stretching boundaries

I don't know if it comes across here or not; but I'm a bit of a homebody.

Sure, I like to get out, have a little excitement , see people, do things, but overall I also like to hunker down and stay close to home. Of course this can lead to a severe case of being a Hermit and that's really no way to raise a child.

The Peanut has been showing some signs that she's got good rhythm and some other very clear signs that she loves music. She danced almost all night when we went to watch the Husband and his band practice one night. So the only thing to do was to get her into a dance class. This of course meant that I had to venture out from our little neighborhood and into other parts of town.

So we get ready for her first dance class today and we're waiting for the bus to come and it's there at the top of the hill just sitting there and it sitting there and it's the only bus that can get us there and it's still sitting there and ten minutes after the scheduled departure time at our stop it pulls away from the stop at the top of the hill and I am officially starting to panic because the community center is a few block away from our stop and even though I told myself that we'd do a dry run trip there before the class started; one thing and another happened, and we just didn't get around to it, and I have only a vague idea of where I'm headed and the 20 minutes I thought I'd have to get there from our stop turned into a lot less and we walked into the class a few moments late.

And on the way to the class there are a bunch of little shops here and there that I'd like to poke into and a specialty shop across the street that carries different types of flour that I'd like to go to; what with my quest to bake the perfect loaf of bread this year. So the point I was trying to make? Getting out of my neighborhood to get the Peanut dancing is looking like a good thing...

A thousand Words

A baker

bread

I may have mentioned that I've decided to make my own bread this year. Last week I made my starter and watched and waited and stirred and sniffed and watched and waited some more and all the while worried that it wasn't working. The recipe I'm working from says that the starter should double in size (mine didn't which I attributed to the low temperature in our place due to our plan to conserve heat by lowering the thermostat) but I did get foam and a pleasant sour but still fresh scent and it didn't turn pink, orange or another strange colour so I decided to give it a try and make my first batch of bread today (and by today I mean Saturday)

It's been years since I last baked bread and I'd forgotten a few things. My first attempt at activating the yeast failed, my water wasn't warm enough. The second was warmer and I breathed a huge sigh of relief as the mix started to foam up nicely. We went for groceries yesterday which meant that I was able to stock up on whole grain whole wheat flour so not only did I make my first batch of bread in about ten years but I made my first ever batch of whole grain wheat bread. It took most of the day to make what with the mixing, kneading rising, punching down and shaping and rising and baking and cooling down. We started at 8 and the scent was making mouths water in a completely unflattering drool down the chin kind of way at 1:30.

I made a few sandwiches for my lunch with my bread and I have to say that I'm considering a mid evening sandwich even though I'm still full from dinner. I'm already looking forward to next week when I get to do it all over again.

IIIIIIIIIIII Love you I Looooovvvvve you

I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you

It fills my heart near to bursting when the Peanut Butter goes into "I love you mode". She'll go on for as long as possible at bedtime, when Daddy is leaving for work or I'm headed off somewhere without her. Well actually I rarely get I love you's on repeat, I get the guilt trip sweet enough to break your heart: "Why are you going? Because I love you" delivered with her biggest eyes and a small pout.

I'm concocting a sourdough starter today, we'll be having fresh bread by the weekend fingers crossed. I've also managed to get our beds made on a daily bases, crawling into a made bed at night has been a nice experience. The trick will be to keep it up on days when we are headed off on play dates and other expiditions and of course on the weekends when one or the other of us is sleeping in, napping or taking some time off to read a little...

I'll be

It happens every year around this time and I've made mention of it before, the whole making plans for a new year and starting something new. I have a short list of about five things I want to do this year and while I plan on writing about these things I just want to spread them out a bit.
One thing that I'm really looking forward to is doing some more baking this year. We visited the downtown library on Sunday and I took some time in the cookbook aisles, grabbing a few books on breads. I'll be making my first loafs this weekend if not sooner. I can taste the fresh from the oven smothered in melting butter now...

Anyone out there make bread themselves? Do you have any useful tips? Want to share a recipe for a nice crusty loaf? I'm open to suggestions especially tried and true tasty ones.