her able hands

If you’ve always wanted to try making your own bread, but worry it will come out like a brick or a hockey puck—this is your bread. If you don’t have the time and/or energy it takes to make beautiful artisan loaves like you can buy at the local bakery (some of those recipes take 3-4 days), but really wish you did because it chaps your hide to pay $6 for something you know you ought to be able to make in your own damn kitchen—this is your bread.

I used to bake artisan breads every week when I was home with the kids, but have only attempted it twice since I went back to work. I’ve missed having that in my life but there are only so many available hours away from the cubicle, and as you can probably see, I’ve been a bit cupcake obsessed lately. Both times I committed to the 3-day process and made the incredible Rosemary Olive Oil breads from my Amy’s Bread cookbook, the loaves came out stunning and I thoroughly enjoyed the process from the first mixing of the sponge, to tipping the loaves to knock on the bottom to see if they were ready. It made me feel connected to my food in that special way that I believed only a long, slow process can do. Well, that’s what I used to think.

Now I know that the long, slow process can happen with fewer steps—with steps so few as a matter of fact, that anyone and everyone should be able to find time to put a fresh loaf on the table once a week—and still turn out a most amazing loaf of bread with a chewy, flaky crust and large air bubbles and a beautiful crumb.

Now, I used a mix of whole wheat and unbleached white organic flours and let it sit on the counter for 22 hours, but my kitchen was cold. I never have it up to 70º unless I’m already in there cooking, so I don’t think it ever got quite warm enough. The 2-hour rise in the floured towels did not produce a tall puff so much as a wide, low one, but the dough had very good spring, so I gave it an extra half-hour while the dutch oven warmed, then dumped it in and hoped for the best. The fragrance of freshly baked bread may even top my love for the smell of melted chocolate. The finished loaf, as you can see, came out a little flat, but it did puff up in the oven some, and really, it didn’t seem to effect the flavor at all. It had a slightly sour aftertaste, and the crust was rich and chewy with bits of cornmeal baked into it, the air pockets were shiny from the stretched gluten and they made the perfect little spoons for sopping up extra sauce.

We tucked into that loaf with the ragú (which blew my mind, again with the slow process cooking, so very, very good) and a green salad with honey mustard dressing for our Sunday dinner, and it was heavenly. Chris’ mom joined us and we sat at the dining room table (which hasn’t happened in a while because we’ve been piling things in there while we work on other areas of the house) and it made me so happy to have everyone facing each other. To have conversation. To see my family’s faces while they ate, the happy little noises everyone made as they tasted each thing (though Lila emphatically did not like the salad dressing because it was too spicy).

So seriously, try this bread. It’s well worth the effort, and as Sandra said in the comments on Saturday’s post, making it made her feel like a real baker. And if you’re interested in a most excellent online source for all things bread, do go and check out The Fresh Loaf.

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One thing I intended to do this winter, but have spent next to no time working on, is learning how to really use my camera. I’ve done a whole lot of link-saving and read plenty of advice, but I haven’t tried any of it out yet. Partly because so much of what I read reminds me that I could use more task-specific lenses than the one that came with the camera. It takes terrible indoor shots unless the sun is blasting through the windows. I’m learning more and more how terrible the shots look when taken with a flash.

Much of what I want to shoot indoors is food and objects or spaces around my home as we make our much-needed improvements. When I cook at night, forget about taking photos of the food. They come out completely washed out by flash or yellowy and out of focus. In other words, not very appetizing.

I bookmarked a bunch of lenses on ebay, but one comes out to the same amount I’m spending on seeds and pear trees. Which is more important? The latter for this month. But maybe in another month or two, when I get a couple more freelance gigs out the door, I’ll invest in lenses; a macro and a wide-angle to start. And I will begin using my tripod (an ancient number Chris picked up at a yard sale ten years ago for two bucks).

I sure wish I had paid attention to the photography/videography class in high school. Although when I look back (I know, it’s a looong way back and I should not trust what I call my memory) but when I look back, I seem to recall that the teacher did not disseminate very much information. We mostly watched videos (it was the very beginning of MTV) and planned out our class credit music video. We did a high school insanity version of Soul Man from the Blues Brothers, set on the auditorium stage, featuring fake horn playing, lip synching and Salvation Army suits that didn’t quite hit the mark. It was terrible. Later, Eric M. and I did our own to that popular Steve Winwood-Chaka Khan song, Higher Love, with me in a really bad dress and giant hat, all back lit projected shadow dancing on the wall. O, high school. I do not miss you. Not at all.

