Here I am about to go into the grocery store, wearing a bee-patterned mask made for me by our dear @am_DoingMyBest:
I think my grocery-store-timing math was the same as everyone else’s, because there was a line to get in and the lines to check out were so long they stretched into the aisles. NOT GREAT. But they had both block and shredded cheese again, and they had eggs and milk and butter and chicken and ground beef and ground turkey, and they had one-per-customer flour. Still no toilet paper, but they had some paper towels and some tissues. They were surprisingly low on everything in the section for storage bags, storage containers, and trash bags.
There is so much conflicting information about whether we should be wearing masks, all the way from “YES, for heaven’s sake!” to “It’s worse than nothing!”—with “Save them for healthcare workers!!” all over the whole spectrum. But I will say this: when several times another customer got WELL WITHIN 6 feet of me (as when one woman LEANED UNDER MY FACE to take a ground beef, MY DEAR BY ANY CHANCE HAVE YOU BEEN KEEPING UP WITH THE NEWS LATELY), the mask gave me some comfort. I felt as if it also acted as a symbol to others that I was someone who could be trusted to do my best to keep 6 feet away from them.
I am making spaghetti for dinner tonight and I am already looking forward to it. I want to make some sort of bread to have with it. I have flour and yeast; I have a bread machine. I have also made bread by hand before, but it has been…let’s see, two decades. I could make just, like, bread in the bread machine, and then I could mix garlic and butter to spread on slices of it. Or I could figure out how to make dinner rolls, or a loaf of the kind of bread usually used for garlic bread? That might be fun. What would you do, if you were me?
Garlic bread 100%.
Love the mask – it is so charming and reassuring.
For today, I would just use the bread machine. Simple & easy! If you want to make more bread, I’ve been using this recipe: https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/no-knead-crusty-white-bread-recipe. I would recommend you make it tonight, but it has to sit for several hours. It’s great to mix up and just keep in the fridge so you can pull out and bake for dinner.
I’d make the dough in the bread machine. Maybe you have a recipe for French or Italian bread for your machine. Either just with a dough setting or pull it out before it bakes in there, before it’s final rise. Then form it like a typical French/Italian loaf and bake in the oven. And YES to doing garlic on it after. Yum.
Or try this. I had it at book club once, and think I made it at home also??
https://jamiecooksitup.net/2013/03/fabulous-french-bread-renewed/
And also, thanks for all your blog posts lately. It’s a bright spot during a scary time. I’ve been reading since before Henry’s birth and YOU are a bright spot. Thanks for being you, Swistle! (I’m a mom of 5, ages 13-22.)
Yes! We have the bread machine do all the hard work, then we do a final rise in the oven for 50 minutes, then have the oven bake for 50 minutes at 350.
I have no recommendations as I have never made bread – at least not bread for Italian food. I might make Irish soda bread again today. The kids never seem to get sick of it and I loaded up on buttermilk that I want to use before it goes bad.
I am conflicted about the mask use as well, but I do think it does not hurt. The girls and I sewed 16 masks that we plant to drop off at Joann’s today. I wonder if I should have made a few to keep around the house for us, just in case. I probably have some additional fabric I could dig up if I need it. I really just want to put the sewing machine away. The house as gone to hell in a hand basket since we started the sewing project and it is calling for some attention. Sigh.
I went to Walmart Neighborhood Market this morning. It was… not good. They opened at 7:00, I got there at 6:55 and waited in a line where everyone was standing 6 feet apart. Felt good about it, but then when they let us in, OMG. Everyone crowding and bumping and reaching around and so many faces close to my face (I had a mask) and so much breathing on my person by non-mask wearers. They had 95 percent of what I needed, but I had to make a side trip to a second store for a couple of items. (No TP at either place.)
By the time I got home, unloaded, and wiped down/washed produce thoroughly, it had taken me 3 hours. NOT looking forward to doing that again. I think I bought enough last a month. It’s about to get ration-y up in here.
That mask is cute. I don’t get the “worse than nothing” logic. I have a grocery pickup slot for Saturday afternoon. I’m hopeful to get the enchilada ingredients and some chicken. We were low on chicken in our freezer before, and I haven’t located any in my grocery shopping since.
For bread, I made this recipe recently, and we LOVED it. https://www.lecremedelacrumb.com/easy-focaccia-bread/
I’m not very clear on it either, but what I’m picking up is that a mask can give someone a false sense of safety, so that they don’t take other precautions; and/or that it can cause more face-touching because people keep adjusting it; and/or that people might not know you can’t reuse them and have to treat them as contaminated as soon as you touch them, and so forth.
This, and also some evidence (who knows how legit) says cloth masks retain too much moisture to be remotely helpful. I really wish we could get one good answer on this.
It also takes practice/training to make sure the mask fits properly and to take the mask off without contaminating yourself.
Garlic bread! I like the suggestion of making the dough in the bread machine and then baking it in the oven.
My husband makes all our bread and just went to the store to get a 50 pound sack of flour. We should be good for a while after that!
My 12 year old has been stressed and grouchy for a few days. Hard to tell if it’s the being 12 or the pandemic or both. I wish I could return things to normal so all I had to deal with was teen stuff.
Please make this. It really is shockingly easy, all it needs is time to rise.
https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/easy-no-knead-focaccia
Seconded! This was going to be my suggestion as well. Focaccia seems kinda fancy but it’s super simple and it’s perfect with pasta! And the leftovers (if you have any) are great to slice horizontally and make sandwiches.
