the weekend

K has taken a couple of days off.
He took Youngest to the orthodontist for me while I went to a 'sit and knit' with my mother.
He reported that the usually surly-to-me receptionist was eyeing him. AND that she said something like: now I see where your boys get their good looks.
So.
Um, next month, sometime, you may read about me being indicted for assault as she is usually a royal bitch to ME.

And the knitting?
I do know how to knit you know - don't fall off your chair.
It was to be a sit and knit with one of the ministerial interns at our church.
Just a get-to-know-you kind of thing, at my mother's apartment building, in the lounge.
Knit and chat.
So we went and sat and brought some knitting (I mean to do a large rectangle to wrap around me) and began to chat.
But the residents, as they ambled in, didn't want to chat - or didn't know how to knit.
Dismayed that it wasn't lessons, some left.
Dismayed that it wasn't a 'topical discussion' others did not join.
I sat and knitted. And chatted, and it was nice -but next month there will be no knitting and a proper discussion. And so I won't attend.

Saturday we did a lot of running around.
The dog went for a grooming.
I took her bed to the laundromat.
And then we ran around town looking for a Le Creuset dutch oven.
We thought we wanted one in red (isn't all of this fascinating?) but were dismayed to see that the red was sort of an ombre red, which we didn't like.
After several stops we purchased a yellow one - and it looks nice in our kitchen.

The whole purpose for the dutch oven (at this particular time) was to make bread.
K and I had read about a no-knead bread recipe in the newspaper and we were eager to try it.
A couple of hundred dollars and three loaves later, we have not perfected it. BUT WE ARE CLOSE. The Times is famous for changing recipes and the printed recipe for this bread was, in fact, slightly different than the recipe in the video (sit through the commercial for the bread).
Anyway, we are still working on it...
and there is a loaf going into the oven right now.

Sunday was spent cooking -
the bread, twice,
Youngest made a chocolate cake,
and then I requested tonkatsu for dinner, with miso eggplant.
And, what that all added up to was - a totally destroyed kitchen.
I think we used every surface and every pot and every dish we owned this past weekend.
I dug my heels in, at about 7pm, and by eight everything was clean.
The entire time I worked, I had the radio on NPR.
Do you know how sometimes you can just be going about your business, with the radio on, and not really thinking about what you are hearing?
Well, slowly seeping into my consciousness was this bizarre vocal music.
Sort of a cross between Bjork and an infant wailing.
I was entranced - for about ten minutes.
Then I wanted to shoot myself.
I think you should go listen to some of it...


I'll just wait here.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Tell me all about the bread - I am about to try said recipe....
Anonymous said…
I just can't help but to think stinky bread when I hear the words "dutch oven"

Cause I'm immature like that ;)
tut-tut said…
There is something of the Tilley sisters in that voice . . .
Anonymous said…
I spent the weekend curled up in my bed with a bad bad sore throat...

you have no idea how much I would have loved to be in your kitchen instead.
--erica said…
I like your weekend.

and Yes.. NPR is like that. Or I end up with odd facts in my mind.
Amy A. said…
Yowza, I could only stand about two minutes. Interesting, but a little goes a long way. I liked the little flying birdy across the chalk board, though.

And I now know the difference between a sprout and a bean, so there ya go.
Lauri said…
"she is usually a royal bitch to ME."

I am going to make Steven read this post, because this same exact thing happens in our lives on a routine basis, and he NEVER believes me. I have come to hate women receptionists! lol!
Joke said…
You may use the knitting implement as the assault weapon.

-J.
Anonymous said…
I would've joined your sit-n-knit.
Anonymous said…
A-person-with-an-exteme-talk-like-a-little -girl-complex-who-sounds-like-a cat- being-dragged-by-the-tail-through-a-back alley.
OR Edith bunker and a harp.

Shoot me now please.

Mom called in a panic last weekend as Tuesday Morning was having a Le Crueset sale this Tuesday past. She arrived at 6:45 A.M. in the parking lot to find a queue already in place and many of the occupants heading directly to that section with trolleys and just grabbing and plunking them in the cart She scored 6 pieces. These are the times when I cannpt be colour specific. Beggars...choosy and all that.
Dying to watch the bread video.
Suse said…
Bread and knitting?!

My kind of post.
Julia said…
Thanks to that article, we are looking for an oven here in Prague too. Le Creuset should issue a big thank you to the NYT, advertising that reaches around the world.

And the bread? Is it as easy as they suggest?
blackbird said…
The bread, after a bit of playing with the recipe, is just that easy!
Anonymous said…
I have the blue Le Crueset dutch oven and I love everything about it but the color. I thought I wanted the red too but it was too orange for me... and none of the other colors were really what I wanted either. So my husband picked blue and I just shrugged and said 'okay'.
Anonymous said…
Everyone is going on about that bread recipe. I stumbled across this great analysis of it earlier today -- it may help with your recipe refinements.
http://www.realbakingwithrose.com/2006/11/holy_bread.htm
Anonymous said…
oh how i love my le creuset dutch oven. seriously, it's my favorite piece of cookware. and now you say that i can make bread in it? where does it end?!?
Unknown said…
After reading about that bread on at least 20 different food blogs, I broke down and made some too. I don't have a Le Creuset dutch oven, but I used my all clad dutch oven and it worked pretty well. I also wet the pizza stone and placed the dutch oven on top of that to create a really damp oven atmosphere.

It was good. Really good. But I didn't have the big holes that some people got. I think although I used instant yeast (3/4 as much) that is stored in the freezer, it might be a bit old. I'm going to try it again.