Awkward Wealth

[spncity]

Breads? 1 1/2 cups warm water, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp yeast, 3 1/2 cups bread flour, let sit for 10 hours covered, turn out and allow to rise in a pan for an hour, bake at 425 for 45 minutes. Not really everything in it, but.... oh wait - you said threads, not breads. what were we talking about?

I was about to post something like this in the saving money thread

 

[Major Tom]

First, I was talking with my mom about a year ago, and she mentioned how she's stopped herself from feeling awkward about her poverty when talking with her sisters (who both married high-earners). I figure, if Mom doesn't have to feel awkward about her poverty, why should I feel awkward about my wealth? I certainly don't feel "better" than her because I have more money!

Second, my beloved 19-year-old cat died this summer, and my bank balance did not help my grief one bit (not that I expected it to). My money also doesn't magically cure my depression just by diving into it Scrooge McDuck-style, nor have I been able to buy my way out of many of the other trials and tribulations of just being human.

Third, I've known too many awesome people of all income levels, and plenty of jerks at all income levels too. Having more money sure hasn't made me more moral, or a better spouse, sister, or daughter. It hasn't made me kinder or more honest. And those are the important things.

So, for the most part, I don't feel awkward about what I have or don't have, because I know it doesn't reflect any of my value as a human being.

+1. Well said. I often say that the only thing having more (or less) money than anyone else definitely says about you is that you have more (or less) money than they do.

 

[Bestwifeever]

I make bread and I knead the dough.

 

[purplesky]

I just remembered a awkward wealth moment at my mega-corp that took place years ago when my megacorp went public with a IPO and many millionaires were created overnight.

So within a month there must have been 15 brand new REALLY expensive cars in the parking lot. It was kind of funny.

Unfortunately for me at the time I didn't benefit from the IPO and there was this awkward vibe for some employees working side by side with millionaire coworkers who happen to work at the right place at the right time.

 

[ERD50]

I make bread and I knead the dough.

I need bread, so I make the dough.

-ERD50

 

[CaliforniaMan]

Loafing, when you kneed the dough, an Abbott and Costello classic.

 

[NW-Bound]

Abbott to Costello: "You can't loaf because you've got no dough."

Me, I am loafin' right now in a campground in a small town in Nova Scotia, having arrived 1 hour ago. On the way here, I saw many local RV'ers heading the other way going back to Halifax to go to work tomorrow. No loafin' for those poor guys. Me, I've got enough dough to let meself loaf, and it does not take a ton of money either.

Is it awkward? Heck no! I am resting a bit then head into town to check out the local seafood restaurant the friendly campground owner told me about. How can loafin' be awkward? Quite enjoyable if you ask me. I guess it can be awkward if you don't know how to do it right.

 

[LoneAspen]

I just remembered a awkward wealth moment at my mega-corp that took place years ago when my megacorp went public with a IPO and many millionaires were created overnight.

So within a month there must have been 15 brand new REALLY expensive cars in the parking lot. It was kind of funny.

Unfortunately for me at the time I didn't benefit from the IPO and there was this awkward vibe for some employees working side by side with millionaire coworkers who happen to work at the right place at the right time.

I've been on both sides of that.

At my previous company, I came in post-IPO, and my options were basically worthless until the company got bought by a mega-corp. Even then, because I had such a small number of them, they were only worth enough to pay off some credit card debt. I remember being very envious of the early employees when I started seeing some nice cars show up in the parking lot, but I don't recall anything really exotic. The nicest car I remember was a Porsche 911 Turbo, but it was a Tiptronic so it didn't really count.

The company I'm at now, I joined as employee 40-something and pre-IPO. They IPO'd last year and are now over 800 people and growing strong. I'm kind of surprised that nobody is showing up with really nice cars yet. There are a handful of new Teslas and what not, but nothing like a 911, Ferrari, or anything like that. Maybe people keep them at home and don't drive them in.

I remember reading about Google's IPO and how one of the founders said if anybody showed up with an exotic like a Lamborghini, etc, he'd take a baseball bat to it. They didn't want any class envy following the IPO.

I've also dealt with the awkwardness firsthand. My former boss came in way later than me, and I know has a lot fewer options. And the way he's phrased talking about things, I can tell reading between the lines he's very envious of the earlier folks, including myself.

I can say one thing...I much prefer being in the early employee pre-IPO boat, than the post-IPO one. I definitely count myself blessed.

