Frustration

I am frustrated today. My bread is not working as well as I'd like and my mother's new iMac is not cooperating with me.

First the bread. For some reason, my results have gone downhill. My loaves are sagging during baking. And it's driving me nuts. For help, I've joined the The Fresh Loaf bread baking forum. I've found a whole crapload of information and am still wading through it. Thought I'd solved the sinking problem this morning, but the bread I baked sagged, yet again. Erg!

The good folks at The Fresh Loaf were, however, able to solve another one of my little problems. My bread was sticking to the bread pan, in spite of my liberal greasing of said pan. I tried Crisco, I tried canola oil and I tried margarine. But the sticking was getting worse and the last time out I completely ruined one loaf while trying to remove it from the pan.

So I pass on this little nugget. One part flour, one part oil, one part Crisco. Mix well. Apply to pan with pastry brush. Worked like a charm. The somewhat flattened loaves slipped out like butta.

Rejoice in the small victories.

Second, my mom purchased the latest iMac, as I was told it would be easy to remotely access her computer, from mine, and be able to help with any problems. I would be able to do this through a program called iChat. Problem is, we can't seem to get iChat working properly, which means I can't access her computer to solve the problem. This is driving me crazy. She is, in theory, as I write, on the phone with Apple tech support trying to resolve this issue. 

Mom lives back in Ontario, and I'm here in Manitoba, so it's not like I can just drop in and deal with tech support on her behalf. This is frustrating the crap out of me.

Well, to make a long annoying story short, (and to meet my commitment to blog today), I'll tell you that between my brother in Ontario, the folks at Cogeco.ca, the folks at Apple Canada, my mother and myself, we've solved many of the problems. Lots of phone calls, lots of on-line hunting, one step at a time and we're getting there. 

Anyway, I'm frustrated and tired. I'm going to bed.

Good night.