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February 25, 2010

Writing Overload

Overwhelm. Overload. Whatever you want to call it, the demands for my fingers to create characters either manually or by pressing keys is extreme. It's been nothing but writing every time I turn around. This is just one more task in the litany of words that I find myself awash in, and it has also become a release subject. Writing is one of those things, that when done well from the outset, bestows rewards along the way that keep you going.

Besides this weekly blog and my daily, I spend a fair amount of time here in the editing window. Words, unfortunately, are one of my better communicative abilities. Pictures work well to, and I've taken steps at improving my photographic capabilities. My abilities have not been in question for a few decades, just the availability of equipment. Now that I have direct-to-digital photo capability (which made its debut in the last post) with a viewfinder, you can look forward to more posts with pictures and illustrations. Cameras are another hobby that I had in years past, and something that is being rekindled. Not only as a pastime, but as a tool for modern life.

Here is a list of recent writing projects that I have undertaken or completed in the last few weeks:
  1. manual addressing of advertising material for the daily blog

  2. a colorful white paper documenting a circuit fix

  3. dozens of 1,000 word explanatory technical e-mails

  4. a magazine article abstract for my 4th industry article

  5. my 3rd magazine article for a different industry publisher (coming soon)

  6. my end-of-the-month bill paying

Yes, I list bill paying as a writing job. It uses a pen, and requires accuracy and thought. As far as this post is going, I realize that I am up against the deadline, and will be putting this through the spell check and making the final edits for grammar, clarity and content in about half-an-hour or so. I'm also letting dough rise for tonight's chicken pizza, and the Game Master icon is flashing for the help desk, begging me to check a message.

The GM reply is now clear, and I have discovered that the use of the numbered list tool here in the "old editor" has caused the formatting glitch to pop up again. No doubt that I will be adjusting the paragraph spacing yet again. I'm considering a switch to the new editor, if the spell check feature has been implemented in the tool bar. I live and die by spell check.

Pizza is slated for dinner and the stone needs time to get hot. I will likely not complete the pizza until after I've published this post. Therefore, there will not be a shot of tonight's pizza, however, here is a shot that is worth sharing.



Anyone who has shared my experience at Domino's Pizza will know immediately what the metal item in the picture is. I didn't have any PAM at the time, so there is a light layer of peanut oil on the screen, since it handles high temperature very well. It is precisely 12 inches in diameter, and is used to hold the skin, making it easier to shuffle the pizza around the work area. I bought two for about $8 each. They are valuable to have, and I will likely buy more for the party that I am planning.

The idea is to make dough and provide the stone and expertise to cook pizzas for guests. Bring your own Toppings comes to mind as a requirement, but I am also apt to collect some funds for the dough, cheese and propane. The grill will cook several pizzas per hour. If such a party happens, I will be sure to snap plenty of pics, and post what is permitted by the guests. Model releases are such a hassle.

So, thanks for coming by and reading the weekly update. I've had to keep from landing and running amok in a single topic, and hopefully, this is not as scattered as last week's post. This post is intentionally haphazard, as I am presently multitasking. The stone has been getting hot for the last 20 minutes, and it's time to work on my dough ball into a pizza crust. A Thin Crust to be exact. Perhaps next week, I will release the recipe for the classic pizza crust.

.... and tell you of some of the dangers of the previously posted recipe.

February 19, 2010

Another Kind of Free Pizza

Some may recall that I was under orders to eliminate wheat from my diet, and in particular, gluten. I have not been diagnosed with any particular disease or gluten intolerance, but I was put to the challenge at one time. I quickly discovered that Gluten Free was not cheap, and was more than difficult to obtain. This makes for a good challenge. Over time, gluten free options have improved, and it was hard not to notice Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Flour at my local Costco. Here was a 5lb bag of flour, with not a trace of wheat in it.

I scanned the recipes on the back of the bag, and was quickly overtaken by the Xanthan Gum chart. Depending on the kind of recipe, cookies, cakes, yeasted breads and pizza crust, there were different concentrations of Xanthan Gum required. Now I know a little about this wonderful substance. It's used in most every commercial salad dressing as a thickening agent and in drilling mud to prevent blowouts when oil wells are drilled. It's a moisture absorber and gets sticky like glue.