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Busyness all weekend (nothing seed or garden related, but I’m out of the self-flagellation business, so we’ll just vett that to next weekend’s to-do list).

Chris surprised me Saturday afternoon by coming home with four new seats for the dining room chairs cut out of 3/8″ plywood. We all got busy taking the nasty covers off.

I was so happy to see that material in the trash. And check out the ugly vinyl underneath. I wonder whose rear ends made it so shiny.

Chris had to use his special pliers to remove the ancient, rusted tacks holding that vinyl in place. Those are working man’s hands, right there.

Lila helped, too. She was in charge of soaping the screws before Chris put them through the seat into the frame. Cheap made in China screws kept snapping off and after the fourth one he decided to put a drop of dish liquid in the hole and on the threads. Problem solved.

I didn’t get any photos of the actual reupholstering process because after an hour of the two of us struggling with one, I got frustrated and decided to go into the kitchen where I don’t have to deal with unfamiliar spatial relationships. I just couldn’t figure out how to fold the fabric without making it all lumpy and backwards and uneven and Chris could see it just fine. Bless him and his eternal patience with me, he just listened as I complained and questioned and pulled out staples and refolded and complained and re-stapled and pulled them out again and threw up my hands and ran upstairs to change because I was sweating so much.

We had dinner plans with Cheril & Greg yesterday and we were in charge of salad and dessert. I made these fantastic dark chocolate cupcakes by Chockylit but without the truffle aspect and I did a ganache glaze and a spritz of vanilla buttercream frosting and shaved dark chocolate curls on top. So basically, I used her cupcake recipe, which was absolutely incredible. So chocolatey and moist. I also added a half teaspoon of pure orange extract and a tablespoon of orange zest to the melted chocolate for the cake. And when I made my ganache, I added three tablespoons of butter to give it that nice shiny glaze.

I read on Chockylit’s site that my overflowing cake cups might have something to do with my oven temp being too low. She recommends preheating the oven to 25º warmer than the baking calls for, then turning it down as soon as you put the cupcakes in. I was very careful to only fill the cups 3/4 full and then tried that with the temperature, and they came out perfect. Psyche!

And look at how pretty they are! I so enjoyed presenting them last night and everyone made happy, yummy dessert sounds as they ate. So good.

So it was a multi-person, multi-tasking kind of day around here yesterday.

While I was busy in the kitchen putting together little love cakes, Chris was busy in the living room making our chairs pretty.

He says he wants to redo the second one from the left, but overall we’re both very happy with the way they came out. We used a thicker piece of foam than one might normally use, but I like the lift. Can’t wait to get that dining room wallpaper stripped off and the room painted next.

Speaking of paint, here’s a shot (crooked, sorry) of the corner where the green meets the red-orange. I’m so happy with this room.

Now we just need some more artwork for the walls. But doesn’t Cathy’s little painting look spectacular against the green?

Happy sigh.

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So, happy Tuesday! The past five days have been a bit of a blur so I’ll just recap in bullets:

• Thursday Tyler=strep, missed four midterm exams.
• Thursday evening, Lila fever of 106. Trip to urgent care. Strep, double ear infection.
• Friday worked at home, both kids home sick. Ty stayed in his room and slept. Lila moaned on the couch, fever hanging out around 101 even with Motrin.
• Saturday afternoon, Lila’s fever back up to 105. Trip to ER. The Zithromax she was on apparently not covering the hidden, undiagnosed pneumonia in her right lung.
• Sunday afternoon, massive allergic reaction to the new antibiotics. Benadryl helps the swelling, but the red dye makes her certifiable.
• Sunday night, mama drinks a big goblet of cheap wine and goes to bed with massive headache, then stays awake all night for the third night in a row, listening to the water bubbler sound of Lila breathing. But she’s breathing, so we’ll take that with thanks.
• Monday trip to pediatrician reveals that first prescription for Zithromax was at a 50% dose given over ten days, rather than the 100% dose over five. Thus the non-coverage for the developing pneumonia. So back on Zithromax at correct dosage and lesson learned: even though urgent care is only three minutes away and the co-pay is $50 instead of $100, it’s better to pay the extra and drive farther in order to get to the ER at Children’s Hospital where they know what they’re doing for little ones.
• Tuesday—hey! It’s Tuesday! And yes, I’m still attempting to work a little bit from home while Lila hangs out on the couch watching movies, reading, drawing maps and coughing. Oh, the coughing. I’d like to be able to bring her back to school tomorrow, but I’m just not sure. Fever’s gone, but this cough when it hits—it just knocks her out.

