The Wonder of Bread

There's a great article at Salon.com today about hippie mothers and how their children rebelled against recycling and composting and all that stuff that's considered so cool today. I didn't have a hippie Mom, but she being German (and a refugee from Prussia who lost everything as a teen when she fled to Germany during WW2), plus living on an American military salary, knew how to "make do" and stretch those pennies. One way was by baking bread.

From Mother Earth News

I didn't like home-baked bread as a kid. I wanted Wonder Bread with slices of American cheese and Oscar Meyer bologna and potato chips on the side. Like my little friends at Catholic School. Homebaked buttered bread was embarrassing. (Wrapped in wax paper, not Saran, God forbid!) And never any chips... maybe an apple for me. Bummer. Oh, and to have a Twinkie! I just got home-baked pound cake or chocolate and vanilla bundt cake slices. Wrapped in wax paper - maybe even yesterday's wrapper. Bigger bummer.

I've often wondered if my peers from 2nd grade are alive now - that Wonder Generation. Or have they all died of cancer from poor nutrition? Maybe they turned into the wonder parents of their day and baked all their own bread for their children, who went to school with fresh-baked goodness, while their poorer counterparts ate day-old Wonder Bread with baloney. It all seems so wickedly ironic, doesn't it, this about-face from one generation to the next?

Here at my house, we rarely buy bread. Mick and I both bake - he makes the crusty Euro-loaves that go so well with my soup habit, and I bake the toast and sandwich loaves that take us through breakfasts and Saturday tea. Sometimes we add a focaccia to go with a meal like spaghetti, and of course our own pizza dough for the occasional movie night.

Bread dough is the ultimate cooking no-brainer. It happens during the course of a day in between doing laundry and making the beds and sweeping the kitchen floor. It's not a special event. It takes way less time than going to the grocery store to buy bread. You also get the pleasure of the marvelous baking smell, and the sheer ecstasy of fresher-than-fresh tasty goodness, and knowing what ingredients are in that loaf. I buy locally-sourced organic flours in bulk. I know what's in my bread. Fresh-baked bread, in my less-than-humble opinion, is one of the Wonders of the World!

How about you? Do you bake your own bread? What kind? 

Temp: 30/5 crisp and sunny
Started: thinking about February writing projects
Finished: bleeding the brakes
Word count: 200 at most - trying to stay off the keyboard until my wrists have rested

The Archdruid

I occasionally like to Google my name as well as my husband's. His is more fun because it borders on the common so I get more entertaining hits. I've gotten all kinds of interesting men from marine biologists to dead gay actors. Well, not really gay... the actor Michael Greer just happened to play a gay man at a time when that could give you a reputation. He is really dead though.

My favorite hit is the Archdruid, John Michael Greer, who is an interesting writer and a staunch environmentalist. I find him to be a very smart man. I mentioned this to someone yesterday, and she wondered what exactly an Archdruid is... I admit, I didn't exactly know. Something British. Presumably it's a druid high priest - there's more information at the Wikipedia page.

But I digress.

Back to the Archdruid who has a popular blog called the Archdruid's Report. I read recently that he had moved to the Rust Belt, and I wondered why. It all has to do with climate change and the slide of the coastal economies and makes interesting food for thought about the future. Click here to read a very intelligent report.

The other Michael Greer suggests we should move to the Rust Belt, too. Same town, and set up our liturgical stained glass studio there. Now that should raise some eyebrows. I can hear it now: "Which Greer do you want, the Archdruid or the Church Artist". Sounds like something out of a novel!

What's the most interesting thing you've discovered on Google lately? Do you Google your own name or people you know? Why?

Temps: 36/11 Cold and foggy, then late afternoon blizzards, with 1.5 more inches tonight
Started: Zip
Finished: Zip
Word count: this blog post and a lot of resting of hands with a repeat tomorrow

Teakettle Tuesday and Spouting Off

There's nothing better than a good teapot and it's all about the spout. There is nothing worse than a cheap teapot with a bad spout! Here's my favorite - English bone china - perfect spout:

You'll see this beauty every Saturday for high tea at my house. High tea (or low tea, depending on how much planning goes into the sit-down) was started as a compromise.

When my husband was growing up, weekends were days to look forward to, because his Mom cooked bigger, better meals then. She worked during the week, so weekend meals were more extravagant than the quick weekday fare.

In my youth, Saturdays were snack days, because I had a stay-at-home-mom who cooked full dinners all week. On Saturdays we cleaned house, my folks shopped, and we made do with leftovers or sandwiches. The point is, I now don't want to cook on Saturdays. I also don't want to eat a big meal - it's a day off for my stomach as well as the rest of me.

But hubbs wants something special. So Mick and I compromise with a good and restorative English tea every Saturday afternoon, complete with little sandwiches and scones or some other baked goodies. We both look forward to a change from the regular weekday menu and schedule, and this makes it more of a festive treat without a full-blown meal. Besides, we're coffee drinkers, so tea is a nice change-of-pace once a week.

What else do I have to spout off about today? How about the organic chicken farm a group of investors wants to bring to town?

I'm not so much spouting off about the farm or idea itself. On paper it's a good idea, assuming these investors have experienced labor to run a facility of this type. The town meeting is being held right now, and I decided not to go. A lot of issues will come up including the smell of chicken manure permeating the air, and all the imported labor being brought in to work the facility. Most criticisms come from a place of fear, filled with racism and prejudice at many levels (typical small-minded attitudes), despite the underlying issues that do raise legitimate concerns.

Doubling the population of a town with younger low-income labor will have deep sociological impacts- that's one major concern. A 1.5 million dollar facility will have water needs that might not be met with existing wells, and water that is already environmentally stressed by feedlot run-off. Those are just two challenges of the many issues to consider.

