DIVA COOKS: Baked

Joy of Cooking, the newest edition, Rustic French bread!

It actually worked! Probably because I was not impatient with the sponge, which is the mix of yeast and flour and water that gives the bread its body. I was probably not impatient because I kept forgetting about it.
The dough was a super-sticky gelatinous mass that could just barely be coaxed into a loaf-like shape. It was like herding pudding. I used half for a shaped loaf, and put the other in a loaf pan, as per Alan Bostick. (Thanks Deb Notkin for pointing me at Alan!)
The "loaf" looked like a delicious paramecium when I pulled it out, the dough in the pan looked like, well, a loaf. They both were a gorgeous light brown.
And they were my Dream Bread: crusty outside, chewy inside, just right for the chicken marinara I made for dinner, and good a few minutes ago with olive oil and dipping spices.
I wish I'd taken pictures. The paramecium was hilarious, but delicious, and the loaf was just so pretty.

The chicken marinara was dead easy: about a pound of boneless, skinless chicken breast tenders, a jar of good marinara sauce, a can of crushed tomatoes, all thrown in the Dutch oven at the same time. When it was bubbling, and the chicken was white, I turned it down to simmer, and left it for 45 minutes. (You could eat it any ol' time after the chicken is cooked.

Now for the Sourdough. I have a starter going for that, and it is good a smelly (in the right way) so far.
I will be in heaven if I can make a good sourdough.

ATF: No Pressure

Ah, the plumbing. It is like the story of the little Dutch Boy putting his finger in the dike. (Not dyke, you...you...people.)
But the little boy runs out of fingers really quickly!
The build team was SURE they'd found the leak. They fixed it. They ran water through the system, and lo, there was a new leak.
They fixed THAT leak.
And lo, there was a new leak. A leak that will require tunneling. A leak that will require more chipping into beams in the slab.
And lo, the contractor tells me, "Dere ain't no goddamn way them foundation people did a static test (a test for water tightness of the plumbing that has to be done before foundation work)."
And he's right. There ain't.
There was no water to do one. It was already cut off.
The date on the test is 10.28. There was not a single foundation person on-property until 11.02.
They couldn't have done the test on 10.28 anyway, they couldn't get into the house, which is where the clean out they had to use was, which they said was no clean out, which means there was NO clean out to test, which means THERE WAS NO TEST.

I reckon Du-West Foundation Repair has some 'splainin' to do. Have fun with that, D-W.