Ooh, that sounds fancier than it is.
Really what I mean is: Here's what I'm thinking about for the week ahead as it draws nearer and nearer:
Back to tracking in Weight watchers! I haven't been in the right frame of mind to do this for a while. But in the past few weeks I could feel all the gears shifting into place. I've been so. close. just. one. more. turn. And I'm there. I've already entered my breakfast and lunch for tomorrow (oats with almond milk, clementine and banana slices, wheat germ, honey, coffee & cream; and hummus, bread, veggies, an apple, extra dark chocolate).
My absence from tracking has been *so* long that I'm just now getting to use the new PointsPlus system. I'm kinda stoked for it ... it's a fresh start! Also, they give you more points (and even though it's because the foods are of higher points value, the mental trick is a treat).
Back to the gym ... and I'm totally looking forward to it. All that stands between me and the gym is some paperwork (employee discount and direct withdrawal from my paycheck so I don't have to think about it!). That should be done by Monday night, so my plan is to head to my first workout a 5 a.m. Tuesday morning. (AM I CRAZY??)
I'll probably keep it simple, just get my bearings. But I know once I make it a new habit, it won't even occur to me to be upset with the early wakeup call.
A new baking project. I'm still figuring out the details, but apparently I am bloody *compelled* to bake for people. And people should not be deprived, right?! So once I get it all straightened out, I'll write more about it ... and this blog might even become central to the project.
My biggest challenge if this gets off the ground will be to keep myself from dipping mindlessly into the cookie/scone/biscotti doughs as I'm putting them together. Maybe they have a machine at the gym to strengthen your will power?
And that's me on a Sunday evening. May the week ahead be as fruitful as I'm daydreaming it to be this very moment ...
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Saturday, January 22, 2011
weekend warriette
We are drinking BEER and eating BARBECUE and buying COFFEE & CHOCOLATE.
Then we are RIDING BIKES & watching WATCHING WILLY WONKA and HAVING MORE CHOCOLATE (thanks to Bike Roanoke and the Shadowbox and chocolatepaper).
I'm excited for the weekend ahead, and intend to be reasonable in my food decisions. I'll be faced with delicious rich foods, so I'll just eat less of them. Grab the veggies and fruit when I can. Drink lots of water. Gravitate to any whole-grain options, and vow to enjoy every bite when I *do* reach for the less healthy treats (because there's nothing more tasteless than a delicious bite of food that immediately trips a guilt complex).
Here's enjoying a full weekend.
Then we are RIDING BIKES & watching WATCHING WILLY WONKA and HAVING MORE CHOCOLATE (thanks to Bike Roanoke and the Shadowbox and chocolatepaper).
I'm excited for the weekend ahead, and intend to be reasonable in my food decisions. I'll be faced with delicious rich foods, so I'll just eat less of them. Grab the veggies and fruit when I can. Drink lots of water. Gravitate to any whole-grain options, and vow to enjoy every bite when I *do* reach for the less healthy treats (because there's nothing more tasteless than a delicious bite of food that immediately trips a guilt complex).
Here's enjoying a full weekend.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
an idea of a schedule.
So here I am striving for increased productivity, making more healthful choices, getting my arse to the gym. And I'm *also* feeling like I don't have the time to commit myself to those lofty goals (they've felt lofty, anyhow).
My bus commute is, no joke, 3 hours every day. By which I mean that from the time I leave my home to the time my butt is in my seat at work, an hour-and-a-half has passed. And then that hour-and-a-half passes again when I head home. Three hours! To be honest, I don't mind the time. If I worked next door to my apartment, I don't suspect that I'd be compelled to make better use of those three hours than I do now. With this commute, I rack up about 2 miles of walking, and almost two hours of reading on the bus. Reading! I've started reading again. On my phone. For free (yay Google eBookstore!).
So that's pretty awesome. But put a three hour commute together with a mentally challenging job, and I have been writing off my free time as me time.
