Wednesday, August 06, 2008

A day off

I do not really like vacations. I much prefer an occasional day off when I do not feel like working. When I am confronted with a whole week in which I have nothing to do but enjoy myself I do not know where to begin. To me, enjoyment comes fleetingly and unheralded; I cannot determinedly enjoy myself for a whole week at a time. ~Robertson Davies
I have to agree with that. If I go away on vacation, I am always thinking I should have stayed home to do this or that, how are the animals etc etc. However a random day away is so refreshing.

Today my mom, sister, elder brother, #2 daughter and I took some time and went to Borders. As I had recently celebrated another year on the face of the earth this was my treat. We all went our seperate ways and then caught up and examined everyone else's interests. I bought myself a Hobby Farms mag because it had a dye article, ice cream and homemade soda recipes, and mosaic (I just got a lot of broken tiles to play with).

My sister bought me Things I Learned from Knitting and Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. My mom had given my sister her bread machine to take home with her. My sister went down the slippery slope, trying every recipe and bringing them to work. Her boss bought her the Artisan Bread book and some pans and a stone and she was a busy girl. I have long wanted to learn how to bake bread but 1. mom is still making me bread and 2. I have a fear of yeast and kneading. I would probably go thru the whole routine and end up with bricks. My sister informed me the Artisan breads are fool proof. We made a batch and I realized this was not so bad and the man loved it. I had copied the recipe but then realized if I could master that one why not others so now I too will be a bread baking fool.

And my mom indulged my fondness for knitting books with stories behind the projects by buying me Artic Lace. I may not be able to afford qiviut anytime soon but I can read about it and practice the projects.
Next was a trip to the Co-operative Farmer's Market where I bought 50 pounds of tomatoes to make up for the garden's poor performance in that department. My sister left with my brother to go to his house in MD and we went to check on #1 daughter's cats.

We came home to a refridgerator cleanout dinner and a boyscout meeting. Tomorrow we will be making salsa. I am also thinking we could use some of the tomatoes for tomato soup or chili sauce. Next Monday I will be out that way and hopefully I can get more to make spaghetti sauce.

Now I am going to grab some quality time with a book.

2 comments:

Jeff Hertzberg said...

Judy: Thanks for trying our book (I’m one of the co-authors)! If you have questions, come visit at our website, at http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com. We answer pretty quickly.

Jeff Hertzberg
http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com

Anonymous said...

Did I tell you they were good or what? Doesn't your big sister know her stuff? I want to see photos of your first bread made using this book. YOu are going to LOVE it as much as I do. Try the brioche or challah when you have a surplus of those wonderful fresh eggs from your piped piper group. You will love the flavor of both and can do many, many things with these doughs.