Wow! Has it really been almost 2 months since my last post? Time flies when you are having fun and sometime even when you are not.
It’s tempting to post that this is the perfect time to renew goals and resolutions but come on, you’re probably getting that up the whazoo right now and you don’t need me telling you that you need to eat less sugar*, exercise more and breathe a little deeper. You know that already!
So what have I been up to for the last couple of weeks? I finished my first semester of school with straight As, YES!!!! It was tough and totally worth it. In a couple of weeks I start my first field rotation and I can’t wait. We’ll find out next Thursday where we will end up.
In order to have access to fresh greens I have started an indoor garden. This has been something I have wanted to do for a while and we were fortunate enough to have been gifted this light shelf. I don’t usually do well with indoor plants but having them so close by helps me keep tabs on them. I do need to pick up more herb seeds.
Here are some collards
Some arugula
And some basil
Some peppers
Some ends that I stuck in a pot and are doing well
Like celery
I also have tomatoes that I don’t remember planting…
Yep, must have been pulling an all-nighter during that one. I also baked my first bread – here’s a photo of what was left of it.
I have some dough rising right now as we speak. I really wish I hadn’t found making it so easy! Here’s the recipe:
French Bread
2 Tbs Active Dry Yeast
14oz Water, 110 degrees
1/2 Tsp Sugar
1/2 Tsp Molasses
1 1/2 cup Bread Flour
1 1/2 cup Wheat Flour (or another flour you like)
2 tsp Salt
Corn Meal for dusting
All Purpose flour as needed
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a large bowl mix together yeast, water, sugar and molasses in that order, let sit for 15 minutes. Add in the rest of the ingredients and mix with a spatula until well combined and pasty, if it’s too sticky add some AP flour. Let sit for 3 minutes covered with a towel. Then mix again for another 5 minutes. Add more flour if it’s still really sticky, and then cover it with a towel and let it sit until it doubles in size. This could take anywhere from 90 minutes to 3 hours. I preheat the oven and put some water to boil to get it to rise in 90 minutes. After it’s risen you are going to beat it down again to get the air out. Dust with flour if it’s too sticky to work with. Flatten it out with the heel of your hand and shape it to look like a cigar with the seam on the bottom pinched together. Make sure you do this on the surface that you are going to bake it on (i.e., I use a pizza stone) and that the bottom is well floured with corn meal or some other flour. Let it rise covered with a towel for another 30 minutes and once it has risen again – and sometimes they don’t so don’t worry too much if it didn’t rise – cut 3 slits across the top, place it in the preheated oven and bake for 20 – 25 minutes or until it sounds hollow when you knock on it. Let it cool on a rack and enjoy. That’s it, easy peasy! One of my favorite snacks is to spread a slice with avocado and top it with basil and a little salt – YUM!
* I’m doing a Sugar Blues workshop on January 19th at Jack’s Health Food Country at 1pm so yeah – I am gonna tell you to eat less sugar!
