A Grey Saturday in March
I met an old friend for alate breakfast yesterday. I've known Renee since I was mmmmm...maybe 19 yearsold. She is married to one of the men who owned Record Service. Back in the90's when I worked in the office at Record Service I answered the office line.Renee would call for her husband but I would answer and sometimes we'd chat,chat, chat until she had to go. Michael's voice would drift wearily into myoffice...."uhhh....was that for me?" "Oh, she had to go, she'llcall back" I would tell him cheerily.
That was a long time agoand we don't see each other as often as we'd like but it's a friendship whichisn't affected by that whatsoever. We sat across the table yesterday and Iadmired her beautiful eyes as I ate my standard two eggs over easy, hashbrowns, sausage and rye toast. In some ways we're very different but in otherswe are alike and we have enough experiences, both good and bad, that bring useven closer. We talked about our husbands and our kids. We talked about loveand big love. We talked about how fortunate we are. God I love her.
It was drizzling when Idrove home and when I got here I saw that the boys had helped pick up thedining room and living room. It felt so good to come home. We'd tossed aroundthe idea of going to the Engineering Open House but between the gray skies, theclean living room and the fact that my big headed sweet pea hates crowds....wedecided to stay home. Owen hung out with a friend, Leo happily skyped andminecrafted away with friends and Ernie and I curled up....he with hiscrossword puzzle, me with my ipad and we listened to some old Thin White Rope.
We, or shall I say Ernie...o.k. Ernie has been baking bread lately. He's using the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day recipe and it has been pretty amazing. You mix up the dough, it's quite wet and doesn't require kneading, and put in in the refrigerator. Then you just pull out what you need and bake it. It can be in the refrigerator for I forget how long....but over a week if it lasts that long. Ernie has made some AMAZING bread with this....so that's what we used for the slices of bread under the chicken last night. We had leftover bread because on Friday night when we got home after meeting our friend Teri for some Friday evening drinks at Fries and Peanuts we didn't feel like cooking. So we pulled some of the dough out of the refrigerator and baked it. We sliced it up while warm and just ate it with slices of cheddar cheese and leftover asparagus. Heavenly.
Simple Crusty Bread
New York Times, November 21, 2007
Adapted from “Artisan Breadin Five Minutes a Day,” by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François (Thomas Dunne Books,2007) N
Time: About 45 minutes plusabout 3 hours’ resting and rising
1 1/2 tablespoons yeast
1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt
6 1/2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour, more for dusting dough
Cornmeal
1. In a large bowl orplastic container, mix yeast and salt into 3 cups lukewarm water (about 100degrees). Stir in flour, mixing until there are no dry patches. Dough will bequite loose. Cover, but not with an airtight lid. Let dough rise at roomtemperature 2 hours (or up to 5 hours).
2. Bake at this point or refrigerate, covered, for as long as two weeks. Whenready to bake, sprinkle a little flour on dough and cut off a grapefruit-sizepiece with serrated knife. Turn dough in hands to lightly stretch surface,creating a rounded top and a lumpy bottom. Put dough on pizza peel sprinkledwith cornmeal; let rest 40 minutes. Repeat with remaining dough or refrigerateit.
3. Place broiler pan on bottom of oven. Place baking stone on middle rack andturn oven to 450 degrees; heat stone at that temperature for 20 minutes.
4. Dust dough with flour, slash top with serrated or very sharp knife threetimes. Slide onto stone. Pour one cup hot water into broiler pan and shut ovenquickly to trap steam. Bake until well browned, about 30 minutes. Coolcompletely.
Yield: Four loaves