And while I *do* feel repose is healthy and necessary, I'm not sure I need quite so much of it. In fact, I'm pretty sure that if I adjust my schedule ever so slightly to include, say, exercise, the extra energy would get me doing more with those quiet moments.
So here I am wondering how the heck I'm going to fit more into my day, when someone suggests I simply sit down, write out my schedule and make it happen. They even throw out Google Calendar, which they may or may not have known is secret code for "Lindsay is about to make a date with her lover ... her lover named Google."
So here, quite simply rendered, is a sketch of my day, via Google:
It's bare, but I did that on purpose. See, I've finally come to know this thing about myself: The more I get wrapped up in the minutiae of a plan, the less likely I am to follow through. I don't know if it's that I expend all my energy on working out details (for something that would mostly likely be best served with a little trial and error), or if it's that I build up this huge idea that then looms over me like a guilt-cloud ready to burst. Whatever the reason, I need to change my approach.
So here is this simple calendar. The briefest outline.
Not to say I haven't thought how it might play out in fine detail. And not to say I'm not willing to share a theory, or a dream. ...
5am-7am: ymca (go!go!go!)
This'll have me probably waking up around 4:30. Jeezus. Maybe I'll make it 5:30 at the gym, so I can wake up at 5. But you know what? I worked in a bakery. I can do this.
Whichever way it lands, 5 or 5:30, the point is that I want to get my workout early in the day. It's always suited me. If I plan it for the evening, I'll invariably come up with a reason that I can skip it in favor of a walk (which I end up skipping in favor of television).
I want to start out with the basics at the gym: 30-45 minutes doing cardio, 30 minutes on weights, 20 minutes to shower, etc.
7am-8:30am: roanoke/christiansburg (write, notes & lists!)
I've been using both of my commutes to read and generally zone out. While I'm really grateful to be a reader again, in reviewing my day's schedule I realized that my morning commute would be a great time to start working my brain on ideas for my blog (which I want to write more and more), the day's tasks, the week's adventures, the year's big plans. I can go into the office energized by my own steam and hopefully find myself even more focused and ready for the day.
8:30am-6pm: work!
I love my job. It keeps my brain busy. It provides opportunities for me to challenge myself regularly. While I'd love to break this big block of amorphous time into pre- and post-lunch shifts, or to schedule some time to, say, write a blog entry, I know I can't predict my schedule from one day to the next.
Better to acknowledge the truth of it (a truth I like ... I work in news, and sometimes the most exciting thing to hear is "we're gonna have a late-breaking story you have to get in tomorrow's paper!").
What I'll aim to do is keep watch over my workload every day and tuck in personal productivity where it fits.
6pm-7pm: christiansburg/roanoke (read, relax)
I've never doubted the importance of solitude. I've always been comfortable spending time by myself, and in fact I think there's something in it that feeds my very soul. Where other people may find themselves nourished by the company of others, I find myself nourished by reflection.
I've been reading on these bus rides, like I said, and I completely lose track of time. It's one of the few times in the day that I step away from a clock. And without effort! It's something to be grateful for.
7pm-9:30pm (or 10): unassigned
Why unassigned? Because this is when I come home, am greeted by a happy, snarly-faced doggy and a husband who's likely just finished cooking dinner.
What I *will* aim for during this time every day is to stay away from the television as much as possible, to connect with my husband, and to keep feeding my brain and energy with healthful thoughts.
tasks: cook (healthful) dinner; learn something new!; prepare tomorrow's lunch; write blog entry
These things might fit in during the evening, or possibly sometime during my workday. They're things I know I want to get done but that need to be approached with some flexibility. (I think?)
* Cook (healthful) dinner. Why am I doing this if I mentioned earlier that my husband cooks dinner? I realized that the dinners he cooks, while delicious, often are too rich for me. At least for now, while the good-habits part of my brain is still warming back up. Once I get in full swing, I'll probably be more mentally prepared to account for his dishes, and to portion them appropriately.