Yes! We just discovered this recipe as well and made it twice in a week. My son is now about 5% focaccia by volume.
I have two bread machine recipes that personally I would use: one is for dinner rolls the other is for an Italian herb bread which calls for oil and spices IN the bread and honestly I love it more than garlic bread. I’m sure if you google you’ll find something like them.
I love any sign of Doing My Best.
That’s all.
Same. I miss her!
Me too!!
The breadsticks recipe from Mel’s Kitchen Cafe. Unbeatable and only takes about an hour.
I had never made bread until last week. A friend sent me this recipe: https://artisanbreadinfive.com/2013/10/22/the-new-artisan-bread-in-five-minutes-a-day-is-launched-back-to-basics-updated/
It was really easy and it came out great even though I’m not much of a cook or baker. The recipe makes 4 loaves but I halved it since there’s only two people in my house and limited flour.
The reason face mask advice is so confusing is becase it results from a mix of science and politics. Compare official WHO guidelines https://www.who.int/publications-detail/advice-on-the-use-of-masks-in-the-community-during-home-care-and-in-healthcare-settings-in-the-context-of-the-novel-coronavirus-(2019-ncov)-outbreak with this info https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/24/us/diamond-princess-cruise-ship-asymptomatic-tests/index.html and you´ll get to see it. It makes no sense to recommend only sick people wear masks to prevent transmission if they know there is roughly an equal number of people who spread the virus as well and have no symptoms. Universal wearing of masks is not advised only because of fears that public would buy masks needed for health care personnel. (But even a bandana can do the job!) All these “false sense of security” and “they wouldn´t know how to deal with them properly” arguments are invalid in a civilised country with water widely available. It makes absolutely sense to wear masks in public if you understand their limits and what to do with them. Mainly to protect others but also there is some protection for the wearer as well. You are doing a great job with your mask!
Seeing as it’s 5:30 pm here, I would imagine my suggestion is too late. BUT, I made these dinner rolls this past weekend for the first time and they were perfect! So maybe, you can use this for a different dinner.
1 cups warm water (105 to 115 degrees)
2 packages active dry yeast
1 stick butter (melted)
1/2 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon salt
4 – 4 1/2 cups all purpose flour
Additional melted butter (optional)
Combine warm water and yeast in a large bowl. Let the mixture stand until yeast is foamy, about five minutes.
Stir in butter, sugar eggs and salt. Beat in flour, 1 cup at a times, until dough is too stiff to mix (some flour may not be needed). Cover and refrigerate 2 hours or up to 4 days.
Grease a 13×9 inch baking pan. Turn chilled dough out onto a lightly floured surface (I just sprayed the surface with a light coating of Pam – this method is best for me). Divide dough into 24 equal-ish pieces. Roll each piece into a smooth round ball; place balls in even rows in the prepared pan. Cover and let dough balls rise until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Bake until rolls are golden brown, 15-20 minutes. Brush warm rolls with melted butter, if desired.
An interesting grocery store alternative I have been trying that doesn’t eliminate trips to the store but does reduce is buying groceries from restaurants. We have several nearby restaurants that are offering different items, I assume in a bid to survive …big quantities but also good prices. A giant 25 lb bag of flour for $45! 6 dozen eggs for $20! 10 lbs of spaghetti for $10! Or a big box of onions/tomatoes/potatoes/other veggies for a set price (it seems like $30 is a popular price). For bigger families like yours (we are 5 people, biggish) the big quantities are great so long as you have a way to store them.
I have been able to get curbside service where these things are just put in my trunk. Also—i got a Target order with curbside service which worked very well.
The grocery store is a fraught place these days!! I will probably need to go next week to see what I can find. Last time I went it was to our neighborhood, smaller market which wasn’t too crowded, I’m thinking it’s better than the giant supermarket?
I definitely wearing a mask!! Stay safe and healthy…
The thing with storage bags, storage containers, and trash bags being out is curious. Maybe all the people who didn’t do the Mari Kondo thing the first time around are getting to it now? Because it is a time sucks and makes things worse before they get better, and I can imagine people looking at the method and thinking “yeah, sounds good when it’s done, but no way I’m doing that to myself on top of everything else I have to take care of”. Now, for many there is more space or at least more hunger for diversion.
And even with going all Kondo on your stuff – getting organized in general seems to be a constant goal for most people, yet one of the first things to get pushed aside when life asserts itself and you start sorting the “musts” from the “nice-to-haves”. But right now, there is a general sense in the air of it being the time to tackle all the things you pushed to “some day”.
You have to plan ahead, but this recipe is amazing! http://www.astackofdishes.com/the-famous-ny-times-no-knead-bread/
Even better: my mother uses that recipe, but she doesn’t “turn it out on a well floured surface to shape it”. After 12-18 hours you “punch” it down with a spoon, then wait 2 hours, then just pour it into the heated pot. Other than that the recipe is the same. I’ve made it 3 times in the last week and my family loves it.
This isn’t quick as it doesn’t use a bread machine, but it is SO good and fairly easy. It is an overnight rise with minimal fuss.
https://www.cookingclassy.com/crusty-rustic-bread-its-no-knead/
Hmm – I did my supermarket run yesterday (who would EVER have thought that that could be the highlight of a day?!) and am still seething at myself for totally forgetting to see if I could get some flour!
A bee mask! I love it. I vote garlic bread.