Sunday morning musings

Is Spring there where you are, too?

It certainly is here 🙂

The last one week was particularly amazing. Blue and open skies, warm temperatures (nothing too fancy – it does not get too hot where I am, but just good enough to feel that winter is over), and a sense of renewal and hope (mostly in nature, as the trees started to get their leaves and flowers are bursting out of the soil).

Yes. Spring is here and it feels great 🙂

I have been doing okay, kind of both busy at work and tired of work, so the more I tried the more things seemed to be delayed. But now I can see that except a few things, everything has been moving and I have been getting what I wanted. So, this is also an awesome news.

I sure have a friction with a colleague of mine on a project we work together on. Not the first time I have experienced, but honestly it costs me morning hours of sleep. I want to take this constructively. I keep saying myself that “everything happens for a reason, and I will know what to do when the right time comes”. But, still…

Other than this, this week I have learn about the importance of hope once again. I had made an application for a role in a national organization. I never heard and did know that elections were ongoing (I got an email myself as a member of that organization). Naively I had thought that my application was dismissed (yes, how naive can I be?? 🙂 They would not send an election email with my name on, right? Right! 🙂 ). And, just a few days ago, bam! I have got an email stating that I am in! My goodness – I am so excited! It was something I really wanted and I got to learn about hope (and confidence) again. Double win!

On the personal side, I am still trying to get slimmer. Sometimes I can lose a couple of pounds, but mostly it seems like stuck. So, there are moments of both excitement and dread. I feel like I am not trying hard enough to make this a priority for myself. Every reminder is a good reminder.

With these, I leave it to you to enjoy your day and the week ahead – I hope you all have awesome memories 🙂

Omicron and grief

Happy Sunday everyone – hope you all are safe and content in this beautiful day.

First, the Omicron variant. Hell.. Where are we going with this virus? I am glad that I have got my 3rd shot (booster). Yet, virulence of this variant is so high that we are told the majority of us would get it eventually. Boy, do I want to get it? No. The later is the better, when we have more understanding of this variant/virus. I do not wish to get this virus at all and am doing my best, but I know it may not be possible, as many people have been trying hard to prevent infection, yet they are infected now. The number of people who I know and are infected with Covid-19/omicron is increasing every week. Please be safe. Get vaccinated if you can to reduce the chance of severe infection, hospitalization, ICU admission, and death.

At one point, I want to say that we will and can go through this. On the other hand, I feel like we take one step forward and then another hurdle to overcome appears. Sometimes tired, sometimes resilient and hopeful, sometimes depression/anxiety, I do not know how I feel anymore. But I know that we should stick together and hope and work towards a better future. Please be kind to yourself, and realize that there are many of us out there supporting you and the wellness of our communities and societies. Do not give up.

My current feeling of depression is linked to both the risks and alarms created by Omicron and the grief I and my siblings are going through because of my mom’s passing. I am very concerned about my sister who has been taking it the hardest. I am very worried about her. What can I do? How can I help? Life can be so tight sometime. I have been contemplating during the Holidays that even the smallest thing can be a burden of thought for me, as I do not have a close social circle where I can ask for opinions or solutions. If you have good relationships with others who are helpful to you when you need it, please take a moment to cherish this.

Have a great Sunday.

sometimes trying something hopeless pays off

Yesterday I have prepared two sourdough; one can be found here; it was prepared by a starter that was rigorous and with a long rise (around 16 hours at room temp) with 4 hours of proving, following my regular recipe. It turned out to be a lovely loaf with a great oven spring.

That loaf will be given to my friends that I have seen yesterday night. So upon returning home at around 11 pm, I decided I needed a loaf for myself so I prepared a small dough using the left overs from my starter that I resurrected this past week. These left overs are those that needed to be removed and replaced with fresh flour and water while feeding the starter. I did not want to put it in garbage, so I thought I could find a use for them (like tortilla), so had kept around 3/4 cups of them in my fridge. They were not necessarily the best starter, but I took my chances with my second loaf.

The second loaf had 9 hours of first rise with limited stretch and fold (1 only) at room temperature and 5 hours of proofing. Honestly it did not look good when I put it on parchment paper (it did not keep its shape). Anyways, in the oven there was some kind of spring. So I was still not very hopeful. But when I cut it, I was very surprised; it has the largest air pockets I have seen in my sourdough! It is soft and the sesame seeds give it an incredibly nutty flavor 🙂 Although its rise was short, I think dough being slightly sticky helped it to turn into this beautiful loaf.

I think sometimes keeping the faith and trying something that does not look much hopeful pays off 🙂

right before placing on parchment paper prior to baking; it was sticky so I applied a lot of sesame seeds to the sides

on the parchment paper: deflated dough never gives you hope about its future. BUT I was proven wrong this time 🙂

after 33 min of baking at 375F oven (oven was pre-heated). there is some oven spring, but nothing impressive

voila! wow! never expected this 🙂 beautiful, is it not? very impressive indeed!