Archive 3/2020-6/2020

6/30/20  I hope you have enjoyed our summery week.  My husband and I had a rare dinner alone

last night.   We have two kids at home right now, one in highschool and one who came home

from college when the quarantine started.  There have been many difficult events in the last few

months but I will be forever grateful for the bonus family time we have been able to share.

6/23/20 This week has been full for me.  We had my mother-in-law and her boyfriend

(do you still call him that when he's 80?) for a distance dinner, supported my hairdresser

and got my hair cut while masked, continued to volunteer at the Mercy Magnuson Food

Pantry, tried indigo dying for the first time with mixed results and took part in a

Junteenth march.

In thinking about the ways I can support black lives locally I’ve decided to donate

proceeds from bread and crackers sales for the next month to King County Equity Now.

6/16/20 It has been another interesting and thoughtful week, highlighted by our first in

person book group in 3 months.  We’ve been meeting for 17 years and still have a lot to

say to each other. I’ve found the best part of Covid entertaining is that each person

brings what they want to eat or drink and they leave when they need to use the

bathroom.  No cooking or cleaning involved.  

6/8/20 This week has been so uncomfortable in so many ways and it feels to me like a

discomfort that is both long overdue and one that could last for a long time.  While I think it is

only through discomfort that I can make change, I also am looking for small comforts like

baking and being with my family.  Take care everyone.

6/1/20 Thank you for all your good wishes for the weekend on Lopez island.  We had a

great time, the weather held out until Monday morning, meals outside worked well, we

were able to have good visits with my parents, competitive croquet and a couple

outdoor movies.  Success, hooray!  

I can’t get my head around June but here it is anyway. 

5/26/20 We are packing up to spend the weekend 6 feet away from my parents on Lopez Island. 

My eldest and his girlfriend are joining us too from whom we are also social distancing.  When

we planned this I assumed --despite living in Seattle now for 30 years--that the weather wold be

sunny and warm so we could be outside for meals etc.  60 degrees wasn’t what I had in mind but

it is at least supposed to be dry for a couple of days and it will be great for a change of scenery. 

Our dog is also be her happiest  self up there.

5/19/20 I’ve been experimenting with making injera, the Ethiopian spongy bread.  I’ve

tried two different methods and neither of them has worked.  I plan to keep trying but if

anyone has done this before I’d love some tips.  

5/12/20 What a day! I took my 2020 inaugural swim in Green Lake today.  I know not everyone

is a fan but iI’ve been swimming there for 30 years and never had a problem. The water felt

amazing, cool and bracing against the heat.  Fortunately for baking the weather is supposed to

cool down during the week.

4/28/20 I think I am getting into a good rhythm with the sourdough and can offer some add ins

which my family has enjoyed.  I hope you all are doing well under the circumstances.

4/21/20 Thank you so much for the kind words about the sourdough.  The rise time is

quite a bit longer than yeasted bread so I felt like a real baker getting up at dawn to get

the loaves started.  It is also fun to see the starter bubbling away on my counter pulling

yeast from the air like magic. And can’t we all use a little magic.

Also, for those of you who may wish to celebrate a special occasion or the fact that

you’ve made it through another week I can also offer gluten free cakes, pies & cookies

as a special order.

I made this pretty awesome coconut cream pie a couple of months ago for a wedding

4/14/20 Getting a late start again this weekend, trying to eke out every moment of this awesome

weather even under stay-at-home.  We were able to see our eldest this week with a distance

picnic dinner at our house.  Henry and his girlfriend came and sat on their designated blanket

with the four of us seated six feet away on our designated blanket.  It was a beautiful evening and I

felt lucky to just spend a little time with  them even if I couldn’t hug them or even invite them

inside.  

I assuaged part of my guilt by sending them home with a loaf of sourdough which I can now

offer to you.  The starter is a different beast than working with yeast and can be unpredictable in

terms of the length of the rise.  So for right now I need to limit the number of sourdough loaves I

make to one per customer.

4/7/20 Good news, my husband and I just fixed our oven element.  I wish I could say it

was complicated but it was unbelievably easy and I’m a little embarrassed that I ever

hired someone to do it for us.  Live and learn.

The other thing I learned this week was that, besides toilet paper, panic buying seems

to include flour and yeast. I am able to get the flours I need from Smart Food Service

(formerly Cash & Carry)  or in a pinch QFC or PCC.  Yeast is a different story.  The

shelves are bare of yeast all over town and so far I have not found any available on

line.  Who knew everyone would decide to become home bakers?  I have a full jar so

I’m not too concerned yet but it may be even more reason to keep the sourdough starter

going.

3/30/20 Earlier in the week my daughter suggested we make breakfast for dinner one night this

week.   Our favorite breakfast is gingerbread sourdough waffles(!!!) so I needed to restart my

dormant  GF sourdough starter.  With the leftover starter I made two sourdough loaves, one plain

and one with kalamata olives. I know people have a love/hate with olives but I am on the

LUUUV side. Oh baby, that second loaf was chewy, sour, salty and briny! So delicious, I may

start having that as an occasional offering on Tuesdays.  That’s the good news.

The less good news is that I am still waiting for the element for my oven to arrive and it is not

supposed to get here until Friday (and then I need to install it myself but honestly what can’t you

learn on YouTube?).  So no crackers again this week. And no sourdough yet. Otherwise baking

the usual breads.

3/24/20 My dates are all discombobulated so I apologize for getting this email out so

late.  My big oven needs a new element so I won’t be baking crackers this week.  My

neighbors are out of town and have graciously offered me the use of their oven for the

bread bake on Tuesday.  So I will take the usual orders for bread.

I hope you all are fairing well so far.  I have two kids at home and another who lives on

his own in Seattle.  I realized a couple of days ago that we need to practice social

distancing from him as well as our friends and neighbors.  We had planned for him to

come to dinner tonight and it broke my heart to tell him that meeting inside wasn’t a

good idea.  We’ll be facetiming with him instead and hope the good weather comes

back soon and we can meet up outside.

It’s been fun walking the dog through the neighborhood and seeing people out in their

yards. I believe this will be the spring of weed free gardens.  With next weeks rain I

expect our closets and baseboards will be organized and scrubbed.  It’s also a good

time to make yourself some toast to go with a mug of tea o bowl of soup.

3/17/20 I don’t even know what to say about all that is going on. Our daughter is in San

Francisco and heard rumors that the SFO airport might be closing, Trump says he may

cancel domestic flights. So we may do a quickie road trip to drive down and fetch her. 

All that to say my plan is to bake on Tuesday but I may need to change to Thursday.

Also, I have been working on an Irish soda bread with mixed results.  The flavor is pretty

good but too crumbly.  I have a couple more options to try today and if I can make a loaf

that is worthy I will offer that this week as well for $10.  One of the options contains egg

so if you are interested in it let me know if you want a GF but not vegan option. 

3/10/20 Wow what a week.  While we were in San Francisco we heard from friends

about the run on Costco for bottled water and toilet paper.  John and I were pretty sure

we would get home Monday to empty shelves at every grocery store in town. 

Miraculously there were lots of fresh vegetables, meats and canned goods for the taking

and while we haven't yet scored any hand sanitizer I did find a recipe on line.  

My in-home baking business will carry on for as long as you want bread.  I already

sanitize all the kitchen surfaces before I bake and throughout the process and wash my

hands over and over, especially before I pack your bags with bread and crackers. If you

would prefer to pick up directly from me instead of from the cooler, please let me know.