I'm Franzia and I just joined your forum last night. I'm 62 and from NE Tennessee...Greene County, now in Arizona with a lot of California, Maryland, Louisiana and Montana between - mostly Montana - Kalispell. Just got my first social security check in March so I’m certifiably OLD! My husband is from Holland and is 74 - leaving Monday for a 3 week trip there! I don't go anymore because of ill health and my animals but I enjoy the quiet time as a vacation in itself. I can be quite brazen and brash sometimes and my sense of humor is one that well, others enjoy although I don’t see much outstanding about it but it catches them off guard sometimes. I’m just unpretentious me and what you see is what you get - nothing fake here. It’s worked for 62 years but my mom used to say I can be a little bit too honest sometimes... Nothing is meant to be offensive and humor helps in all areas of life and can, in and of itself, be a great learning and teaching tool.... as well as a healthy tool for living.
I'm an avid bread baker and that is the peak of my interests, albeit, anything about cooking/food/wine is a highlight. I'm blessed with a daughter, 40, who is a fantastic self-taught chef in Scottsdale, AZ for over 12 years now, and we have so much fun concocting gourmet delights. She has a restaurant (#2 opening this fall) with a market and catering company. (Pam Tillis wants her to open one in Nashville!) My son, 42, is a former fire chief in the United States Air Force, a single father of a 15 1/2 daughter - and proud of it. She is now working in my daughter's restaurant and coming right along. As we all assume, most firemen are great cooks and he's no exception. I have another daughter, 35, who took the road to wife and motherhood and doesn't have a lot of time in the kitchen but she's inherently interested and getting off to a good late start as the two children get off into school.
They all live in the Phoenix area and I'm about an hour and a half southeast in a little patch of desert called Red Rock. I live out on the remote dirt and love it...except when the monsoon washes out the road and I'm marooned for a week or more - only to have it come again at any time. So, I have plenty of time to bake and to experiment. Being part Cherokee, I've told the rattlesnakes they can't hang around here and, for the most part, they don't... girl Rottweiler, George, gives them so much grief that they decide to mosey on, too. Then she comes for her cookie reward. Little boy dog, Taylor, is a small cocker mix and is quite up in years but he's still with us. He was bitten by a rattlesnake twice so when George says 'get on the deck', he not only gets on the deck, he gets on the chaise lounge!
I also have this amazing parrot, Pepper! He's a 25 year old Yellow Naped Amazon that rules the house. He has a cage, but the door is always open and there is ropes so he can get up and down safely - he's only in it when he wants to be - When I go to the neighbors without him, he yells my name clearly and loudly and yells, ‘come ere’. He climbs the cabinet drawer handles up to the top one and watches whatever I’m doing ... and says 'Whatchadoin' - and the chatter continues. When I’m making food, he goes to his eating place and says ‘too hot’ and waits there patiently - well, as patiently as a bird can wait - when I give him the food he says ‘MMMM Good’ or ‘THIS is good!’ They’re reputed to have the intelligence of a 5 yr. old and the behavior of a 2 yr. old - I can vouch for that... except maybe he’s more like the ‘trying threes’ than the ‘terrible twos’ most of the time... like when I ask him a question, he says ‘I don’t know’ or ‘Huh?’. When I take him to the vet, he says, ‘Uh Oh’, ‘I gotta go, love you - bye’. Gotta love it! I won’t go into how he is in the car on a trip! He recognizes things and gets all excited and will say where we are! Mexico! Mexico! Mexico! Right way! Mexico! You don’t even want to be a trucker coming up to close - you’ll get ‘flogged’ right thru the rear window! I get lots of attention! Man, I should write a book...
Well, see what happens when I get to talking about that bird!!! I have a Global Sun Oven solar oven that gets a lot of use all year around especially in the summer! It's truly amazing what you can do with those puppies! I have a Weber Silver Genesis propane grill that I've been bound and determined to bake bread in - and I've pretty much mastered it. Again, it's amazing what you can do with some imagination and determination... Both turn out some fantastic artisanal breads - and without heating up the house beyond what AC control in the summer here. My main bread these days is the No Knead Bread from the NYT that is all the rage world-wide! It turns out fantastically in both units! My super specialty is an onion-dill-bread-to-die-for, aptly named by its recipients - last year’s holiday gifts. It also makes some outstanding hamburger and hot dog buns...as does my rye. Talk about a good burger or dog! Ya got the flavor without having a pickle and onion!
