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Quarter-note bell pulse, offbeat hi-hat played with the foot, ghost notes. It’s straight time but it grooves pretty well, and the accent on the a of 3 breaks it up a bit. This sample contains 4 bars of the groove, with two separate fills (2nd and 4th measures). I particularly like the slow triplet-feel break at the end, even though it’s not really a triplet at all.

This groove works well if you can ride your HH foot on the 1/8th notes, open on the offbeats and close on the downbeats (or vice-versa). The transcript below doesn’t show this; it simply shows the HH closing on the offbeats, played with the foot.

     1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a
RC   O   O   O   O   
SD    o  O  o o O o o
KD   o  o o  o     oo
HH     x   x   x   x

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• Virtual Drummer loop
• MIDI
• MP3

So I cooked my first-ever turkey today. Yes, we did it on Friday; thanks for asking.

I bought a fresh (not frozen), free-range Willie Bird turkey, brined it according to the Chez Panisse recipe (minus the juniper berries… can those things actually be purchased on this planet?) and smoked it over a hickory fire in my Weber Kettle.

Gross overcommercialization aside, I have to say that this was the best damn turkey I’ve ever eaten.

This book taught me how to make bread. There are dozens of great recipes in the book, and a thorough introduction to using preferments (biga, poolish) to build bread in stages.

This book remains one of my favorites because it leads the reader on a bread tour of France, Germany, and Italy, demonstrating many wonderful variations of wheat and rye breads.

The main sourdough recipe uses a firm levain, in the French style, and I believe this is much more difficult than using a wetter, barm-style starter. However, this is a quibble; I’ve had great success with most of the recipes.

A word of caution for new bakers (as opposed to, ahem, “Master Bakers”) — this book is written from the perspective of a professional baker, and tends to rely on having various starters and old doughs at hand. While it’s true that great bread requires such integredients, new bakers might feel less intimidated by Crust & Crumb.

My favorite recipes from this book:

1. Berkeley Sourdough (p. 195), one of the more sour recipes I’ve found.
2. Pain sur Poolish (p. 80) — the best one-day baguette recipe I’ve tried. I had committed this recipe to memory, in my youth. It’s easy, reliable, and make a great loaf of bread.

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• Amazon (Paperback)

The subtitle of this book is “Master formulas for serious bread bakers.” If you are hungry for technique, not to mention great bread, this is a great book to own.

Chef Peter Reinhart gives detailed instructions on creating artisan-style loaves, building the bread in stages to allow the fullest flavor of the grain to come forth. He provides his award-winning “San Francisco” sourdough recipe, within a step-by-step guide to creating a viable wild-yeast starter from scratch that in my opinion is foolproof.

There are four recipes in Crust & Crumb that I rely on at least occasionally:

1. Sourdough Bagels (p. 84). I bake a huge batch of these every few months. The recipe is unbeatable.
2. Focaccia. I’ve been making focaccia from this recipe for five years, and every time it’s a big hit — worth, alone, the cost of the book.
3. San Francisco Sourdough (p. 76).
4. Pita Bread (p. 140)

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• Amazon (Hardback)

This is the best science fiction novel I’ve read in years.

I had not read the original short story, so the plot was new to me. The novel tells the story of a 6-year old outcast who is selected and rigorously trained to lead Earth’s battle fleet in a war against an alien race. The boy is a genius, and at several points I wondered that the author may also be one, to construct such intelligent, glib dialog and fascinating situations.

The best thing I can say about this book is that I immediately purchased the sequel.

There are some wonderful reviews of the book at the Amazon links below.

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• Amazon (Paperback)
• Amazon (Hardback)