I've usually found that, if there's any little bit of bubbling at all, the yeast is fine. The only time it hasn't been was when there were absolutely no bubbles at all. And I think that modern dry yeast doesn't go bad as often as the old kind did.

That's not a massive fuckup. A massive fuckup would be four layers of management doing something obviously boneheaded, and not realizing the consequences of their actions until it was far too late, and pissing off a whole bunch of important people in the process.

Hypothetically, I mean.

Is it cold?

I think the water wasn't cold enough. It didn't bubble. So do I ... heat up the mixture a little? If I just add more hot water then it'll be too wet, I assume.

I missed Hil's post. Hmmm. I'm going to stare at it for a while longer, I think.

HYPOTHETICALLY.

Single parents make up about a third of all Wisconsin parents — all part of a grand leftist conspiracy, according to Grothman. “The Left and the social welfare establishment want children born out of wedlock because they are far more likely to be dependent on the government,” he explained last July.

Hmm... That sounds paranoid so I checked to see if it was taken out of context by looking for the quote on a right-wing site. Nope, totally in context the article author praised him for "getting it".

"The Left and the social welfare establishment want children born out of wedlock because they are far more likely to be dependent on the government. They are 20 times more likely to wind up in prison and 9 times more likely to drop out of school. Well-known author Charles Murray said, Children born out of wedlock, are “the single most important social problem of our time – more important than crime, drugs, poverty, illiteracy, welfare, or homelessness because it drives everything else.” While we can talk about jobs, education, or crime, our economy and freedoms will inevitably decline as long as the number of children born out of wedlock keeps going up."

Yep, drinking the right-wing Kool-Aid. Somehow I doubt there are many people on the left working to try to lower the standard of living for everybody including themselves.

It's hard to warm it up, Amy, because too hot will kill the yeast. Watching a little longer wouldn't hurt. I might throw in a little (like, 1/4 teaspoon) of sugar. And starting over with new yeast also wouldn't hurt.

BTW, you've inspired me to start some yeast bread myself. Whee, store-bought yeast!

Wedlock--it never really struck me how ominous that word is. Headlock, vapor lock, gridlock. Wedlock.

I only have one more packet, which is not enough for the recipe I have! So I might try the sugar trick before I give up. Argh.

Oh, I thought of a way you could try heating it up. Turn on the oven on whatever the lowest temperature is for about ten minutes, turn it off and let it cool off with the door shut for a while (you want the temperature to be 100-120 degrees, so if you have an oven thermometer that'll tell you you've hit that, awesome), and stick the proofing yeast in there for 15 minutes. The warmer ambient temperature will gently warm the water. You could try the same thing starting with a cold oven and just turn it on for a couple of minutes - not long enough to really heat up, but enough to be warmer than your kitchen.

I already tossed it! Oops. It's non-bubbling was taunting me.