Jumped out of bed in a mad panic this morning. We’d had a lie with no work for the day and was just coming too when my subconscious told me I’d not put yeast in the bread maker. I lifted the lid to find the dough smiling at me, with 3 hours left to go…thank fully the bake setting hadn’t kicked in….what to do?, I grabbed a teaspoon of yeast, a drop of milk, mixed the yeast and then poured onto the dough, a spoon of extra flour and set the mixer to pizza setting. I’ve now switched to manual (me) bake mode and it’s rising happily in a kitchen bowl. Flour is too precious to waste at the moment!
So week two working from home came to a close yesterday, and we celebrated by bringing a bit of holiday spirit to the table instead of a glass of wine. It’s been a few years since we went Sorrento, a coastal town in southwestern Italy famous for Limoncello. A long distant memory, but the taste of the drink brings back a bit of sunshine into our minds.
Funny to see in the Guardian today <a href="http://” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer”>Limoncello locktails! How to make delicious drinks from years-old holiday booze and I should have known we weren’t the only ones falling back on the old drinks cabinet. I’ve made a note to myself that I need to look up #quarantini.
I rediscovered twitter this week, according to my profile I joined in 2009! Which messes with my head, I’ve dipped in and out over the years mainly on wet rainy day bus rides into work, but nothing that made me think I need to actively get stuck in. This week though I sporadically dipped in a bit more, changing some of the folk I followed more akin to my interests now and it was refreshing. Even one of my favourite bakers @DanLepard answered and then followed me which gave me a buzz.
So I’ve been rambling on and not offered you a coffee, mainly because all the baking has been hovered up this week. I made a chocolate and banana loaf from Nigel Slaters Kitchen diary to keep the beasts at day and it didn’t last long at all. This weekend I’m going to make a carrot cake (will slow one boy down) and a coconut and chocolate traybake both from the bourke street bakery. Both recipes need little flour and given the shelves are still completely empty of flour it’s a blessing.
Also got a big cook up planned for the day, the local butcher delivery showed up yesterday, stewing lamb and a chicken. If I get those sorted, it will make the week go a little easier by having the evening meals already sorted.
Exercise wise I’ve been getting through the ibuprofen nursing my hip and back. I’d have gone to a physio if they weren’t on lock down. It’s strange though after a run the pain seems to die down. It’s just overnight and long periods of sitting down…which is prevalent given all the phone meetings that I used to walk round a building for. I took a rest day on Wednesday from the morning run and I was in fowl mental state by the end of the day. So I pushed through the pain Thursday and Friday and it made such a difference to my well-being. Also trying to pay attention to the beeps of my watch….when it tells me to move, I go up and down the stairs until it clears. Typically 4 times!
I hope you are managing to stick to routines, or forming new healthy habits and wishing you another healthy safe week. We were supposed to be going away this week as part of the Easter break, sadly cancelled, but I still long for the mountains…..so I leave you with this small film. Stay safe both in body and the mind.
Freeride at Home, a Ski Movie by Philipp Klein
The #WeekendCoffeeShare is an informal weekly link-up hosted by Eclectic Alli that serves as weekly heart beat and sort of of a mind-dump. Helps me reflect on my week, with a list of achievements, thoughts and rambles normally whilst drinking a beverage probably listening to music.
All that baking is so tempting! I’m in the midst of choosing what cake to bake for Easter. I limit myself to baking cakes to special days/holidays. My daughter is voting for carrot cake next weekend, we’ll see. Bread on the other hand I bake several times a week. I have one package of yeast in my fridge, that I am planning on using today. I have a few (3 or 4) packages of fresh yeast in my freezer, and a few packages of sourdough starter there as well. Enjoy the rest of your weekend, and stay sane!
Baking for special times used to be our thing and then it seemed to grow. It’s my let out for the crazy world we live in, and I love the alchemy of it. Bread though is a different kind of magic, and if it wasn’t for the struggle to find flour, I’d try and create a daily habit around sourdough. Thanks for saying hello
All that baking is so tempting! I’m in the midst of choosing what cake to bake for Easter. I limit myself to baking cakes to special days/holidays. My daughter is voting for carrot cake next weekend, we’ll see. Bread on the other hand I bake several times a week. I have one package of yeast in my fridge, that I am planning on using today. I have a few (3 or 4) packages of fresh yeast in my freezer, and a few packages of sourdough starter there as well. Enjoy the rest of your weekend, and stay sane!
