I flop as a baker!

I had another restless night with weird dreams, so when I woke up to go to the bathroom at 5:30 AM on Tuesday, I just stayed up. I made a small pot of coffee and posted the meager Monday Blog entry. Then I drank coffee, watching the local news, and then the Today show until it was time to get ready for therapy.

Before I left, I started the "Almost No-Knead Bread" I wanted to make today. This is an Americas Test Kitchen Recipe, BTW. So, I took three cups of unbleached, all purpose flour and combined it with 1/4 teaspoon of yeast and one teaspoon full of salt (I used table salt instead of kosher, here.) I whisked that together. I added the wet ingredients: 3/4 cup of room temperature water, 1/2 cup of room temperature beer and one tablespoon of white vinegar. I folded that in with a spatula, covered the bowl with plastic wrap and let it sit at room temperature for a minimum of eight hours (you can go up to 18 hours, BTW). It looks like crap. I hope the end result is better!

Therapy took a lot more effort than usual. You see, I normally try and do everything I can duplicate at home on Sunday (so it isn't so long between workouts). Now, I realize my silly exercise machine is not the same as the NuStep recumbent stepper (I think mine cost like $100 and the NuStep is probably $5,000), but it's close. And I don't have the other big machines or that dreaded BodyBlade (note to my brother Joe: if in the course of your therapy, they suggest using the BodyBlade, explain that you've been miraculously healed and run like hell. It is the most frustrating thing I've ever had to do, bar none!) But, I didn't do any of that last weekend, hoping to rest my right leg.

So, I left therapy, sore and tired and headed to Meijer's to do last weekend's grocery shopping. I spent $50.38 on the next two weeks dinners, BTW.

I got everything put away when the phone rang. It was my friend B___, checking up on me. He chastised me for not getting a doctor's appointment for my leg and I explained I was planning on calling the doctor, but he had called first. I don't think he believed me...

After we hung up, I did call my doctor's office and got an appointment for 4:30 PM on this Thursday. Then I started the last load of whites.

At 2:00 PM, I revisited my bread dough. Hmm... I am not impressed. It has not risen nearly as much as I had imagined. This could be because I didn't have the rapid-rise or instant yeast the recipe called for. I just had the normal little packets of yeast. But, I turned it out on a floured board and kneaded it 10-15 times. Then I shaped it into a ball and put it on parchment paper in a 10-inch skillet. I misted it with vegetable spray and covered it loosely with cling wrap. I let it set for another two hours.

While that was supposedly rising, I was making pasta sauce. I had thawed a package of mild Italian sausage and a pound of hamburger. So, I browned the sausages first and then set them aside. I added two chopped yellow onions and the hamburger to the pan. While that was browning, I cut the sausage into one-inch length and put them back in the pan.

Next came several cloves of garlic and dried herbs. Finally I added two four-cup containers of the tomatoes I processed and froze in September, a big can of tomato paste and salt and pepper to taste. I let that cook for a while and get happy and then let it cool. I got almost 16 cups of sauce!

Then I checked on the bread. I was right! It never really rose. I'm sure I had the wrong kind of yeast. But, I baked it anyway. It was good-looking, with a nice crunchy crust but small and very dense. Nonetheless, I did eat two slices with some warmed up potato & leek soup for dinner.

I watched the History Channel from 8 o'clock until 11:00 PM. They had some previously undiscovered color films from World War II. It was fascinating.