A Yeasty Interlude

Life feels dominated by Christmas and my holiday to-do list. I started in on my tasks early by shopping in advance, making cookie dough to freeze and bake closer to the date, buying paper and plastic for serving (don’t look at me like that, this house doesn’t have a dishwasher) - all those things that in theory will help relieve the stress.

In  theory.

As for the reality, I’m not convinced. I feel like I’ve been doing my to-do list for ages and I’m about to enter full-on panic mode. It’s time to stop and take a deep breath and focus on something besides the “washable bath crayon” I can’t scrub off the shower walls and the film of cat litter dust that seems imbedded in the tiny crevices between the tiny tiles of the master bath floor (what? The cat has to pee somewhere, too).

So to that end, I took a step back from holiday prep today - except for getting my mom’s Christmas box together and ready to mail - and instead decided to bake bread.

Earlier today I mixed up a half batch of the Master Recipe in my new bread cookbook, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. As I write this, the experimental loaf is sitting on my kitchen counter, smelling deliciously yeasty and...crackling. My bread is crackling. I am so ridiculously proud of baking a loaf of bread that crackles. I'm pretty sure I was actually gleeful when I stopped my husband, who was mid-"I don't think this bread turned out right..." and crowed, "Listen! Do you hear that? It's crackling! The book said the crust would "sing" and it is!"

My husband, the well-educated baker and highly-experienced professional cook, paused, and said, "You know, I think I've heard that before with baguette..."

And then I jumped up and down in my kitchen at 10:30 pm*, squealing about my successful loaf of bread and fantasizing about all the other ways I can turn flour, salt, yeast, and water into a hot, buttery orchestra of deliciousness that will do terrible things to my intestines (but that I won't think about until later, when I'm miserable).

So that was my break from the holidays.

Oh, and I exercised! I actually reached my FitBit daily target of 5,000 steps today. I’m making a public declaration right now that I will meet the 5,000 target again tomorrow.

(As long as hot buttered bread doesn’t kill me before morning...and provided I don't wake up screaming my holiday to-do list to the heavens above.)

*Confession: I didn't really jump up and down and squeal, but only because I knew it would wake my toddler. I was partying on the inside, though.