Maëlys McArdle

Author: Maëlys McArdle

  • Baguettes

    Baguettes

    From 2012-2016 I picked up baking as a hobby. At first it was a screen-free way to relax during my second go at university, and I had fun improvising. I may have picked up the bug again: here’s a recipe for French baguettes, taken from this video.

    Baguettes

    Makes 3-4 baguettes.

    • 950g flour
    • 2 tsp salt
    • ¾ tsp yeast
    • 730 ml water

    Add salt and mix it, to prevent yeast from making contact. Add yeast. Add water. Mix with the handle of a wooden spoon. Mix until the dough forms into a ball and sticking to the spoon handle and make sure there’s no unmixed flour sticking to the bottom of the bowl. Cover and leave to rise for 8-10 hours at room temp. Longer in cold climates.

    Sprinkle flour on a surface. Use dough scraper to pull dough off of bowl onto the surface, making sure not to push it as it would lose some of the air inside. With the dough on the surface, sprinkle more flour on top of the ball. Make sure dough is not sticking to surface by scraping the dough scraper underneath, pushing flour under. Form into an elongated shape. Cut in 3 or 4 sections.

    Take each piece, dip in the flour of the surface, and put on a lined baking grill. Take care not to press the dough. Can scour with knife at 45º, cutting in long diagonals.

    Put in oven at 480ºF/250ºC for 25 min on bottom rack. Let rest a few minutes.

    Thoughts

    This recipe produces the crisp exterior, soft interior, and large air bubbles of a proper baguette. The taste is yeast-y; substituting fresh yeast improves the flavour a bit but it’s no sourdough. Still the best bread recipe I’ve tried to date.

  • I need sad stories like I need sad music

    I need sad stories like I need sad music

    There are days I feel like shit.

    When I think a little too hard about how I’ll make ends meet in old age against the backdrop of ever-increasing rents and inaccessible home ownership.

    When I see friends post about their children after my own dreams were crushed. When they remind me they have a partner to go home to, and I have an empty bed.

    When I get worn down the threats, mockery, or assault of complete strangers, turning everyday activities into minefields.

    Much like there are good break-up songs to listen to, there are days that call for consuming fiction with bleak endings.

    There’s a real taboo with such endings in fiction outside of horror; it’s perceived as a downer. To me it’s always having things end on an uplifting note that feels isolating.

    Don’t get me wrong; I need happy content too. But just as I’m sometimes in the mood for sad music, some days I need sad stories too.

  • Northern Lights

    I was able to capture this video last night, at Pinhey’s Point:

    This was also the weekend of the butter tart festival in Stittsville. The one on the right was a delicious Biscoff Caramel butter tart by Ritual on Main:

    This has been a very Canadian moment.

  • Bystander intervention for autocracy

    Bystander intervention for autocracy

    The Market

    I was sipping a pop in the Byward Market when a man started to harass me. I’m no stranger to being targeted in the market or over gender-conformity and I ignored him. He alternated between yelling “You’re intersex; I don’t know if you’re a man or a woman” and “if you’re a man I’d kick your ass”. When that didn’t elicit the reaction he wanted, he took to repeatedly calling me “fat ass”.

    He finally placed himself at my feet and uttered “if you’re a man, I’ll kick your ass”. I looked up but didn’t say a word; people often gender me male after hearing my voice. He walked away.

    (more…)
  • Back to the Yukon

    Back to the Yukon

    I got to back to the Yukon this past week, this time with Joy. It’s only been a few months since my last visit. We hit up the Dempster Highway, the Tombstone Territorial Park, among other spots.

    More than any other place in Canada, I could see myself living in Whitehorse. That said, it was colder than I expected – some days starting in the single digits despite having travelled in August.