rain rain go away

beautiful and terrible.

I'm so outsided

Last night Derek was working on the fence and I was doing a final glaze and firing for my pottery class, so Luke had to be otherwise attended to. My friend Wendy said she'd take him along to her son's baseball game. I knew Luke would be just thrilled, so I kept it to myself all day and just before we got in the car I told him the wonderful news - You are going to a baseball game!! Then I was glad I hadn't told him earlier in the day because the full five minutes in the car were filled with:

I'm going to a baseball game and HIT the ball I'm outsided about baseball I like baseball I will play baseball Josh and Luke will play baseball and hit the ball and throw the ball and kick it? no, we will hit it and I like playing the baseball game and running and hitting the ball and I'm so outsided to go to a baseball game with Josh and Wendy we will HIT the ball I am so outsided Luke is outsided for baseball

Luckily for Luke the game was outside. He was so outsided.

don't look too closely at this fabric.

I thought by drawing your attention to the fabric I might draw your eye away from my poor seams. So it was fun, it was quick (one hour of sewing), it was cheap (30 cents for the pillowcase!!), and now it's ready to put on a little girl.

I don't really have time for this

but I'm having a hard time motivating myself to do anything else, and this project is exciting! A pillowcase dress. Total cost: less than a dollar.

Why don't more of my friends have girls? All these boys, and SO many cute little dresses to be made out of vintage pillowcases...ah well. This one goes to Cammy when it's done - which I think will be this afternoon!

Where's My John-Deere?

Is the first thing I hear in the morning, and the last thing I hear before bed.

We made a wonderful discovery today at the grocery store. Wait. I should go back first. Last week Luke and I went to Superstore and he screamed and wailed and cried in the cart, and wanted this and that and of course he couldn't have it all and was terribly unhappy. So finally I let him walk along beside the cart, holding onto the cart with one hand. Well, that got out of control in a blink of an eye and the shopping trip ended with me in tears, and Luke in the middle of a full scale tantrum until we sat in the car with the doors closed and I shouted, "We're never going to the grocery store again!!!"...and then we drove home in total silence.

So today we went to Co-op, which is a smaller store (not just in name), with three fire engine carts that children can sit in and pretend to steer, cashiers who bag your groceries for you, and shorter but wider aisles. The truth is I really like Co-op for these reasons, but sometimes they don't have everything I need (things like sheets, or rugs, or my favorite deodorant) and I don't want to make more than one stop so I go to Superstore. But today Co-op got the winning vote. I may never shop at Superstore again. As I pushed Luke along in his fire engine a woman from the bakery walked out and offered Luke a cookie. When Rob (Derek's cousin's husband - and who also works at Co-op) saw Luke with his cookie he said, "I bet he knows where to get those!".
I asked, "what do you mean?"
"Well I'm sure by now he runs right over to the bakery when you get here!"
"Huh?"
"They always give out cookies to the children."

Luke sat nicely in his fire engine the entire grocery shopping trip. When we got home he was covered in chocolate, but we made it home with no tears and no shouting. Co-op wins the day. I may have to find a new deodorant.

Master Recipe #1 Artisan Bread Dough

Before you jump right in I will give you my own baking notes.

• I used all purpose and whole wheat flour combined and had excellent results. Also, I used regular yeast and everything rose very well (not sure if it's exactly the same results, but it worked).
  
• The spooning the flour out may seem a little ridiculous, but if you dig a measuring cup into a bag of flour, you'll end up with lots more flour than if you spoon it in because you're compacting it while you scoop - so just try this one.
  
• To get the plastic wrap to stick, wet the edge of your bowl just a little.
• Your dough may rise faster if your kitchen is warmer than 72F, but beware putting your dough outside to rise - beasts like bread dough more than they like bread.
• Risen dough should look about twice the size of original mass, and will sink a bit when you begin to handle it. That's what the second rise is for.
  
• The boule is only one way to use this dough. I made pizza crust out of it Friday, following the Foccacia recipe (just shaping it differently), and it was fantastic. The book also lists baguettes, naan, pita bread, breadsticks and fougasse, rolls, and batard, all from this basic recipe.
  