* Learn something new! I want to keep challenging myself to learn more about healthful eating, baking with whole grains, how to maximize my morning oatmeal, what exercises are best to get me flexible, strong, lean. ... Obviously there's a lot I want to know, and I think committing to at least *seeking* one new piece of information every day is a great start to building my personal encyclopedia.
* Prepare tomorrow's lunch. Because I'm more likely to take a good lunch to work if I don't have to fiddle with it early in the morning. Duh.
*Write blog entry. I'm so glad to be back to this blog. If any of you has kept up with my blogs since I started writing them a long long time ago, you know I have these mood swings. Write write write!! And then nothing for months. Write! Nothing. Write write! Noooooothing. I want to use this platform to record my own thoughts on healthfulness while I'm still trying to hard to attain it. I also want to reach out to other people who might have some smart ideas about how I can continue on this very long path. So it's pretty well settled that I must commit to writing it.
Phew. That was a novel. All to come up with a little thing like a schedule ...
My bus commute is, no joke, 3 hours every day. By which I mean that from the time I leave my home to the time my butt is in my seat at work, an hour-and-a-half has passed. And then that hour-and-a-half passes again when I head home. Three hours! To be honest, I don't mind the time. If I worked next door to my apartment, I don't suspect that I'd be compelled to make better use of those three hours than I do now. With this commute, I rack up about 2 miles of walking, and almost two hours of reading on the bus. Reading! I've started reading again. On my phone. For free (yay Google eBookstore!).
So that's pretty awesome. But put a three hour commute together with a mentally challenging job, and I have been writing off my free time as me time.
And while I *do* feel repose is healthy and necessary, I'm not sure I need quite so much of it. In fact, I'm pretty sure that if I adjust my schedule ever so slightly to include, say, exercise, the extra energy would get me doing more with those quiet moments.
So here I am wondering how the heck I'm going to fit more into my day, when someone suggests I simply sit down, write out my schedule and make it happen. They even throw out Google Calendar, which they may or may not have known is secret code for "Lindsay is about to make a date with her lover ... her lover named Google."
So here, quite simply rendered, is a sketch of my day, via Google:
It's bare, but I did that on purpose. See, I've finally come to know this thing about myself: The more I get wrapped up in the minutiae of a plan, the less likely I am to follow through. I don't know if it's that I expend all my energy on working out details (for something that would mostly likely be best served with a little trial and error), or if it's that I build up this huge idea that then looms over me like a guilt-cloud ready to burst. Whatever the reason, I need to change my approach.
So here is this simple calendar. The briefest outline.
Not to say I haven't thought how it might play out in fine detail. And not to say I'm not willing to share a theory, or a dream. ...
5am-7am: ymca (go!go!go!)
This'll have me probably waking up around 4:30. Jeezus. Maybe I'll make it 5:30 at the gym, so I can wake up at 5. But you know what? I worked in a bakery. I can do this.
Whichever way it lands, 5 or 5:30, the point is that I want to get my workout early in the day. It's always suited me. If I plan it for the evening, I'll invariably come up with a reason that I can skip it in favor of a walk (which I end up skipping in favor of television).
I want to start out with the basics at the gym: 30-45 minutes doing cardio, 30 minutes on weights, 20 minutes to shower, etc.
7am-8:30am: roanoke/christiansburg (write, notes & lists!)
I've been using both of my commutes to read and generally zone out. While I'm really grateful to be a reader again, in reviewing my day's schedule I realized that my morning commute would be a great time to start working my brain on ideas for my blog (which I want to write more and more), the day's tasks, the week's adventures, the year's big plans. I can go into the office energized by my own steam and hopefully find myself even more focused and ready for the day.
8:30am-6pm: work!
I love my job. It keeps my brain busy. It provides opportunities for me to challenge myself regularly. While I'd love to break this big block of amorphous time into pre- and post-lunch shifts, or to schedule some time to, say, write a blog entry, I know I can't predict my schedule from one day to the next.
Better to acknowledge the truth of it (a truth I like ... I work in news, and sometimes the most exciting thing to hear is "we're gonna have a late-breaking story you have to get in tomorrow's paper!").
