Facebook, Croissants, Spring

Tom and I have stuck our toes in the waters of Facebook - so you can "friend" us if you like. Most of his family and some of mine are already on it and I've reconnected with several old friends from high school and college.

The latest small bread project has been real croissants.

This is the third try, and though the first two were edible, these are pretty close to the way they should be. I used the recipe from the King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion and the only thing I did differently was to use a cultured unsalted butter. I bought a new, huge rolling pin for the recipe and it worked beautifully.

I've been debating about whether a big pastry board is worth the cost in both terms of money and storage space. The croissants are rolled out into a big rectangle and only one countertop in the kitchen - which usually has the plastic wrap holder, thermo sealer and electric grill on it - is big enough. Fantes has a wooden one I've been eyeing,  28" X 22.5", and a silicone one as well, though I sent the small silicone pastry mat I had to the Dumptique because everything stuck to it. I suspect I'll stick with the counter, though Tom thinks I ought to ask the guys at Krug & Ryan who made our lovely cutting board to make one for us.

The chickens are doing fine and laying tons of eggs. The zebra finches are having a batch of babies every week or so. We have no idea how many zeebs are in the sunroom, but they don't look crowded. They are, however, eating vast quantities of finch food which has become very hard to get on island, at least in big sacks. Either the feed store doesn't have a big enough order to put in with the bird food company, or, when they do order, the company is backordered on the food we need. Kaytee Forti-Diet Finch food is their favorite, but they will eat whatever finch food we can find!

Spring is here - Tom needs to show me some plumbing stuff in case the flapper valve on the toilet breaks while he is in Boston for a week for his new treatment (he leaves Tuesday afternoon.)