Bread and Wood

With the economy slipping into the great abyss here’s a couple of ideas that might just save us all.

1. Bake a loaf of bread everyday. Debbie’s been doing this and I guarantee if everyone does it we will be living in a different world. It is basically an adaptation of the “no-knead” bread recipe from New York’s Sullivan Street Bakery with a few modifications. (It’s Debbie here now with the details) I have found the flour and yeast used to be very important. I use King Arthur bread flour and SAF instant yeast.(which you can buy from the King Arthur site as well or from Surfas. For my 2nd rise, after  shaping I place it on a greased sheet of parchment paper and invert the bowl over it fro 1-2 hours. I also deviate from the recipe in cooking time. I bake covered at 500 degrees for 40 minutes and uncovered a 350 for an additional 15. Voila, pretty darn good, very easy home made bread.

2. Teaching 5th graders wood carving. There’s something about passing out little carving knives to 10 & 11 year olds and  giving  them a piece of plum wood to start their first project with. 

Well, maybe things like this won’t save us but they will teach us all to slow down, perhaps even stop,  and start small.