Monday, May 25, 2020
I’m a new mama, as last evening, a sourdough starter from my friend Grant immediately got set into the frig. Grant included instructions about how to feed the living concoction, and now I will learn how to nurture and grow it to use for baking.
I’ve been wondering why many folks have taken to baking through these days of Corvid-19 self-isolation. It’s hard to argue against our common knowledge that consuming baked goods adds weight. And especially when it’s hard or impossible to achieve enough physical activity to offset unwanted weight. Frankly, I’m afraid of baked goods. As a rule, I don’t touch bread.
The last thing I’ve wished to do is bake.
So what finally changed this, who knows? Hasn’t it been stressful these days of staying inside and searching for enough entertainment options? Has it been possible incessantly to sew, knit, read, and/or watch television? Isn’t it nearly impossible now to find for sale a reasonably-priced, simple bread making machine, not also designed to do more, like create jams and jellies?
Memories are moving me toward bread making. I recall days long-ago and living in Los Angeles while working in giant corporations. Even then, I avoided consuming much bread, but weekly did create two loaves. And manually, by mixing ingredients and at proper times hand-kneading. After rolling mixed ingredients into a ball, I’d start pounding on that ball. I’d roll again and pound more on it. The rollings and poundings were highlights, outlets, offsetting the often frustrating corporate situations that foiled my creativity and good humor.
In some ways, the accumulated tension from weeks of semi-isolation resembles my old corporate days. Maybe actually, it’s best to lack a machine. Now I’ll again create bread by hand and pound, a process hastened by Grant’s sourdough starter. That living mix must be fed, it will grow quickly. I’ll soon be forced to start a loaf.
Dear Friends: One step at a time without certainty as to a direction each might take us. Diana
Diana's Morning Blog 