Got up feeling all domestic and homey today, maybe because for the past couple of days the temperature hasn’t soared into the mid-90s or above. After the usual tidying up I decided to make bread.
I love homemade bread, and make all different kinds. (How many people do you know who keep millet and rye flour and two kinds of flaxseed in the freezer?) This particular bread, Four-Seed Bread, is mixed in the bread maker, then shaped into a ring, left to rise, and then baked in the oven. As long as I was making bread, I decided I should make chicken noodle soup, too. I took out my Cook’s Illustrated The Quick Recipe book and started chopping vegetables and skinning chicken thighs. (To the dedicated folks at Cook’s Illustrated, anything under an hour is a quick recipe..)
So now the house smells like somebody’s grandma lives here. And I don’t mean the litter box/BenGay/need a shower kind of old person smell. The good grandma smell, like someone just spent awhile chopping, sautéing, and simmering, just for you.
I know, a lot of you are crying, “I don’t have time to be all homey and domestic!” Maybe you do, maybe you don’t. I’ve always been this way. When I worked 40+ hours a week, with three teenagers and all their activities directing the other hours of my life, I still made suppers (often started the night before) and bread.
Why did I bother, when there were restaurants and frozen foods all over the place? Well, I’ll tell you, I spent a lot of years being a square peg in a round hole, so to keep my sanity I did the things that made me, me.
What do you do?
I love homemade bread, and make all different kinds. (How many people do you know who keep millet and rye flour and two kinds of flaxseed in the freezer?) This particular bread, Four-Seed Bread, is mixed in the bread maker, then shaped into a ring, left to rise, and then baked in the oven. As long as I was making bread, I decided I should make chicken noodle soup, too. I took out my Cook’s Illustrated The Quick Recipe book and started chopping vegetables and skinning chicken thighs. (To the dedicated folks at Cook’s Illustrated, anything under an hour is a quick recipe..)
So now the house smells like somebody’s grandma lives here. And I don’t mean the litter box/BenGay/need a shower kind of old person smell. The good grandma smell, like someone just spent awhile chopping, sautéing, and simmering, just for you.
I know, a lot of you are crying, “I don’t have time to be all homey and domestic!” Maybe you do, maybe you don’t. I’ve always been this way. When I worked 40+ hours a week, with three teenagers and all their activities directing the other hours of my life, I still made suppers (often started the night before) and bread.
Why did I bother, when there were restaurants and frozen foods all over the place? Well, I’ll tell you, I spent a lot of years being a square peg in a round hole, so to keep my sanity I did the things that made me, me.
What do you do?
Yum! I'm coming to your house for dinner!
ReplyDeleteBecause of my job, I spent years masquerading as an upstanding conservative. Since retirement, I just let my liberal side shine.
ReplyDeleteValerie, Of course your house smells like someone's grandma lives there ... your grandchildren's grandma does!
ReplyDeleteAs for what makes me, me? Wow. I had to think about it for a minute because my first reaction seemed so obvious. Turns out it's obvious for a reason. What makes me, me is writing and reading books! Every chance I get, I'm reading or looking for something new to read ...or I'm writing. As much as I read, and that's a lot, I write all the time--in my head if not always on paper.
because of food allergies, I have always made my own bread, made all my dinners from scratch, worked 40+ hours a week, and took care of the farm. This is normal to me, not to most people now a days, but to me it is. I still make quilts by hand, no machines at all, still knit my own sweaters, and socks. Too many things are quick and automated, so it is nice to see that others are doing the 'back to nature' stuff that I have done all my life.
ReplyDeleteYum. Thanks for having me over for lunch :)
ReplyDeleteHey, Anonymous, we should meet! We'd have a lot in common!
ReplyDeleteI read. I write. I spend too much time on the Internet. I bike. Sometimes I Jazzercise, but not nearly often enough. I hang out with friends and family and eat the marvelous things they've cooked--and I usually pick something up to go along. Rarely, I cook. It's not that I can't cook. It's more that I've spent up all my cooking hours allotted for this lifetime. Oh, and occasionally, I sing Karaoke. :)
ReplyDelete