Looking to duplicate what I learned about pizza dough making from another short stint at a different pizza delivery job, I was browsing the flour isle at the local Vons. That's when I discovered the expensive, but available, Xanthan Gum, in powder form. It was in a different section, but had the Bob's Red Mill label on it. I then returned the wheat flour, bought two small packages of the Gluten Free flour and headed to the checkout line with a basket full of supplies for a Gluten-Free Pizza Crust.

I got worked. Not only from the $2 per ounce price for the Xanthan Gum, but from the process of making a yeasted dough and kneading it on a plywood cutting board that I had yanked from the kitchen cabinets of my 40 year old apartment. I ended up a mess, but the rapid-rise yeast did it's job, and I had a success at a basic pizza. I also had another dough-ball to use for the next meal. It took 10 minutes to scrub the dough from my hands and fingers. The more water I added, the slipperier it got. Xanthan Gum. Wonderful stuff.

By the end of the weekend, I had added a 5lb flour container, a Roul'Pat silicone mat, silicone scraper and a Zojirushi BBCC-X20 bread machine to my list of tools. On Monday I acquired a set of nested measuring cups to properly feed my bread machine. Between the Xanthan Gum and the Yeast, I had no choice but to be precise like a chemistry experiment.

Experimenting with the bread machine and tweaking the recipe for dough during the week lead up to a six pizza extravaganza over the Superbowl weekend. Saturday, my first pizza stone cracked while cooking the first pizza. I used it for the rest of the day, making three pizzas total. Sunday required an endurance test at the store for more toppings, and a new pizza peel to go with the backup stone that I had on hand. Three more pizzas got grilled on Sunday.

On President's Day, I got adventurous, and tried a beer-dough. I use a different size measure for each ingredient, so my recipe is a little bizarre, but it makes it easier since I do not have to wash and dry a cup or spoon to measure a different ingredient. Here's what I loaded the bread machine with:

3 Tablespoons Light Olive Oil

Pour about 1 teaspoon over each shaft before installing the kneaders. Make the kneaders face each other when installing and pre-align them with a test install in the bread machine. This will prevent the collapse of your mountain in the bucket when you install the loaded bucket. Always add ingredients to the bucket with the bucket removed from the bread machine. Pour the remainder of the oil over the installed kneaders.

4 Tablespoons Agave Sweetener

You can re-use the same tablespoon measure that you just used for the olive oil. The oil coating will help the syrup leave the measure cleanly and completely. The oil on the shaft will allow you to remove the kneaders easily before the rise begins.

20 Oz. Double Bastard Ale (2 1/4 cups)

You want this to be flat. Warm the beer to 120 deg-F to stimulate the yeast you will add later. The easy way to do this is to measure out 2 ounces of beer (1/4 cup) and dispose of it. The remaining 20 ounces of beer will fit in a 2 cup Pyrex liquid measure. 1125 Watts for 145 seconds.

1 Teaspoon Salt

I add this as two 1/2 teaspoon measures, since it fits better in my salt jar. I also use Sea Salt. Sprinkle this over the beer.

4 Cups Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Flour

I add this as Eight (8) 1/2 cup level measures. The 1/2 cup measure stays in the flour bin. I think my Mom did this too. This was the inspiration for tooling the recipe the way I did.

1-1/4 cups Cold Milled Golden Flax

If you don't add this, add 1/2 cup more flour and be prepared to make a white pizza with all of the extra flour that you'll need to finish the crust. Otherwise, do this as Five (5) 1/4 cup level measures. When you add this, you want to make a nice plateau for the Xanthan Gum.

8 Teaspoons Xanthan Gum

If you are going to timer-start the bread machine (ill advised) you know that you have to put the yeast on top. Since Xanthan Gum absorbs moisture, and should not be in contact with the water right away, it forms a layer between the flour and the yeast. Add it in a plateau. The small scoop size lets you control this very well.