Baking for special times used to be our thing and then it seemed to grow. It’s my let out for the crazy world we live in, and I love the alchemy of it. Bread though is a different kind of magic, and if it wasn’t for the struggle to find flour, I’d try and create a daily habit around sourdough. Thanks for saying hello
I haven’t stepped into the kitchen to bake yet – though I will need to soon as I have a yearning for some biscuits 🙂
Biscuits are tricky, and would be a downfall for me….seem to be able to munch away with zero restraint!
I haven’t stepped into the kitchen to bake yet – though I will need to soon as I have a yearning for some biscuits 🙂
Biscuits are tricky, and would be a downfall for me….seem to be able to munch away with zero restraint!
Your baking and cooking plan sounds great. I like simple recipes and found one called Ration (chocolate) cake made during the Second World War when things were scarce. Stay healthy! #weekendcoffeeshare
I found a flourless chocolate cake over the weekend, storing it up in case I need it…..although it looks evil 🙂
Your baking and cooking plan sounds great. I like simple recipes and found one called Ration (chocolate) cake made during the Second World War when things were scarce. Stay healthy! #weekendcoffeeshare
I found a flourless chocolate cake over the weekend, storing it up in case I need it…..although it looks evil 🙂
MMM Lemoncello. Good choice.
Still some left for next weekend? Hopefully the sun will be shining
MMM Lemoncello. Good choice.
Still some left for next weekend? Hopefully the sun will be shining
Okay EC, I have an image you should enjoy. Back in my college days, I was employed by a local diner/deli/bakery. My job was to make and bake the bread and cinnamon rolls. Both recipes were amazing, very popular and expensive to produce. Each batch of bread produced 20 loaves and I had a system of measuring out all the needed ingredients in advance and then feeding them the giant kneading blender, giving it the correct amount of time to rise, etc.
One day, a peer at the shop had a person issue he and I discussed as we did our work. When I pulled down the huge bowl of bread dough to begin forming the loaves – something was wrong. It wasn’t rising and it did not smell right. I was suddenly in a panic. There was no time to start over as the bread was needed to both fresh and available at a certain time for our early customers. As I tried to figure out what happened, I noticed a small container on a work shelf before me that was out of plce – oh noooo. It was the full measure of the yeast needed for the batch of 20 loaves that I’d managed to forget to add.
Figuring I had nothing left to, lose, the whole batch with the yeast activated with some warm water went back into the kneading machine. In short – it worked and after the flour settled and our customers were happily eating their way through all that bread, the store owner and I had a good laugh over the whole incident. You don’t make bread without killing a few loaves along the way, but 20 loaves in one swoop – I felt like my tuition payment which was due in a few months had just dodged a heavy flat dough mortar shell.
You’ll be glad to know I rescued the bread….and the boys didn’t go hungry. I was quite pleased with myself! 20 loaves….would have been a disaster! I had a job in a kitchen as a young teenager, I dropped a whole milk crate in the walk in fridge…..I was let go that day!
Okay EC, I have an image you should enjoy. Back in my college days, I was employed by a local diner/deli/bakery. My job was to make and bake the bread and cinnamon rolls. Both recipes were amazing, very popular and expensive to produce. Each batch of bread produced 20 loaves and I had a system of measuring out all the needed ingredients in advance and then feeding them the giant kneading blender, giving it the correct amount of time to rise, etc.
One day, a peer at the shop had a person issue he and I discussed as we did our work. When I pulled down the huge bowl of bread dough to begin forming the loaves – something was wrong. It wasn’t rising and it did not smell right. I was suddenly in a panic. There was no time to start over as the bread was needed to both fresh and available at a certain time for our early customers. As I tried to figure out what happened, I noticed a small container on a work shelf before me that was out of plce – oh noooo. It was the full measure of the yeast needed for the batch of 20 loaves that I’d managed to forget to add.
Figuring I had nothing left to, lose, the whole batch with the yeast activated with some warm water went back into the kneading machine. In short – it worked and after the flour settled and our customers were happily eating their way through all that bread, the store owner and I had a good laugh over the whole incident. You don’t make bread without killing a few loaves along the way, but 20 loaves in one swoop – I felt like my tuition payment which was due in a few months had just dodged a heavy flat dough mortar shell.
You’ll be glad to know I rescued the bread….and the boys didn’t go hungry. I was quite pleased with myself! 20 loaves….would have been a disaster! I had a job in a kitchen as a young teenager, I dropped a whole milk crate in the walk in fridge…..I was let go that day!
Your baking and cooking plan sounds great. I like simple recipes and found one called Ration (chocolate) cake that used to be made during WW2. You can google it if you like. Stay safe and healthy! #weekendcoffeeshare
Your baking and cooking plan sounds great. I like simple recipes and found one called Ration (chocolate) cake that used to be made during WW2. You can google it if you like. Stay safe and healthy! #weekendcoffeeshare