I just pulled these out of the oven and had to share how hilarious they looked, all leaning off to one side! I can't wait to eat one though! Still making bread every day; I'm in such a mindset with it that yesterday I made pancakes for breakfast then, forgetting I'd already made my bread for the day, made tortillas for supper!

Daily Bread Continues . . .

I have to admit it. This discipline I've chosen for Lent has turned out to be a struggle some days. Originally, I thought "oh, this'll be a great way to consciously meditate on God's daily goodness to me while enjoying a passion: bread". Well, yes, sometimes it has worked out like that. Then there are the day(s?) where I hurriedly mixed up a few tablespoons of flour, a bit of oil, and some water to fry and eat at 11:00 pm. Or that other day when I woke my husband from a couch nap at 10:30 (PM!) to make him eat some fresh, homemade soft pretzels with me. There was also that weekend traveling that I simply bought an "add water only" biscuit mix to make my daily bread with (hint: these are okay fresh but pretty much yuk the following day!).

Mixed up with all of that has been the gigantic headache of turning our house inside-out for extermination purposes, the disappointment of not getting internet access at our new home (at the outset of this bread thing, I was planning to blog every day as part of my discipline), the scare of a smoking--yes, SMOKING!--washing machine, and a few trips between new home and old home (the second time I remembered to pack flour, salt, and my arsenal of leavens along with a week's-worth of clothing for the family). Ah, yes, and we're going camping this weekend. Have I really decided to make fresh bread every day?!? It's beginning to feel like a discipline rather than a pleasant exercise, and the whole being-mindful-of-God's-goodness thing has become a lot more relevant (read: "difficult") too.

But I suppose that's the point of a discipline, eh? Sticking with something no matter what happens to make you want to quit it. And I have been, actually.

Some days I've really needed the reminder that God is good and is going to take care of my needs. My husband and I have joked about all the calamities that have been striking us, but we're both healthy; we have a beautiful baby; we get to spend time with our families; materially, we're not in need; we have plenty of food to eat and lots of good friends to share it with; our new neighbors are great . . . I could really go on and on. Do I need to worry about getting renters for our old house or sob over some of the disappointments of our new place? Maybe a little. But I think my faith in God can supersede those things. One day at a time.

SO! This is a cooking blog, right? And maybe you're wondering about the picture I started off with.

One of the delightful meals I got to make this month (the 1st of March to be exact) was a pork pot pie with a soda bread crust (that satisfied the daily bread requirement). I browned, then stewed a half pound of pork tenderloin with some onions and garlic, then added cooked potatoes, sweet potatoes, and peas to it along with a vegetable gravy to thicken it up. The vegetable gravy was made with a roux (melted butter and flour) to which I added a veggie broth I made by boiling the veg skins I had from the potatoes, sweet potatoes, and onions. I also added some veg bouillon to deepen the flavor. The filling all got dumped in my cast iron skillet then covered with the soda bread crust (recipe from an Irish cookbook I have) and baked until the crust was done. YUM! Only things I would change are less salt in the crust and a bit thicker/chunkier filling (I had a limited veg selection on hand). I also think this could easily be made all in the skillet rather than three different pans. Don't you like the cute country hearts on the crust, though? =)

More Breads

Day Four: Pizza
(venison, pepper, and spinach--the picture
is before I baked it and without the cheese)

Day Five: Biscuits
(one high and one flat; my husband is teaching
me that I must fold the dough just before cutting
to get them to puff up nice and high)

Day Six: Yeast Bread
(my basic recipe with the addition of
oats and sunflower seeds)

Day Seven: Somali Egg Crepes
(this recipe is a dessert recipe from "Extending
The Table" which instructs you to eat them plain
with sweet tea. We added a little yogurt and syrup.
)

Daily Breads Two and Three

When I started this discipline I didn't realize how immediately pertinent it would be. Less than an hour after I had published all the sentiments about being thankful and trusting God one day at a time, I was informed that we wouldn't be able to get DSL internet service at our new house. Now, this may not seem like a huge deal, but it came as a pretty big disappointment to me having organized several nifty ideas for communication, my husband working at home, and maybe a small internet business around that very service. Hmmm . . . still thankful for the house I live in?

I pondered that as I mixed up a yeast dough the next day.