5-1/4 Teaspoons Active Dry Yeast

This gets added as Seven (7) 3/4 teaspoon measures. If you're doing a timer start (ill advised) then you will spread this over the plateau of Xanthan Gum you just added. The Xanthan Gum will keep the yeast very dry. Maybe too dry. I add alternating measures to the warm liquid on each side of the flour mound, and split the odd measure. I'll then spatula the yeast into the liquid to get it going.

Now you run the machine. I use a 5 minute preheat and 20 minute knead cycle. Use a longer preheat if you use a timer start (ill advised). 1 hour of rise time is suggested. A spatula should be applied to the walls of the bucket during the initial low-speed mixing cycle. After Kneading, remove the kneaders and form the dough into a loaf. Cover with plastic wrap to keep the dough very moist while rising.

Punch down the risen dough, divide and form into balls. Add small amounts of Flax to your hands and the working surface if the dough is too sticky. Refrigerate dough balls, covered, for up to 72 hours before using. Let dough double in size before final punch-down and forming into a pizza skin.

Enjoy!

February 13, 2010

Edit Pages - A New Wrinkle

I didn't get an update e-mail from my other blog about the new Edit Pages tab that popped up in the display bar. It's highlighted in orange.


Clicking on it by mistake lead to the discovery that I can add up to 10 pages to the blog. An "about me" page was the example, but my first thought was to create a page for the copyright notice and the privacy policy, and get them out of the sidebar. The sidebar is getting crowded with stuff and I'd personally like to get a little more space for maybe one more advertisement. Of course, we're not talking about this blog, since I've not lit up ads over here yet.

Since I am talking about my other blog, which is currently under scrutiny from the reading public, I'd like to make sure that everything works properly. I'll do the job here first, make sure it works, and then take that new knowledge in hand and make the proper edits in one fell-swoop.

I have also found a workaround for the bug in the editor that causes hard returns to expand each time you come back to edit. The solution is to use the Post Options and set the publication of the post at a future time and/or date, and hit the Publish Post button afterward. This will change your status from Draft to Scheduled, and when you come back to edit your post, it will finally be WYSIWYG - and when you hit a hard return in the editor, it will automatically give you the blank line between paragraphs that I am accustomed to. I've already talked about the fact that the indent has been replaced by the blank line in Electronic writing.

So, I used Tabbed Browsing to open the Edit Pages dialog in another browser tab, letting me switch from one to the other. The options are fairly intuitive, and you're just creating what amounts to a permanent post entry. It will have a title, which will be used to create the URL for the page. It will have the format of:

http://YourBlogName.blogspot.com/p/TheOriginaNameOfThePage.html

You will then be asked if you want the gadget to be a bar below the header, or if it should be in the side bar. This can be changed later. I chose to have it below the title. Since my original name for the page was "Privacy/Legal/©opyright" it ended up as "privacylegalopyright" and stayed that way even after I changed the name of the page to "Legal" just to make it fit in the under-bar gadget.

It is like editing any other post, except that it forces you to use the new editor. You can get in and tinker with the html directly if you need to, and since I use an e-mail obfuscator, I do have to get into the html. For those of you that are wondering what and why and e-mail address needs to be obfuscated, visit the link and ponder that a machine can craw the web and look for things like a "mailto:" directive that says that "an e-mail address follows" and then harvest the address.

The obfuscator will take the entire mailto: directive and turn it into a random hodgepodge of escaped ASCII codes that every browser interprets immediately, giving you clear text. Because the bot acts on the stream of HTML code directly, not the browser output, the harvesting bot will never see a "mailto:" directive to harvest. Of course, if you've taken compiler design, you can make a smarter bot, but with those skills, you're not likely to be living life as a spammer.

So, the returning reader will discover that there are "Home" and "Legal" buttons under the title now. I will probably move the Coffee Break Blogs section from the sidebar to a "Links" page, which will have sections for various links. I think that it will make a cleaner looking blog, and should reduce the bounce rate by giving readers some place to click on, once in a while.

I've already removed the Copyright Notice and Privacy Policy display gadgets from the side bar. I already like the idea that the privacy policy is now no longer out in plain sight. I'll be making these changes, and another more important one, to the daily blog, real soon now. Because I know what to expect, it will be real clean and real neat.

