English Muffins

14g Honey
14g Oil
350g Warm Soy milk
335g Bread Flour
6g Salt
10g Starter
5g Apple Cider Vinegar
2g Baking Soda
45g Water

Mix all ingredients except the baking soda and water. Let stand 10 minutes. Combine the water and soda, then mix with batter. Heat griddle to low-medium heat (2 out of 5 on my stove). While batter is rising and griddle is warming, lightly oil the inside of english muffin rings or large canning bands. Pour about 1/4 cup batter into each ring and allow about 10 minutes to cook. Flip over and allow another 10 minutes.

Well, this was my first attempt to make English muffins and the came out somewhat like I had hoped. There is still plenty of room for improvements but they seem like they will work for breakfast tomorrow.

When I sliced into the muffins, they had a tight crumb with small bubbles. I think the recipe needs to be wetter. We'll try it again soon and let it sit over night to see if that improves the texture. The flavors came out a little sweeter than I expected but tasty enough to have another.

Hippity hop race

So last weekend I was looking for a race for June (I ran in May, I just haven't written about it yet). There was a women-only run on Saturday but no other races. Luckily I found a race on Sunday. It was not a standard race. For one thing it was only one mile. For another, it was on hippity hops. If you're not familiar with hippity hops, you're not alone. I had no idea what they were, but it sounded fun. Turns it a hippity hop is like a yoga ball with a handle. You sit on it and bounce your way along the mile course. Despite how fun this sounds, it must be pointed out that this was the hardest one mile race I've ever done. It took me just under 21 minutes and I was sore for a few days afterwards. The event took place in Julia Davis park as part of a day of fun and fund raising for Girls on the Run. I read about it and saw the World's Record for a mile on hippity hop was 13 minutes. Thinking it was a good cause and that a 13 minute mile is pretty slow, I decided to try it. I showed up early and did a few practice hops before the race. It felt fine, but not like I knew what I was doing. When we lined up for the start, I sae just how small this event was. There were about 20 racers. The race started and I was out with the fast pack, but after about eight to ten bounces, the leaders were already pulling away from me. As fast as I tried to hop, there was no keeping up with them. After a quarter of a mile, I came to the first water stop and paused to let my arms relax. I had assumed that my legs would get the workout, but my arms and back did most of the work moving the hippity hop. I managed to hold on to fifth place through the first three-quarters of a mile, even when I fell off the back of the hippity hop (twice). In the last quarter of a mile, there was a slight up hill and I couldn't get the hop up it. I kept hopping up but couldn't go forward. At this point, one more person passed me and I finished in sixth place overall. Although I didn't do it, one of the racers did set a new World's Record with a time of 12:09. I felt glad to finish and later heard that about half the field dropped out. It was a ridiculous event and I was sore for three days after, but I'm looking forward to next year. My goals for that are to finish faster and maybe even try hopping before race day.

Bread experimentation

Over the past year or so, I've been getting into bread baking. We heard about the five minute artisan bread recipe on Splendid Table and decided to try it. Our first loaf came out really well. Better than we expected actually. Soon we wanted additional recipes and improved technique tips, so it was necessary to buy the book. Unfortunately, the book didn't have as many tips as I had hoped, but the internet was loaded with them.

I've found that baking bread and brewing beer were very similar, except that the turn around time on the bread is much shorter. This "rapid prototyping" meant that I could experiment with lots of variables in as short period and find what worked best for me. At first, I was baking about one loaf a week and buying bread from the store to supplement the home made stuff. Now, I'm up to about three loaves a week and sometimes more if friends request some. We haven't bought bread from the store in at least six months.

What I've found so far is the best loaves start as very wet dough. Almost too wet to work with. Also, to get improved flavor, I use about 1/3 the amount of yeast the recipe calls for. In the five minute bread book, they recommend streaming when the bread goes in by putting a cup of water in the bottom of the oven. That may work in Seattle, but in Boise, it's too dry for that method. Instead the loaf spends the first half of the bake in an inverted pot that I mist twice to keep steamy. That seems to make a big difference in the crust.

