A real bread-making beauty

The smell of fresh, homemade bread will always remind me of our farmhouse kitchen, with Mom pulling loaves or rolls out of the oven, spilling them out on cooling racks, and then rubbing copious amounts of butter on them. It wasn't an everyday occurrence, but it was often enough for me to expect other mothers to have such culinary inclinations. My full appreciation of Mom's bread didn't happen until I was in college, and heard more and more praise for it, not to mention the fact that I didn't get to enjoy it as much.

A few years ago, after my grandmother passed away, my mother acquired her electric bread maker. These machines are about twice the size of toaster ovens, and have a loaf pan into which you pour ingredients, press a few buttons, and - voila! - three and a half hours later - fresh, piping hot, "homemade" bread. Ancient Egyptians would be stunned.

Now, the process sounds easy and hard to mess up. But I can tell you, it's not. My first attempt with it involved my mother telling me to "follow the directions" and "you'll find that ingredient here" or "that's on this shelf" until I had the ingredients in the pan, pan in the machine, and the programming completed. Then Dad comes along and says "that's kneading rough, you need to add some water" which he proceeded to do. Apparently, the bread maker is not suppose to jump and thump around the counter. Oh, and the dough should less of a brick and more of a soft lump.

Dad added his pitcher of water to the mix, and the machine completed its cycle. We pulled out the loaf, cut off some chunks, and ate them as all fresh bread should be consumed - slathered up with butter. Not bad, not bad at all. The outside seems a little chewy, but the middle resembles homemade, and is better than store-bought sliced breads. Mom encouraged me to make some more bread, since my first loaf was edible, and I now knew where all the ingredients were located.

So, I embarked on another loaf a couple days later. I pulled the clean loaf pan out of the dish drainer, added extra water to the recipe, added dry ingredients according to the recipe, and placed it into the machine. I set the program and started it up. Ten minutes later, I checked it through its peephole on the top to make sure it was kneading well. No mixing had occurred. Hm. I stopped the machine, saw that it had been locked in, and consulted the "troubleshooting" section of the recipe and guidebook for other possible causes. When I found "ingredients do not mix" the possible cause was "kneading paddles are not in pan." I looked over at the dish drainer and there were the two kneading paddles. Okay, that was definitely the problem. Solution? Well, according to the book "Always make sure kneading paddles are in pan before adding ingredients." Um, okay, great advice for the NEXT loaf. What do I do to remedy the CURRENT situation??

I poured the ingredients into a bowl, put in the kneading paddles, and returned the mix back to the bowl. I began to wonder if I even needed the machine at this point, considering how much of the mixing and kneading process had already happened. But I put the loaf pan back in, pressed start, and began to watch it like a hawk. It still was not moving very much so I opened the door again. I hadn't locked the pan into place. So many details! After closing the door for the third time, I started the machine and hoped it would create a loaf. At least a loaf that would meet my increasingly lowering expectations.

When it finished, I pulled the loaf out and set it on the cooling rack. As I did, I noticed something was amiss in the loaf pan. Actually, something was missing: one of the kneading paddles had become dislodged from the pan and cooked into the loaf. Well, there was only one way to find it. Luckily, after two slices I found the paddle very close to the bottom of the loaf.

Overall, the bread making apprenticeship continues with the machine. I've learned more appreciation for Mom's preferred method of making goodies. I've learned that bread-making is a long, intricate process. I've learned that patience is indeed a virtue in baking, especially when you are trying to get honey out of a bottle. Sweet fancy Moses, that stuff is slow.

Right time for write time

As the Unemployment has progressed, I've become more and more convinced how important it is for me to write. So in order to improve my writing in an attempt to make a living from it, I am doing more of it. That makes sense, right? So far, I've noticed that writing in the late afternoon seems to work quite well for sticking to my schedule of at least one hour a day (yet the time commitment is growing). I suspect this is because I try to work out in the morning, there are generally fewer interruptions, and television is least appealing at this time.

Now the risk of me writing more is a greater amount of crap coming forth through the keyboard. Hopefully the ratio of crap to gold in this blog is not high. If it is, may my readers - should I have any - have the decency to steer me away from the internet.

By the way, in case anyone is keeping track, I have not done workouts for a few days now. Okay, fine. It's been almost a week. But I will get back into my routine, and probably go off-road to give my joints a bit of a reprieve from the Paved Punisher, also known as the West Ridge Road.

Taking the Tortoise Approach to Running

Yep, slow and steady will win the race to be able to run the race, right? Today, I managed to do THREE cycles of jog 60 sec, run 90 seconds (and I walked for roughly 20 minutes). My goal is to be able to run FOUR cycles on Friday, and ultimately be able to do a complete Week 1 Workout by the end of next week.

So I am behind a bit BUT the best thing is that I did not gain back any of the weight I have lost (and, in fact, have lost a little bit more - yay!).

While I am waiting to be back in full "running" routine, I have the pleasure of assisting as a goat midwife which means I don't really do anything. Goats either kid out on their own, or surgical assistances is needed.

