Here is the photo proof of what I was doing this afternoon - this is my new pie plate complete with apple pie. Also accomplished a breadmaker loaf of brown bread and a slowcooker stew. And yes, those slow cooker liners are really the bees knees when it comes to clean up - I'm their biggest fan.There was a nice article in the paper today which reminded me of baking so I'm pasting it here:
Tending to the batterBy MONICA GRAHAM In the SpiritSat. Feb 14 - 9:46 AM
THIS PAST WEEK a friend gave me a plastic bag filled with batter for something called Amish friendship bread.It may or may not be truly Amish in origin, and it’s a sweet loaf rather than yeast bread, but you do share it with your friends.
But first you have to take care of the batter, or starter, as it’s called.
The first several days, all you do is mush it around in the bag as it ferments. Easy. Then you add sugar, milk and flour, close the bag and mush it around again. For the next several days, you mush it every day, and try not to misplace or chill the batter.
After 10 days, you add more flour, sugar and milk, and mix it up. Now this is the friendship part: you take a cup out for each of three friends, so they can start their own batter.
You keep a cup of batter for yourself to continue the process. You add eggs and whatnot to the remaining batter and bake it into two large loaves, which can also be shared with friends.
It occurred to me that this recipe for friendship bread is also a metaphor for friendship itself.
First, you can’t create it all by yourself. You have to get the starter from someone else. You have to be a friend to have one, and vice versa.
Then there are the days you just enjoy the easy part of caring for the batter: squishing it around, making sure you don’t lose it or forget it, and keeping it from getting too cold.
There are times in a friendship when you enjoy the warm, easy bits: happy conversations, shared activities and the confidence in knowing you have a friend.
Next, you add something to the batter to increase it and improve it. It’s a bit of work, but no big deal, and it all still fits in the original bag.
Every now and again friendship also places a few more demands on us. We may be called upon to lend a hand or a sympathetic ear in a crisis, endure a problem, or help carry another’s burden.
It’s a bit of work, no huge deal, and it fits within the boundaries of friendship.
Now you can go back to squishing the bag of batter every day to keep it bubbling. Likewise, we keep paying regular attention to our friends to nurture the relationship and keep it active.
Finally, the batter grows too big for the bag. There’s enough to share, and enough left over for ourselves. We introduce it to our friends, who eventually pass batter to their friends, and to their friends. Until, theoretically, everyone in sight is baking Amish friendship bread.
In life, there are times when our friendships expand to include new friends, without diminishing the original relationship, and even improving it. The circle grows ever bigger, creating new circles that overlap until we experience friendly and positive relationships with everyone we know.
Now, what happens when everyone we know and all our friends’ friends already have starter? What do we do with those extra three cups of batter?
Well, we bake extra loaves and freeze them to share in the inevitable hard times, and we keep tending the batter.
And what do we do when our world is brimming with friendship or with love? We preserve it, tend it, celebrate it, hold it in our hearts and minds, and keep it active in our lives because someday someone will need it and want it.
Should you wish to pursue the AFB as this is the acronym for the Amish Friendship Bread here is a link to a blog devoted to it:
http://mysisterskitchen.wordpress.com/2007/03/22/amish-friendship-bread/
Apparently there are many things to be learned about this wonder bread.
Speaking of friendship, I saw a message on Facebook earlier from someone who was providing support to a friend who had posted "nobody had said it was gonna be easy but nobody had said it was gonna be this hard" and the reply was true...but i spent so many years wondering when my life was going to start, when all the mishaps would turn into success...and then one day i realized THIS is my life, full of ups and downs, hard times, good times, happy days and sad days...just make the best of it, laugh at all the blunders and enjoy every moment because it's far too short, don't miss any opportunity, and love your family and friends! :))))) which sums it up eh?
A tip for scrapbooking/cardmarking blog readers is that I picked up some cardstock at Staples yesterday thinking at the copy center as I didn't want to buy a package of 100 sheets and thought I might need it for printing first aid cards and it only cost 7 cents per sheet! No, I didn't check to see if it was archival quality but for projects such as cards etc. it's of no consequence.
Had an email this week from the baby daughter saying that her clinical dates in Sweden are from May 4 to June 5 so she is starting to get excited now. What an opportunity for her eh? Her email said she was basically losing her mind which sounds about right for second term of second year in a BN program. Had a chat with daughter # 2 this afternoon and she is in the thick of her BEd studies without a spring break as she has a practice teaching placement but will have Easter off so we'll look forward to seeing her then. I was relieved to find that it was only a government bureaucrat doing an inspection which sent her to be certified as disease free - one of those makework projects it appeared in it's usefulness. Will have to check in with daughter # 1 to see how Mortage 101 is going with her - all my girls are study bugs at once - but ran out of day.
What with having no children to send to work bingo in my place and having to go myself there were less hours available. This time I managed to make the cash $1.50 in favor of the Fire Dept. so I told my tutor that I would do this each week until I got the $4 back I messed up last time. She showed me the envelope they keep for the 'slip ups' the volunteers make so it is a common occurence apparently. At one point a lady reappeared at the window to tell me that I'd given her too much change by counting the bingo books wrong so I tried to fix the error and made another one. My mentor said "you'll have to excuse her, she's a nurse" and the lady said as she disappeared around the corner "oh no, which hospital does she work at so I don't go there?" to which I replied "I don't have to make change in my line of work" This only gained me a snort.
Well must call it in as I've made plans to do some high speed internet research for my cruise presentation tomorrow morning at the fish plant. I figure that the lack of distractions should encourage me to focus and I'd better take the shore captain up on his offer as he is becoming concerned about my procrastinating - he should recognize such behavior I figure.