So my two boxes of seeds are still sitting on the dining room table, waiting for my attention and I’m thinking I’ll just dive in and do that today. Make a list of what I have, then compare that to what I want to order.

Is it too late to start a few cartons of winter sown perennials out on the porch? We’ll still have at least one more deep freeze here in Ohio, right?

Also thinking a lot about this Victory Garden Drive that’s the hot new garden challenge with an excellent mission. I had vowed to myself that I would not sign on for any blogging challenges this year, and instead just focus on my own little path, explore the topics that I want to write about in relation to my city acre and my goals for building a more self-sufficient life. But this Victory Garden Drive is such a great idea. I’ll have to sit with it some more to see if/how I want to be involved blogwise. But I’ll be planting my Victory Garden, as always.

Interesting to note that the area down the length of the driveway where Chris piled all of the mulched fall leaves has melted off first. The area with leaves is big, but not very deep, maybe four or five inches. So I don’t think it’s composting heat that’s melting the snow. Across the driveway where we didn’t manage to get any leaves piled is also melted. I think it’s more sun, so I’m very hopeful that this is just the right area for my sun-loving vegetables.

Oh! And I had a vision! Sorry, I know that sounds hokey. But it’s true. While browsing through the Fedco Tree Catalog, trying to decide on what Pear varieties to grow, I saw them espaliered—one tree on either side of the front steps. They’ll get plenty of sun and good drainage, be protected from some of the winds, and in several years we’ll have a living wall along the front of the house. I can see how magical the front porch will become when it’s in bloom. The fragrance of blossoms, and then the rich, fermented ripening pears hanging right there in front of us while we eat a late summer supper. I’m very excited about this! I’ll transplant all of the Evening Primrose to another bed and plant a half-ring of Comfrey around the drip line to help pull up nutrients and loosen the clay on the outer edges.

Gosh, it’s almost 50 degrees out there today! I want to get out and start right this minute.

But no, first things first. Seed inventory! Winter sowing! Clean off the light table and finish mounting the lights so I can start my onions, and shallots inside.

Spring is well and truly on her way, people. Which means some of these nasty-asty germs we’ve been burdened with will begin to die off, right?

Please?

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I finally moved about 2000 digital photos out of my iPhoto and onto a couple of CDs last night. I edited out the many, many duplicate shots of food and plants and in the process took a wonderful trip down the memory lane of this past growing season. Such a treat remembering the many ways our hands stayed busy all summer long and to see proof again when right now when it’s 17 degrees out and the world is encrusted in ice and snow, and it feels as if nothing will ever grow again. It’s SO good to review all we have put in place so far to become less dependent upon the grinding commercial food industry and to gain inspiration for growing that independence even more in the coming season.

I picked this first hand full of Vermont Cranberry beans too early because I grew impatient with the lack of sun on the pods and the weeks they took to even begin to blush.

I had a big helper in the garden all season and I thrilled to see Lila grow more conscious of what her hands should and should not do while moving in and out of the plants. She was my number one cherry tomato harvester.

Between my garden and the farmers’ market, I set out a giant bowl of fresh salad at just about every dinner we ate last summer. Next summer I’d like to learn some more homemade dressing recipes, I relied a little too heavily on Newman’s Own vinaigrettes which is fine but a little boring. If you have a favorite salad dressing recipe, please share!

Pinch me again! I almost forgot that these black raspberries grow wild right behind the gardens next door, and if we get some early summer rains, they’re plump and juicy just like the ones in this bowl. Mercy, they were so good. I can’t even find words to describe the wild berry explosion that occurred after I popped each one in my mouth. Heaven?

I won’t need to buy any seed potato in the spring because the harvest sprouted in the basement much faster than I thought it would. I guess it’s a little too warm down there, and I’d like to look at eventually turning one corner into a true root cellar by blocking it in with cement blocks.

In about six weeks I’m going to replant the greens boxes and then try not to stare out the window at them to make time move more quickly and bring us back around to that lush, glorious green of high summer. I’m still working on my seed list and narrowing down what to buy. I’ll be planting in the oversize cold frame that Chris built as well — the one with the much too high back and the big bay window that’s too heavy to lift and has a frame so flimsy that it feels as if it will shatter in mid-air. But it’s salad greens real estate and maybe I’ll figure out a way to modify it so it’s less deadly.

Looking back is such an inspiring way to examine the here and now in order to set forth the plan for the future, don’t you think?

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