Sunday, September 30, 2007

Yeast and Cotton

It's that time of year where I break out the bread machine. I'm sure a proper domestic goddess kneads her own bread and dutifully monitors the rising process but I say screw all that! I opt for the five minutes of work, four hours of waiting method to fresh, hot, bready goodness.

My first loaf is a Ginger Pumpkin Bread served warm with Orange Ginger Butter. The bread has crystallized ginger, California dates and fresh ground nutmeg. The butter is whipped with orange marmalade, crystallized ginger, and a touch of balsamic vinegar.





Both recipes call for crystallized ginger. My local Take-it-or-leave-it grocer doesn't stock crystallized ginger so I had to make a trip to the Extortion Pyramid across town. They wanted to sell me a handful of crystallized ginger for $9!!! My thoughts at the time were: either I can figure out how to make my own crystallized ginger or I can have cinnamon raisin bread instead. Luckily I found several Internet resources for making crystallized ginger at home. Total cost for ingredients less than $1.

In knitting news: My knitpicks Harmony wood needles came in. They are darker IRL than they were in the picture but they are still very handsome. The needles are hard, pointy and slick. All of which are qualities that I like. I've only knit about an inch and a half with them so I haven't formed any real opinions about them yet.

With all the Baby Surprise Jackets popping up everywhere, I could no longer resist not making one myself so I've ordered The Opinionated Knitter from Amazon. SQUEEE! While I'm waiting for my order to arrive via free-shipping-by-pack-mule, I'm working on a MDK baby bib. Ahhh! I have baby fever and no babies for whom to knit.

Tony's sister just had a birthday so all these warshrags made it into her gift bag. There's the Dolphin, a ballband, a feather and fan, and a reverse miter.



You may have noticed that we love to make the warshrags 'round here. Well, that's partly due to the instant gratification and immense usefulness of warshrags. But it's also a result of Tony's aforementioned impulsiveness. He cannot pass cotton yarn without picking up something. This tub is devoted to cotton and it contains at least 20 balls and several cones.



Later,
Eric

11 comments:

Amy said...

Wow, and I thought I was bad with about ten balls of dishcloth cotton! I may have to show your stash of cotton to my fiancee so he'll stop whining and let me get more... :-)

Eikon said...

I love making sugared fruits. My way around close monitoring is to do most bread sour dough. It take so long to rise that a few hours isn't a big deal.

Knit and fall back in it said...

The bread looks delicious, makes me want to break out my bread machine, too. I am not a true Domestic Goddess either, I guess. I have a pretty big pile of warshrag cotton myself. Not only does it make good dishcloths, but I like to keep some for washing my face.

Marianne said...

Dude, that bread looks seriously YUM! Forget cake, bring the bread!

Love the tub O' cotton! Great washrags too :^)

BEESTLYproducts said...

i just made some cinnamon muffins.... i wonder if they're cool yet? the bread sounds delish...

ann I am said...

Your bread sounds inspired!! I never thought of crystallizing ginger myself. I'm thinking biscotti applications here. AND, I don't think it makes any more sense to hand-knead bread than it does to wash clothes using a hand-cranked ringer and a warsh tub. The flour really doesn't know whether it's being pummeled (sp?) by hand or by machine.

Anonymous said...

I do believe the two of you could knit nothing but warshcloths and not run out of yarn for years! I keep thinking I'll make a bunch (I love them as facecloths), but never seem to find the time. Pretty silly when you think of how little time it actually takes :-)

WonderMike said...

Just discovered your blog through Ravelry. Love your site (especially the masthead pic!!!). And I love that you live in Oklahoma. I'm from Louisiana originally, but now live in NoCal. Thanks for the smiles and now I need to go get a bite. *tummy growl*

Jen said...

Um, I think I have to go dig my bread machine out of the storage closet right now. :)

The warshrags look great as usual.

Charles said...

Does looks so yummy!
I need to start knitting dishcloth myself!

I really need to destash my cotton yarn...( I have a two box full..I dont know what to do it..yek!)

Andy Baker said...

I'm working on the baby surprise jacket now. It's a bit of a mind bender. There's a chart put out by WEBS, which is helpful. I heard about it on the podcast and asked for a copy. I proved I had "the book," so they just forwarded it on. It might not be so complicated. You might be able to just ask, but I sometimes find even EZ's "pithy" explanation of her patterns really difficult, so the chart was a great help.

The bread looks great. I'm now going to look up how to crystalize ginger.