You Can Publish Your Blog as a Book

nar·cis·sism  (nahr-suh-siz-em)
noun

inordinate fascination with oneself; excessive self-love; vanity. 

van·i·ty (van-i-tee)

noun

excessive pride in one's appearance, qualities, abilities, achievements, etc.; character or quality of being vain.
vanity press or vanity publisher
a publishing house that publishes books at the author's expense.

I became aware that you could have your blog published as a book.  So I did it.  I published my HB in 5 blog up to the half-way point of the Schedule (Volume 1).  I did not do it for myself, of course, but for my fan.   I gave her the hard-cover edition for Christmas.  The reception was so overwhelming and the demand so great that my blog is now out in a paperback edition! 

The catch is that you have to, or at least I had to, pay to have the blog published.  But that is not a new concept.  Wikipedia notes that "[i]n the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries it was common for legitimate authors to, if they could afford it, pay the costs of publishing their books. Such writers could expect more control of their work, greater profits, or both. Self-publishing was not judged negatively as it has been more recently. Among the authors taking this route were Lewis Carroll, who paid the expenses of publishing Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and most of his subsequent work. Mark Twain, E. Lynn Harris, Zane Grey, Upton Sinclair, Carl Sandburg, Edgar Rice Burroughs, George Bernard Shaw, Edgar Allan Poe, Rudyard Kipling, Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman and Anaïs Nin also self-published some or all of their works."  So there!

Several outfits will do this for you.  I used Blog2Print as my Vanity Press.  I looked at some others, but this one seemed pretty easy, and I was very pleased with the results.  

 The program uploads your blog and gives you a complete preview to review.  You can choose to include or omit comments, or you can select which comments to include, which can save quite a few pages, and pages are money.  You can also select the entire blog or only those posts within a particular date range. 


There are things it does not do, however.  It is not very customizable.  It does not pick up the blog design--the headers and sidebars--just the posts themselves.  And within the posts, if you embed a video it does not show a screenshot or thumbnail.  Most of my posts are in Blogger, but I had used LiveWriter for some of my posts, and I had to redo the pictures in Blogger to make them appear in my book.  You can include some pictures at the back, and I printed and scanned some screenshots of my blog design and included them there, but the quality was not very good.  (Anybody have an easy way to capture high resolution screen images and save them?)


There are several versions of your book available to choose from, including a digital version which is pretty reasonable (about 8 bucks).  The site notes "[t]he Digital File Download is provided to you as a PDF file. With your purchase you'll receive a download of your completed book. The file is yours to read, print, and save on your computer for reference whenever you like (in case you lose track of it - we'll keep a copy for you for 30 days)!" This might be the way to go if you are looking to publish for archival, as opposed to presentation, purposes.   Those of you with blogs of recipes, particularly family recipes, might find this a good way to preserve them. 

So, if you are interested in joining the ranks of Lewis Carroll, Mark Twain, E. Lynn Harris, Zane Grey, Upton Sinclair, Carl Sandburg, Edgar Rice Burroughs, George Bernard Shaw, Edgar Allan Poe, Rudyard Kipling, Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, Anaïs Nin--and me, check this out.

100% Whole Wheat and Flaxseed Bread and Roasted Garlic Bread (24 of 42)

Both of these breads include flaxseed.  It is kind of like a theme.  Canada is the largest producer of flax in the world.  I did not know that until I started looking for conversion tables to convert dry measures of flaxseed into grams.  I came across the website of the Flax Council of Canada, which asserts that Canada is the largest producer of flax in the world.  This seemed to be one of those "trust but verify" things.  To verify, I Googled "largest producer of flax in the world" which took me back to the website of the Flax Council of Canada again, which still said that Canada is the largest producer of flax in the world, so it must be true.