Daily Bread: Day Two

I made some funny little buns on day two. I'm trying to make just enough bread of any type for the current day, not "storing my manna" for successive days. This recipe was scaled down to a 1/4 of the original and then divided into more pieces when I realized we were having company. Cute! And they tasted pretty good too. Yes, I am still thankful for the house we live in.

Daily Bread: Day Three

Corn meal cakes. Well, masa cakes since I hadn't packed the cornmeal from my old freezer. The masa made the batter pretty thick so they didn't turn out like my grandmother-in-law must have intended. I'll have to try them another time with the right ingredients. Still, they satisfied a breakfasting tummy.

Today I haven't made any bread yet, but I'm thankful for free wi-fi at a cafe only 1/2 hour from my house. And I'm thankful for a husband who loves our baby and keeps him occupied awhile so I can blog. I'm thankful for the ability to adapt to new places and new ways of living. I can definitely get along without internet service at my home.

A phone line would be nice, though.

Daily Bread: Day One

Last year for the Lenten season I came up with and made myself stick to (okay, I settled for an 85% success rate) a time budget. I got up each morning by a certain time, had particular tasks to do before work, and tried to get to bed by a decent hour. It was a good discipline.

This year, I want to focus on the idea of daily bread, as in "give us this day our daily bread". I've just moved to a new town in a new state. I don't know very many people. I don't know if our family income-source will remain stable. I'm not sure how long we'll be living here. But I know I can trust God to provide what I need, and for the next few weeks until Easter I want to consciously meditate on that.

By baking bread. Every day. Daily bread. I like language of asking God for daily bread. It's fresh that way. In the desert, the Israelites weren't supposed to gather any more manna than they could eat in one day because they needed to trust that God would send more the following morning. Can I have a simple enough faith that trusts God one day at a time, for exactly what I need that day? Not worrying about what I'll need next week or next year. Just thankful for what I have today.

Today I'm thankful for the house we live in, a neighbor who looks after our needs (letting us put our trash in his bin if we don't get ours by this evening), internet access at my in-laws', a good grocery store nearby, and a healthy recovering-from-chicken-pox baby.

Today's bread: chapati from the "Extending the Table" cookbook.

Pavlova

I spent my last Saturday before moving out-of-state sorting five cases of 1/2-molded strawberries. And I spent a good deal of time the next few days looking up, modifying, and executing some killer strawberry recipes. One of them was this:

Ah, Pavlova! (I'm just going to keep capitalizing it since it's named after a person) I think my sister-in-law thought I was fibbing when I told her it's a New Zealand/Australian dessert named after a Russian ballerina. But it's true. The lovely mounded meringue base does sort-of resemble a tutu after all--a light, marshmallow-y, melt-in-your-mouth, caramel-y tutu. Mmmmm . . .

You start this amazing dessert with 4 egg whites. Beat and beat them until softly-peaked (I started having nightmares about angel food cake). Then add 1 cup of sugar one tablespoon at a time (I used half turbinado, half brown). Fold in one teaspoon each of vanilla and lemon juice along with two teaspoons of cornstarch.

Next comes the fun part. On a crinkled and cornstarch be-sprinkled parchment, spread out the glossy meringue into a circle, mounded a little at the edges. I marked my parchment with a 9-inch circle so the Pavlova would fit into a certain cake cover. The meringue ended up spreading waaaay past that line, so make it smaller than you want it.

Bake this shell at 300F for an hour, then turn off the heat, crack the oven door, and let it cool to room temperature (even overnight if you like!).

Next comes another fun part! Whipping cream! I whipped about 2/3 pint of cream with a little confectioners sugar and vanilla. Mound this up inside the meringue and top with sliced fruit. I read that strawberries and kiwis are the most popular to use. Strawberries I have. Had.

EAT!

Oh How the Muffins Have Fallen!

Or maybe they never rose properly. I tried out an orange juice muffin recipe from the Hillbilly Housewife, substituting polenta for half the flour and topping them with an oatmeal streusel topping. Hmmmm . . . maybe I just tried to do too much. They came out kinda flat, with the topping caved in at the center. The streusel made them crunchy on top, and the polenta was a bit too gritty for my taste.

Next time, nix the streusel and go with corn meal instead of polenta. The flavor of the orange juice: yum.