 

[splitwdw]

To the original poster, find another Trader Joe's. There must be something wrong with that one because my Trader Joe's and every other one I've been in has tons of employees. You can't walk far without someone restocking or giving samples.
All of my bread recipes are a handful of this and a cup or two of that. That's how my grand and great-grand taught us.
White Bread
5 or 6 cups of bread flour
500 ml of milk
1/2 stick of butter
2 teaspoons of salt
2 tablespoons of granulated sugar
1 tablespoon rapid rise yeast
1 beaten egg room temperature (optional)
sesame or poppy seeds (optional)

Combine in bowl 2 cups flour, yeast, salt, sugar. Mix to blend.
Microwave milk and butter for 2 1/2 minutes on high.
Add 1/3 of the milk/butter mix and stir in.
Alternate adding the rest of the flour and milk/butter mix.
Turn out on a floured surface and knead for about 10 minutes.
Place dough in a oiled a bread bowl, cover with damp towel and let rise 45 minutes.
Turn out, punch down (this is where you name the bread after the person that's annoying you the most at that time) and let rest 10 minutes.
Divide into 3 balls and form into long torpedoes.
Place on buttered sheet pan and cover with damp towel. Let rise 45 minutes.
Preheat oven to 450 F
Optional, Brush top of loaves with beaten egg. Sprinkle sesame/poppy on two of the loaves and leave one plain.
Bake for 5 minutes at 450 then turn temp to 350 and cook for 15-20 minutes.
Remove from oven and (if you can, this takes a lot of willpower) cool completely on rack before eating. TA-DA 3 loaves with 3 different toppings and everyone thinks it took a lot of work.

 

[FUEGO]

Although i dont want this to devolve into a discussion about who among us can afford a decent kitchen scale. That would be awkward.

I bought one for $20 off amazon. It goes up to 75 lbs which is good for my occasional ebay sales when I get around to junk purging. It also measures down to 5 grams / 0.2 ounces so also handy for cooking. I can measure out just the right quantity of caviar. No need to be overly self-indulgent after all.

 

[FUEGO]

Were you getting social cues for these feelings from the people you were with, or was the feeling self-imposed? Because you could always refer back to the fact that you gave up a lot of luxuries and worked your freakin' assets off to be ER'd today.

Perhaps the cure for these feelings is to:
1. Hang out with people who don't give a crap how much you have, or
2. Hang out with people who are richer than you (a subset of #1).

Self imposed feelings on my part. The more I think about it, "A" probably didn't give my question much further thought. She probably went back to breaking boxes, sorting inventory, and thinking whatever thoughts she was thinking before I asked her a quick question about fish eggs.

 

[braumeister]

I think I've got it figured out now.
When I'm curious about something, I'll think "Well, it really is awkward that I don't already know that."

And then I'll remember to go to this Awkward thread where I'll undoubtedly find a digression that tells me what I need.

 

[jon-nyc]

Indeed, there is a wealth of knowledge in this thread.

 

[JoeWras]

I just remembered a awkward wealth moment at my mega-corp that took place years ago when my megacorp went public with a IPO and many millionaires were created overnight.

So within a month there must have been 15 brand new REALLY expensive cars in the parking lot. It was kind of funny.

Unfortunately for me at the time I didn't benefit from the IPO and there was this awkward vibe for some employees working side by side with millionaire coworkers who happen to work at the right place at the right time.

Been there, done that. Came into a company after a lot of guys just cashed huge options. Lunch went like this: "Yeah, paying the IRS $450,000 last year was a real pain in the a..."

Uh, yeah, that was awkward for those of us eating our peasant burgers.

 

[NW-Bound]

I make bread and I knead the dough.

I need bread, so I make the dough.

-ERD50

I eat the bread, but I always buy it, hence [-]need[/-] knead no dough.

We do a lot of home cooking, but have never made bread. I don't know why.

Ah, I just thought of one reason. Here in a hot climate, a hot oven in the house is something we would not want.

Would someone please shoot this thread and put it out of its misery?

No way. Don't you see we are having so much fun?

This is the Swiss Army knife of threads. It has a little bit of everything in it.

Nah. It still has no post regarding loudspeaker testing. Remember that?

Y'all are lucky I am RV'ing and not at home, else I might haul out one of my speakers to do frequency response sweep testing and talk about it here.

 

[splitwdw]

...We do a lot of home cooking, but have never made bread. I don't know why.
Ah, I just thought of one reason. Here in a hot climate, a hot oven in the house is something we would not want.
Y'all are lucky I am RV'ing and not at home, else I might haul out one of my speakers to do frequency response sweep testing and talk about it here.

There is nothing like homemade bread. I bake bread on the grill occasionally in the Summer because I don't want to heat up the house. Everyone thinks it's hard and worries about the yeast but it's easy.

The rate this thread is going you'll be home in time to post about the frequency response tests. We await with bated breath. Until he gets home can someone explain about the tests.......

