What does sharing get you?

A new recipe!  I shared my starter with a friend and she is already experimenting with it.  Her recipe for rolls appears below.  Jacque and I are going to try it...soon!

YAY!

1 cup starter
3/4 cup milk (heated approximately 1 minute in microwave)
2 tablespoons butter melted
1 egg
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup granulated sugar
3 1/4 cups bread flour or unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon instant active dry yeast

 

Active yeast with milk (between 105-110 deg). Stir in everything but the flour. Add flour 1 cup at a time until dough begins to form. Knead 3-5 min.

Cover and let rise 2 hours.

 

Lightly flour surface and roll dough out to a 12”X9” rectangle.

Brush with 1 Tbsp melted butter. Then spread with a mixture of 2 Tbsp white sugar, 2 Tbsp brown sugar and 1 Tbsp cinnamon.

 

Refrigerate overnight.

 

Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until they reach an internal temperature of 180 degrees.

Cover with a powdered sugar/ water glaze.

comfort food

I've been lucky being given a sourdough starter that is more than 40 years old.  I'd like to share the recipe with you.

Day 1

To start the yeast:

In a mixing bowl, mix together

2C warm water

2C Flour

1C starter

Mix well, but gently.

Cover and set aside until mixture bubbles.  Depending on ambient temp, this could take up to 12 hours.

 

Replenish starter with ¾ C cold water and ¾ C flour.

Mix well, cover with lid (not airtight) and let sit in the back of the fridge until it is time to make more.

 

Day 2

To make the dough:

3.5 – 4.5 Cups of flour

3 Tablespoons of sugar

3+1 Tablespoons of Vegetable oil

1 teaspoon of salt

 

Optional ingredients:

2 Tablespoons Flax seed

2 Tablespoons millet

2 Tablespoons quinoa

2 Tablespoons unsalted sunflower seeds

 

Begin by adding 3 tablespoons each of sugar and oil, the salt and mix well. Optional ingredients should be added at this time.

Begin adding 1C of flour at a time to the mixture and stirring until thoroughly incorporated.  When you can remove the mixture from the bowl and knead by hand, do so.  On a floured kneading surface, knead the dough adding flour a little at time.  You are done kneading when the dough is no longer “too” sticky and bounces back from a poke.

Add 1 Tablespoon oil to a large bowl.  Drop the dough in the bowl and coat it with the oil.  Cover and let rise until doubled in size.

After the dough has proofed, split into half.  Place each have in its own greased baking pan.  Using a sharp knife, cut three slits in the top of each loaf.  Place in the oven and let rise for one hour. 

 

Turn on oven to 350 degrees and bake for 50 minutes.  Bread is done when there is hollow sound from thumping it with your finger.  Set on rack and cover with dish towels until completely cool.

 

That’s it!  Enjoy your bread.

 

 

Some things I have learned:

·         Under no circumstance should you use any stainless steel products for this process.  No mixing bowls, measuring cups or spoons that are metal are allowed.  I use either plastic or wood.

·         The amount of water at the starting stage determines how much bread you will end up with.  It could be more than 2 full loaves or just one little one.  You can pick.

·         When I feed the starter, I use a new mason jar – I have 2 in my rotation.  Reusing the same jar over time is only asking for trouble; mold will get in and thrive in the jar…and that’s gross.  Right now, one jar is in my fridge with the starter and the other is being sterilized either by hand washing or running through the dishwasher.

·         I quit really measuring the flour when it’s time to make the dough.  Add a cup at a time and mix well.  When it will hold together enough, take it out of the starter mixing bowl and add more flour as needed.  It should not be too sticky when you are done and will spring back when you poke it.

·         Kneading the dough by hand is the trick.  It takes at least two songs to get the correct consistency.

·         It is ok to throw starter away when you either don’t have the time to make it or just aren’t in the mood.  You get a chance to make more in a week or two.

·         Don’t rush it.  This bread is lovely and deserves the time it takes to make it.  When done deliberately and with attention, it is one of the best breads I have ever had.

The fallacy of better estimates

One of my teams is struggling with its customers who want something that can’t happen: getting better at estimating. It feels like they are asking for a precise definition of how long a story will take. What they don’t understand is that because of the work we do, it is nearly impossible to accurately estimate the work we do.



We have discovered - and one of the benefits of Agile (xP) is - that we understand relative sizing between stories. We know that when we say it will cost X units to produce feature A, and feature B looks similar to A then it will cost roughly the same effort to produce B: the cost is X. If however, feature C looks harder than A or B, we know we can estimate C at a cost of 2X (or 3X, or nX).



We also know that there will be no direct correlation between time and estimate because a story with an X estimate may take ½ day, 1 day or 2 days. Overall, though this makes no difference because as we build an estimate history with our velocity, we will see that stories estimated at X units fit in all three time buckets.

Oh the humanity! How will we plan?

The beauty of estimates is when they are aggregated together, they give a good (some would say the best) way of saying with a high degree of confidence that we can get this amount of work done in one iteration. A team that on average produces features that cost 10X every iteration can plan cards that when totaled add up to that number – whatever 10X is. Programmers also are acutely aware that neither planning 20 - ½X sized stories nor one 10X sized story in an iteration is a good idea. There is a Goldilock’s zone somewhere in between that we find the most success.

Estimates are not taken lightly

We have a feel for how difficult it is to produce something because we know it is relative in difficulty to something else we have already produced. We build a history with our velocity so that customers who drive business value can decide which cards to put in the queue and in what order they should be done. Beyond this, the estimate for individual cards is meaningless. And striving to get better (more accurate) at individual estimates is a waste of time.

Switch

I'm trying to encourage people to read/learn/share more at work.  I just finished a book called "Switch: how to change things when change is hard".  It's a wonderful book.  It ties much of the things I have been learning together.
The ironic thing is that I can't seem to get a good presentation together.  My hope is that someone (ANYONE) will be motivated to read this book and have the same conscious-raising I experienced.

Maybe I'm scared that no one will be that inspired and maybe I fear that situation will be viewed in my eyes as a failure. hmmmm.

Well, to the book.

For a long time we have looked at the person as two disparate selves: Our rational self and our emotional self.  Someone came up with the metaphor that each part can be represented by an elephant (emotional) and its rider (rational).  The interaction between the two are surprising.  When the elephant is denied something it wants or needs, the rider has less chance to control the self for unrelated things.  Willpower diminishes.  Awareness evaporates.

The take away for me is that if we want to change something we have to make it meaningful to our elephant and give the rider some direction.

I think it will be better if I blog about specific AHA moments in the book as opposed to writing about it all at once.

If you're really interested in it, read it.  It's great.

MCTM math contest

My son is taking part in a math competition today.  I am so proud of him. It has been fun watching him interact with all of the kids he knows from his EEE classes.

Let's hope he knows that regardless of how he does today, he makes me proud.