Anyway, the Flax Council's Nutrition page has a useful table of weights to volumes. The Council also notes that whole flaxseed passes through you undigested, so it should be ground to release its nutritional benefits.  The Council notes that "[a]bout 42% of flax seed is oil, and more than 70% of that oil is polyunsaturated fat, a healthy fat. Flax also contains 57% of the important omega-3 fatty acid, ALA."  In addition, the Council notes that "Flax seed contains soluble and insoluble fibre" (we won't go into all the benefits the Council lists for that) and that "Flax seed is also one of the richest plant sources of lignans, providing up to 800 times more lignans than most other foods in a vegetarian diet."  So what are lignans?  The Council tells us that, too: "Lignans are phytoestrogens – compounds that have been shown in laboratory studies of animals to help protect against certain kinds of cancer, particularly cancers of the breast and colon, by blocking tumour formation."  Seems to me, based on what we learned baking the Quinoa Bread that if you only eat quinoa and flaxseed you might live forever--or at least it might seem that way. 

The Council notes that whole flaxseed will keep for a year kept dry at room temperature.  Once ground, however, it must be refrigerated and will only keep for 30 days.  The Council suggests grinding it as you need it.  You can use a coffee grinder or blender or food processor.  That is where the conversion table comes in handy, since you can weigh the amount you need and not grind too much.  For our purposes, 1 cup of ground seed weighs 130 grams, and a tablespoon 8 grams.  I made both loaves at the same time, and weighted out the amount I needed, plus just a little extra figuring there would be a bit of a loss in the grinder.

Since I made them at the same time it was interesting to see how the two different doughs rose.  The 100% whole wheat did not rise nearly as much as the Roasted Garlic, which has a fair amount of AP flour (slightly more than 50%) and is thus much lighter.  The same held true with the baked loaves.

I baked the 100% Whole Wheat and Flaxseed first.  I made a boule, and baked it in my flame orange cast iron Le Creuset pot. 

 (We watched Julie and Julia again over the holidays, for inspiration, and noted that Julia had a Le Creuset dutch oven of the same color.)  

As already noted, the loaf was dense.  No doubt the oil in the flaxseed contributed to the denseness, compounding the whole wheat flour's tendency toward denseness.  Also, one of the other bloggers noted that she increases the amount of vital gluten when using freshly ground flour.  I did add a bit extra, but perhaps more would have helped, though at some point you would need to adjust the water as well.

Notwithstanding the denseness of the loaf, we enjoyed it very much.  The flaxseed contributed a nice nuttiness to the whole wheat, and this was particularly noticeable when it was toasted.  As this sojourn has progressed I have gotten more and more fond of whole grain breads.  And, as the old adage goes, "the whiter your bread the sooner you're dead."  Now, living on quinoa, flaxseed AND whole wheat bread seems a bit more doable, especially if a jug of wine and my groupie (a "thou") are included in the mix. 

I baked the Roasted Garlic Loaf for New Year's Eve dinner.  In addition to the roasted garlic, AP flour, and flaxseed this bread uses spelt flour, which I also ground fresh.  Spelt is basically an heirloom wheat.  Wikipedia notes that it is "[a] hardy wheat grown mostly in Europe for livestock feed."  

My friend Chris, who bakes the most spectacular cakes on the North Coast (she has a cake business and if you are interested check her out at Martines of Ohio) 

gave me a perforated French Bread pan for Christmas, so I tried it out on this loaf. 

I used the entire half batch, since the pan looked like it needed more than a quarter batch, and let it rise in the pan, which I sprayed with canola spray even though it is non-stick (belt and suspenders).  But that turned out to be a bit too much dough--the dough kept trying to escape.  I corralled it before putting it in the oven, but it make a break for it again as it baked.

 Still, the loaf baked up beautifully, with a terrific crust (in part due to the relative dearth of whole wheat flour, which gives a softer crust due to the natural oils).

Because the dough was wet, it oozed a bit through the holes in the pan as it rose, which made it stick a bit, but I used a flexible spatula and it popped right out.






 

In addition to the nice crust this loaf has a really good crumb.  Those features coupled with the roasted garlic gave us a loaf we all liked very much.

So that completes the baking for 2010.  In response to Michelle's question for this assignment: "Are you still with me?"  I am.

Hope all have a safe, healthy, happy and propserous new year.

The Lost Assignment (23 of 42??)

About a year ago our fearless leader Michelle set up a Schedule for baking our way through Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day.  She gave us a different assignment for the first and fifteenth of each month for 42 assignments.  But she gave us today December 15, 2010, off.  Or did she? 