What I'll aim to do is keep watch over my workload every day and tuck in personal productivity where it fits.
6pm-7pm: christiansburg/roanoke (read, relax)
I've never doubted the importance of solitude. I've always been comfortable spending time by myself, and in fact I think there's something in it that feeds my very soul. Where other people may find themselves nourished by the company of others, I find myself nourished by reflection.
I've been reading on these bus rides, like I said, and I completely lose track of time. It's one of the few times in the day that I step away from a clock. And without effort! It's something to be grateful for.
7pm-9:30pm (or 10): unassigned
Why unassigned? Because this is when I come home, am greeted by a happy, snarly-faced doggy and a husband who's likely just finished cooking dinner.
What I *will* aim for during this time every day is to stay away from the television as much as possible, to connect with my husband, and to keep feeding my brain and energy with healthful thoughts.
tasks: cook (healthful) dinner; learn something new!; prepare tomorrow's lunch; write blog entry
These things might fit in during the evening, or possibly sometime during my workday. They're things I know I want to get done but that need to be approached with some flexibility. (I think?)
* Cook (healthful) dinner. Why am I doing this if I mentioned earlier that my husband cooks dinner? I realized that the dinners he cooks, while delicious, often are too rich for me. At least for now, while the good-habits part of my brain is still warming back up. Once I get in full swing, I'll probably be more mentally prepared to account for his dishes, and to portion them appropriately.
* Learn something new! I want to keep challenging myself to learn more about healthful eating, baking with whole grains, how to maximize my morning oatmeal, what exercises are best to get me flexible, strong, lean. ... Obviously there's a lot I want to know, and I think committing to at least *seeking* one new piece of information every day is a great start to building my personal encyclopedia.
* Prepare tomorrow's lunch. Because I'm more likely to take a good lunch to work if I don't have to fiddle with it early in the morning. Duh.
*Write blog entry. I'm so glad to be back to this blog. If any of you has kept up with my blogs since I started writing them a long long time ago, you know I have these mood swings. Write write write!! And then nothing for months. Write! Nothing. Write write! Noooooothing. I want to use this platform to record my own thoughts on healthfulness while I'm still trying to hard to attain it. I also want to reach out to other people who might have some smart ideas about how I can continue on this very long path. So it's pretty well settled that I must commit to writing it.
Phew. That was a novel. All to come up with a little thing like a schedule ...
things that work for me
a sense of order
Please give me the same breakfast and same lunch every day. Give me the same time to go to bed and the same time to wake up. I like to catch the same bus. Hit the gym at the same time. Do mostly the same gym routine. Same soap and shampoo. Same makeup. If I could wear the exact same outfit everyday (the *cutest* one, of course), I'd do it ... but there are rules.
I'll fill in the spaces between with excitement, big new ideas, daydreamy dreams. But that sense of routine is my *bones* ... it gives me structure, something to build on.
My routine, though, has to be made by me. And I've come off a long stretch (year? more?) of giving in to a series of disconnected moments that mostly consist of sitting (because it's cozy) and eating tasty things (because they're tasty) in the quantity that suited me (because I wanna, that's why).
mission! So a sense of order works for me. Time for me to start working for *it*.
cutting sugar
So simple. And yet ...
When I eat sugar, I want it in this weird, overpowering way. Addiction? Is that too strong a word? But there's definitely a little voice that bubbles up in me. "cookie cookie cookie cookie!" I am not even exaggerating that it's on repeat.
Once I've successfully kept sugar at bay for, say, two or three weeks, I find it pretty easy to turn down in general. But we just came off holidays. And then there's that year or two of me not putting order (and healthfulness) on my list of priorities (what list of priorities? I think I might have also done away with *that*).