/grin

February 7, 2010

A Slice of Perspective with Guile and Cheese

Take a close look. I told you I was not done with Pizza.

That's yummy melted cheese and a slice of Pepperoni. It's even crispy from the heat.

Melted cheese of different kinds, an Italian blend and Fontinella.


Look close, and you can see that it's Turkey Pepperoni. The sauce can be just about anything, but if you're near a Trader Joe's, get a jar of their Pizza Sauce.







Yea, did you look below the Pepperoni? Did you think this was just going to be any normal pizza? No, I had a single tri-lobe Manzano Pepper, that I took the top and bottom off of, and knocked the seeds out of the middle. Then I sliced it like a bell pepper, and divided it along the septa to make rings of heavenly capsicum goodness. The center is the hottest part. The top and bottom can be sliced and passed out to your guests to build confidence.


While you're using the back of a spoon to spread sauce across your crust, which is a Boboli Round in this case, gently smile as you chew on one of the top or bottom pieces. Note that it will be a gentle warm if the center of the pepper is extremely hot. If your sample is more like a bell pepper, then you've got a dud. I like to put the cheese in the middle and push it out. On large pizzas, however, a ring of cheese is much better.


Yes, this is a small Boboli. I bought a two-pack, and this was the second one. The first was identical to this in construction, except that used I pesto sauce instead of pizza sauce. Some people I know cringe at the idea of a green pizza. It's all in the degree of sauce you put on. You have to understand the power of your layers. Pesto is very strong. Go light. Note that there are no peppers in the center of the pizza. This is very important.


If there is any one piece of advice I can give to any pizza maker, it is to keep the toppings away from the center. This is pizza will fit on a 10" dinner plate when done, so I'm already crowding the center with cheese alone.

Now a thin layer of low-fat cheddar cheese. Try to keep the sheen down if you can. Less oil is better. It's not a car.


That's too much Pepperoni for a normal pizza. This is the decepticon layer. I particularly like the endless layering of the inner ring. It will make it easier to cut this pizza. Turkey Pepperoni is more forgiving of overpopulation because it has 70% less fat than regular Pepperoni. The bag says so.


The oil level in full-flavor Pepperoni is so high that you must reduce the population level. I am sure that Domino's knew this, because their 'roni was very dry. It was the Salami that was the real greaseball on the makeline.

Here I've upped the ante' with Parmesan and other fine cheeses as a topping to further entice my guests.



Perched atop the center of a blistering hot Pizza Stone, the crumbled bits of Fontinella are melting as the convection of the closed BBQ cooks the pizza from the top down. The heat from the stone is working to crisp the crust, and the crust does it's thing. Sometimes it bubbles and needs to be popped. You just don't want to make carbon out of it.


If everything goes well, and you keep your items out of the center of the pizza like a good itemizer, then you can cut your finished pizza into nice small thin slices with distinct fine points.
Yes, this Attack Formation is ready to commit sensory assault on your guests. If you've been lucky enough to get to the pepperoni stage before they visit the assembly line, then there is a good chance that they will never even see the peppers until its far too late. Take a look at the first three shots and see if any kind of dangerous hot pepper is visible.
I can report that I safely consumed this pizza with no ill effects or losses of friendship. As point of fact, the experiments have continued on the searing hot pizza stone of goodness that often warms the evening air on the rooftop deck. Several of my neighbors have been enticed by the aroma for freshly baked and risen dough, melted cheese and a variety of sauces. Not all of the pizzas have Monzano Peppers, but the majority do, and I like these the best.
And now, so do my Neighbors.

February 1, 2010

Making Netprints Visible

Perhaps you've returned to this site for another Domino's Pizza story. Perhaps this is your first visit to this Blog, ever. I really does not matter why you came, but I would like to make sure you come back. From a personal perspective, I would like to think that my random mutterings and witty writing style (if you can call it that) are enough of a reason to keep coming back on a regular basis. But how can I tell that I'm accomplishing the goal?

