SWB's path to financial independence

[SavingWithBabies]

The sourdough bread turned out great! I followed the New York Times recipe/article/youtube video very closely although I tweaked the starter after the first attempt (of just the initial step) didn't get the rise I expected -- I think I ended up going with 70g of starter instead of 20g as my starter was very fresh as still feeding it daily (I adjusted how much flour and water I added to compensate for more starter). That worked much better and I went on with the recipe.



It is magical pulling out a baked loaf. I've made some baked goods before but nothing like this.

Also, I tend to be skeptical of health benefits but I did seem to have much better digestion after eating sourdough. I noticed it in these cases:

- after eating sourdough pizza, I had um... healthy bowel movements
- I ate some of one of these sourdough loafs right before bed (couldn't resist trying it after letting it cool for a couple of hours) and normally I'd get indigestion (heart burn) in that situation particularly with putting butter on it late at night but I didn't

I figured the first thing was a one off and didn't attribute it to much but not getting heart burn when eating bread was really surprising to me. I've since read that sourdough is a prebiotic which makes sense.

Apparently, I'm a year or two behind the sourdough trend. I didn't realize it was a thing after COVID first hit. But I'm very happy to have tried it.

[SavingWithBabies]

Oh, and I didn't have any rice flour but I used my coffee (burr) grinder on the finest setting to grind some basmati rice (we had extra, no particularly reason to use that specific type). The output was fairly close to flour -- maybe a tad coarser. I'm excited this worked as I can use this same approach when making Gyoza wrappers to dust them to prevent sticking. Then I remembered I had splurged on a Vitamix and that would probably do an even better job as long as I wanted to make a couple cups or more of rice flour.

To go on even more of a tangent, a while ago I began searching for the best salt and pepper grinders and ended up buying a used set of Peugeot ones made in France. The pepper grinder was and is amazing but the salt grinder never worked all that great. I thought it was due to using the wrong salt (supposed to use a dryer kosher salt). But I first tried to make the rice flour with the Peugeot salt grinder. That didn't work all that well however when I refilled it with (the same) salt, suddenly it was working much better as a salt grinder. I'm not overly impressed with the metal thickness on the Peugeot grinder part so perhaps I tweaked it slightly to work better for the type of kosher salt we have? Or maybe it was mistreated before it came to us (if I'm ever in a fancy kitchenware store again, hopefully they'll have a Peugeot salt grinder on display I can test). So that was a happy coincidence. Now that both pepper and salt grinders are working well, the other other flaws with the ones we have are you can only grind in one direction with the salt grinder otherwise the screw on metal ball loosens changing the grind and it's too easy to knock them out of adjustment. I can accept the "only one way" aspect (although means you have to explain to guests or try to -- my mother-in-law is still convinced we got another bum grinder set) but the loosening is a bit annoying. Maybe I can find something that will act as a mild thread locker? I hesitate to put automotive thread locker on a kitchen item but I'm thinking about trying some white (PVA) glue. Just a drop.

[theanimal]

Regarding the 00 flour, you can use it for non-Neapolitan style pizzas. I am also making New York Style crust and find that the texture and shape ability has been superior to other flours I have tried. The taste does not change for me but it has made the crust lighter and crispier and I can make it much thinner without worrying as much about tearing.

Also, that grill setup looks great, consider me envious.

ETA: Forgot to say that I have the same experience with sourdough bread. I can't eat more than one piece of non-sourdough bread without getting a headache or brain fog. I have no issues at all with sourdough products, regardless of quantity.

[SavingWithBabies]

Ah, that is good to know 00 flour is useful for all types. I do want to try it and I will. I am trying to reign in my impulses to try to stay focused in the lens of future liveaboard sailboat life (with aim to go cruising away from readily available supplies). But I do have plenty of time to try interesting things. I think I'll have to order the 00 flour online.

For the grill setup, it's all the pieces that come with the Kamado Joe Classic I grill plus a pizza stone and 3 steel pipe plugs to raise it up about an inch from the lower ceramic plate (that came with the grill, technically plates as it's split in half). I was baking cracker crust pies very fast -- I think the slower baking time with sourdough (or rising crust) helps with getting the top more cooked. It is actually working fairly well for cooking pizza.

That is interesting about your experience with sourdough. I can see why people get really into it. I'm pretty much sold at this point.

