🍕Welcome To Pie January 🍕
I did not really “take off” the last few weeks from work, as I’d intended. For starters, I failed to predict how long it would take to finish up my various 2022 freelance projects, so what seemed like would be a long vacation was whittled down to the usual exhausted gap between Xmas and New Year’s. And also, as I am slowly coming to realize, I am something of a workaholic, at least when faced with work that is interesting or enjoyable, which almost all of it is these days.
That said, though I did do a variety of different pizza experiments in anticipation of Pie January, I completed none of them. Which means that this month is going to be a bit of a slow build, with the bulk of the content coming later on, probably in something of a torrent once it does. But not to worry, I have, at last count, four recipes in the works, and hope to finish at least one of them later today.
I did however “complete” two related things:
I finally brought the Wordloaf Index up to date, including adding a TOC to make the somewhat unweildy document easier to navigate:
And I added a new guide to the website, this one all about pizza. Like the Mega Bread Equipment Guide, it covers recommendations and sources for pizza tools, but I’ve also included informational resources, such as links to articles about pizza by me and others, and links to all of my pizza-related recipes, both here and elsewhere. There’s much there already, but as you will see, there are a few sections that still need filling out, something I will do in the weeks to come. If there is content you want added, please let me know in the comments there. And feel free to add your own recommendations for tools or useful pizza resources.
Sourdough Culture Exchange Network
Finally, as most of you know, I share my sourdough starter with anyone who needs one, either for a modest fee to cover shipping, or for free for any Wordloaf paid subscribers who request one. For anyone local to me who orders or asks for one, I usually offer to hand them off a live one in person for free.
I’ve been thinking for awhile now that there ought to be something of a sourdough starter exchange network, i.e., a list of people and/or bakeries who have a culture they are willing to share for free to anyone who can come to pick one up. To that end, I started a Google Sheets doc to contain it:
Please add your name and contact information to the list if you want. I’ll keep the document cleaned up and organized by location so it will be easy for others to find someone in their area with a starter to share.
—Andrew
Totally love the idea of sharing starter. When I evacuated from Kyiv last February, my starter didn't make it. Now that I'm in Hannover, Germany, I'd love some starter if someone is nearby ....
Happy New Year! Keeping up that index is a labour of love. Good for you for creating, building, and maintaining it. It’s very helpful. The pizza one is a great addition. One small suggestion: relabeling “pizza resources” to “pizza making resources.” When I quickly went through the list of topics, I was wondering where the recipes were.