Category: writing

Le Boulangerie (1) Baguette

~ Meg ~ 84 Comments

To accompany my novel in progress: Breaking Bread, welcome to Le Boulangerie!

There is no more appropriate bread to open this series with than the baguette. The most basic of breads, the simplest of ingredients and yet the most wonderful results. The composition of a traditional baguette is nothing more than flour, salt, yeast and water. You need no complicated tools, this can all be done by hand. Though it takes time to get from start to finish, most of that time is spent waiting for the rise. The actual working time is quite short. Here’s what you do:

We begin with a “starter” – a water/flour/yeast mixture that gives the yeast a head start in the consumption of the carbohydrates in the flour. The byproduct of ‘yeast eating sugar’ is CO2 and that is what makes bread rise.

Starter:
1 cup  flour
1/2 tsp yeast
1 1/4 cup lukewarm water (comfortable enough to dip a finger in)

Combine in a large bowl, cover and let rise 2-3 hours, until it gets bubbly.

When the starter has done its thing…

Add in:
1 tsp yeast
2 additional cups of flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
Enough water to make a smooth dough (usually not more than another 1/4 cup)

Hand form dough into a smooth ball. (Or you can use a stand mixer with a dough hook) Place dough ball in a bowl dusted with flour, dust top with flour. Cover bowl with a kitchen towel. Let rise 40 minutes or until doubled in size. 

When doubled, cut dough in half, keeping as much air in the dough as possible. Fold and roll dough pieces into 2 baguettes. Place on floured baking sheet*, cover and let rise an hour. 

Heat oven to 425. Just before placing baguettes into the oven, slash the tops of the loaves diagonally several times. Spritz with water to make the loaves nice and crusty. Bake 20-25 minutes, until golden brown.

*I actually use a baguette pan. I have a similar one for Italian loaves. These aren’t necessary but they do help make more uniform loaves. I hope these turn out for you if you try them. They are the perfect accompaniment to a hearty soup or stew. Bon appetit!

Time Is Not On Your Side

~ Meg ~ 61 Comments

I’ve written about this before, but it’s been a while and I thought it was worth revisiting. The photo is my own of the clock face at Musee d’Orsay in Paris.

I write. A lot. Four books in two years, a fifth near completion, several completely unrelated projects, including all the poetry, non-fiction and short stories I’ve posted here. Recently, a friend of mine asked how I had time to write like that. The short answer is: I have no life. Ok, that’s a joke, sort of. Many of us who are trying to live the writing life are fitting it into an already busy schedule. How does someone with a day job manage to carve out time in the day to write? Schedules vary, but there are some principle to apply.

In the days when I was in practice at another doctor’s office, I had a long commute –nearly an hour. In the morning, I regularly tuned in to NPR’s Morning Edition. On one of those long drives, I heard an interview with author, Nora Roberts. For those of you who don’t know her, she is a ‘rock star’ of romance writers. She has written over 209 novels in her illustrious career. Now, love it or hate it, the romance genre has been underrated by literary snobs for no good reason. Jane Austen was a romance writer. So were the Bronte sisters, Margaret Mitchell, Gustave Flaubert, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Edith Wharton – need I say more? Anyway the style of writing has nothing to do with the point I’m trying to make.

Back to Nora’s interview, and the big impression it made on me. She said she approaches her writing like any other person would approach their work day. She gets up early, exercises, puts the coffee pot on and by 8:00, she is at her desk to write for an 8 hour day! That’s right, a full work day. Writing is work, albeit very enjoyable work, but work nonetheless.

Though I still have a day job, I have tried to impose that kind of discipline upon my writing. Every weekday, I get up early and write for an hour or so, exercise and go to the office (now it’s in my home) to see my patients. Tuesday and Thursday, the days I don’t have office hours, I keep on writing. (So that’s how she does it!) I set deadlines to keep from getting off track. I have writing goals for my novel series, for my blog and for the unrelated projects like Here Lies a Soldier and The Mysterious Arboretum.

