House Blessings, Bread, & Pippin

We had house blessing's on Tuesday. Its fortunate Tirzah, Anna, and I are in the same area because then we all get to have dinner together. Irina is in our group too but unfortunately couldn't make it to the dinner. Everything went well and cleaning up the house wan't too much work. I was glad we'd been keeping up on the nightly kids pick-up routine. Dinner was tasty, conversation was lively, and the wine was in abundance. Looking forward to next year.

I found this bread recipe in my last issue from Cook's Illustrated. I always wanted to make rustic looking loaves like you see in bakeries. This is an almost-no-knead bread. You need to let it sit for about 8 hrs though, or up to 18, to get the slighty sour dough taste. It has beer and vinegar too. Then you cook it in a covered dutch oven for the first 30 min then remove the lid for the last 20 min and it comes out steamed with a pretty, crunchy crust. I liked in Ratatouille, when they are discussing how to test bread by the sound. This loaf had a perfect brittle, crackly sound when you squeezed it. It tates yummy too. Especially when it is still warm. The kids like it toasted for breakfast. This was my third loaf this week. I'm out of flour now. I'd like to try it with fresh whole-wheat flour some time. But I don't have a grinder. I asked Shane if I could get one and he said sure, as long as I didn't start wearing denim jumpers and head coverings too. I submissively acquiesced. But I haven't picked one out yet. I like the idea of getting more wheaty-nutrients and it tastes really yummy if you freshly grind it- as opposed to the store stuff. and recipes don't come out brick hard.

The kids were playing with balloons and rubbing them on their hair to make static electricity. Cyprian would walk around the house with a balloon perched on his shoulder or back- looking kind of quasi-modoish. Kateri's hair was amazing but she wouldn't hold still for a picture.

Pippin and George sharing some breakfast.

One thing we seem to have escaped, so far, was picking up Jack's sickness. He threw up while they were here so it seemed like a pretty sure thing. I guess the germs felt sorry for us as we have been battling colds for the last 2 weeks. And it is still going strong. Kateri's had a resurgence last night and was coughing. I couldn't get to sleep until after 2am. I did make some home-made chicken broth which I simmered all day yesterday. It was very comforting and I'm looking forward to more at lunch. Every evening I find myself craving thera-flu. Not sure how I'll survive once I'm over the cold. If that day does come.