Back on Track?

The weather has been quite mild for spring this year, so I have finally taken advantage of it, and decided to attempt Workout #1 again. What I experienced was much closer to what I had expected the first time I did it - lungs on fire, barely able to jog a complete minute ONCE, etc. But this time, my legs did not ache. Well, at least not at first. My body seems to be stiffening up. I could have an interesting morning.

I am proud of myself for getting out and walking at least a half hour (and jogging two minutes), so I hope to make it a part of my regular routine. Speaking of regular routine, I am currently trying to figure mine out. After another epic generalized seizure that resulted in my first ambulance ride - woo hoo - I have been trying to decide what the next few months will entail. Do I get involved with assisting the JV softball team? Do I focus on helping my great-aunt with her library work at an elementary school? Should I do both? And of course, it will be interesting to see how much of an effect my lack of driving privileges will have on the ongoing job search.

At least one good thing about the training program for the 5K: it gives me an alternative means of transportation during my motor vehicle embargo.

Out of Work and Working Out

It's amazing how quickly life changes. Less than three weeks ago, I was stressing about regional meetings and nominating committees, and delegate communications. Then Wednesday, February 10, 2010 happened. At 11:00 a.m., I was called into a meeting room by my supervisor. At 11:30 a.m., I was being escorted to my car by my supervisor. Then events began to unfold rapidly. And now, I find myself living with my parents back in Cornville. The Great Brattleboro Experiment has ended. Now I worry about following around my brother's hired hand to keep him from killing himself or the cows. Frankly, I am more concerned with the cows.

Interestingly enough, as I gathered my things to leave the office, I thought "How am I going to work out?" Thankfully, my parents do have a treadmill. However, I have apparently forgotten how to run or something because when I use it, my feet tend to slip. I would not be surprised if I get a major case of rubber road rash before the weather improves so I can run on asphalt. Yes, there are tarred roads in Cornville. Until then, I will be maintaining a walking workout of 3.0 mph for a half hour or so, so that my legs stay in shape. I hope to be back up to running at least a little bit, but we'll see.

Workout #6: One is done

So I have decided that my Weird Wild Wednesday Workout will probably be a transition between Workout #6 and #7 of the Couch to 5K program. I will attempt to do at least one 3 minute jog. Tonight was not a great workout. I clearly didn't stretch out all of my muscles thoroughly since I experienced a little bit of discomfort in my lower left leg. And I know I've posted this elsewhere but I think it bears repeating. It amazes me how much I look forward to working out, even though I think the entire workout is utter agony.

This coming week will be a small test for me as I head home for an extended weekend. Watching my food intake should not be much of a problem, and as long as the parents' treadmill is in working order, I'll complete the workouts with no trouble either. It's just the concern that I may get off routine. It doesn't sound like much - arguably, missing one workout shouldn't break the bank, should it? But I know me, and I need to adhere to routines strictly in order to maintain them. Besides, the longer and more consistent I am now, the greater the chances of my success down the road.

I've enjoyed being in the "honeymoon phase" of the Gut-B-Gone regimen...the loss of pounds, some clothes being a tad looser, having more energy and just feeling healthier all around. Yet, I'm beginning to see the first little bump in the road. Tonight I thought, am I really going to exercise like this on a regular basis for the rest of my life? Do I really want to do that? There is a part of me that has no interest in working to maintain my health. None whatsoever. That part of me, usually the one that says "GIVE ME THE LITTLE DEBBIE ZEBRA CAKES NOW, BITCH!!" has been spoiled rotten for the last 15 years or so. But I still believe that there is a part of me that is evolving to become assertive enough to say "Look beyond the plate to life you have ignored for far too long." That part of me is going to get through the rough patches. As I think about the battle of MY bulge (a war that's been going on since I was ten years old), I keep implementing the lessons learned from past failures, and I feel wiser and more grounded than I have before.

Okay, the random ramblings are done for tonight. I am tired and relaxing with one of my favorite movies, The Mummy.

C25K Workout #5/ SSW #11

Hm, the subject line looks like some sort of engineering code.

It happened again. I get the speed up on the treadmill to blazing 2.7 mph to do my "brisk walk" to warm up. I start feeling a little more tired than usual, but didn't think much of it. I'm rocking out to "Impression That I Get," and start my first jog session, when I look down and see on the monitor....there is a 3% incline. Son of a bitch! I don't run on an incline, thankyouverymuch. Well, not yet. But after I decided to decrease the incline, I felt like I was running downhill.

The rest of the workout was fairly uneventful, although for this evening I was accompanied by one of my coworkers for my entire workout. She opted for the television while she was on another piece of equipment behind me. I enjoyed my tunes. The Dropkick Murphys have definitely helped me push through some tough areas of the routine.

Overall, my greatest success has been on the scale. With the help of old Weight Watchers materials and the workout, I have managed to lose 13 pounds. Yay!