Se Hace Camino Al Andar

The kitchen is a mess, the dishwasher needs to be unloaded,  the living room looks like a tornado ripped through it and there’s laundry to be folded. But the kiddo was finally packed off to bed, Henry is out grabbing a drink after a stressful day and I’m enjoying the quiet of the evening, save for the rumbling of the washing machine.

In a few minutes, I’ll tackle the mess so I can mix up a batch of bread dough to use for the week. A couple of weeks ago, I picked up a copy of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, and so far, I love it. We go through bread like water around here, and it just makes sense to make our own bread. AB in 5 makes it easy to have a fresh loaf everyday or every other day. You mix up a master batch of dough, forgo the kneading and keep the whole lot in the fridge. Whenever you want a fresh loaf, you cut off a piece of dough, shape it, cloak it then bake it off. Some work the night before gives you bread in 30 minutes every day for a week or two. I’m so enamored of this method that I ordered a 6 quart bucket for storing the dough (from King Arthur Flour!), and next on my wish list is a baking stone. I dropped a not-so-obvious hint to Henry that the baking stone would be a great Birth Day gift. (When Alice was born, I got an iPhone–actually, it was free, thanks to my mom but Henry stood in line for four hours, in the July swelter, to get me the phone.)

And now, I’m off to tackle the mess.