So at this point, the bread experiment is going well. It's turning out good results and I'm having fun trying new variations each time. And with that, it's time to go bake the next experiment.

2011 Resolution: Part 4 of 12 - Robie Creek

I had never run a half marathon before Robie. Last summer, Matt convinced me it would be a good idea to run Ragnar with him. I was volunteered to run the second longest set of legs at a total of about 34 miles. The first leg was 14 miles, so I technically ran the distance of a half marathon in a race once before but it wasn't really the same.

There were four of us who ran Robie "together" and by that I mean we all arrived at the start and left the party at the end at the same time. We didn't really run it together, but it was fun all the same. This year's theme (there is always a theme at Robie) was pirates. Mel had the best/only traditionally pirate outfit of our group. Dom had a shirt proclaiming her status as a 14th generation pirate, complete with her great-great-great...grandfather's pirate flag. Matt decided to take the debate of Pirates vs Ninjas to the race and dressed as a barefooted ninja. Unfortunately for him, they regraded the road with extra gravel since we did our practice run. That slowed him down a bit which was thankful for since it meant I could keep up with him. I decided that maybe they didn't mean pirates of the high seas but rather pirates of the interwebs so I attached a floppy disk to my shirt and wrote "You wouldn't steal a car" on it. Not many people got the reference but that made it funnier in my mind.

The race started with some bad Jimmy Buffet covers and a little swash-buckling community theater. After the first half mile, the course takes you past a fire house and all the helpful firemen were out front offering bacon and donuts to anyone running, but with 12.6 miles and a nasty hill still to go, there were few that were interested. As we left town, we climbed through some neighborhoods in the foothills. At about mile 2, there was a slight downhill and since I was wearing shoes, I was able to get ahead of Matt. After that, it was just a quick 11 miles to the finish. The only real drawback about this run was the weather. I was expecting cold and rainy so when it turned out to be warm and sunny, I wasn't prepared, and I have a nice tan line across my forehead to prove it.

In the end, we all had good runs. I finished in 1:52 and Matt was five minutes behind me. It turns out that despite finishing about 50th in my age group, I still finished in the top 10% of runners overall. That seems to be where I've finished every race so far this year. I'll have to work on getting to the top 5% soon. Considering the winner finished in 1:18 (about the time I crested the hill at mile 9), I still have plenty of room to improve. But the race felt good and there was enough beer at the finish to make up for the last race. I'm already looking forward to next year and figuring out an even more obscure costume idea.

2011 Resolution: Part 3 of 12 - Les Bois 10k

I'm falling a little behind on these, but the running is still going well. In March, we ran the Les Bois 10k race from Fort Boise up into the foothills and back. It was the largest race so far with over 200 people running. As the weather gets warmer, more runners are participating, but I guess that is to be expected. It was still a little cold that morning and started to rain half way though, but all the runners seemed to be having a good time. On the way out, we kept climbing hills which didn't feel as good as I had hoped. It had been too wet to run on the trails recently and road running just doesn't prepare you for hills. For the 3 miles of hill climbing in this race, that wasn't too big of a problem, but it signaled that we should train on more hill before Robie next month.

The race went well and I kept a good pace throughout. On the downhill section a few high school kids passed me as they tore down the trail with no fear of knee or ankle problems. I remember those days. At the finish, they had the usual array of fruit and breakfast baked goods. I half jokingly asked what was vegan and to my delight, they had vegan muffins (also gluten free muffins, but I was less interested in those). I tried one and went back to tell Dom about them to try to help her finish strong, but she thought I was lying to get her to run faster. As it turned out, the muffins were so good, I didn't see the beer sitting on the ground under the muffin table. Oh well, I guess not every race this year is going to end with a cheap beer at the finish line.