So, like, yestreday: big step. I did not *immediately* eat the delicious oatmeal raisin cookie that someone had brought in to work. I didn't even eat it directly after my (healthy!) lunch. I *even* made a deal with myself ... drink two bottles of water, you get the cookie. So I brought that cookie into my office. And it sat there for two hours as I worked away at my two bottles of water. But this is what was going in my brain (along with all my work-related brainstuff): "eat the cookie eat the cookie eat the cookie eat the cookie eat the cookie eat the cookie eatthecookieeatthecookieeatthecookie..." Not kidding. Even as I had these words resonating, I was thinking "people must know this is what's going on in my head when I face food temptations. That I am constantly battling a voice that's telling me to do something I know I would feel better *not* doing."
So there you go.
And that little voice quiets down, even goes away, when I've exchanged my sugary treats for fruity-spicy-whole-grainy treats.
mission! start using simple ingredients to create sweet treats for myself, instead of reaching for the highly-sugared treats that are so (so!) easy to grab.
lists. making lists. reading lists. scratching items off lists.
I have forever been and will always be at heart, a list-maker.
The earliest meaningful lists I remember making involved, at age 15, me looking forward to being an adult: what my apartment would look like, what clothes I would have, what furniture I would buy, what colors I would put on the walls, etc. Lists have covered everything from big daydreams to what I needed to get done in the next three hours.
It's only in my recent adulthood that I actually *did* the things on my list. lists + action = productivity and accomplishment! It's a good feeling.
But in the last year or so (what is it with this last year??), I've stopped taking the time to list-make in the first place. And I've come to understand that even in those earlier list-making years, when I wasn't *doing* the things on the lists, the mere act of compiling the list was productive: it engaged my brain, focused it on a goal, and forced me to be creative in thinking on that goal.
My list-maker brain has atrophied. Horror!
mission! Make lists! This one is fairly simple, because despite having *not* made meaningful lists in the past year or so, I know I still deeply enjoy them. All I need to do is dedicate the smallest corner of my day to it. (I totally count this entire blog entry as my first list, by the way. Totally.)
Bottom line? I'm ready to examine the things in my life that help me stay engaged in a healthful lifestyle, and I'm ready to make those things a priority.
Please give me the same breakfast and same lunch every day. Give me the same time to go to bed and the same time to wake up. I like to catch the same bus. Hit the gym at the same time. Do mostly the same gym routine. Same soap and shampoo. Same makeup. If I could wear the exact same outfit everyday (the *cutest* one, of course), I'd do it ... but there are rules.
I'll fill in the spaces between with excitement, big new ideas, daydreamy dreams. But that sense of routine is my *bones* ... it gives me structure, something to build on.
My routine, though, has to be made by me. And I've come off a long stretch (year? more?) of giving in to a series of disconnected moments that mostly consist of sitting (because it's cozy) and eating tasty things (because they're tasty) in the quantity that suited me (because I wanna, that's why).
mission! So a sense of order works for me. Time for me to start working for *it*.
cutting sugar
So simple. And yet ...
When I eat sugar, I want it in this weird, overpowering way. Addiction? Is that too strong a word? But there's definitely a little voice that bubbles up in me. "cookie cookie cookie cookie!" I am not even exaggerating that it's on repeat.
Once I've successfully kept sugar at bay for, say, two or three weeks, I find it pretty easy to turn down in general. But we just came off holidays. And then there's that year or two of me not putting order (and healthfulness) on my list of priorities (what list of priorities? I think I might have also done away with *that*).
So, like, yestreday: big step. I did not *immediately* eat the delicious oatmeal raisin cookie that someone had brought in to work. I didn't even eat it directly after my (healthy!) lunch. I *even* made a deal with myself ... drink two bottles of water, you get the cookie. So I brought that cookie into my office. And it sat there for two hours as I worked away at my two bottles of water. But this is what was going in my brain (along with all my work-related brainstuff): "eat the cookie eat the cookie eat the cookie eat the cookie eat the cookie eat the cookie eatthecookieeatthecookieeatthecookie..." Not kidding. Even as I had these words resonating, I was thinking "people must know this is what's going on in my head when I face food temptations. That I am constantly battling a voice that's telling me to do something I know I would feel better *not* doing."
So there you go.
