Untitled 1
Photo of a mediocre sourdough more than fifty percent whole wheat bread. I had already been baking before the pandemic and enjoy tinkering to make things healthier and sharing baked goods with other people. I like the chemistry and creative aspect and I guess a little but of the intrigue in how will it turn out. That said, I do not enjoy when things turn out less well than anticipated or hoped for, which is frequently the case. I made my first bread before I realized that it was a pandemic trend because I had just visited a friend who made a no knead bread that was so easy that I thought even I would attempt it. I needed to see if I could do what she did, and indeed, it was so easy and the result was pretty decent. Then there was no flour or yeast etc. I had been living in Connecticut where anyway I was unable to get any bread that I thought was worth eating, and this was better than what I could buy. So when I could get ingredients, I made more. A friend had for a solid year already been making sourdough, and finally I caved and got some of her starter and tried my hand at it. Again mostly to see if I could do it. Then of course I had to keep doing it to see if I could get better at it. I continue to bake sourdough to this day and continue to try new things. As I write this I have dough proofing. One problem with this project esp during the pandemic is I truly get no joy out of baking if I do not have people to share my baked goods with. Most of the time, I have had no one to share with, so that really reduced my baking to a large extent, esp of things like chocolate cake which I would otherwise make much more frequently. I am not a good baker, I can;t follow directions, and I really am a hack, but something about the creative process and doing it my way, never following the recipe and seeing if I can optimize or innovate to improve the health and or taste of the output is enjoyable. Although it really is not fully enjoyable and compelte if I can;t share it... sharing can mean talking about it even if I can;t physically share it, but there is no substitute for physicially giving someone the baked goods and also getting her critique. I will also say that perhaps not the bridge itself, but the landscape of the Hudson River and importantly the lights and civilization across the river on the other side of that bridge did have an important symbolism for me. Seeing those lights across the river made me feel like there is someone out there- there are people doing their things, there is life, maybe those people are alone like me or maybe they are not, but somehow all of this made me feel less alone.
