Life gets in the way of blogging sometimes, even when it seems like not very much is happening at all. Shall we have some random so I can play catchup a bit?
1. Ladybug has been sitting up unassisted for the past week or so, and she’s quite pleased by her new perspective on the world. It’s so much easier to use your hands when you’re sitting up! Which means it’s so much easier to put EVERYTHING you can grab into your mouth! (Why is it that so many of us seem to have our second children just as the first child is really, really getting into the small Legos? My entire living room floor becomes a choking hazard on a daily basis now.)
2. I haven’t had time to bake bread since the baby was born, but I grumble every time I have to buy it at the store. I can make much better bread for much less money and grumble grumble grumble. So I borrowed this book from the library and gave it a try. I know a lot of you love this book. A number of people I love and respect swear by it. But folks? No. Just…no. It was bad. I tried the 100% whole wheat recipe, because that’s what we eat. (I’ll allow that maybe the recipes with white flour are better, but I’m not interested in those.) What I got? The texture was I guess okay. Sort of dense and chewy, but okay. I mean, you expect that with 100% whole wheat. What I could not get past was that it reeked of booze. I don’t want my bread to smell like Scotch, thanks. I did some googling and found this problem raised on a trouble-shooting forum for the book and one of the authors said, basically, “Yeah. That’s normal with this method. Some people are more sensitive to the smell than others.”
Uh… No. That wasn’t the good strong beery smell I’ve encountered in my sourdough starters when they were healthy. It was similar to the smell of my sourdough starters after I neglected them too long and they started to die. (May they rest in peace.) It was the smell of yeast in distress. No thank you.
Which is to say that I’m determined to find a way to start baking our bread again, the way I like to do it. Which means starting from a sponge, and doing it all by hand. Which is also to say that I’m about to embark on a baking-with-a-baby-strapped-to-my-chest adventure. We’ll see how it goes, and how accommodating Ladybug is.
If you like the 5-minute bread, let’s just say it’s not you; it’s me. Though I’m tempted to say… Have you ever baked real bread, with your hands and not with a stand mixer or a bread machine? And if so…do you really like the 5-minute bread, or are you just settling for it because it’s so damn convenient?
And now that I’ve pissed off a bunch of people about bread baking… what’s next?
3. I finally got a new MacBook to replace the drowned one! Woot! No one is allowed to touch it but me, so if this one drowns or spontaneously combusts, the fault will be mine alone.
4. Seasonal shift in the garden. We’re nearly done with the tomatoes and cucumbers, and the pole beans are producing only a handful of beans a day. It’s kale and collards time, and waiting for the fall and winter broccoli, spinach, and lettuces to mature so we can start to harvest those as well. We dug up the last of the Yukon Gold potatoes. We didn’t get as many as I’d hoped–just about ten pounds–so it looks like we’ll be buying our potatoes this winter. Ten pounds of potatoes isn’t that much around here.
5. Interesting process going on with my new novel-in-progress because I haven’t been able to sit down and write it. The story is unfolding and developing anyway, mostly in my head and partly on index cards. Totally different than the way the first two novels grew. But that’s a post in itself, one I’ll write very soon.
6. Baby’s awake. Later, darlin’s.
ha! I am with you on that five minute no-knead bread.
I need to get out there and dig up my yukon golds this week and prep another bed for the garlic. Enjoy your fall/winter garden!
I have to respond to the bread comments… go back to the library, return the first book and take out the second one.
I made a lot of changes to the recipes in the first book and have to make very few (often none) to the ones in the second book.
I made bread the “real” way for years, and I am really happy with the stored dough method.
Give it one more try… for me? đŸ™‚
Glad to hear you’re all doing well. Maybe Ladybug can help now that she’s finding it easier to use her hands? Ok, maybe not. Good luck finding the time. My sister would agree about the toys and baby – her youngest was born into a house with a 6 and 4 year old! Cute picture of your two.
Life sounds good, Cari. Can’t wait to hear about the novel, too. hugs…
I worked in a bakery where we made all the bread by hand, but I think you knew that. You could never piss me off about bread. I love to talk about bread–even with people who use evil bread machines.
The children look beautiful and healthy and happy.
YAY! I’m happy you’re working on the new novel. I hope I’ll be doing that too in Novemember once I finish this draft.
I am 100% with you on the full-scale bread-baking. I’ve never tried 5-minute bread, and I would never. I just *know* I wouldn’t like it. And for me, it’s partly the process that I love, anyway.
Though of course, I only have a small cat to tend to while baking.
i use a bread machine so I AM VERY spoiled, but I do like homemade bread. And I make it when i can
I make our bread the old fashioned way with the baby either napping or being distracted by his sister. Or maybe I tune out the squealing? I’m going to try sourdough for the first time next week – wish me luck!
I love home made bread. I learned to make bread from my mom when I was a kid. We didn’t eat store bread at our house. Hope you get back to making the good stuff!
I used to make “real bread” and it does have a different texture and sometimes it was better (I lived in the north in a drafty apartment and I found bread was touch and go there).
I make the light whole wheat 5 minute bread or a rye most of the time, so I sacrifice the fibre for the convenience. What I like having dough in the fridge for is pizza and naan or chipatis. This dough is perfect for both since it doesn’t have to rise as much for the right result.
I did make bread from the dough before it was refridgerated–it was tastier. You could let yours sit out and rise longer before baking.
And the kids–they’re so sweet looking!
The 5 minute bread book really annoyed me, because of how the authors were constantly talking about how hard and tricky it is to make bread the traditional way. It’s not particularly hard or tricky – just time consuming. And because of that annoyance, I haven’t baked anything from it.
Baking bread is similar to spinning your own yarn; there is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way as long as you are happy with the end result.
I’m with you on HATING the whole-wheat 5 minute bread, but I have to say that the mostly-white-flour 5-minute bolle that I produced was quite credible, just very different than the multiple-risings-and-kneading-by-hand bread that I usually make. And I got really irritated by the authors who kept saying that making bread the old-fashioned way is “tricky” – no, you just have to practice it a bit more. Hmph!
I bought the 5 minute book with my boyfriend. I’ve never made bread the old fashioned way because I have no idea where I’d find the time. The bread and pizza crusts made with the book are good (we’ve only made the white ones) and my boyfriend is beyond thrilled that he can make his own bread. He is both a fireman as well as an ER nurse so his free time is minimal, what with working out and keeping house and gardening. Oh, and maybe spending time with his girlfriend eating bread.
If I must, I use the Jim Lahey/no-knead/slow rise recipe, with yeast or a starter. I like it…with flax seeds…in its own sorta way (mostly as a sandwich bread). The covered pot cooking method does produce something approaching a crust.
THAT’s Thumper? The chubby baby in the leaf-green sweater at Rhinebeck?
Soooooo handsome. I think he was Ladybug’s size last I checked. Love the garden too.