And that little voice quiets down, even goes away, when I've exchanged my sugary treats for fruity-spicy-whole-grainy treats.
mission! start using simple ingredients to create sweet treats for myself, instead of reaching for the highly-sugared treats that are so (so!) easy to grab.
lists. making lists. reading lists. scratching items off lists.
I have forever been and will always be at heart, a list-maker.
The earliest meaningful lists I remember making involved, at age 15, me looking forward to being an adult: what my apartment would look like, what clothes I would have, what furniture I would buy, what colors I would put on the walls, etc. Lists have covered everything from big daydreams to what I needed to get done in the next three hours.
It's only in my recent adulthood that I actually *did* the things on my list. lists + action = productivity and accomplishment! It's a good feeling.
But in the last year or so (what is it with this last year??), I've stopped taking the time to list-make in the first place. And I've come to understand that even in those earlier list-making years, when I wasn't *doing* the things on the lists, the mere act of compiling the list was productive: it engaged my brain, focused it on a goal, and forced me to be creative in thinking on that goal.
My list-maker brain has atrophied. Horror!
mission! Make lists! This one is fairly simple, because despite having *not* made meaningful lists in the past year or so, I know I still deeply enjoy them. All I need to do is dedicate the smallest corner of my day to it. (I totally count this entire blog entry as my first list, by the way. Totally.)
Bottom line? I'm ready to examine the things in my life that help me stay engaged in a healthful lifestyle, and I'm ready to make those things a priority.
Monday, January 10, 2011
hi.
How are you? It's been a while. Let's talk about that.
I got a new job. In a new town (an old town for us: Roanoke, Va.). My husband and I left a house behind in Knoxville, Tenn. We're renting that out. We're also living in a tiny apartment. I don't bake no more. Professionally. I design news pages. I used to do that. I'm doing it again (at the same newspaper as before). I'm happy.
What I'm *not* is regimented. But I'm getting there. Like with this here potato:
It's my lunch. But it's only a step in the right direction. Because I have no idea how much it weighs. Which means I don't know how many Weight Watchers points it is. I also put butter on it. How much? I'm not quite sure. Enough to make it tasty.
What this potato succeeds at is being a potato. And not a last-minute pizza. Or even leftover (tasty! low-fat!) lasagna that would be delicious, but that would also be full of the cheese that happens to be one of *my* no-no foods. (I'm vowing to myself to enjoy cheese in moderation. I can't cut it out, it's too delicious. But I can be sensible.)
I had to start somewhere
There is *so* much to talk about! I couldn't decide where. This potato seemed like a great place. Potatoes are simple. "Keep it simple, stupid!" Also, I wrote this little blog entry while my potato cooked up in the work microwave. Maybe this'll be a new thing. Lunchtime posts. Quick. Off the top of my head. Maybe this new thing will be how I tackle the long list of food/exercise related thoughts I'm eager to share.
Bonus thought
I'm seriously looking forward to a gym membership. I think I'll get one to the Y near our apartment. And that I'll go to it at 5 in the morning so I can catch my 7:20 bus to work. (Oh yeah. I take a bus to work, now. Something for a future luchtime post ...)
I got a new job. In a new town (an old town for us: Roanoke, Va.). My husband and I left a house behind in Knoxville, Tenn. We're renting that out. We're also living in a tiny apartment. I don't bake no more. Professionally. I design news pages. I used to do that. I'm doing it again (at the same newspaper as before). I'm happy.
What I'm *not* is regimented. But I'm getting there. Like with this here potato:
It's my lunch. But it's only a step in the right direction. Because I have no idea how much it weighs. Which means I don't know how many Weight Watchers points it is. I also put butter on it. How much? I'm not quite sure. Enough to make it tasty.
What this potato succeeds at is being a potato. And not a last-minute pizza. Or even leftover (tasty! low-fat!) lasagna that would be delicious, but that would also be full of the cheese that happens to be one of *my* no-no foods. (I'm vowing to myself to enjoy cheese in moderation. I can't cut it out, it's too delicious. But I can be sensible.)
