in the kitchen, where you need 'em.

I'm keeping track of everything I'm making in a recipe-journal, a hard-copy list that's in the back-pages of one of the books.....

So here we are, on a snowy day in March, in lovely James Bay. An unseasonal blizzard outside the window. Charlotte has already been out to play, and tried to catch the falling snowflakes on her tongue. It's starting to stick on the ground, and I hear we are to expect a centimetre or so....

I think the time change came in at 0200 last night or something. I was up with Wolfe for over an hour somewhere in there. Just one of those nights, you know. Up in the wee wee hours. After I finally got him back to sleep, the time changed, and that whole hour was erased. It's like that hour never happened. But it sure feels like it did.

	Part of the new weekly routine is to head out on foot to our various destinations, all the while taking a very-leisurely pace. Wolfe is usually napping in the stroller, while Charlotte pokes along checking out all the interesting things there are to see along the journey. Last week, while on the way to story-time at the public library, Charlotte stopped in front of the Hotel Grand Pacific, and tried out the cement sculpture out front. She said "Daddy, this is like a slice of avocado!"
	And then we get down onto the Lower Causeway, and she wanted to jump up onto each of the light-standards ringing the harbour walkway. Every single one, except the bird-poop ones. And tell me how they looked like mushrooms!
	And then we get down to the Tobacconist on Government Street, and she had a great deal of fun looking at all the neat stuff in the window. Yes, it takes a while to get to most places, but that's OK....

Way back in the first week of parental leave, I was looking around on usedvictoria.com for an exer-saucer. Wolfe is quite the active little tot, and I thought he would dig hanging out in one for brief spells. So, we found several listed, and picked up this one, and as expected, he does have fun in it!

He's crawling fast, and hauling himself up our stairs now, and really wants to walk bad.....perhaps he will take his first steps before I return to work? I recall hearing about Charlotte's first steps after I returned to work from parental-leave #1....

As a visitor to our kitchen last night noted, I'm managing to pull a few things together in a one-handed style. In true attachment-parenting fashion, Wolfe is often up on my right-hip, held up by my right-arm. Left-arm free for various actions like stirring, stacking, lifting, flipping, etc.

So we've got a KitchenAid mixer on the counter next to the fridge. Should I not be using that baby full-time, as an aid to whatever it is that I am doing?! Yes! So, I did my first batch of bread-dough in it yesterday, and a batch of cookies in it just tonight. That baby really is a labour-saver that I should have been using long before now.....doh! double-doh!

Ok, I'm wiped out now. I started off with so much energy this morning, but am now running out of gas, and there's still another round to go.

Since going on leave, I've taken up the task of preparing most meals. Good times, really. I haven't been at the helm in the kitchen for quite some time, so this is a gas. Did I mention we're cooking with a gas range, as well? Justine pointed out to me a very key function on the KitchenAid range a couple days ago - the "Bread Proof" function. Did NOT know we had that - doh!

Anyhoo, I had some red kidney beans soaking for a day, so I threw those on to cook with some onion, and parsley. Figured they'd been sitting around long enough. Then decided to make a Lentil Minestrone. No wait a minute, we had a lentil soup already in the past week, plus the red-lentil dahl, so I decided to change course, a bit. Went for a green split-pea soup. Yah, the Moosewood Restaurant Daily Special has one with dried mushrooms and Miso, so I went for that one. Used the V-Slicer to dice the carrots, and potatoes. Just like having a magic chef....

Justine and the kids were out at a birthday party a couple of blocks over, so I wasn't juggling wee ones in the kitchen at the same time.....

After they got back, I made a plan with Charlotte to make a couple of loaves of bread. This time, we were going to use the KitchenAid mixer, rather than mix and knead by hand. She is great at running the mixer, so this would be a fun-filled activity. As it turned out, she went upstairs after lunch for a rest, so it was up to me and Wolfe to make the bread dough - which we did. He hangs out on my hip to keep an eye on things. That KitchenAid mixer is a sweet ride. Takes some labour out of the job. Used the Bread Proof function on the oven to get the first rise happening, while serving up dinner. Am reading this bread primer at epicurious right now. The soup was nice, and we've got tons more to eat, so I can cool my kitchen jets tomorrow. Also got a pot of lentils and rice in the fridge to finish. Did those ones with a caramelized-onion mix. Tasty.

Did stories at bed-time with Charlotte, then threw the bread into the pan for the second rise. While that was happening, I bombed a tray of chocolate chip cookies into the oven. Made the cookie dough last night, by request, and only make 6 or 8 cookies at a time. I like having a bit of cookie dough on hand in the fridge, for a yummy dessert.

Cookies came out sweet, so now the bread is in at 375 for 40 minutes. Got the other dough in the fridge for tomorrow. Will make another loaf of bread, or maybe dinner rolls.

Can't really have days like this when I'm at work....

Looks like February '09 raced by without a nod to the first post to this site, made back on Feb 1/1999.

Have locked into the daily routine here quite nicely. Am at home right now doing a few things around the house, while the gang is out in the Village. Am doing more updates on my Twitter page these days....