My biggest concern is the employee housing slated to be built on the quarter section behind my two acres. There goes quiet, peace of mind, and remote country living, is my guess. We'll see what happens. I'm sure it'll give lots of folks something to spout off about tomorrow.

Always something new to write about! Anything interesting in your slice of the pie?

Temps: 48/19 winter weather advisory in effect with freezing drizzle and light snow

Field of Dreams

I like to follow mercola.com to see his latest take on anything health-related. He sounds a bit wingy sometimes, but almost inevitably, his positions seem to sift into mainstream medical practice. Today he posts about how to keep your complexion looking young, which isn't as big a concern to me than how to keep my joints from aching. His recommendations actually are pertinent to both issues. Click here to read more.

Those diet recommendations include some of the ingredients in this salad, which is delicious! We first had the Field of Dreams salad at a now-defunct restaurant called Ambrosia in Colorado Springs. It contains a mix of greens including bitter, like dandelion, assorted berries (this one has blueberries and strawberries), onion, crumbled bleu cheese (eliminate if you have migraine or yeast issues), and a fruity and slightly sweet vinaigrette dressing of your choice. I like one made with pomegranate, which I juice just like a lemon.

Doesn't that look just good enough to eat? We had rain this morning in January in Colorado! Is it any wonder my mind is on garden greens? What's your favorite Spring salad?

Temps: 51/23 50 mph wind gusts and rain!
Started: Thinking about cleaning my office ;)
Finished: LPP blog book tour
Word count: 100

Desiderata #2

Speak your truth quietly and

clearly; and listen to others,

even the dull and ignorant;

they too have their story.

~ Max Ehrmann

 

Gardening Muse

Is anyone else drooling over seed catalogs? Our very favorite is Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.

We've been coaxing this tomato plant along since she was beheaded in a windstorm this past Fall.

Grow, Miss Tomato, grow!

Here's some of the bounty from previous years:

You can't buy tomatoes like these in a store, and it's part of the reason heirloom varieties are a gift. How about you? What are your favorite heirloom seed suppliers. Do you harvest your own seeds? It's an important part of food security.

Temps: 48/18
Started: Baking a raw apple cake recipe said to be 200 years old
Finished: Ruining a batch of feta - it's now becoming a gallon of farmers cheese
Word count: Zip except for online promotion for the blog book tour

Little Pleasures

Annie and I started the day warming our paws in the sunshine.

It turned out to be a warm and lovely day with lots of snow melt. A bit too early for this kind of Spring weather. It actually rained last night! But my aching joints appreciated the reprieve from the cold.






 Mick made a nice stew for dinner, with most of the ingredients from within the state. Beef was from Lasater Grasslands Beef, potatoes from the Western Slope via Ripe2U, organic carrots from Greeley, onions from the Arkansas Valley, and frozen peas from my own garden. The only imports were celery and spices and that's pretty good for this time of year. Oh, and a tall cold glass of delicious milk from my neighbor's cow! How local is that? For dessert, we had this, thanks to another neighbor... clearly  not local:

  A day of gemuetlichkeit for which to be grateful. And I am.

Temps: 49/16

Started: Burgundy mohair mitts for Elora

Finished: Blog posts for the week

Word count: 150

What Is Causing This Bizarre Weather?

Everywhere you go, people are musing about the weird weather. CNN had this explanation today:

Two reasons according to them.

Nobody seems to be able to wrap their brains around the idea that climate change is happening, and that decades of wrong action are now catching up with us. Maybe in a few years when there's enough disruption to cause food shortages. You think? I doubt it.

A few days ago we had -15 temperatures at night. Today it was over 50 degrees in my backyard. The same for a few more days, maybe even a few weeks. That'll help my wrists hurt less, but I'm afraid the trees might start to bud, just in time for another good freeze. I can't even imagine trying to grow fruit trees out here, much as I'd love the food security.

Brought a mug to the town clerk today - made just for her and she got all teary-eyed. It's nice to make people feel appreciated.

"All God's angels come to us disguised." ~James Russell Lovell

From our CafePress Shop.



Temps: 49/15
Started: Zip
Finished: BIW
Wordcount: Way too much online typing. Hands and eyes screaming for mercy.

A Daily Problem

Plastic. You can't get away from it. Today's collection included that skinny plastic tube filled with honey, likely from an organic food store. How did that end up in my house? Probably as much plastic in that thing as honey. We need to start thinking about these practices and connecting the dots!

Does this drive you crazy, too? What elaborate measures do you go to in order to avoid all this packaging? I try to buy in bulk, but still I end up with this... day after day.
~~~~~
Temps: 23/2
Started: Nothing
Finished: Nothing
Word count: 1,000+ a tough writing day but worked through it - deadlines are good for that

WritingWritingWriting

But so far, nothing worth repeating. Writing is like that. You first spurt it out - the good, the bad, and the ugly - and then you have something to revise. I've gotten the bad and the ugly, and am hoping some good comes out soon so I have something to edit before I need it tomorrow. The non-fiction obligations haven't left me with much creativity and energy for fiction, so that's on the back burner. Can't do it all. Not at the same time anyway.

Icy cold today. Here's the upcoming weather:

Minus 17 last night with a high of 9 degrees, and minus 11 tonight. The wind chill will make it even colder. The jump to 51 degrees in a few days concerns me, because those repeated wild swings are one of the "snap" symptoms of climate change that are projected to get wider and more frequent. If you're a gardener, you know your trees won't like it. You might even start losing them. It's damn near as harsh as drought.

But my achy wrists and ears - the cold really affects my ability to hear - will welcome a bit of warmth. I've really been pretty miserable the past few days, and soon on my way to being publicly cranky. Be forewarned.

Nothing much else to report. How's the temp out your way? Anything new and interesting?