[Image decription: A round, light-reddish-brown loaf of bread on a wire cooling rack. There is a split down the center of the bread where it expanded in the oven while baking, called an "ear". The top of the bread is lightly dusted with flour except in the split area.]

I started learning to bake about a year ago with bread. Lately I've mostly been making cookies and recently been learning to make pie, but I felt an itch to come back to the basics.

Recipe:

• 400g bread flour
• 260g warm water (65%)
• 2g instant or active dry yeast (about 1 teaspoon) (0.5%)
• 8g salt (2%)

This bread was made with a poolish, not sourdough starter. A poolish is a preferment, and gives you a flavor similar to sourdough without the need to care for a sourdough starter. Poolish is the traditional way to make french baguettes, so if you know that flavor you know what to expect from a poolish.

Make the poolish:

• Mix 200g flour, 200g water, and a pinch of yeast (seriously, a tiny amount). Cover and let stand at room temperature for 12 hours. After this time the poolish should be bubbly and smell nice and yeasty, maybe slightly alcoholic.

Make the dough:

• Pour the remaining 60g of water into the poolish and mix to loosen it up. Then add the remaining 200g flour and mix thoroughly to combine. Let sit for 20 minutes to autolyse - this hydrates the flour and makes it stronger.

• Add in the yeast and salt and mix to combine. At this stage it's easiest to mix with wet hands in a pinching motion to combine in the salt and yeast.

• Optionally, knead for about 5 minutes by hand or about 3-4 minutes by stand mixer with a bread hook attachment. If kneading by hand, be sure to have a dough scraper handy, it will be sticky. You can skip this step entirely. Kneading will make it rise better in the oven, if you skip it may be a flatter loaf.

• Cover and let the dough stand in a bowl for 15 minutes, then stretch and fold it. Repeat, including the wait time, until you've stretch/folded 4 times total.

• Cover the dough and refrigerate for around 24 hours or up to a few days.

• About 1 hour before you plan to bake, take the dough out and shape it into a taut ball. Then put it seam side down into either a proofing basket or a mixing bowl lined with a well-floured kitchen towel. Cover with a damp towel and let rise. The dough should grow around 50-66% in size. When you firmly poke it with a damp finger, the spot you poke should bounce back slightly but still leave an indent.

• Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Place a dutch oven or heavy lidded pot in the oven to preheat it as well.

• Flip the dough onto parchment paper and slash it on top with a razor blade or a serrated bread knife to give it a weak spot to expand while baking.

• Bake in the dutch oven, lid on, for 30 minutes. Then remove the lid and bake at least another 15 minutes, or longer if you want a darker crust.

• Let cool for at least an hour before slicing - this is actually important, the inside of your loaf needs to finish baking from the residual heat when you pull it out! If you slice early it will wind up gummy

• Enjoy!

Post a picture or description of your current WIP(s)!

And feel free to continue using this thread after Wednesday.

It doesn't have to be famous, just a work that you connect with that you feel represents your country in some way.

When I joined this website, I remembered that my favorite cross stitch pattern artist Studio Ansitru had a bee haw pattern, so I had to stitch it. And now it is done.

[Image description: A cross stitch image of a bee wearing a cowboy hat hovering over a yellow flower with the text "bee haw" underneath. The piece is framed in a round embroidery hoop.]

cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/586734

> Pattern is by Studio Ansitru > > Finished this a few days ago. It's been on my WIP list since last year's pride, so it felt good to finish it during pride month this year. > > Still needs a wash and framing (washing in warm water will erase the grid), but just happy to finally finish a WIP! > > [Image description: A cross stitch of a screaming opossum, sitting in a flower bed of purple, pink, and blue flowers, holding a bi pride flag. The aida fabric has a faint grey grid woven in to the fabric itself.]

10 days ago, Lauren (who has schizoaffective disorder) shared that she was starting to experience psychosis, and as an educational channel about schizophrenia and related conditions such as schizoaffective disorder she has been sharing the experience of coming to terms with this and receiving treatment.

Her next update was a week later, sharing that she'd voluntarily checked in to a psychiatric ward, and then today she uploaded a day in the life at a psych ward. She seems to be doing well, but still has no solidified discharge date quite yet.

I think these sorts of videos are very important to normalize and destigmatize seeking treatment for more stigmatized conditions such as schizophrenia. Society has come a long way in destigmatizing anxiety and depression, but still has a long way to go with anything to do with psychosis, so I thought these were worth a share.

List as many or as few as you like!

> [...] Eco separated his visitors into two categories: “those who react with ‘Wow! Signore professore dottore Eco, what a library you have. How many of these books have you read’ and the others — a very small minority — who get the point is that a private library is not an ego-boosting appendages but a research tool.”

Cross-posted from [email protected], original post by @[email protected]

Any creative hobby is welcome, I’d love to see or hear a description of what you have in progress.

