Cooking: Bread, Bread, Bread

Have I mentioned that I love bread -- I love making it, baking it, and all the family loves eating it. I don't use a machine (or even a mixer) but make it all by hand. I love to knead it and punch it and maul it -- especially when I'm in a fussy mood. I love the smell of it when it's rising and when it's baking. And nothing quite compares to warm, freshly baked bread with butter melting on top (unless it's bread, toasted the next morning with butter and sugar'n'cinnamon!).

Someone mentioned, either on 4real or one of the numerous blogs I'm constantly checking, a new book called Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery that Revolutionizes Home Baking by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois. And I thought, yeah, right -- 5minutes and it tastes good???? Right!

But I tried the sample recipe for Simple Crusty Bread (adapted from the book by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François)
Time: About 45 minutes plus about 3 hours’ resting and rising (but then you have enough bread for 4 or 5 loaves!)

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 tablespoons yeast
• 1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt
• 6 1/2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour, more for dusting dough
• Cornmeal

1. In a large bowl or plastic container, mix yeast and salt into 3 cups lukewarm water (about 100 degrees). Stir in flour, mixing until there are no dry patches. Dough will be quite loose. Cover, but not with an airtight lid. Let dough rise at room temperature 2 hours (or up to 5 hours).
2. Bake at this point or refrigerate, covered, for as long as two weeks. When ready to bake, sprinkle a little flour on dough and cut off a grapefruit-size piece with serrated knife. Turn dough in hands to lightly stretch surface, creating a rounded top and a lumpy bottom. Put dough on pizza peel sprinkled with cornmeal; let rest 40 minutes. Repeat with remaining dough or refrigerate it.
3. Place broiler pan on bottom of oven. Place baking stone on middle rack and turn oven to 450 degrees; heat stone at that temperature for 20 minutes.
4. Dust dough with flour, slash top with serrated or very sharp knife three times. Slide onto stone. Pour one cup hot water into broiler pan and shut oven quickly to trap steam. Bake until well browned, about 30 minutes. Cool completely.
Yield: 4 loaves.
Variation: If not using stone, stretch rounded dough into oval and place in a greased, nonstick loaf pan. Let rest 40 minutes if fresh, an extra hour if refrigerated. Heat oven to 450 degrees for 5 minutes. Place pan on middle rack.

This recipe works!

So now I have the book and I'm going through and the variations are wonderful -- adding a bit of different flours give different hearty breads while adding butter and a bit of sugar will make a more "American style sandwich bread". They have included recipes for pastries, desserts and full luncheon breads.

This is a great cookbook that goes beyond the ordinary to bring some good foods into my home. I like it!

Read-alouds and knitting -- what could be better?

Margot Davidson at Hillside Education has just announced a brand new book:

Yep, that would be MY BOOK! The long-awaited, long-hinted-at book will finally be coming out. Pre-orders are available from Margot's web-site (and you'll get a pair of hand-made Birch knitting needles to-boot!) until March 8th with the books shipping by around March 12!

How exciting is that??????

Just to give you an idea, we read-aloud a dozen great family read-alouds and then I designed projects for each book. Here are the books we chose and the designs included in this book:

1. Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi
a. Pinocchio Doll and Clothes
2. Canadian Summer by Hilda vanStockum
a. Mr. Magic’s Gnome Hat
b. Arthur Purcell’s “Gay” Sweater
3. The Hobbit or There and Back Again by J.R.R. Tolkein
a. Bilbo’s Backpack
b. Bilbo’s Traveling Jacket
4. Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder *
a. Ma’s Boot Socks
b. Pa’s Red-White Checked Mittens
5. Little House in the Highlands by Melissa Wiley *
a. Mittens for Laird Alroch & Auld Mary
b. Tullie Greyshanks Doll and Clothes
6. The Lost Island by Eilis Dillon
a. Fisherman’s Jersey
b. Wool Socks for the Journey
7. Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers
a. Mary Poppins’ Carpetbag
b. Mary Poppins’ Fur-trimmed Gloves
8. Mr. Popper’s Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater
a. Captain Cook (penguin doll)
b. Mr. Popper’s Cozy Scarf
9. Otto of the Silver Hand by Howard Pyle
a. Otto’s Chain Mail
b. Otto’s Scabbard and Belt
10. Redwall by Brian Jacques
a. Matthias’ Over-sized Habit
b. Asmodeus the Snake
11. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
a. Colin’s Rug and Cushion
b. Mrs. Sowerby’s Cloak
12. The Wheel on the School by Meindert deJong
a. Lina’s Stocking Cap
b. Thick Wools Socks for Linda & Jan

