Thursday night and one of the few evenings of the year when it is possible to have all the doors and windows in the house open and the night has been let into the house. Somehow I know that by the time we get to the weekend the clouds will be over and there will be a chill back in the early evening. In the meantime we are making the best of it.

We ate pizza making the dough last night.

Over the last few months the bread flour has become a mixture of white and wholegrain flour. We have, it appears, managed to get to the right combination of the two which basically means having just enough wholegrain to give some sourness to the bread. 

I spent twenty minutes or so on it last night. Mixing the flour with some sugar and salt and then pouring in milk and water from a jug into which i had stirred a couple of sachets of dried yeast. I always start these things with a wooden spoon thinking that will be enough to do the job. It never is. And so I have to get my hands in there stirring up the flour and water and then kneading it.

I measure kneading by whatever music is playing, get it started and then carry on until the next song is finished.

Having made the dough it went into the fridge for the night until early this evening.

There were three toppings for the pizza:-

– a mixture of tomatoes, garlic and oregano on top of some sliced onions with pieces of spanish had and salami in between and topped with mozzarella

– all of the above but without the meat

– onions cooked for twenty minutes or so with garlic, slathered over the rolled dough and topped with anchovies and chopped black olives.

Most of it went and somewhere along the line we listened to Virginia Astley.

In the meantime it is dark outside and there are people sat there under the night sky talking.