Anyway, the trick is to be analytical and slightly selfish when it comes to your writing. aggro-gatordotcom25355Take a look at your weekly schedule. How much time do you spend in front of the TV? Playing video games? Fooling around on Facebook and Twitter? I know, I know, I do it, too. This is time you could be spending on your writing. On the other hand, don’t let your writing become so burdensome that you lose your joy. After a big project is complete, or sometimes in the middle when you’re hitting the wall, take a break, step back and recharge your batteries.

Here are some things you should NOT sacrifice for time to write:

-your spouse/partner and children (unless you secretly can’t stand them)
-your health and wellness: take time to exercise, drink plenty of water and eat healthy food – it powers your brain (also booze, but that’s a subject for it’s own post)
-your spiritual life: whatever that means to you, be it meditation, prayer, or just quiet time to think (also gives you a legitimate excuse to ignore your family)
-reading for pleasure: writers need to read, period
-spending time with friends (if you still have any)

unknown-1Why that last one? Because frankly, writers spend a lot of time in our own heads and can invent our own friends by writing them. I am totally guilty of that. While that internal chatter is essential for good writing, you have to turn it off once in a while. Don’t give up the chance to have real life human connections in order to create your fantasy world.

Writers, the bottom line is if you are going to do this, your writing can’t get shuffled so far to the bottom of the pile that you never finish anything. If you find that happening to you ALL THE TIME, then reevaluate your plan to be a writer. Maybe the writing life is not for you. That’s ok, too. Be a reader. After all, someone’s got to read all this stuff we write!

How about the rest of you? Writers, how do you find time to write?

(As always, some of that was meant to be humorous. I assume you’re all savvy enough to pick out the useful stuff from the nonsense.)

The End of the Adventure 

~ Meg ~ 42 Comments

Week 52 in the Year of Drinking Adventurously. Cremant d’Alsace.

This weekend we say goodbye to 2016. Truly I say, good riddance. So much loss, so much upheaval, so much uncertainty. We enter 2017, carrying so much of that with us. And yet, the end of the old year and the beginning of a new one always brings with it hope for something better in the coming days, weeks, months. With hope we go forward, even it is all we have left in our arsenal.

On to the last week of this series: The Year of Drinking Adventurously. I am sorry to say my final adventure was, alas, a fail. Nevertheless, I will try to end on a high (and relevant) note. I was to visit the region of Alsace, France –that most desirable  territory historically disputed over, first with the Kingdom of Prussia, then with the German Empire. Alsace produces some fine wines, among them, the ‘cremant’ varieties. Cremant is a generic term for sparkling wines not from the Champagne region –that term is exclusive, or at least it’s supposed to be. The robust carbonation of these sparkling wines is said to give them a certain creaminess. Cream, creme… get it?

img_1463I was unable to find cremant d’Alsace in my local liquor stores. By now, you are not surprised, I know. So my substitute for this week is a nice (real) champagne… Moët And Chandon Nectar Imperial.

“There comes a time in every woman’s life when the only thing that helps is a glass of champagne.”
― Bette Davis img_1465

And why is that? It’s a symbol of luxury and of celebration. Drinking champagne feels special. 

Champagne may be served in a flute or a coupe. The champagne flute is a stem glass with a tall, narrow bowl, generally holding about 6 to 10 fluid ounces. The coupe, on the other hand is a shallow, broad-bowled, saucer shaped stemmed glass generally capable of containing 4 to 8 fluid ounces. Legend has it, the shape of this glass was modeled on the breast of Marie Antoinette. My art expert friend Cake tells me, there is a champagne glass modeled on the breast of Lee Miller, photographer and Man Ray collaborator. 

    Whichever way you choose to drink your champagne, sparkling wine or cremant d’Alsace or even a non-alcoholic sparkling cider, drink it with optimism. Hope was the only thing left in Pandora’s box. Do hang onto to it with one hand on the stem of your glass and the other reaching for the hand of another. 

    Thanks to Lula Harp for inviting me o.n this adventure!