I had to start somewhere
There is *so* much to talk about! I couldn't decide where. This potato seemed like a great place. Potatoes are simple. "Keep it simple, stupid!" Also, I wrote this little blog entry while my potato cooked up in the work microwave. Maybe this'll be a new thing. Lunchtime posts. Quick. Off the top of my head. Maybe this new thing will be how I tackle the long list of food/exercise related thoughts I'm eager to share.
Bonus thought
I'm seriously looking forward to a gym membership. I think I'll get one to the Y near our apartment. And that I'll go to it at 5 in the morning so I can catch my 7:20 bus to work. (Oh yeah. I take a bus to work, now. Something for a future luchtime post ...)
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
scratchmade bread: a mission
So among my goals is a Patrick/Lindsay goal to ultimately scratchmake all our food.
Well, a couple of months ago I bought a ton of bread from the grocery store, popped it in the freezer, and made a deal with myself: by the time those loaves ran out, I'll need to have started making our bread from scratch.
And guess what? I did it.
I have this picture in my head of hand-kneaded, whole grain loaves or crackly french baguettes. But for the purposes of actually get myself into gear, I decided to start simple and work my way up as I learn more about bread-making, more about our kitchen and oven, and more about patience with dough.
Lucky I have a friend who's already more fearless with breadmaking than I am, right? She suggested the very first recipe she ever used, Emeril Lagasse's basic Italian bread. It includes sugar and oil right in the dough, which I have a feeling makes it an easier dough to work with.
I'm looking forward to the day I know how to extract all the flavor and texture I'm looking for from those four basic ingredients: yeast, flour, water, salt.
In the meantime, this was recipe was very good to me, even when I messed up just a bit (lucky for you, I have pictures of the batch I muddled ... learning experience!).
Basic Italian Bread
Emeril Lagasse, foodnetwork.com
The only note I have to add to the original: I used 5/8 oz active dry yeast (the recipe calls for cake yeast). Thank you, Melizza, for directing me to this yeast conversion table!
That's a lot of yeast! It seemed like a lot to me, anyway. I'll be curious as I get further into my life with bread if I look back at this recipe with a bit of wonder.
At left is the dough just a minute or so into kneading; on the right, just before I pulled the bowl off the mixer (after about eight minutes of kneading at medium speed, around 4 if you have a KitchenAid).
Some notes: Windowpane test! (Read a nice description of the windowpane test and its relationship to gluten development.) I'm kinda proud. I mean the machine did all the work, but I made that dough!
Another note: that dough rose way too much. It should have merely doubled. Clearly it exploded during its first rise. Can't wait to find out what happens to bread when I get it just right.
And yet another note: See those scores on the finished loaf? Yeah, they should be more like cuts. I didn't provide the dough/steam/gas enough of an escape route when I made these psuedo cuts, and you can see what happened below.
And what happened? The little dimples you see pale to what they should be (the photo at the top of this entry is actually a great example of what should have happened: big craggy cracks). And to the right ... those cracks along the bottom of the loaf are, I think, what happens to the loaf when it doesn't have its exits properly marked ...
In any case, the bread was tasty, perfectly serviceable as bread. I made a sandwich within twenty minutes of it coming out of the oven. Nothing could have made me prouder that day.
Well, a couple of months ago I bought a ton of bread from the grocery store, popped it in the freezer, and made a deal with myself: by the time those loaves ran out, I'll need to have started making our bread from scratch.
And guess what? I did it.
 |
| My very first attempt ... success! |
I have this picture in my head of hand-kneaded, whole grain loaves or crackly french baguettes. But for the purposes of actually get myself into gear, I decided to start simple and work my way up as I learn more about bread-making, more about our kitchen and oven, and more about patience with dough.
Lucky I have a friend who's already more fearless with breadmaking than I am, right? She suggested the very first recipe she ever used, Emeril Lagasse's basic Italian bread. It includes sugar and oil right in the dough, which I have a feeling makes it an easier dough to work with.
I'm looking forward to the day I know how to extract all the flavor and texture I'm looking for from those four basic ingredients: yeast, flour, water, salt.
