The Sweatshop of Love Blog

After First Bake

My no-knead bread was for sure not more than double its size when I dumped it in the hot cast-iron skillet. But one thing I’ve learned from doing things I have never done before, both in knitting and in cooking, is to stick to the recipe/pattern unless common sense tells you to cease and desist. Since I really had no idea what to expect from this recipe, and it was costing me nothing but goopy hands and 68 cents, I stuck with it.

‘Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes.’ I was very happy to cover it so I didn’t have to look at it anymore. I set the timer and went to my desk. Just before the bell rang, I started to smell delicious bread and I actually thought, ‘Oh, where is that smell coming from?’ Um, my kitchen! That smell had to be a good sign. I pulled the pot out and took a peak. It looked kinda like bread, and it smelled like bread, so it might be bread! And I might not be seriously handicapped.

‘Then remove lid and bake another 15-30 minutes until golden brown.’

Golden Brown!

I’d call that golden brown! Look at that beautiful bread! It looks like bread! And my apartment was filled with amazing bread smell. I still can’t get over how that goopy mess turned into this.

Beautiful Bread Cooling

I mean, seriously. LOOK AT THAT! I’m in awe of it. This morning we had toast, just because we could.

My Peanut Butter Toast, PT's Raspberry Preserves Toast

The inside is holey and moist and amazing, the crust is hard and chewey. I want to use it as a pillow. No, I want to hollow it out like a bread bowl, shrink myself, and use it as a bed.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Lunch

I toasted some of the bread and made the best peanut butter and jelly sandwich ever, with some chips, two of the cookies I baked up Sunday, and Sex and Bacon, our book club book.

I’m fighting with Sex and Bacon. I want to like it, there are parts of it that are funny and clever and interesting, but for every paragraph I think is well written and fun, there are three that are overly graphic just for the sake of being overly graphic, to the point of it becoming off-putting. I’m a prude, a bible prude by proximity and not by faith, I know this. I’m not into asses. I’m not into sex with girls. I was a virgin till 19 and I’ve only had sex with three people. I know who I am and I’m more than ok with it. I’m also more than ok with people who love rim jobs and having sex with animals and cucumbers. But seriously, every page. Every chapter. Every paragraph has either graphic sex or graphic meat eating. I don’t mind meat eating, either! Yeah, I’m a vegetarian but I read this hamburger blog and love it! I don’t mind when people eat meat around me, I even cook it for them on occasion. But all the meat juices and the devouring of whale and bacon grease! It is just too much.

BREAD!

I wonder if people get sick of me talking about how much I love bread on this blog. And pasta. And oats. And vegetables. Like, are there people out there reading this thinking, ‘Yeah, she is kinda funny but all those carbs? SO off-putting. Makes me nauseous.’

As I stare at that peanut butter and jelly sandwich on that amazing crusty bread it took 24 hours to bake! Shit. I mean. Shit. I’m saying they don’t know what they are missing the same way the bacon lady is saying I don’t know what I’m missing in every chapter. Every. Chapter. Over and over.

But isn’t it easier to love bread? It can’t hurt you. You can’t get poisoned from it, you don’t have to kill anything to eat it. It costs practically nothing. It comes in a million different variations! It can be sweet or savory or plain or spicy.

Well, bread, I’ll always love you.

Last night I threw together an old stand by.

Potato Bowl

I thought I only had 20 minutes to throw something together before my class last night, so I picked out a big potato, baked it in the microwave, threw some cheddar, salsa, broccoli, and mushrooms on it, and it was delicious. Sometimes a microwaved potato is all you need.

If only I knew that both my students last night would cancel! I would have baked that potato up right.

PT's Dinner

PT got home and cooked himself up this amazing pasta dinner. He sauteed up some mushrooms, olives, garlic, and sun dried tomatoes in olive oil and threw it on some whole wheat pasta, finishing it with some fresh parmesan. He gave me a bite, and I’m sure I would have liked it but for my intense dislike of olives. In any case, the boy’s dinner beat the crap out of mine.

Pasta Salad Lunch

To make myself feel better about my culinary skills, this morning I got up early and made a pasta salad for our lunches. I packed mine so I could eat lunch before going to the gym, something I wanted to do right from work. Delicious!

This was the first time I’ve packed a lunch, eaten it at work, and gone straight to the gym when I got off work. I like it! That way I don’t go home and get distracted. I pack my clothes, my lunch, and I’m off! I’ll be doing this more often.