These are all fun projects -- I had fun creating them and I think you'll have fun making them too! We've also included some basic knitting helps and a fully annotated bibliography of great knitting books.

The book-links are to the versions we used ... many are hard-cover as we want to keep these classics. The two that are *'ed, Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder and Little House in the Highlands by Melissa Wiley, are quickly going the way of the Albatross -- the publishers are changing the editions to give them a more updated appeal. Try to find these editions linked here -- the text is complete and the pictures are wonderful!

Please let me know what you think about this book -- I'd love to do a sequel, especially when I saw UK's List of Best Children's Books and saw many on that list that I'd love to read-aloud to my kids and create more designs!

A Very Emotion-charged Weekend

There are some weekends around here where there is lots of joy and laughter and some weekends where there is lots of anger and tears. The latter was this past weekend. We decided to bring our wonderful border collie, Molly, back to the Dumb Friends League to be adopted by someone who could give her what she needs.

I had to accept this weekend that I can't do it all -- maybe part of it is simply laziness. But I just couldn't continue staying up at night and getting up before dawn to take care of what was supposed to be a family dog. In addition, my dh and granmere really didn't like having a dog and weren't overtly helpful. Brikhead is off at college and Kotch is either working or studying.

That leaves it on the littles ... LegoManiac (9), String Bean (almost 8) and BamBam (5). None of the three littles has ever had a pet -- they really didn't/don't understand the constant needs of a living animal dependent on others for exercise, food, daily maintenance. They tried, they just weren't successful.

So, we bid a very tearful goodbye to our beloved pet of 2 months -- we figured that taking her back when she is just 4 months old will assist in her quick re-adoption. And, in fact, she has already been adopted from the Denver Dumb Friends League!

We will miss her greatly but the family MUST come first. Kotch mentioned that I never minded getting up with one of them in the middle of the night and then getting up early again (well, I did, but ....). But a pet is not a person; a pet is a nice-to-have that we are responsible for maintaining and giving what we can ... we couldn't give Molly what she needed but our prayer today is that the person/family who has adopted her will.

Please join us ...

... in wishing dh's Aunt Bea a VERY HAPPY, HEALTHY and WONDERFUL 80th birthday! Prayers headed your way, dear Aunt Bea!

Lent: Ash Wednesday begins the journey ...

... the journey (hopefully) to a better me, a better home and a better world over the next 40 days. Sounds like a lot doesn't it? But a wonderful thing about the Catholic Church is her giving me special time to make reparation for the things I need to fix in my life. The things that will rebuild my relationship with a loving God who wants me, and you, and all of us to simply know, love and serve Him.

Ash Wednesday, which is VERY early this year, is the first day of this 40-day spiritual journey to new birth. In the Magnificat, which I love to read and will TRY to read everyday this Lent, there is a wonderful essay this month by Father William M. Joensen, seminary spiritual director and professor of philosophy at Loras College and chaplain at Clarke College both in Dubuque, Iowa.

