Sunday, June 30, 2024
By:
My time in this internship may be cut short because I seem to have broken the cardinal rule of Washington, DC: showing my knees on a weekday commute. My clothing is very practical. If it is cold, I wear long-sleeved clothes. If it is hot, I wear shorts. I have learned this is an exception, and I am extremely grateful my job doesn't enforce the "no knees" rule.
Another observation from my three-ish hour round commutes is that I can doze off easily in a moving vehicle. Just close my eyes for a long enough time and I will be on the cusp of sleep. I can never go beyond the cusp of sleep because my neck muscles will try to clock out when I clock out. Being in an upright position, causes my head to swing around and usually bonk into something. Probably for the best, since when you are six stops out from your transfer, it's probably best not to be out cold.
In other news, I have caught a disease, very minor, mostly a stuffy nose and muscle aches. To aid in my cure, I have given my immune system something to fight for: a dozen doughnuts (also some advil).
One of the upsides of cooking for only yourself is that you don't go through much food. A single batch you cook can easily last a week. One of the downsides of cooking for only yourself is that you don't go through much food. Parting with some aioli or some salsa because it took you weeks to get through your backlog of other food to get to recipes that involve those ingredients is a tragedy. However, making a dozen doughnuts last for three whole days is a massive perk that overrules the sadness previously felt.
Halfway through the journey of the internship, I have nailed down my bread recipe. The biggest issue with my first couple of batches was the flour-to-water ratio. What I'm used to is a 2:1 ratio, but that consistently leads to super sticky/unworkable dough, easily fixable by dumping more flour in, but not until after you've given yourself a case of epidermodysplasia verruciformis (for your own sake, don't look it up, you've been warned). However, in my latest batch, I bumped up the flour to a ratio of 2.7ish:1, which let me get a perfect dough first try. Not sure why the water here is wetter than usual, but it is what it is.
Evan Erickson