Due to a new job, lots of travel, and a snafu when it came to renewing my domain name, this blog has been out of commission for a while, but stay tuned for new recipes and updates in the coming weeks.

I’ll be putting up a bunch of posts, including TWD.  I’ve been out of town and just got back.

I’m at King Arthur Flour in Vermont, taking the advanced bread baking class. When I drove up and saw the sign, I felt like I’d arrived at the promised land!

Between no internet and phone, a trip to check on my auntie, and this trip, I have a backup of TWD posts to get up, plus info on the class. I’ll be posting the TWD post next Tuesday, so stay tuned.

In the meantime, my head is swimming with Baker’s percentages!

Fourteen days ago (yes, 14) my neighbor accidentally cut our phone and internet line while replacing the fence between our properties.  It took ten days for the phone company to actually send a tech out to repair the damage.  Only Verizon forgot to tell her that the LINE HAD BEEN CUT.  So, she arrived unprepared for the task, but managed to rig a patch after telling us that our entire line would have to be replaced.  That will involve ripping up our yard and digging a new trench.

So, that’s what’s been going on.  Sometimes, I think weird stuff happens to us.  Oh, and all this is on top of an $8,000 chimney repair.

But, as grandma used to say, we have our health, food on the table, and a roof over our heads.  Hallelujah!

I’m out of town looking after my octogenarian auntie, and I won’t be back to baking for TWD until the first Tuesday in August.  I have a couple posts going up in the meantime, so this blog won’t sit idle.

As for the exciting baking news . . . I’m going to King Arthur Flour in Vermont for a one week bread baking course!  Whoopee!  I can hardly wait!  I will, of course, blog all about it.

I’m not quite sure what’s going on, but I wrote a bunch of posts that were supposed to go up while I was traveling.  So, I got home, turned on the computer, checked the blog, and found . . . nothing.  So, I’m here, I’m alive, and I’m experiencing technical difficulties.

Posts should be going up soon as I figure out what I’m doing wrong!  Photo above are Gus and Daisy, my little Cavaliers, begging for popcorn, which they are crazy about.

Including the use of salt in all baked goods, pickles, ham, and cheese.

Because, as you must know, the economy is booming, the world is at peace, and cancer is cured.  That is why legislators have the time and energy to focus on The Great Salt Menace.

Assemblyman seeking to ban all salt in restaurant cooking

A new bill in the state Assembly would ruin restaurant food and baked goods as we know them.

In a deeply misguided gesture that is also an abuse of the legislative process, a New York City Assemblyman is pushing a nanny-state bill that would ban the use of all forms of salt in the preparation and cooking of all restaurant food.

Read the whole thing.

Then check out this website:  StillTasty.

Snow in all 50 states by Friday!

Most winters, the DC area gets about 6-7 inches of snow, with an “average” of 15. Total. So far this year, we have over 50 inches, with 90 inches in some areas.  In that context, a storm that drops 3 inches usually is a big deal.  To show you how we are adapting, a new storm is expected to deposit a “mere” 5 inches on Monday.

The road leading up to my house re-defines the word “plowed.”  Some state rep in Richmond is going to be hearing from me (in Virginia, the state is responsible for all road plowing).

Record snow in Dallas. And a Texas-sized snowman!

ROME has heaviest snowfall in 25 years.

Another fire station roof collapses, and the station catches fire.

Another roof collapse, stranded motorists, eight foot drifts, and five feet of snow in Frederick, Maryland (30 minutes north of D.C.).

And to show you that some folks haven’t lost their sense of humor, I leave you with this:

Happy New Year, everyone, and thanks for sticking with me through the past six months while things went kind of crazy around here.  Normal blogging will resume in 2010.  Hey – that’s tomorrow!