Indiana Jones and the Search for the Golden Ciabatta
Several bread-related items today
Is this a real Indiana Jones story or a provocative title that sounded hilarious that I made up? Read on to find out!
Despite having an engineering degree, I prefer cooking over baking. Maybe it’s my creative personality. Maybe I just don’t have the exactness mentality in me. Or maybe it’s because most bakers have to get up at some insane hour like 3 a.m. to bake everything for the day. We will never know!
But read on to find out what it’s like to run a one-person bakery and my exhausting quest to find the perfect ciabatta roll.
I’m not saying I’m opening a bakery, but I’m not not saying it…
I love process videos and behind-the-scenes looks at how (non-office) businesses are run. Whereas we’ve been flooded with “Day in the Life” videos on Instagram/TikTok, the below 24 hours in the life of a 20 year-old bakery owner seems much more genuine. I mean, there are pastries and loaves of bread to prove it!1
Adventures in cooking
My 11 year-old son recently asked me to make steak sandwiches. I agreed, because who doesn’t like steak sandwiches and who doesn’t like doing fun stuff with your kids? But I pressed a little further.
“Why a steak sandwich?”
It turns out that my son had watched a YouTube video on making “giant” steak sandwiches … in a river (next to a golf course apparently).
I’m all for cooking outdoors, but it’s January and cold, so we settled on watching this video while we cooked the steak.
But first bread!
Every sandwich needs a good loaf of bread first.
Ciabatta seemed like the natural choice, but when I went to my favorite supermarket, they only had ciabatta loaves for sale with olives inside. It is my opinion that olives should only exist in oil form, so I passed.
I then spotted a bag of delicious looking ciabatta rolls, only to be told they were bound for the deli counter and not for individual sale. After some really tough negotiating, I had an offer in hand for a full bag of rolls, but decided not to deprive the deli counter patrons of these delectable crunchy meat holders. And so, I set off in the raging snow for a different loaf of ciabatta. Thankfully, the supermarket directly across the street had lots of ciabatta, and I returned home triumphant.
We cooked up some peppers and onions, seasoned with the seasoning we had previously purchased from the above YouTuber. While that cooked down, we prepared our steaks by rubbing a heaping pile of “Dirt” seasoning on the meat (you can buy it here if you want.)
After getting a nice crust on the steak, we got to work assembling the sandwich by adding some fresh chives to complete the color palette. We omitted the prosciutto and burrata that Mr. YouTuber put on his sandwich, because that just seemed a bit excessive and also like an entirely different meal.
It was absolutely delicious, in case you were wondering.
Tales from the Creative Mines
I’m happy to report that Blood of Atlantis artist extraordinaire Fran Delgado has finished the first 23 pages of issue #2! If we were working for the Big 2 (Marvel and DC), the issue would be basically done, but since we are indie published at the moment, that means that there are still another 11 pages to go. So more story for you!
In the meantime, here is a spoiler-free panel from page 22, in which Beatrice is enjoying a night out before the fireworks start.
In prose world, the next chapter of I’m In Love With My Possessed Demon Sword is now available for patrons over on my Patreon. If you are already a paid subscriber to this Substack and want to read the advance chapters, reply to this email and I’ll get you sorted.
You can also read the first three chapters over on Royal Road for free, with this fourth chapter being unlocked once I post the fifth chapter on Patreon.
Indie Fantasy Adventure promo
If you’re looking for a new fantasy read, check out the Indie Fantasy Adventure promo, with dozens of free fantasy stories!
If you want another way to help support ARC Worlds and my work, pick up a copy of my books from my online shop and Blood of Atlantis #1 and stickers at my all-new Etsy shop!
Note that I could have said “proof it” and therefore included a very hilarious bread joke, but chose not to. You’re welcome.