God damn, I need a kitchen scale

Today I decided to screw this whole wheat stuff, I'm just going to back up and bake with mostly white flour for a while. This means that I don't really need a soaker, which is nice, since I didn't decide to start the dough until 4:30. However...my penchant for forging ahead without thought has again gotten in my way. I used 3 cups of King Arthur white bread flour, and one cup of WW bread flour (I also gave up on using regular WW flour - why subject myself to this?) with 1 2/3 cups of water at 85 degrees. The dough is okay, but a little stiff. Okay, maybe a lot stiff. And two things occur to me: one is that this would be a _whole_lot_ easier if I had a kitchen scale and could actually measure ingredients accurately, and the other is that, duh, white flour has a different weight per cup than WW, so of course my proportions are messed up. Anyway.

I didn't do a pre-ferment, that is, I mixed all of the ingredients together at once, and then kneaded for three short periods and one longer period. Once the dough was good and kneaded, I stuck it in the fridge. I think I'll let it go overnight and shape it in the morning. We'll see how it goes. Damn, am I terrible at consistent changes or what? Resolution: from here on out, I will figure out my next recipe as soon as I have the results of the previous batch. Okay? Okay.

Just for fun, here is my present wish list of kitchen equipment:

- A KITCHEN SCALE (flat-top and digital...i.e. way too expensive for me at the moment)
- a water spray bottle
- a meat thermometer (y'know, one of the ones you stick into stuff...also too expensive at the moment)
- a counter that actually fits my body
- a piece of wood to use for a peel


And, my mom and I made cheese! Granted, it was from a box and it was just ricotta, but it's delicious and it got me excited about cheesemaking. Now I want to make cheddar before I go back to school...and buy some rennet for myself. Our kit came with vegetable rennet, but I'd like to try the animal stuff. I haven't read anything saying it would work better, but I'm curious.