Here are some quotes that really struck me as I read his essay, titled "Lent and the Soil of Ourselves":

• A gritty cross is placed upon our forehead; when mingled with the purple of penance, black becomes us.
• We are ashen-faced as we realize how much God has bestowed upon us, how readily God waits for us, appeals to us, longing to share the joy of salvation, offering us his Son!
• ... as we glimpse the specks of dust blessed and applied to our foreheads, we marvel as we realize that God knows each one of the grains of ash, every molecule of which the universe, including ourselves, is made. How much more, then, does God know our situation, the secrets held in the inner recesses of our being.
• Each of us is entrusted during Lent with the sacred task of going into the soil of ourselves, inviting the Spirit to help us venture into the inmost recesses of our being ...
• These (lenten) practices are not cosmetic devices meant to attract attention and yet distract us from the work of grace in the space of our souls. They are to help liberate us to look beyond our limits ...

and finally,

• We heed the appeal to go within our own hearts and allow God to unearth the love lying hidden beneath the detritus of sin. If we do so, our faces, our lives will assume a Christ-like cast. Our way of being will proclaim that the day of salvation has arrived: He is risen indeed!

This essay really "spoke" to me ... I get so caught up in the unimportant and forget to take time to stop, listen and love God fully. This Lent, my 46th Lent, will be more than bellyaching about what I'm missing -- this Lent will be my chance to, as Fr. Joensen puts it:

be more present, patient, prayerful, and positive in our dealings with others ...

My prayer for you, and me, and all I know and love this Lent 2008 is a renewed sense of God in our lives -- a renewed sense that He is always there to welcome us back into the sheepfold.

Blessings,

Super Bowl XXXXII was ...

well SUPER! But not because the underdog NYGiants pulled it out at the end to win -- in fact, I was the lone voice in the room routing for the NEPatriots.

The Super Bowl was an exceptional game this year because both teams played like professionals -- no fighting or dissing each other, no "cheap shots" or overly agressive behavior. This was a good, clean game with lots of action and good plays back and forth -- both sides showed their skills and the rationale for making it to the national championship.

A great example: at the end of the game, the announcer interviewed Burress, the man who caught the winning touchdown. The question was the traditional "how did it feel to win the game?" Burress' response was "well, we've got to give the credit to the defense." Then he broke down and cried. He wasn't in-your-face, 'we bad' type of attitude at all.

What a great chance for the family and friends (whose house we were at) to see professional sports in a wonderful light.

Congratulations to the NY Giants AND the NE Patriots -- y'all fought a great game!

Feast: St. Brigid of Ireland February 1st

I would like the angels of Heaven to be among us.

I would like an abundance of peace.

I would like full vessels of charity.

I would like rich treasures of mercy.

I would like cheerfulness to preside over all.
– St. Brigid of Ireland (d. 525)

We love St. Brigid of Ireland around here -- String Bean's middle name is Brigid -- and so we always make a big deal out of this saint.

Reading in our Saints: A Year in Faith and Art we read that Brigid lived in Ireland in the 6th century, dying sometime around 525. She was as the Abbess of Kildare Monastery and is second only to St. Patrick for loyalty amidst the Irish. She is the patron of milkmen (she was said to have worked on a dairy farm), poets, blacksmiths, healers, cows and all farmyard animals. Her name is of Celtic origin and means "strong, powerful, exalted".

Last night I made this St. Brigid's Barm Brack in honor of today's saint. This recipe, taken from Cooking with the Saints (a classic for any home trying to cook to the liturgical year), is a wonderful Irish fruit bread. The directions said to make it the night before and then serve the next day, slathered in butter (after all Brigid is the "dairy saint"). The bread is chock full of raisins, golden raisins and currants (which sat in hot tea for a few hours to plump), a bit of candied fruit peel, and really tastes wonderful -- even for those who usually don't like fruit bread.

Prayer to St. Brigid
Brigid,

You were a woman of peace.

You brought harmony where there was conflict.

You brought light to the darkness.

You brought hope to the downcast.

May the mantle of your peace cover those who are troubled and anxious,

and may peace be firmly rooted in our hearts and in our world.

Inspire us to act justly and to reverence all God has made.

Brigid you were a voice for the wounded and the weary.

Strengthen what is weak within us.

Calm us into a quietness that heals and listens.

May we grow each day into greater wholeness in mind, body and spirit.

Amen