Bread for New Year's Eve

Carefully keeping my back straight, I mixed up a new batch of dough and then baked two loaves of the "Master Recipe", so we have our carb for a festive dinner. The chicken thighs are defrosting. One of the guests just called with regrets because she has a sore throat and doesn't want to share. So we'll be just five friends of similar age. [Let's just say 65 and up.]

Since we all go to the same exercise class, maybe I'll lead us in some stretching moves to improve my back and theirs! We can wear silly hats while we do it, fall down, call it "drunk" and go home by 10 PM., avoiding the really drunk people on the road. A New Year's party for the truly mature!

My back is a little better. I think I'm learning that what sets the cramps off is leaning at a certain small angle forward, like I do at the sewing machine. Since I was spending a lot of time there in the last days, finishing UFOs before the end of the year, I am now taking the day off from sewing, and maybe tomorrow and the next day. I will se if that leads to my total recovery.

Best wishes for 2010 to all my blog readers. And let's call it "twenty ten", that's one syllable shorter than "two thousand ten", and will serve us better for the next 90 years. [Anyone hanging around that long to check?]

Sara

Gratitudes:

A warm, safe house

Plenty of food

Good health

A loving, dear husband

Laughter

Fourth UFO finish

Yesterday I finished the FOURTH of the five UFOs I told Finn I would complete before the end of 2008.

I put these old blocks together in to a "flimsie" at our Bee retreat in September, so this is a pretty quick finish. I have no purpose in mind for this one, so I wasn't too worried about my quilting ability.

I did get the feathers on each of the black border pieces. But WOW, they are right when they say black on black is hard on one's eyes!

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I kept trying to turn the piece so I could see where is was headed, and then also where I hada BEEN as I tried to run back on the previous line.

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NEXT TIME I'm going to try something more like fern leaves, where each one is separate and more pointed.

I had a nice piece of open floral on black fabric which I used for the backing and binding.

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Tonight we are having another of our small dinner parties for parishioners at which we have a chance to say a more personal "good-by" than will be possible at the last big event in January.

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I'm serving almost the same menu each time, and here are the carbs:

Apple Crisp from my mother's recipe, made with organic Spy apples,

and homemade European Peasant bread from the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.

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We use the bread to sop up the gravy from the Chicken and artichoke casserole.

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Sara

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Gratitudes:

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Great cooking smells in the kitchen

Phone call from Kate

A sunny day in usually cloudy western Michigan

First Bread loaf

Bread "in five minutes a day".

Mix the dough and refrigerate.

Next day sprinkle cornmeal on the peel. Take 1/4 of the dough, form into a smooth round. Lay on the
peel.

Rest 20 minutes.




During this time, heat the stone and the oven to 450 degrees.



Slash the top of the loaf.

Slip loaf onto stone and quickly pour 1 cup hot water into broiling pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes.
Cool on a rack.

This was my first real LOAF. The crust was really crunchy, though the bread itself didn't seem to have much flavor.

I think the holes should have been more throughout the loaf, rather than all near the top crust.

Charlie and I ate half the loaf by having two slices each for dionner, and then we toasted most of the rest for breakfast.

I can see that I would need to bake about twice a week to have bread for this household of two, and I would use some whole wheat flour next time for better flavor.


Sara

Hail and Bread

It's thrilling to us here in Michigan to see the little signs of spring rising from the ground. Here are a few of those tiny daffodils (Jack Snipe?) that I have bought in pots for Easter other years and transplanted later to the herb garden visible from my kitchen window. Year by year the numbers slowly increase, though I didn't add any this year.

I saw a few of these beginning to open today, so I rushed out and cut back the Rue and the Thyme plants that were overhanging them. Flung away some soggy tree leaves too, so I could get a better look at them close-up AND as I stand at the kitchen sink.

Then this afternoon I heard rain pelting against the windows, but it was HAIL, not rain. It was over in about four minutes. Good thing that nothing more was blooming so far--the blooms would have been beaten down to the ground!
(But not these tough iris leaves.)

Some time ago Melody Johnson (http://fibermania.blogspot.com/) mentioned making bread from a book called something like "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes" . I put in a HOLD at the library, and received it yesterday. I spent a lot of my reading time yesterday going through it, and buying some of the supplies.
I couldn't find a "covered, but not air-tight, 5 quart container" here at home, and I needed yeast.

Here is a photo of the dough that I mixed up in about 6 minutes, once I had all the necessary parts assembled. It sat on the counter for three hours "until it began to flatten", and then the closed box was stored in the fridge.

Today I made a foccacia-like bread with olive oil and za'atar seasoning sprinkled on top with one quarter of the dough on a cookie sheet. It only had to rise for 20 minutes before baking. But I forgot to take a photo of the loaf before we ate it all!

For REAL artisanal bread one needs a baking STONE and a bread/pizza PEEL. So I ordered these from a cooking emporium. Meanwhile I am making note of the recipes that don't need those items--most of the sweet breads! I can make these even before the stone gets here. More home baking in our future.

Sara

Gratitudes:
Spring sprouting
FRESH bread
Laundry done