[SavingWithBabies]

We finished the first two loafs of sourdough and I baked two more last night. Here is the one that went well:



The second one I forgot to lower the temperature from 500f to 450f after taking off the lid so it burned a little on the top (still very edible to me). But I also dropped it when taking it over to the table to cool it. I was worried about the moisture escaping so I put it inside a metal pot with the lid on to cool. I dropped it because I was trying to carry it by the edges of the parchment paper which normally works fine but because I forgot to turn it down, the edges were very weak and couldn't hold the weight. Oh well, each time something to learn on how to do it better.

Last time, I used all purpose instead of bread flour and I didn't follow the trick of wetting your hand when doing the folds to avoid the dough sticking to your hand. This time, I used bread four and I wetted my hand each time before folding the dough and it went smoother (less dough sticking to the hand). I think the dough was more hydrated and the inside is softer (the curst might be slightly softer too).

[mountainFrugal]

Looking good! Just had some avo toast off a very similar loaf my partner made this morning. I like the ear to be a bit crispy like you have in your picture. It makes that slice extra crunchy if you toast it. Yum!

[SavingWithBabies]

@mf I like the crispy/chewy too! My wife grew up with soft Japanese bread and our kids aren't excited about crust at all (except the toddler, he likes to gnaw on the edges and loves sourdough, probably helps with the teething). I'm going to try putting one loaf into a paper bag after a brief cooling off time to see if that keeps the curst a little softer.

I baked another two loaves of sourdough today. I think that is a total of 6 loaves and so far, they have all come out great. We went camping for a week and I took (already baked) bread with us which was great. But timing-wise, I came back and had to wait until today to bake as the NYT recipe is a 3 day process (1st day easy -- starter, 2nd day more time w/ dough, 3rd day bake). We are going camping again and I think I'll bring some starter and try making some bread in the RV oven. We have limited refrigeration but we do have a cooler so I can probably figure out something for resting the dough over night or try a different recipe.

I've been thinking more about finances and how to finance a boat. With all the focus on optimizing investments and minimizing taxes (ie by contributing to 401k, not cheating) making a big purchase in cash is difficult as a lot of money is tied up in retirement savings and it's painful to cash in stock on the brokerage account with the market being down. It hasn't been a recent realization but over the past couple of years, I've started to understand more why people taking loans and that in some cases, they can make a lot of sense. So I'm looking into boat loans. My preference is towards an older solidly built catamaran however apparently the loans sometimes have minimum ages (ie not older than 20 years) which narrows down my options. So it'll be interesting to find out what the requirements are of the loan and what I would qualify for.

[SavingWithBabies]

The reason I'd finance a boat over just saving up cash is that I want to get on the boat sooner. I think my wife does too although she doesn't want to spend years in a marina in Florida (neither do I although I'd be fine for a while). So perhaps the path to getting what we want when we want it is to get a boat loan, get the boat up to snuff for the Caribbean and get skilled up and try contract work from the boat (or staying in places with co-working spaces). The Caribbean works for November/December to June but hurricane insurance would require the boat being out of that region (or in some cases on dry land) for the rest of the year. For that time, we could take the boat south (ideally to a Spanish-speaking country) or go north back to the USA. Or put it on land (dry storage) which isn't attractive to me right now but it is an option.

If we do the loan, my goal would be to continue to work until we have enough to pay off the loan if we wanted to (and maybe do so if it made sense). So that puts an upper limit on how much I'd want to spend on a boat because I'd want to get to that place within 2-3 years at most.

[mountainFrugal]

I'm going to try putting one loaf into a paper bag after a brief cooling off time to see if that keeps the curst a little softer.

We use a large resealable/reusable food grade silicone bag for exactly this purpose. It keeps the loaf fresh for up to 5 days. They are easy to turn inside out and clean. You can also cook meat sealed inside them in hot water.

side note: food grade resealable silicone bags are the shit for car camping (and ERE in general). We use various sizes to store left overs or lunches while on van trips. Then just throw the sealed bag of leftovers in a pan of hot water to reheat. Eat right out of the bag with a spoon. Magic for water limited trips. We have not experimented with a pre-made backpackers style meal yet in this format, but I am confident it would work. Pre-made frozen raw ingredients would work too I think.

[SavingWithBabies]

@mF That is a great idea. I actually ordered some silicone bags but I didn't realize they came that large. I'll have to look for the bigger ones. I also hadn't realized you could use them to heat up food like that but that makes sense and is really cool. I'll think we'll use that right away for leftovers (once the bags arrive).

