Hello To All From Cali!
Good morning, everyone, from Paradise, California! No, really, the name of the Town really is Paradise! LOL!
The Town Of Paradise burned to the ground in the Camp Fire in November of 2018, and we have come back and are rebuilding here! We moved here in 2012, and we are "The Open Hearts Ranch & Animal Rescue"! Our Ranch burned down, we lost many animals in the fire, but we have a nice acre and a quarter Homestead here, and we are already Rescuing and Fostering! We are Volunteer Foster Parents who Specialize in Domesticating and Socializing Feral Cats and their Kittens! We work with many Rescue/Shelters/TNR Organizations and we do an extremely good job of finding the babies Furr-Ever Homes when they are ready for Adoption!
My "Hobby" is Cooking, not just baking, and I am building an Put Door Kitchen here soon too! When I Bake, though, I love to experiment, and I make everything from Great Home Made Breads to Bundt Cakes or Cheesecakes? Muffins, Cupcakes, Artisan Breads, all the fun stuff!
I had never heard of this site until the other day, though, looking for something about using Malt Powder instead of Malt Syrup, as I am right now making Bauernbrot for my girlfriend, who you will always hear me refer to as "The Beautiful Countess Marina", or "The Countess" for short..? LOL! She is 100% German, so she always has me making European Artisan Breads and Desserts for her! Haha! (She is actually cooking right now, too, though, making Sauerbraten for some guests we have coming over tonight!
So, yeah, great to meet you all, hopefully I can learn some and help out some wherever I can, I am not an expert but I am not really an amateur, now, either?
It isn't hard to recall the horrific fire that swept through Paradise a few short years ago. And glad to read that the town is on the mend. We lived in Sac & El Dorado Counties but moved away 15 years before the fire. In my first job there in '89 we had a consultant from Paradise who'd drive down every day and back.
Kudos to you and your love for animal rescue rehab. and fostering. It is a most noble profession.
Thank you very much for the kind words. I lived in Sacramento for many years when I first came to California from Washington State in 1983. I love Sacramento, but I met The Countess in 2005 and traveled a lot from Chico, where she lived, to Sacramento where I lived and worked. But in 2011 I moved permanently up to Northern Cali, and have been pretty much based here since.
That fire was horrific, I was here that day and almost died. I got trapped with the fire surrounding me, it was moving at the speed of 8 football fields per minute. The winds were blowing it at 85MPH+ and there was no way to outrun it. Everything was destroyed. Many thousands of people have not come back, and most of them won't, but there are still a lot of us coming back and rebuilding here. We kind of had to, because, like you mentioned, the Town and the Region need us, we take God's most Tragic and Challenged Fur-Babies and give them a second chance and a new hope for a life full of love!This is a Feral Maine Coon who got attacked by Coyotes after he survived the fire. Now he is a Socialized Retired Formerly Feral Fatso-Fatso Happy Love-Bug! LOL!
I think you will find this site to be and extremely friendly (and helpful) place. I saw your mention of Bauernbrot. High rye breads are the topic of the current community bake. You may want to participate!
https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/69775/community-bake-rye-bread
I have a ton of Rye Flour! We are big fans of The Reuben, so believe me, I am going to be all over your Rye Bread threads here! LOL! I will go there in a moment after greeting the earlier replies! (I used some Rye and Whole Wheat in a Honey Wheat Bread I just made for Sandwiches for my work this week, too, but for this Recipe I used my Bread Machine (Hamilton Beach) for that dough! That is the only thing I use that Bread Machine for, it really does come in handy to make some great dough sometimes!
I've been to Paradise, MI (it's just up the road a ways from Christmas, MI), but not Paradise, CA.
Hope all goes well for you as you reestablish your homestead.
Paul
Are you familiar with the Possum-and-Squirrel-lady on Youtube?
https://www.youtube.com/user/MEpearlA/videos
She's not "technically" a cat-person, but a very similar personality.
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Just guessing, but I bet if you don't already have one, you would want a t-shirt like this:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/726416614865690065/
I can’t even imagine the horror you lived through. How awesome to hear about your rescue. I have 4 rescue kitties and 3 rescued dogs that we love more than anything. I look forward to see some of your bakes and feel free to share your furry family members as well 😁.