Spring . . . Behind

Happy Spring!

It's totally happening here . . . daffodils blooming, forsythia busting out in all it's yellow glory, and the trees buds are getting fatter and fatter.  Bless the spreading green . . . may it keep spreading until the world is green and bright and fragrent.

And please, please help my allergies . . .

There is something that happens to me each spring (and maybe most of us), but I get all these glorious headaches that sometimes blind me, runny noses that make my raw, and tickle coughs that make me run to get a drink asap and pop in cough drops constantly.

But the hardest thing of all is that I am soo sleepy all the time.  I know it's all tied up in my histamines going insane, but it makes me a little nutty that my body can't seem to snap out of it.

The alarm goes off in the morning, I'm sure.  I just don't hear it.

Every time I sit down pretty much, I fall asleep.  Today when poor Finnegan was telling me about his day at school (someone brought in Tarantulas), I just drifted off.  Next thing I knew my face had the pattern of our couch pillows and I was jumping up yelling, Celia! (My car pool week).  Luckily Phoebe had gone off and picked them up while I was dead to the world.

All my motivation to do anything  . . . clean, cook, exercise gets swallowed up in the uncontrollably strong desire to sit/lounge in the sun like a cat and nap.  Toby and I, we are a pair.  You can find us most afternoons on different ends of the same couch.

But today, after being lazy (as per my post) for the last week, I noticed a few things . . .

There were literally mountains of laundry in every room.  Oops.

The walls are covered in black and sticky something hand prints (thank you awesome weekend with cousins! totally worth it).

There were like 100 unread/unanswered emails (still might be 70).

My hair, bless me, my hair, I'm honestly not sure when I last washed it (body, yes, hair . . .uh . . . ).

And let's not get started on how bare my cupboards were and what we've been eating all week.  Suffice it to say, Wendy's seems like a complete meal to the kids.

So . . . I got my little sleepy fanny in gear and . . . did most of the wash, washed my hair (didn't do it, but it's clean!), grocery shopped(ish . . . we have some fruit and some turkey and bread so no one will starve), put potatoes in the oven to roast for dinner (with hot dogs . . . baby steps people, baby steps), and did a little yoga this morning (which I might have . . . well, lets say that the 25 chutarungas where not what they should be), and I made bread.

Yep, you read that right.

I made fragrant, delicious white and wheat bread and they came out!  Any of you bakers know what I'm talking about.  Bread has a mind of it's own.  Sometimes it just doesn't work out.  It flops.  John's Grandmother used to call it Dumb Bread and she'd get really discouraged (as do we all) and bring it over for their family of 10 to eat (they thought it was wonderful). 

I took pictures . . .

 

Pile of now CLEAN laundry (you really wanted to see this . . . I know you did)

 

Ahh and here it is . . . the bread (only little loaf of white left and the sweet yummy honey whole wheat).

I'm going to give you the recipe.  It's my mother's top secret one.  I did a whole tutorial a few years back, but that was before I accidentally erased my whole blog (oops) and it's gone.

So here it goes again:

 

Mom's Honey Whole Wheat Bread

I use my kitchen aid with the kneading hook.

 

2 1/2 c luke warm water (feels warm to the touch)

1 tbsp yeast

1 tbsp sugar 

Let the yeast grow and get frothy for about 5-10 minutes

Add:

1/4 c veggie oil

1/2 c honey 

1 tbsp salt

Mix

Then add 2-4 whole wheat flour until it looks like really thick gravy.

Let rise 30 minutes to 1 hour. Until it's doubled and high.

Then add either more whole wheat flour or if you want a lighter bread, slowly add white flour (2-4 c) until the dough clears the edges and feels like play dough ish.

Knead for 5 minutes on medium low speed (I set mine at 4).

Put in a greased big bowl.

Let rise 1-2 hours or until doubled in size (the temperature of your house speeds or slow downs the rate of rising depending on how warm--warmer, faster).

Then put on a oiled counter top, divide in half, roll out and then roll up like a fruit roll up.  Pinch the seams (bottom and sides), and then carefully place in a well greased baking pan.

Let rise again (in a warm place) until the dough fills the pan and slightly rounded above the pan.

Preheat oven at this point to 350.  When warmed to 350, place pans in the oven.

Cook for 30-40 minutes.  You can tell when it's done by the browning on the bottom and if you lightly tap on the bottom of the bread, it sounds hollow.  I know that's crazy, but it's exactly right.

Then you let it cook on a rack for about 15-20 minutes before . . . you devour it with warm butter.