 

[calmloki]

Baking bread when it is hot has a bit of challenge - do you bake at night before throwing the house open to cool or get up with the dawn.. my method requires a few minute to turn out and knead before plopping it into the banneton, 45 minutes of second rising time (while preheating the oven and cast iron dutch oven), and about 45 minutes of bake time. Then you have hours for the loaf to cool - it's a scheduling nightmare I tells ya! OTOH, my fresh baked bread? Rather have a slice of that than any cake or pie. Just jam packed full of yummy gluten!

 

[FUEGO]

I usually roll my bread dough out pretty thin, slap some marinara on it, then some cheese, some pepperoni, then sometimes some more cheese if I'm feeling quite munificent. That's how I do bread.

 

[NW-Bound]

... The rate this thread is going you'll be home in time to post about the frequency response tests. We await with bated breath. Until he gets home can someone explain about the tests.......

From here, I can hear some readers sigh "Oh no, don't get him going again".

To those, I assure them that I will keep it brief, and as I brought this up (Keim, whose post I responded to, would remember this), I owe an explanation to people who do not know, or at least to splitwdw.

The incidence was about 6 months ago, when I got excited about my effort to resurrect my vintage loudspeakers, and made many posts about that in a thread that put many non-audiophile readers to sleep. So, I was kicked out of that thread.

See:

http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f28/have-you-bumped-up-fun-spending-70207.html

and

http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f27/the-audio-equipment-corner-70672.html

Look at that, then tell me how quickly you fall snoring.

 

[splitwdw]

From here, I can hear some readers sigh "Oh no, don't get him going again".

To those, I assure them that I will keep it brief, and as I brought this up (Keim, whose post I responded to, would remember this), I owe an explanation to people who do not know, or at least to splitwdw.

The incidence was about 6 months ago, when I got excited about my effort to resurrect my vintage loudspeakers, and made many posts about that in a thread that put many non-audiophile readers to sleep. So, I was kicked out of that thread.

See:

http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f28/have-you-bumped-up-fun-spending-70207.html

and

http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f27/the-audio-equipment-corner-70672.html

Look at that, then tell me how quickly you fall snoring.

I did read those threads. Thought of changing my name to Rip VanWinkle.

 

[Walt34]

Indeed, there is a wealth of knowledge in this thread.

Yes, but it is awkward for the ignorant.

 

[38Chevy454]

I would rather be wealthy of knowledge than knowledgeable about wealth.

 

[NW-Bound]

There are two main tangents to this thread. One is about bread making, and the other is about cars.

As I have never made bread, I do not have much to add there, other than that I like French baguette, and I have read that it takes some tricks to obtain the crunchy crust, something about adding steam to the oven or misting the bread during baking. Any comment?

About cars, I am not into that, so do not have much to add either. However, I just remember that I happened to run across a Bricklin recently while traveling in New Brunswick, and did take some photos of it. Surely, some people here would remember the Canadian-made Bricklin which was said to be the inspiration for the DeLorean.

Wikipedia said that less than 3,000 Bricklins were made before the company went bankrupt with much controversy involving the then Premier of NB Province. The car I saw had the serial number of 1956. It was said that each car cost $16K to make in 1975 ($68K in 2014 dollars), but was sold for only $5K to be price competitive.

 

[Amethyst]

I like that...so wealthy, you don't knead bread! Is there a whole-wheat version, or does using whole wheat flour cause kneadiness?

Amethyst

Breads? 1 1/2 cups warm water, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp yeast, 3 1/2 cups bread flour, let sit for 10 hours covered, turn out and allow to rise in a pan for an hour, bake at 425 for 45 minutes. Not really everything in it, but.... oh wait - you said threads, not breads. what were we talking about?

 

[splitwdw]

There are two main tangents to this thread. One is about bread making, and the other is about cars.

As I have never made bread, I do not have much to add there, other than that I like French baguette, and I have read that it takes some tricks to obtain the crunchy crust, something about adding steam to the oven or misting the bread during baking. Any comment?

You can get a crusty loaf by adding steam in the first 5-10 minutes of baking. I have a gas oven. Don't know if you can use an electric oven.

Place a cast iron pan on the floor of the oven. Preheat oven, spray the dough with water before placing in oven, use a long handled soup ladle or long spout kettle to dump water into the cast iron pan and quickly close the door. Caution because dumping water in hot cast iron pan can shoot out and burn you.

You can also try spraying water inside the oven during the first 5-10 minutes. I've never had much luck with this method. Caution, do not have the light turned on inside the oven. If you hit the bulb with water you can shatter the bulb.

I also have a bread oven made from clay that you dampen with water before placing bread inside and placing in oven. You can make a bread oven from clay flower pot and clay saucer. I'd have to look up the directions for how to make it. Pretty sure you have to season the inside, similar to cast iron pot before you bake bread in it.