My Bride had an all-day parent counseling meeting today, so I putted around. Windy and rainy here again, so I did some more cleaning in the garage - I can actually park a car in there, now, although there's still much to be done. I built a firewood holder between the two bays, and loaded that about 1/3 of the way full (dry and out of the weather!) and should be able to fit the next tree I chainsaw up into the space.
Did the dishes, cleaned the kitchen, decided to bake a couple of loaves of french bread. Many people have bread-making machines, but few actually use them. They're crappy for actually baking bread, but great for kneading the dough - just toss in the water, salt, sugar, yeast, and flour, and let it do its thing. While that's going on, you have time for other stuff. We had a couple of checks that needed to be deposited, so I took them upstairs, scanned them in, and emailed them off to the bank.
With that done, it was time to head down and grab the dough out of the machine. Rolled that out, cut it in half, rolled each into a loaf, then covered them and took them upstairs to rise in the warmest room in the house. That gives me another half-hour to do other stuff, so I pulled in the freshly-emptied garbage cans, refilled the bird feeder, and checked health plans. Sheer excitement. But, we need to buy coverage in the next few weeks, so it needs a look.
Took the bread back down to the kitchen, gave the loaves the old eggy-water treatment, slit the tops, and popped them in onto the middle rack with a cup of ice on the bottom of the oven. 20 minutes later, fresh french. Good thing I made two loaves, as one disappeared after the girls got hold of it. I made a basic ham-and-cheese omelette to go with it. As I'd assumed, my Bride was tired and hungry when she got home, so she was pretty happy. And as she correctly noted, the bread alone would cost $4-$5 if you bought it at the store ($2-$2.50 per loaf).
Daughter's comments were pretty much limited to "you make good bread, you make great omelettes" - most of the rest of the time, her mouth was full. It's interesting: I can stuff three people using 4 eggs, four slices of ham, a couple of slices of cheese, and 50 cents' worth of bread ingredients. If people are going hungry in America, it's because they've made bad choices. What I made was far from expensive, yet quick, easy, and nutritious. And I can do stuff like that any time: I picked up a filet for $4, cut it in half, froze one half. The other gets cooked and used in a stir-fry later in the week. Nothin' to it.
I'm not buying that there's a "crisis" in America when it comes to food. Our only crisis currently resides in the White House. I bake the bread; he provides the circuses.
I make bread by hand, not machine. I have kneads.
Posted by: Sam L. | January 26, 2012 at 08:25 AM
Hey, that guy uses the Mirro bucket that I use.
Posted by: Sam L. | January 26, 2012 at 08:43 AM
I use the machine to knead the dough. I've done it by hand, but it's a time-waster. I prefer to let the machine do that; frees me up to do other stuff.
Posted by: Max | January 26, 2012 at 01:42 PM
"I can actually park a car in there,..."
I've heard tell that there are people who do such things.
Posted by: ZZMike | January 27, 2012 at 02:59 PM