It's better than crack since it's both cheaper and easier to obtain

I am still enamoured of Richard Bertinet's Dough, enough so that I've decided to get my own copy instead of repeatedly renewing the library's. I still haven't quite got the hang of kneading the dough French-style but it's coming along. My baguettes got a little misshapen when I transferred them to the preheated sheet in the oven but I'm quite happy with my fougasse, (though I admit it doesn't look as pretty as the one on the cover of the cookbook). They're made out of baguette dough but you don't let them rise after shaping and just bake them immediately. The one in the picture is from my second batch to which I added roasted garlic which was mild and slightly caramelized, almost sweet. And notice my attempt at artsy food food photography? That is early morning sunlight coming in through the blinds since I baked these for breakfast from dough I left to rise overnight. I think half the fun of fougasse is the shape. Of course nothing beats the smell of fresh bread in the morning either. I have such trouble inserting photos in here though, blogger messes up all the formatting. Highly annoying.



Speaking of high.... Yaser may mock my twenty-five dollar espresso machine but it's enough to meet my needs. I acknowledge that what it makes isn't of the same quality of some fancy Yorkville cafe or perhaps even Second Cup but my standards are low and it's certainly superior to the instant freeze-dried coffee I normally drink. Which brings me to my problem. I'm drinking espresso in the same quantities I drink regular coffee. Which is bad. Very bad. I'm starting to realize that there might be some sort of equivalency between shots of espresso and shots of tequila. I don't know what the exact ratio might be, never having tried tequila, but perhaps something along the lines of 5x=2y where x=espresso and y is tequila? All I know is after a mug of espresso I start acting a bit crazy, get a bit twitchy and giggly. And then there's the 'hangover'. Brutal stomach ache from the dehydration, the headache indicating that I'd better take another hit of caffeine soon, the ability to taste sounds and touch colour (okay, that last bit I made up). So, as soon as I finish the iced coffee I'm sipping right now (three shots of espresso and a cup of milk over ice), I'm going to start weaning myself off my drug of choice.