It's Just Peanuts

I am awake early again today. Still a bit rocky from the lung infection. Still moving kind of slow, but determined to get over it once and for all. The antibiotic is all finished up. Hope to see the doctor on Thursday this week if Richard has the day off. You see, Richard got a full time job at Walmart! Hooray! He has worked hard and is always willing to go in early or whenever they need him, so he deserves it. Nice to have a bit of job security. And he enjoys the job.

He leaves for work at 9:30am and I sit on the bed, watching the news and deciding what to do with my day. Make peanut butter. Periodically the local library clears out old books and last summer I found a Food Processor cookbook for a whopping 50 cents. A couple of Christmases ago, I used a gift card and bought myself a 500 watt Black and Decker food processor. I used it a few times, once to make some wonderful Latte Shortbread, once to make a disastrous loaf of bread. I've made pastry in it - with mixed results. But since finding this book, I have wanted to try several things in it.

Today is peanut butter day. I bought some salted peanuts a few weeks ago, before I got sick, and pulled them and the recipe out. Two cups of peanuts; process 5 to 6 minutes; store in fridge. That simple. There is also a recipe for Peanut Butter Cookies I want to try, using a cup of salted peanuts, but don't know if I will do that today. It DOES appeal to me though.

After the peanut butter, I decided on making some Brioche in the Bread Maker. Yes, I do have a Food Processor Brioche recipe to try, but wanted to get the dough going in the bread maker so I could make Richard some Whole Wheat dough in the food processor. This time I used the chopping blade to mix the dough rather than the plastic dough blade, which is absolutely useless. The dough turned out good, mixed up in about a minute, then hand kneaded, or as they refer to it in the book "toss or turn it over 9 to 10 times". Now it's rising on the table, so he will have fresh bread for dinner too.

The Brioche dough finishes its first rise in the bread maker. I decide to make one loaf of bread with half of it and put the other half in the fridge for tomorrow, then make some sweet rolls with it.

The Brioche bread and Richards whole wheat turn out really good. If I sound amazed, it is only because I wasn't sure about the whole wheat made in the food processor. I have had a bad experience making bread in it before, but I guess I have it figured out. Anyway, he enjoys it. And I LOVE my Brioche. That is the most versatile dough. Maybe I will just keep experimenting with it to see what I can make, then write a 1001 Things To Make With Brioche Dough cookbook, grin.

After dinner, which I admit I did not cook - Richard brought home burgers as I wasn't up to much by then - I made some more of the Cheesecake filling in the food processor. Gosh but I think I am addicted to it.

Kate phones late in the evening to say she has decided to come up for a visit. Hooray! Can't wait to see her. She will leave after work on Monday and be here for dinner. We are going to have a Bread Machine Bake Off, as she is bringing her bread maker. What fun.

We take the dogs out for one last go at the garden yard, but Mason refuses to leave the deck. Earlier in the evening he had really been barking at something he saw in the driveway through his patio door. The girls went crazy, running back and forth to the door, sniffing at it as if something or someone was there. I locked them up and checked, but found nothing. Maybe whatever it was spooked him. Maybe that's why he wouldn't go into the yard.

Or, maybe he just didn't have to pee.

The Gadgeteer

Today I am a baker. Oh don't get me wrong, I am still a gardener. I still made my rounds of the garden, noting that the Mole People seem to have retreated momentarily, and checked on the garden boat. Was again waylaid by the gorgeous view from the garden. But today, I AM a baker.

Richard has been asking for Whole Grain Bread which for me is using Spelt flour in my favorite recipe instead of unbleached flour. If you have never used Spelt flour, you don't know what you are missing. It is considered an "Ancient Grain" being a precursor of our modern Wheat, but much, much tastier. I can't digest Whole Wheat - I really don't like the taste and it doesn't agree with me. But Spelt I find has a sweeter flavor and is easily digested. So Spelt Bread it is. With Raisins and Craisins. And of course it will be baked in my Outdoor Gas Convection Oven.

I love to bake and I especially love to make and bake bread. Admittedly I cheat a little. I use a bread maker to mix and knead my dough, and I do it because I have arthritis that makes it really painful to knead dough by hand. Hence the bread maker. I have used bread makers now for 17 years and think they are one of the best kitchen inventions of the modern age. I have had my share of oooops's believe me. Like the time I forgot to put the paddle in the bread machine pan before putting in all the ingredients. Or forgetting the yeast. But nothing can compare to the time I tried to make bread dough in the Food Processor.

I am a Kitchen Gadget addict. I have two bread makers, a food processor, a stand mixer, all sorts of baking pans and sheets, plus lots of other gadgets too numerous to mention. I purchased this particular food processor because it was powerful enough to make bread dough in, and it came with a dough blade - a plastic dough blade.

So I gave it a try, following the instructions to the letter:
Position dough blade in container of processor - check
Add 3c flour, 1T sugar, 1t salt through chute - check
With processor running, gradually add yeast/water mixture down food chute - check
Add additional flour to make a soft dough. Continue processing dough for 1 to 1-1/2 minutes.....

Looking back I can pinpoint the exact time things went horribly wrong. I can even laugh about it. But at the time, I just stood there frozen in shock.

As I am pouring the yeast/water mixture slowly down the chute, the plastic blade suddenly popped up out of the dough like a cork from a champagne bottle. And there I stood with my mouth open, eyes blinking, staring unbelieving at my beloved food processor. How could it betray me this way? How could it? So stunned was I that it took a whole minute for me to hit the kill switch on the darned machine.

So, now what do I do? I have a food processor bowl full of half mixed bread dough, and am too stubborn to just throw it out. I can't mix it by hand - the arthritis thing. Then my eyes light upon my bread maker...sure, why not. And into the bread maker pan it all goes. Nothing to lose at this juncture.

Long story short it, surprisingly, turned out to be some of the best bread dough I had made for a while. I labeled it Faloooopy bread, for the sound the plastic dough blade made when it popped up out of the dough at 3000rpm or however fast it went. And I learned my lesson. Use a food processor for what it was intended - slicing veggies, chopping onions and shredding cheese. And if I do ever decide to try bread dough again in it, I will use the steel blade, not the light plastic one.

My bread machine has finished mixing and kneading my Spelt bread dough and it is on it's first rise. I can't wait to bake it. That mouth watering aroma of baking bread is second only to the flavor of a warm slice slathered in real butter. Mmmmmmmm!

Will my bread turn out? Of course it will. What could possibly go wrong??!!!