The staff of life

For some reason, lately, we have been going through lots of bread. Maybe it has something to do with Mendel's desire to eat only bread all day long. Also, he likes to eat only the inside, discarding a generous crust. Regardless, I have been finding lately that I am constantly running out of bread. The remaking of bread is a pain in the neck - either you spend just a short while, making enough for one day - and then repeat the process of the next day. Or, you make a huge batch, only it takes all day. And it runs out quicker than you planned for it, because everyone feels like there is a surplus of bread.

I own a cookbook, gifted to me by my mother-in-law, call 'The Complete Book of Breads'. True confessions - this is the first time I have used it.

Unfortunately, I misplaced the mixing blade to our bread machine about 4 months ago.

So last night I tried my hand at 'cool rise bread'. this is a really neat recipe. You make the dough, need it, let it sit for few minutes while you go off to do other things like clean your kitchen or read a kid a story. Then you put the dough in pans, cover, and put it in the fridge, where it stays for the next 2 to 24 hours. After that point, you take the dough out of the fridge and slip it in the oven and bake.

The good news is that the recipe worked. We had bread today. The bad news is that it tasted like bread machine bread. That is, edible and decent, but not that yummy.

It was easier to make than regular bread, because I didn't need to wait for it to rise. But not as easy as store bought bread. Meaning, it didn't make itself.

So the search continues for self-making bread - that also tastes good.

Week in Review

And what a week it's been! A marathon, and I have a feeling that the coming one is only getting busier.

Well, honestly, I don't have time to review the whole week, but the end of it was busy enough as it is.

We had youth over for dinner Friday night. I really wasn't sure how many people were coming, but we had 4 really nice guests, and we had a great time. I invited a whole bunch of people for Shabbos day, but it didn't really work for anyone, so I took rain checks, most of which will be cashed in next week.

This morning we had an official community meeting, open to the entire community as a whole. Most of the attendees were over 70. Enough young people did show up though. We planned another meeting for December, in which we will vote for the community president and 5 board members. (The nominees were decided today)

Rabbi Snetkov, from Khabarovsk, came in for the day (12 hour train ride each day) to give lectures. The first one is in session now. My favorite one (well, the only one I understand well enough to translate anyway) is entitled "I - a person vs. I - G-d" or something like that. We have a nice crowd, about 40 people.

That's all for now, running home to the kids. But stay tuned!