Mimi Takes Five - #395

ONE // Pizza Sourdough

I'm entering the full-on experimental phase of my sourdough journey. I decided, on a whim, to attempt a pizza-flavoured sourdough last weekend. I had a leftover of tomato sauce and a bubbly starter. I modified my base recipe and swapped about two thirds of the water for tomato sauce when first mixing the dough. It was a bold choice and I had no idea how anything would turn out. I proceeded to doing my stretch and folds as usual and let it bulk ferment overnight. In the morning, my dough had risen beautifully and looked promising. I added shredded mozzarella during the shaping to really get that cheese pizza flavour. I scored and baked as usual. To my utter delight, my crazy plan worked! The bread rose in the oven and smelled absolutely delicious. While its orange hue was unusual, it meant that the sauce flavour would be in every bite. When I cut into it, there were  a few larger air bubbles at the top of the loaf but those craters were lined with cheese. It was like little cheese caves! I'm not sure how to shape it in the future to avoid this, but it's not a game breaker. We thoroughly enjoyed this pizza sourdough as the flavour was spot-on! Will definitely be making this again, perhaps even with pepperoni next time!

TWO // Baby Blue Long Sleeve

I have a vast array of solid-coloured long-sleeve t-shirt and turtlenecks. I find these to be great on their own, but they truly shine as layering pieces. I love a good basic and a good basic in every colour is even better. I wear long-sleeve t-shirts with sweaters, dresses, blazers, jackets, sweater vests and then some. Never underestimate the practicality of a solid-coloured long-sleeve t-shirt. I'd been wanting a baby blue option for a long time now but had yet to find one. Thankfully, I found one this year and it fills the perfect gap in my collection. This colour is perfect for winter and transitions seamlessly into spring. *Chef's kiss*

THREE // Puzzle, Again

I'm on a bit of a puzzle roll these days and am determined to work through my stack. We've all heard of a to-be-read pile, right? Well, I have a to-be-puzzled pile, ha ha! A colleague had given me a bunch of puzzles a while back and I really want to get around to doing them. I grabbed this one, which was a mystery as all I had was a Ziplock of pieces. No reference or other information on said puzzle. This makes it extra challenging - I like it! I'm not sure how many pieces this one was, but I'd venture a guess it was about 500, based on the size of the final puzzle. Up until the very end, I couldn't make out just what this was. I could tell there was a sky and some trees, but it was not obvious. It ended up being a beautiful nature watercolour scene akin to a Bob Ross painting. It was a nice, easy half-day's work. I enjoyed this one because it was just challenging enough!

FOUR // Brownies

I had a hankering for some very chocolatey brownies the other day. I scoured through the pantry hoping to find a box mix, to no avail. The craving was so strong that I was up to making them from scratch. I mixed a big batch of the gooey dessert and popped it into the oven as we were sitting down for dinner. That meant that they'd be ready for a decadent evening treat. I did find them a bit on the light brown side but didn't think much of it; until they cooled enough to have a taste... While they baked beautifully, they were lacking in that intense chocolate flavour. Turns out I mixed up my teaspoon and tablespoon and greatly underestimated the amount of cocoa powder the recipe called for. They were weak brownies; I was so disappointed! Not to be discouraged, I decided to whip up a batch of extra chocolatey frosting to try and salvage my mix-up. It did the trick! I slathered the really dark frosting generously and it made up for the weak chocolate flavour of the brownie itself. Mistakes happen to the best of us, it's how we work through them that really matters.

FIVE // Ladies of London

The reboot of Ladies of London is just what I needed to get me out of my post-Bridgerton funk. I mean, it's basically the same show, just in different timelines, right? Okay, LoL brings more drama and probably less class, but I'm here for the trash TV. I must say, the original Ladies of London was my favourite of the Bravo/Housewives franchise. It was iconic. Earlier this year we got Hayu's Real Housewives of London, which was alright, but it felt off. I know all this is very confusing! So many similar shows by different networks. One thing is for sure, London is where it's at and everybody wants a sip of that tea! I'm hoping this new reign from Bravo will serve us all the drama on a silver platter.