First, if you have not read the Privacy Policy, which is displayed in the administrative column of this blog (to the right on the current template), you might want to read it. It tells you that I might cause a cookie to be put on your machine, to help serve and track which advertisements you click on. Advertisements? What Advertisements?

If you read closely, I used the wiggle word "might" in the opening statement. Since I currently have an advertising supported blog, with an AdSense account, It's not too hard to add this blog to it, once it's approved by the Google content police. If you want to keep your ads, you'd better keep away from certain things - and with the audience that I know exists, I don't consider the Internet or the Blogosphere a place where it is safe to let-loose with the four-letter Anglo-Saxon set of colorful words, or anything that is strictly HBO fare.

Ah, you say. I've got you pegged, Mr. Blog Editor, you're here to earn advertising revenue.
I would not be able to disagree. I've seen the advertisements from Google "If you can Blog, you can Earn" and others like it. I have also read and reviewed a number of successful blogs, with lots of followers, comments, and a vibrant and living community. Yes, I created a blog because I believed that it was a marketable idea, and that means marketable on multiple fronts.


Of course, I did not know what markets my blog would appeal to until I got some kind of feedback. Like many other bloggers, my personal friends were happy to tell me what they think, and I took that feedback and stowed it. I keep looking for more of an indication as to the correct target market. After discovering a site that featured regularly updated fiction, I realized that I had created a daily blogfic that was worth listing, just because there were so few dailys out there. Generally, you're getting paid if you blog every day. Not me. Not yet.


Feedback in the form of a comment is great, but it's not all of the feedback that is out there. Just the fact that people other than I were visiting my blog would be enough. If people like it, they will come back for more, so page impressions would give me a nice counter to see. I thought of putting up a hit counter, like a little odometer, but thought better of it. It seems to be more like bragging than anything else, and my blog was not appropriate for a counter.


Then I got feedback. One of the fiction sites that I listed on had a couple of votes. 3 and 3.5 stars out of five. At least they did not give it the one-star-of-death. Plus, I am still writing. One reader also wrote a review, with feedback that I was able to use. Rather than just comply, making it easier for passersby, I used that same material as the seed for a marketing campaign.


I've been investing a good chunk of personal time on the task of pumping up the reader-base, and if you count visitors to the site as success, then I have had fantastic success. How many of those readers convert to regular readership, only time will tell. However, just like I crave feedback, I have come to realize that my readers might like some feedback as well.


Since the current campaign is via direct-mail, and I hand address each piece and pay proper full price postage, with a stamp, it's about as personal a request as I could ever make. The genius is the fact that it is a post-card, which means it's safe. It can't hold anything, like a suspicious white powder, and can't languish unopened, just with one face down. As soon as you uncover it, you recognize it. It's cheap. It's effective, and it's useful when reading the blog too.


So, here's the reverse-reward feedback. I hope it results in improved retention, as I have not had follow-on hits from the initial target states. Since you're not completely anonymous on the Internet, and are quite traceable, I've loaded my blog template with Google Analytics tracking code. Once you have an Analytics account, you can track multiple websites, with resolution as fine as the city in which the traffic originated. Every time a visit occurs from a new city, it will be added to the top of the list that now appears at the bottom of the blog.


Anyone who sees that list, is highly likely to see if their city is already named. If they come back, they will see new cities at the top. While this is a low-tech version of the "hits across the world" maps that feature pins or flags, I like it better for the following reasons.


  1. I don't need another map of the English speaking world
  2. 200 pixels is too small for a reasonable map anyway
  3. the list is in order, most recent first, honoring those that came before
  4. I can turn text into hyperlinks, and could get paid to do so
  5. It's much more personal that a number on a counter
  6. It probably loads faster than a graphic that needs a database of points.
  7. It's trivial to update frequently.
  8. It's only on the website.

This is February's twist on the marketing campaign. It also reveals that other people are interested in the blog, since the list is currently more than will fit on any reasonable screen size, but not so long that it prints on more than a single page. Being the beginning of the month, it is a good time to make such a change. I'll let you know how thing go with the marketing and the quest for readership. In the mean time, please rest assured that I am nowhere near done with Pizza.