About my postings, most tend to be lengthy but not quite as lengthy this introduction, sorry; I try to keep it concise. I go thru spells of posting and spells of not posting. I have fibromyalgia and it pretty much governs what kind of days I have. I also have experienced breast cancer and have had double mastectomies, made it thru from near death - that takes its toll on a person’s days, too. I hope to enjoy and participate in the forum - looks all friendly and stuff so far. I’m open to email banter and going step-by-step with someone trying to make bread for the first time or having issues with a specific bread and I’ve enjoyed many successes from email friends across the country. I’m happy to be here and I look forward to learning a lot as well as possibly helping someone else in their cooking and baking endeavors. Nothing beats a complete, rewarding, healthy, chemical free meal from scratch that ya did yourself - right down to a loaf of fresh bread!
Most regards, Franzia
I'm an avid bread baker and that is the peak of my interests, albeit, anything about cooking/food/wine is a highlight. I'm blessed with a daughter, 40, who is a fantastic self-taught chef in Scottsdale, AZ for over 12 years now, and we have so much fun concocting gourmet delights. She has a restaurant (#2 opening this fall) with a market and catering company. (Pam Tillis wants her to open one in Nashville!) My son, 42, is a former fire chief in the United States Air Force, a single father of a 15 1/2 daughter - and proud of it. She is now working in my daughter's restaurant and coming right along. As we all assume, most firemen are great cooks and he's no exception. I have another daughter, 35, who took the road to wife and motherhood and doesn't have a lot of time in the kitchen but she's inherently interested and getting off to a good late start as the two children get off into school.
They all live in the Phoenix area and I'm about an hour and a half southeast in a little patch of desert called Red Rock. I live out on the remote dirt and love it...except when the monsoon washes out the road and I'm marooned for a week or more - only to have it come again at any time. So, I have plenty of time to bake and to experiment. Being part Cherokee, I've told the rattlesnakes they can't hang around here and, for the most part, they don't... girl Rottweiler, George, gives them so much grief that they decide to mosey on, too. Then she comes for her cookie reward. Little boy dog, Taylor, is a small cocker mix and is quite up in years but he's still with us. He was bitten by a rattlesnake twice so when George says 'get on the deck', he not only gets on the deck, he gets on the chaise lounge!
I also have this amazing parrot, Pepper! He's a 25 year old Yellow Naped Amazon that rules the house. He has a cage, but the door is always open and there is ropes so he can get up and down safely - he's only in it when he wants to be - When I go to the neighbors without him, he yells my name clearly and loudly and yells, ‘come ere’. He climbs the cabinet drawer handles up to the top one and watches whatever I’m doing ... and says 'Whatchadoin' - and the chatter continues. When I’m making food, he goes to his eating place and says ‘too hot’ and waits there patiently - well, as patiently as a bird can wait - when I give him the food he says ‘MMMM Good’ or ‘THIS is good!’ They’re reputed to have the intelligence of a 5 yr. old and the behavior of a 2 yr. old - I can vouch for that... except maybe he’s more like the ‘trying threes’ than the ‘terrible twos’ most of the time... like when I ask him a question, he says ‘I don’t know’ or ‘Huh?’. When I take him to the vet, he says, ‘Uh Oh’, ‘I gotta go, love you - bye’. Gotta love it! I won’t go into how he is in the car on a trip! He recognizes things and gets all excited and will say where we are! Mexico! Mexico! Mexico! Right way! Mexico! You don’t even want to be a trucker coming up to close - you’ll get ‘flogged’ right thru the rear window! I get lots of attention! Man, I should write a book...
Well, see what happens when I get to talking about that bird!!! I have a Global Sun Oven solar oven that gets a lot of use all year around especially in the summer! It's truly amazing what you can do with those puppies! I have a Weber Silver Genesis propane grill that I've been bound and determined to bake bread in - and I've pretty much mastered it. Again, it's amazing what you can do with some imagination and determination... Both turn out some fantastic artisanal breads - and without heating up the house beyond what AC control in the summer here. My main bread these days is the No Knead Bread from the NYT that is all the rage world-wide! It turns out fantastically in both units! My super specialty is an onion-dill-bread-to-die-for, aptly named by its recipients - last year’s holiday gifts. It also makes some outstanding hamburger and hot dog buns...as does my rye. Talk about a good burger or dog! Ya got the flavor without having a pickle and onion!
About my postings, most tend to be lengthy but not quite as lengthy this introduction, sorry; I try to keep it concise. I go thru spells of posting and spells of not posting. I have fibromyalgia and it pretty much governs what kind of days I have. I also have experienced breast cancer and have had double mastectomies, made it thru from near death - that takes its toll on a person’s days, too. I hope to enjoy and participate in the forum - looks all friendly and stuff so far. I’m open to email banter and going step-by-step with someone trying to make bread for the first time or having issues with a specific bread and I’ve enjoyed many successes from email friends across the country. I’m happy to be here and I look forward to learning a lot as well as possibly helping someone else in their cooking and baking endeavors. Nothing beats a complete, rewarding, healthy, chemical free meal from scratch that ya did yourself - right down to a loaf of fresh bread!
Most regards, Franzia