Other...: www.moesewco.etsy.com
I've gone all domestic again.
Yesterday, my piano students had their annual spring recital. This is a big, gigantic deal for them, and we spend a whole lot of time preparing. Lots of time preparing pieces, and lots of time preparing for the emotional side of performance. It takes a whole lot of energy to convince a 7 year old that they can do it, and do it in style!
I also made my "dramatic" return to the stage after taking a couple of years off. I completed my master's recital about two years ago and really didn't want to touch the piano for a while. Now the break is officially over. I played a Mozart violin sonata with my friend Dave. Playing with someone was a great way to get going again. Having a rehearsal scheduled made sure that I practiced!
So anyway. It's done. It's all done. Craftstravaganza is over. Recital is over. I'm on (relative) easy street. Ok, so Adam's sick, and that's a bit of a buzzkill, but I'm not letting it pull me down.
To celebrate, yesterday I baked. I made smoky pork taco, and rum cake. And bread. MMMMMM homemade bread. Nothing better in the world for heart and mind.
I get very sentimental when it comes to baking, but considerably more so when it comes to bread (and pies, but that season hasn't started yet). Baking connects me to my past. It's the one time that I really wish I had children. (but whatever you do, don't tell my mother that)
So today. Bread. Every summer at about this time (and since the spring recital is over, it is officially summer in the Moe house), I make a promise to bake more bread. One year, I just about made good on my promise to bake one loaf a week. This year, I shall make the same promise. Rising food costs... well it just makes good plain economic sense to make it myself.
I'm really fond of Cold Antler Farm's blog about having a small farm. It helps me confront that particular fantasy I think many of us have about really going "off the grid" (though I think she has power). I've lived in the north woods. I've hauled water. I've tried really hard to be a gardener. I just can't do it. I'm a disaster. But Jenna's really good at it. She wrote a post a bit back about providing for oneself in these rough times. I think that's part of what inspired my bread baking promise.
Of course, I do make that promise to myself every summer. So maybe it doesn't have anything to do with rough times!
Ok. Enough blather. This is not a blog about omphalaskepsis. It's a blog about making things.
Here are some bread related things I really like.
theScenicRoute has some Sourdough Starter for sale on Etsy that intrigues me. I've not got a great track record with sourdough starter. In the years when I thought I wanted to be a chef, I was once asked to clean out a refrigerator in the kitchen where I worked. I pitched the ugliest, nastiest looking thing in the refrigerator. The next day I was fired. This is a much longer story if you ever want to get me going.
ANYWAY. Yes, I would like to try sourdough bread. I think it sounds magical. The idea that some lovely people in Oregon are wishing yummy bread on me makes me happy.
You could buy some of their starter too, and then we could all make bread together! Yay!
This cake tester from jstartworks is just plain cool.
I'm always reaching for some sort of tool to test my cakes. I never have the right thing. I have no toothpicks. And I certainly don't (yet) have one of these beautiful testers. I generally use a knife or a chopstick, or just tap the tops and wing it. One of these lovelies would do the job so much more accurately and with so very much more style.
I've told my sick husband (now diagnosed officially with strep) that I want a really cool apron for Mother's Day. I'm hoping he remembers that I found one I really liked in a previous post. I'm going to be needing that apron. I feel a whole lotta baking coming on! (Emily)
