bread and frozen laundry

oatmeal bread

Today I stayed home from work again. I probably could have gone, okay definitely. But my boss basically told me to stay home and my nose is still very stuffy. I know I benefited from the extra hours at home. Here is what I did: 3 loads of laundry, washed and hung up (one of which did not finish the spin cycle which meant carrying it to the line quite wet and labor intensive). Then, with a wet head (from shower) and wet jeans (from un-spun clothes leaking through basket onto self) I wrestled with an enormous duvet cover in an icy wind and laughed at myself as I tried to get the dripping brown monster onto our pathetic line without dragging it over much on the muddy ground. My hands were red, my head was wet. My jeans were wet and all I could think of was poor Claire Fraser from the Outlander time travel series and how hard she (yes, the fictional character) must have had it. I mean, going from being a doctor in the 1960s to living in the Highlands of Scotland and then the wilds of the Carolinas in the late 1700s must have been rough. And then I had even more reason to laugh at myself. This year I have indulged in more engrossing (and yes, slightly trashy if we are going to be snobbish here)... ahem, literature then I have in years. Between the Twilight and the Outlander series', I have spent countless hours completely escaping. I think it has a lot to do with how long and difficult the winter was. But now, I am going to try to turn my attentions elsewhere. Live in The Now, Kelly! Which is why I am baking bread and walking and um... blogging about what I did earlier...

Here is how I make bread Unless it is NYTimes or challah or something else special. I do it the same way I make pizza dough. 2 cups luke water, roughly a tsp. of yeast per cup, a bit of something sweet, a bit of some salt and enough flour (wheat germ, oats etc.) to make a sponge... that I let rise for an hour or more, then I mix in more flour etc...a bit at a time, until my finger goes in and out pretty clean, at which time you will be kneading and not using a spoon. Then I let that rise until it doubles and then punch it down, shape, let rise 20 minutes or so and bake it. A second long rise (to let double would also be good).