• I don't know what kind of midget volleyball the author has been playing, but 1/2 recipe of bread dough is not the size of a volleyball. Just divide it about in half and you're good. Artisan dough is supposed to result in every loaf being unique. Go with the flow.
• It's important your cookie sheet does not have sides, if you intend to slide your dough onto the stone after rising on the cookie sheet. However, when I made pizza crust I set the dough to rise on a cookie sheet with sides(grease it first!), put on my toppings and then just put the cookie sheet on the stone in the oven to bake (Does the stone give off a different kind of heat than an oven element? I assumed so, and still included the stone, even though my pizza was on a cookie sheet too.)
• I do not own a broiler pan. I know, how can I get through the day? I used two metal pie pans instead. I worried that glass might break when you put the water into it hot, so metal it was, and it seemed to work.
• I never measured the internal temperature of the loaf. I just left it in for a solid half hour (turning it half-way because my oven bakes unevenly) and it was good. The pizza took a little less time with very little toppings, and a little more time with heavy sauce and cheese.
• Lastly, I found I could form the boule without flouring a work surface, just holding the dough in my hands and sprinkling flour. This was easy, I ended up handling the dough less, and my favorite - less clean-up.
  

So here goes.


Artisan Bread Dough #1

6 1/2 C unbleached all-purpose or bread flour
1 1/2 T instant or bread machine yeast
1 1/2 T fine table or kosher salt
3 C lukewarm water

1. Measure. Spoon the flour into a measuring cup, level with a knife or your finger, then dump the flour into the mixing bowl.

2. Mix. Add the yeast and salt to the flour. Stir together with a wooden spoon or Danish dough whisk. Pour in the water and stir together until just moistened. Beat 40 strokes, scraping the bottom and sides of the bowl, until the dough forms a lumpy, stick mass.

3. Rise. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature (72 F, 22 C) in a draft-free place for 2 hours or until the dough has risen nearly to the top of the bowl and has a sponge-like appearance.

4. Use right away or refrigerate. Use that day or place the dough, covered with plastic wrap, in the fridge for up to 9 days before baking.

Boule
(photographed)

1/2 recipe prepared Easy Artisan Dough, about the size of a volleyball
1/2 C cornmeal
2 C hot water

1. Form. Place dough portion on a floured surface and dust very lightly with flour. Flour your hands. Working the dough as little as possible and adding flour as necessary, form the dough into a 12 inch round. Smooth the dough with your hands to form a soft, non-sticky skin. Pinch any seams together. Lightly flour any sticky places on the dough. The dough should feel soft and smooth all over, like a baby's skin, but not at all sticky.

2. Rest. Sprinkle the cornmeal on the cookie sheet and place the dough round on the cornmeal. Cover with a tea towel and let rest at room temp for 40 minutes.

3. Prepare oven for artisan baking. About 30 minutes before baking, place a broiler pan on the lower shelf and a baking stone on the middle shelf of the oven. Preheat to 450 degrees.

4. Slash boule with serrated knife. Using a serrated knife, make three evenly spaced slashes, about 1/2 inch deep, across the boule, exposing the moist dough under the surface.

5. Slide boule onto baking stone and add water to broiler pan. With a quick forward jerk of your arms, slide the dough round from the cookie sheet to the stone. Then pour the hot water into the broiler pan and close the oven door.

6. Bake. Bake for 27-30 minutes or until the crust is a medium dark brown and an instant-read thermometer inserted in the center of the loaf registers at least 190 degreesF. Remove the loaf with oven mitts and cool on a wire rack.

recipe from 200 Fast and Easy Artisan Breads by Judith Fertig

I am considering

taking some time off from blogging. I'm looking at a few busy weeks here getting ready for the Back 40 Festival (where I'll have a booth featuring my photography), trying to get my business name solidified, trying to pick up a few photography jobs for the summer, and then all the usual business of gardening, doing dishes, etc. I would still occasionally post pictures, I think. I haven't decided how long this hiatus might last, or when it might begin exactly, but I'll let you know.

this is not a perfect splice, but you get the picture right?

Today is a holiday here in Canada so Derek and his Dad are out working on our very own fence! It's exciting to watch it coming up. I can hardly wait for the privacy and stress-relief it will be to have my son contained! It's raining lots this long weekend, and that's slowed us down a bit, but with a few evenings and another Saturday of work we should be able to polish it off.
This weekend was also Derek and my 6th anniversary. I picked this bouquet from our yard and put it in one of the champagne flutes from our wedding (which we never actually drank out of! but they're still special, and lovely -thanks to my sister Sarah for thinking of details like this).

It was also a weekend filled with bread-making success. I got a book from the library called "200 Fast and Easy Artisan Breads" and I am really truly thrilled with the results. The boys ate fresh bread and jam for coffee break this morning! What a treat. You use the same easy recipe (easy! easy!) and you can make several different breads using just a little different baking technique. They have quite a long list of tools you need, but I've been having luck with improvisational tools. And the really wonderful thing is that you can make this dough, let it rise once, then keep it in the fridge for up to nine days! I have only tried it in the fridge for two days, but I'm thinking this bread will be in the fridge almost all the time from now on. All you have to do is take it out, shape it, let it rise for 40 minutes, then bake it for half an hour. It's so simple that we will be having fresh bread a LOT more often.