Still Lovin' No-Knead Bread!

It's been two months since I last posted and I'm still loving Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day.

I've settled on a favorite dough recipe for everyday use--the light wheat. Instead of 6.5 cups of white flour, one of those cups is whole wheat. Just enough to give it a tan glow.

In addition to bread, I've continued to enjoy making way-better-than-Thomas' English muffins. Pita and dinner rolls have both turned out well, though I'll improve each with another batch or two. And, twice I've been able to make fabulous pizza on the spur of the moment because I had dough in the fridge waiting for inspiration.

I've also gotten pretty good at making bagels, though they seem to "deflate" as they cool. Still experimenting with that...

A recent blog post on their website discusses making naan (actually, it's paratha), and I'm looking forward to trying it.

I don't eat a lot of bread in general. But I'm really enjoying that the bread products I make are easy, fun, fast, fresh, and have few ingredients.

Thanks, Jeff and Zoë!

Who Knew Homemade Could Be So Easy?

Yesterday I realized that I am becoming quite the "Susie Homemaker."

It's been slowly emerging since last year when I finished hiking (see my hiking blog) and became the work-from-home, self-employed member of the household. My flexible schedule allowed me to take on the role of primary cook.

I had to brush up on my cooking skills, expanding my repertoire beyond the one-pot, rehydration meals I ate on trail. Early on, I discovered the crock-pot and have been trying different recipes once or twice a week since then. (Thanks for the crock-pot cookbook, Mom!)

Through the hiking group on Yahoo, I learned of the preserving-food group, also on Yahoo. (The two are related, as we hikers eat better on trail when we dehydrate meals cooked at home.)

On the preserving-food group, I learned about Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day and, even before the book arrived, I bought a baking stone and successfully made bread, pizza crust, and English muffins from their boule dough (their online video showed me how). No kidding, it's super easy and fast! That's because it breaks from the traditional expectations for making fresh bread at home--no more kneading, rising, punching, and incantations. You make a batch of dough one day, and take from the batch as needed. It keeps in the refrigerated for up to 14 days. The English muffins were so delightful that I won't be buying the $2.99 Thomas' any time soon!

On the preserving-food group I also saw the 5-minute chocolate cake recipe that I'd seen somewhere before on the internet. This time, I tried it. OMG, a fabulous cake! And, just the right size to share with a friend and leave no guilt-ridden leftovers. Even better, members of the group suggested varying the recipe to make muffins and cornbread. I tried the cornbread today--it will take some trial-and-error to perfect, but it was pretty darned good!

As I made this week's grocery list, I included taco seasoning. Then I had the idea to Google "homemade taco seasoning," and sure enough there were two recipes for homemade taco seasoning, each requiring ~8 ingredients that are already in my spice cupboard. Awesome!

I can't really claim to be Susie Homemaker, based on the infrequency with which I use my vacuuming skills. But, I am having so much fun, feeling empowered and saving money by making quality, tasty food at home. I had no idea it was so easy!

Go Steelers!

My favorite team, the Pittsburgh Steelers, will be playing in Super Bowl XLIII this Sunday. Like millions of other people, I will spend the evening watching the Steelers and the Arizona Cardinals battle it out to determine this season's champion. I would love for the Steelers to win their 6th Super Bowl!

As big a Steeler fan as I am, I sometimes wonder why we as a society are willing to spend so much time, energy, and money on something as apparently meaningless as football.

We fans watch games, participate in fantasy leagues, buy team paraphernalia, and engage in friendly rivalries with other teams' fans. Corporations sponsor luxury boxes, buy commercial time, and employ football players in advertising their products. Teams' hometowns contribute stadiums and infrastructure. On the whole, the amount of time, energy, and money spent on football is mind-boggling.

What is it about football that encourages us to make expenditure on such a scale?

Is it escapism? Football is entertainment that is available on television from the comfort of our recliners. We get to relax for a few hours, focusing on a game and clearing our minds of stress and worry.

Is it equality? Football builds bridges, such as across generational and socioeconomic divides. All of a team's fans are equal in fervor when the game goes especially well or especially poorly.

Maybe it's connection? Any two people in a team's hometown can find common ground by starting a conversation with, "How about that game?" Even more so, away from the team's hometown, otherwise strangers may smile or comment when they see each other wearing their team's emblem.

Or, perhaps, it is belonging. As a fan, I belong to a huge club that meets most Sundays for five months of the year. It's an amorphous and largely anonymous group, but it's a group nonetheless. And I belong.

The reasons we invest so much in football may include all of these, as well as others I haven't named.

Of course, I know that professional football is a business, that it wouldn't exist if it weren't profitable to the business owners and stakeholders. But we consumers pay for the "product" because it serves us in some way(s). The benefits we gain must be worth more to us than the time, energy, and money we spend on it, or we wouldn't make that investment.

On Sunday, I am not likely to think about these things as I cheer the Steelers on. But my curiosity is likely to persist as this game becomes just a memory: why do we invest so much in football, and what it would take to garner such interest in other endeavors, such as making the world a better place?

BMI Is Overrated

Dear Doctor,

What do I have to do to convince you that the Body Mass Index (BMI) doesn't apply to me?

The BMI says that I'm obese. Sure, I am overweight. And, I am on a journey to lose weight, especially since the sleep doctor said it's my best chance for curing the sleep apnea. But, obese? No way--I wear a size 14, after all. (It's no wonder that girls and women have warped self images!)

I have set an aggressive target to lose 25 pounds over the next 1-2 years. That will take me to the weight of my 20s, and my weight in 2000 after hiking 750 miles of the Appalachian Trail in 3 months while eating too few calories. (I said it was an aggressive target, didn't I?)

At the end of that hike, 22 pounds lighter than I am now, I looked and felt slim and healthy. But, even at that weight, the BMI will still call me "overweight." To squeak into that elusive "normal range," I have to lose 34 pounds. That's just to get to the highest end of the range. I suppose I should lose 40 pounds to get into the range with a little room to spare.

Doc, that ain't happenin'.

The BMI might be a fine tool to assess the population as a whole, but stop using it on me as an individual.

It's not that I'm not interested in being healthy. If you want to talk about my percentage of body fat, cholesterol, or blood pressure, let's get down to business. Just put that dadgum BMI chart away.

Thanks,
Em