[SavingWithBabies]

Progress: 61.6% ($986,000/$1,600,000) -- originally wrote 60.5% ($969,000/$1,600,000) but that was mid-day (normally get total night before 1st of the month but forgot)

[MBBboy]

You should look up sous vide cooking as well - you can do more than just heat up food in those things, but cook it from raw as well. It's a great way to retain moisture in chicken, and excellent for various cuts of high quality beef. You just need to finish it off on a grill / cast iron pan.

Get large enough bags / water containers, and you can even do large items like brisket.

[SavingWithBabies]

@MBBboy I actually rigged up a DIY sous vide with a crock pot and a controller but then found a commercial version in a thrift store for $2 without a cord (used standard cord same as PC). I like the idea of sous vide and I've made some interesting things with it but so far, it just hasn't quite clicked 100%. I think part of it is I need a better container for the sous vide. But also my family prefers meat a little more done than red so it doesn't help too much there (although maybe that's just a matter of experimentation to go beyond the typical beef guides). We did make some good Japanese egg custard with the sous vide and it was easier than the oven method. I want to try creme brulee. But I'll have to try it some more with meat, just got a little burned out on it but maybe this fall/winter.

[SavingWithBabies]

Progress: 50% ($800,000 / $1,600,000)

[SavingWithBabies]

Progress: 50.5% ($808,000 / $1,600,000)

[SavingWithBabies]

Still baking sourdough bread. Accidentally bulk purchased two 50 pound bags of white wheat flour -- I thought one was whole wheat. So I've been making a lot of sourdough with all white but looking forward to adding some whole wheat back in. It's a fun learning process and I enjoy it. Great break from sitting at a computer. I did reuse my DIY sous vide components to build a temperature controlled proofing box for dough (used cooler, warming pad and a incandescent light bulb -- fire hazard of course so I keep a close eye on it). Not really necessary but as winter comes to the midwest, it can keep the fermentation times down and should be useful for some other things.

I also made some more sourdough pizzas. I think I made my best ever overall one a couple nights ago. The dough had too high a hydration for easy pizza making but I made it work. Sadly, it was the last pizza of the night and I think I was the only one to fully appreciate it but that is okay. Always another time.

I think sourdough pizza is my favorite however my kids may be more partial to thin crust as it's easier for their little jaws and muscles to chew (at least that is my theory -- kids taste things differently too I think so I'm partly saying that in jest, they are also not very consistent in their preferences).

[SavingWithBabies]

I realized last night I'm about 1/2 way through the 100 pounds of flour. Also finally got some more whole wheat flour today so I can go back to the ~ 70%-30% white:whole wheat ratio that was in the sourdough bread recipe I started with. I'm excited to use up all the white flour so I can find a higher protein variant for the next batch. I think the bag I've mostly not used is higher protein too. More protein makes it easier to go higher hydration without the loaf slumping as much when I go to bake it. At least I think that is how it works. You can of course ratchet down the hydration however I did that and I went too low as the crumb was denser than I expected -- I like the airy light crumb of high hydration.

I started fermenting sliced red onions about a week ago. Should be ready to try today/tomorrow. I did the water plus ~ 2% salt method. It's amazing how strong the odors were at first and it's still very pungent. If the liquid gets on your hand, it tends to cling too. I'm basically doing this recipe:

https://farmsteady.com/blogs/field-guid ... red-onions

I just tasted it and it didn't taste particularly fermented. I'm not sure how strong a flavor to expect. I'll let it ride a couple more days.

[SavingWithBabies]

The fermented red onions came out fine. I think they took a day or two extra as they were near an outer wall and it's getting cold here in the land of snow (we actually have a bit of snow right now, not much but more on the way).

[SavingWithBabies]

Progress: 60% ($959,500 / $1,600,000)

We had a great thanksgiving with family although getting there involved driving through a blizzard or a near blizzard. Thankfully, no accidents and we remained on the road although some were not as lucky.

The startup in which I acquired stock in lieu of owed contracting fees is no longer going public via a SPAC but instead via alternative means (I'm being obtuse to avoid being too identifiable). So the potential lottery ticket there is still in play. I view it literally as a lottery ticket in that it has a high chance of being worth $0 but just like a government lottery ticket, the suspense is enjoyable (although prolonged unlike a lottery drawing).

[SavingWithBabies]

Progress: 62.% ($1,005,000 / $1,600,000)

Somehow, two days ago, I thought it was the end of the month. The stock market rally today took us up a bit more.