Catch as Catch Can

Wow, it's been a while since I have posted anything of importance. Again! I realize now, I'm not the most consistent of bloggers, but I'd still like to keep with it, if you'll bear with me? I don't have a clear blog direction yet and that's part of the problem. I need to be struck by the inspiration and need to write before I can commit to sitting down to post. I need to fight a slew of distractions and obligations (Realy...who NEEDS to study? I can always study LATER and blog now! Ha!) Okay, really. My life has been increasingly busy and in a good way since coming back to live in the small confines of my parents house. Busy with family visits and dinners, diet plans, excercising to try to prevent a chubby boy child from becoming chubbier (not to mention my own rather ample backside), helping to take care of my two special sisters....and on! It's not been bad. Fulfilling, rewarding..all that jazz. But it's left VERY little time for me to pursue my own needs and interests. Art has become a luxury and reading stolen in moments of quiet. Blogging? HA! So it'll be catch as catch can here at Through These Dreams for a while. I'll snatch what moments of my own I can to write, make art and day dream with you all! I hope you stick around through my absencences!

“You know that I could use somebody…someone like you…”

~Kings of Leon

So here is my latest obsession:

Sourdough Bread

I’ve grown and cultivated my started for about a month now and it’s wonderfully stinky with a sour yeasty aroma. I’ve made a couple loaves of bread machine bread and a batch of sourdough pancakes that were OUT OF THIS WORLD. Now, I want to delve into this book and attempt some of the crusty loaves featured on the cover. There’s only one problem to that plan….the OVEN here in my current domicile. It’s horrific. It’s a wall unit that has a heating element only on the top, and not on the bottom. It has only enough space to make 2 loaves at a time, not the four that come out of most recipes. I’ve tried everyway I can think of to get my dad to install my own oven, a brand new Kenmore brand that features convection, a bread proofing setting and a glass top stove. But in order to do this, we’d have to tear down and repurchase ALL of the cabinets. Not something anybody can really afford to do…not to mention wants to do. *Sighs*

So what now? I guess I can halve the recipes and keep an eagle eye on the loaves to prevent uneven cooking that is rampant in the current P.O.S. oven…or I can continue to crank out edible but not very inspired creations from the bread machine. Maybe the old lady next door would let me borrow her oven in exchange for a loaf of bread? Just a thought…..

There’s something wonderful about delving into these “from scratch” projects. Like the yogurt before this, this may prove to be just a passing fancy. (It’s freaking HARD to make enough greek yogurt to feed EIGHT hungry people!) Or maybe it’ll last and I’ll become a master bread baker? Not likely….but one can dream.