Mark Bittman had a blog recently about saving money by cooking at home. You know how much I love saving money by cooking delicious food at home, so I was all about this article. Unfortunately I already do everything suggested (eat less meat, cook more beans, grains, cook in bulk, buy on sale, etc), but I did want to try this no-knead bread recipe that apparently costs 68 cents to bake and was super easy.

1. In a large bowl combine 3 cups flour, 1/4 tsp yeast, and 1 1/4 tsp of salt. Add 1 5/8 cups of water and stir up until blended, it will be sticky. Let rise 18 hours.

Post Rise

I let it rise like 20 hours. The recipe says, ‘dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles’. Totally done, right?

‘Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.’

Done. Easy.

‘Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel with flour’ put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours.’

Um?

Could I have messed this up? I used a ton of flour when it says to use ‘just enough’, and look at my hand! Right now I’m an hour and 18 minutes into the let rise for 2 hours part. Though, the recipe says, ‘when it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.’ Unless this puppy is going to more than double its size in the next 42 minutes, I fucked up a recipe Mark Bittman made a point to say: ‘The method is surprisingly simple — I think a 4-year-old could master it — and the results are fantastic.’

So I’m not quite saying I should have kidnapped a 4 year old to make this bread for me, but I have some low expectations. What the hell did I do?

My only bit of solace comes in the last instruction: it may look like a mess, but that is ok. It sure as hell looks like a mess alright. This is God telling me to stop being so cocky about my cookies and muffins.

‘You think you’re Martha Stewert?’ I hear him scoff as I look down at my soggy, sticky dough. Who knew God scoffed?

Irrational: Solving the ‘what to wear?’ issue by dressing as if it were still very cold, just without pants. Walking down the street this afternoon were many girls wearing large sweaters, coats, scarves, and winter boots. No pants.

Rational: Going to Home Depot!

Soil and Impulse Buy

I needed soil (of course they only had this huge heavy bag that I had to carry from Elston and Logan to California and Armitage), and then I saw the Topsy Turvy! Grow plants hanging from your porch! Or, in my case, over your dinning room table. It was $10. I really couldn’t resist.

Irrational: Digging to the very bottom of your drawer and putting on whatever is buried down there. Walking down the street this afternoon were a lot of animal print leggings.

Rational: Seeds!

(soon to be) Tea A Plenty!

Soon these little seed packets will be mint and camomile and flowers and catnip and tomatoes! Ok I’m not counting on the tomatoes.

Irrational: Being in warm denial. Walking down the street this afternoon were lots of winter coats and hats. Can you not feel?!

Rational: Being excited about your sweater dress!

Yoke Start

Isn’t it pretty? The sweater dress is knit top down, starting with the shoulder yoke. The moss stitch that I was worried about is actually really fun! It is a million times better than that bitch seed stitch, and it makes it easy to figure out which side of the dress you are on.

Moss Stitch:

Row 1: K1P1

Row 2: Knit the knits and purl the purls.

Row 3: P1K1

Row 4: Purl the purls and knit the knits.

Irrational: Dressing like it is 90 degrees. Walking down the street this afternoon were lots of short shorts, tank tops, and flip flops. It is 55.

Rational: Wearing a sweater.

Done, Buttons and All

I’m in love. I wore it last night to the first Sweater Club class (which was great!), wore it today to Home Depot, will be wearing it every day until I die and then will be buried in it. I’m in love. Soon I will be Mrs Fitted Knits Sweater Jacket, and I will have little Fitted Knits Sweater Jacket babies.

Wonk-Bread

I don’t know how to fit this in, but look at this loaf of bread I baked! I baked the perfect loaf of bread last time, and I thought it was because I lost track of how much flour I put in and accidentally added a 1/2 cup too much, and then put in a 1/2 cup more water to compensate, but apparently I only added an extra 1/2 cup of water because the extra flour just ended up all over my bread maker, and contributed to this mushroom bread. Still tastes good, miraculously.

And as you can see The Sweatshop of Lover’s Blog got a makeover thanks to Brijeet, who I pouty faced into html/ftp whatever this thing together. It looks great and I couldn’t be any happier with it!

Irrational: Being inside on an afternoon like this! I’ve got pots to soil and a tomato thingy to turn upside down.