As usual these days, my thoughts just won't coalesce, so I'm just going to go with the flow.
I made bread! Two loaves of old fashioned country white bread and they came out beautifully. I even separated an egg yolk, mixed it with water and brushed it over the top of the loaf. Also, I tipped them over and rapped on the bottom with my knuckles to test for a hollow sound, and indeed, there was one; and it indeed indicated done-ness.
Possibly as a result of this success in baking I have gained a pound back. But my muscle tone is truly impressive for having worked out for only two weeks.
My curiosity is constantly my undoing when cooking. I'm interested in the exact taste of the traditional recipe, but I'm incapable of religiously following it. Even though cooking is inescapably based upon a fair amount of science, I feel strongly that if cooking is all science and no alchemy, then it's just no fun. Consequently, I never do end up knowing what the actual dish was suppose to taste like.
I finally bought whole cloves, so I'm going to try making a bechamel sauce the old fashioned way, with clarified butter and a clove studded onion. I don't plan on making this a normal course of action, I just want to try it once. I'll use it as the base for a baked macaroni and cheese.
We've sold the Can and Keith has had a few calls on the Jeep, which he has decided to sell because he's so fed up with it. It's had a wiring problem that causes the air conditioning to flip off.
He's been working on it all week long, he even rented a wheel kit from Autozone and pulled the steering wheel out so that he could put in a new ignition. That was a titanic struggle, but last night he emerged the victor.
Once it sells, half will go toward a seed fund for the next project vehicle and half will go toward our vacation trip to the East coast! Yay! My brother in Colorado called me last night and said he's planning on flying in here, spending a few days with us and then driving up East with us.
I'm so excited that he's coming. This means not just an awesome road trip, but also that all of the siblings (and their spouses!) will be reunited with the parents. We will have to have a Sibling Dinner, which normally involves a great deal of money, choice ingredients and drunken cooking. I say we make tenderloin steak au poivre, asparagus with Hollendaise sauce and maybe creamy polenta.