Edit: You're welcome to keep using this thread even if it's not wednesday, lol

In honor of pride month, what are everyone's favorite LGBTQ+ books? It can be a book that deals with the LGBTQ+ experience, or just a book that prominently features queer characters in prominent roles.

So I'm a big advocate of utilizing your local public libraries. The best way to secure more funding for them is to use their services! So I thought real quick that I should write up a quick posts about the services that many libraries offer nowadays that you may not know about. Some of these points may be applicable mostly to America and Canada, but it's worth checking in with your libraries in other parts of the world to see if you have similar services available! And definitely post here if you have more to add.

Membership

One point I'd like to start off with is that, even if your local library system is smaller and doesn't offer the services you'd like (or have the books you'd like), check in with the nearest major cities! In many places in the USA, libraries don't require that you reside in the city the library is in, only the same state. For example, I don't live in the city of Los Angeles, but I have a Los Angeles Public Library card because I live in the state of California and that's all they require. Many times you have to get to the city to pick up the card in person, though, so plan on this the next time you're in the area.

Books

Of course, the first thing you'll think of at a library are "books." But did you know:

• Many libraries have suspended their fees for overdue books, due to the administration of the fee system costing more than they collect.

• Libby is a service many libraries offer that have ebook and audiobook checkout. If you have a Kindle or Kobo device you may also be able to read your ebooks on there instead of on your phone or tablet as well. Your books will automatically return themselves at the end of their loan period, so you don't have to worry about fees if your library still has those. Libby has a limited number of copies for each book, so you may need to wait for your book to become available.

• Hoopla is a similar service to Libby in that it has ebooks and audiobooks, but it also has comics, tv shows, and movies as well. And with Hoopla, your library has an unlimited number of copies, so there's no wait time! Instead, you have a limited number of items you can chekc out per month.

Movies

For movies, you might think of only DVD rentals. However, many libaries also offer streaming servies!

• Kanopy is a streaming service that offers high-quality movies such as the criterion collection, oscar nominees/winners, etc. You have a limited number of watches per month, set by your library.

• Hoopla, as mentioned above, also offers TV and Movies for streaming. They also have binge passes, which give you temporary access to the catalog of some major paid streaming libraries such as CuriosityStream and **

• My library offers these services but I haven't used them yet so I can't comment on the usage experience: Digitalia Film, which focuses on foreign language films and classic American cinema, and medici.tv which focuses on classical music including videos of concerts, ballets, operas, etc.

Music

Of course you may be able to check out CDs, but your library might also offer:

• Freegal, a service that allows you to download 5 DRM-free mp3 tracks per week from the Sony Music catalog.

• Hoopla also offers streaming music!

Video Games

via @any1th3r3 - Your local library may also offer video game loans!

News

Many libraries give you free access to paywalled news media, such as the New York Times Digital, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, etc.

Online Learning

Your library may also offer free access to some online learning websites such as LinkedIn Learning, Craftsy, Mango Languages, and more!

Makerspaces

Many library systems will offer makerspaces with access to 3d printers, laser cutters, specialty printers, sewing machines, photo studios, and sometimes even CNC mills! Of course the tools offered in these spaces are highly depending on the individual library system.

Seed Banks

Fairly self explanatory, some libraries have seed banks so you can start your own garden!

Tool library

Some libraries also let you check out tools such as power drills, circular saws, sewing machines, etc.

Passes

And last on my list, libraries often will offer passes to museums, zoos, and other local activities in your area.

-----

Please utilize your libraries!

Finally, I'd like to end off by repeating what I said at the start: The best way to secure more funding for your library is to utilize your library. Libraries are one of the few spaces left where you can go and are not expected to exchange money for their services. They bring equity to many underserved communities and it is vitally important to preserve them. A lot of people I know think that they want to avoid using the library because they don't want to "take away the resources from those who need it more," but in reality it's the exact opposite! The more you want others to be able to use a library, the more you should use it yourself as well!

cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/449006 original post by @[email protected]

> Like probably most of you I do own at least the majority of the books in physical form. But sometimes it's just easier to read on Kindle. > > Sadly they're about £5.99 each, which is absolutely worth it if you can afford it, but x41 books it really adds up. > > The good news is, if you check regularly you'll find that one or two books go on sale at a time for as little as 99p. Personally I pick up anything that goes under £2, currently I think that's just Guards! Guards! but they change all the time. > > If anyone knows what schedule they change on that would be useful info, atm I just have a reminder to check back every couple of weeks. > > (link is to the UK page but I'm sure the same applies on other Amazon sites too)

Post about books you recently finished, and if you'd like, a brief review of the book here!

If you'd like to post a more in-depth review or discussion, feel free to create your own thread if you'd like.

Please be sure to enclose any spoilers in spoiler tags like so:

(the icon for spoiler tags is the ⚠️ icon under the text box)

\::: spoiler title here Text goes here :::

Which will look like:

Just thought I'd throw it out there. You can import your Goodreads (or Storygraph or other) history as well.

https://joinbookwyrm.com/instances/

Hey Beehaw, whatcha reading right now?