A careful perusal of The Schedule reveals that the assignment for last time, December 1st, was Number 22.  But the next assignment, for January 1st is Number 24!   And in between she has written "ARE YOU STILL WITH ME?"   So, do we really have an episode off, or is she testing us to see if we are paying attention?

Well, I have not missed an assignment yet, tfu, tfu, tfu, (that is me spitting to ward off evil spirits and/or to avoid tempting fate).  And just in case this is a test I do not plan to start missing assignments now.  Besides, have to keep posting because I have my Groupies to think of.

OK.  My Groupie. 

OK.  She is my wife.

But she is a hottie.

And she seems to really like my bread.

Anyway, about a year ago, during a similar hiatus, I posted about the Pumpernickel Date Walnut Bread from AB in 5.  This year I decided to reprise that loaf, but using the Bavarian-Style Whole Grain Pumpernickel Bread from HB in 5.  I weighed out the proper amount of wheat and rye berries, plus a few grams for the "Miller's Measure" (in this case the bit that stays in the mill), mixed them up and milled them in my Nutramill.  It doesn't get much fresher than that.  The only changes I made to the recipe were to include some instant espresso powder and some dutch cocoa powder as in the AB in 5 recipe and I omitted the caraway seeds called for in the HB version because I thought they might overpower the date/nut effect.   

All you do to make this bread is take a pound of pumpernickel dough, roll it out to about 3/8 inches thick, spread about 1/3 cup each of chopped dates and chopped nuts on the dough, and roll it up into an oblong loaf.  Then let it rise and bake it.






 

It turned out great, and is particularly good toasted.  

 Since I still had some pumpernickel dough left, and because I also had some of the WW Master recipe in the fridge, I also made a brown and white braid.   I did a two strand braid using the technique demonstrated in this slightly unusual YouTube video Michelle tipped us off to in one of the early discussion posts.

It baked up beautifully, if I do say so myself.

So, whether Michelle was testing us or not, here is my submission for The Lost Assignment.  I hope everyone has or had a great holiday of their choice and a has healthy, happy, prosperous and yeast filled new year. 

Solstice Stollen (22 of 42)

So now we are into the second half of our Challenge.  Matt is so excited about starting the second half that he decided to dance for us:


Kicking off the second half of the Challenge is the Solstice Stollen.  I personally think you ought to finish one holiday before you start on the next, so I waited until AFTER Thanksgiving before baking for the Solstice.

We had Thanksgiving here.  This is my turkey

We had a Thanksgiving brunch to watch the parade, and I used some Pumpkin Pie Brioche from last episode, which I had frozen, to make the Pistachio Twist, only I made it as sweet rolls.  It was much easier and no explosion!

For Thanksgiving dinner I made some loaves of the Seeded Oatmeal Bread that Michelle made last time (we also had turkey and trimmings, to go with the bread).

Both were great.

With Thanksgiving behind us it was time for the Stollen.  This is my second go at Stollen, I made it last Solstice.   Stollen is a rich German sweet bread containing nuts, dried fruit, and such--it gets its name from Stollen, a wooden post or prop; so called from its shape. 

Last time I used almond paste, this time I used marzipan.  I also used some whole wheat flour I had freshly ground  instead of the white whole wheat the recipe called for.  I only made a half recipe, it was right after Thanksgiving, but I used the full amount of cardamom.  In addition, while looking for the cardamom I came across some dried orange peel, which I threw in as well.  I think it added a nice flavor.

Last year I noted that instead of baking your own, you could get a Stollen from Zingermans for $36, plus $8.99 shipping. You still can, or you can get one from Williams-Sonoma for only 29.95, plus shipping.  With the marzipan and the dried fruit I figured that I had about $4 invested in my half batch, or $2 per loaf.  

I rolled out the dough, formed a "rope" of marzipan, and "S" folded the dough over the marzipan.  I used my 1x2 couche to keep the loaf from spreading too much.

It baked up nicely, and the marzipan formed a nice, but still off-center, tunnel.  

We were also tasked with using the dough to make muffins.  I cut some pieces of marzipan and formed the muffins around them.  These worked out well too. 

We particularly enjoyed the Stollen toasted, which brought out the flavors nicely.  

So that completes the first assignment of the second half of the Challenge.  

All of us here wish all of you a safe and happy Solstice.