In the meantime, this was recipe was very good to me, even when I messed up just a bit (lucky for you, I have pictures of the batch I muddled ... learning experience!).
Basic Italian Bread
Emeril Lagasse, foodnetwork.com
The only note I have to add to the original: I used 5/8 oz active dry yeast (the recipe calls for cake yeast). Thank you, Melizza, for directing me to this yeast conversion table!
That's a lot of yeast! It seemed like a lot to me, anyway. I'll be curious as I get further into my life with bread if I look back at this recipe with a bit of wonder.
At left is the dough just a minute or so into kneading; on the right, just before I pulled the bowl off the mixer (after about eight minutes of kneading at medium speed, around 4 if you have a KitchenAid).
Some notes: Windowpane test! (Read a nice description of the windowpane test and its relationship to gluten development.) I'm kinda proud. I mean the machine did all the work, but I made that dough!
Another note: that dough rose way too much. It should have merely doubled. Clearly it exploded during its first rise. Can't wait to find out what happens to bread when I get it just right.
And yet another note: See those scores on the finished loaf? Yeah, they should be more like cuts. I didn't provide the dough/steam/gas enough of an escape route when I made these psuedo cuts, and you can see what happened below.
And what happened? The little dimples you see pale to what they should be (the photo at the top of this entry is actually a great example of what should have happened: big craggy cracks). And to the right ... those cracks along the bottom of the loaf are, I think, what happens to the loaf when it doesn't have its exits properly marked ...
In any case, the bread was tasty, perfectly serviceable as bread. I made a sandwich within twenty minutes of it coming out of the oven. Nothing could have made me prouder that day.
Out, living
I took a little break from this blog, but I wasn't taking a break from life. Some things I've done in the past two weeks:
Rode 33 miles on Stinger, all by myself and exuberantly. I celebrated by getting myself some Chinese food for dinner that night ... vegetables, steamed rice, spring roll, wonton soup. And I usually go for duck sauce but opted instead for the mustard. It was delicious, and didn't add unnecessary sugar to my meal.
Cleaned our house, tip to toe, and kept it all pretty while Patrick was on vacation for a week (so he could come home to a nice, cozy home ... I bought flowers, too!)
Made Italian bread, twice
Make strawberry quick jam, from scratch!
Made peanut butter (it's just salted peanuts, in the food processor ... easiest from-scratch thing ever)
Raked the leaves in our front yard ... two and a half hours of exercise on a beautiful day, with a dog who went absolutely crazy over piles of dry leaves.
Rode 15 miles on my bike just because, including on a new backroad that was nearly all uphill.
So, some things I realized about me and my bike: it keeps me in the moment; I don't think about how many miles are ahead of me or how much work I've done to get where I am. I just climb hills and speed along straight-aways. Also, I like cycling. It's the first exercise I've ever looked forward to. I'm so glad I found it.
Rode 33 miles on Stinger, all by myself and exuberantly. I celebrated by getting myself some Chinese food for dinner that night ... vegetables, steamed rice, spring roll, wonton soup. And I usually go for duck sauce but opted instead for the mustard. It was delicious, and didn't add unnecessary sugar to my meal.
Cleaned our house, tip to toe, and kept it all pretty while Patrick was on vacation for a week (so he could come home to a nice, cozy home ... I bought flowers, too!)
Made Italian bread, twice
Make strawberry quick jam, from scratch!
Made peanut butter (it's just salted peanuts, in the food processor ... easiest from-scratch thing ever)
Raked the leaves in our front yard ... two and a half hours of exercise on a beautiful day, with a dog who went absolutely crazy over piles of dry leaves.
Rode 15 miles on my bike just because, including on a new backroad that was nearly all uphill.
So, some things I realized about me and my bike: it keeps me in the moment; I don't think about how many miles are ahead of me or how much work I've done to get where I am. I just climb hills and speed along straight-aways. Also, I like cycling. It's the first exercise I've ever looked forward to. I'm so glad I found it.
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