After the summer months -- during which I've been in hiding, of sorts -- I thought I'd pick up with recipe blogging first. In the style of Ariya Hidayat. When he's not doing ridiculously cool things, he has nice photos of various dishes.

During the summer months I've picked up making bread as a nice relaxing activity. The feel of the flour as it sticks to your fingers, the elasticity after kneading the dough, the stink of yeast and the smell of fresh-baked bread in the kitchen contribute to that relaxation. Yesterday's exercise was a bread braid -- just plain whole wheat rolled out and then braided, so that you get a loaf with some character. My intention had been to take a picture of it, but the kids (and myself) liked it so much that the whole thing was devoured in under a half hour. Well, that was dinner taken care of, at least.

No bread today, but I'll point to a scone recipe on the BBC site that is quick and tasty. 20 minutes from "braaaaaains ... I mean, scones" to the finished product is just right. I poke a single raisin on the top of each scone -- a raisin which is duly removed and dropped on the floor by the kids.

Bread is different from software. You mix in the right ingredients, follow the build instructions, and what comes out varies based on the phase of the moon or the draught in the kitchen or a hundred other variables not under your control. Oh, wait, maybe it is like software packaging. But more on that some other time.