kayre | Cooking frenzy

Today was my third straight day off-- incredible luxury as I don't even generally get two consecutive days (but I'm part time so it's okay). Anyway, I had a mad urge to cook, especially to bake. Dinner will be beef mushroom stew (with wine in it but I don't claim any Frenchified status). I also wanted to bake bread, AND something for breakfast tomorrow, AND blondies.

Found a small speck of sanity, and bought bagels. Then I loaded up the bread machine with my favorite brown bread (like some steakhouses serve) and went off to the gym. When I came home, I spent about an hour starting the stew, stirring up the brownies, and shaping the bread dough for final rise. Now it's just a matter of tending to things occasionally for the next hour or so.

When I started the bread, I was startled to realize I haven't used the bread machine in months- maybe not this year! I've been stirring up my dough with the stand mixer most of the time, and working a lot with sourdough which needs different timing. Now that I have a proofing oven, I may well give away the machine. It is convenient, but I like having exact control over the dough, and the time and temperature of baking.