Success!

Here are some pictures of the bread that came out of the new-to-me machine.  I think we're going to get along. 

Happiness after mourning a small appliance

[Last night's Facebook post:)] 

Panifex mortus est. 'The bread maker is dead'. :( So after years of baking really great bread, including the weekly Sabbath challah, my bread machine has died. and my attempt to make bread last night resulted in a watery, terrible mess that had me just wrap the pan in a bag and carry it outside to the bin.  Sadly, they not only don't make that model anymore, Panasonic no longer makes affordable bread machines (all I saw were a couple in the $450-$650 range, and they didn't have the yeast hopper I liked so much about this one.  You can get all sorts of fancy machines these days, and I was looking at various features more in the $80-$130 range, and I think I've found a nice Hamilton Beach one (the name I was trying to think of earlier today while explaining it to a friend, and I kept coming up with Black & Decker (which does make appliances, but not what I was trying for) and Smith & Wesson (which is right out for bread-making)). But it'll be a couple of weeks till I can get it and so for tonight and the next little bit, we've had to have matzoh crackers instead.  Known as 'the bread of affliction' (really), matzoh sucks all of the taste and moisture out of your mouth, and one form is commonly used at Pesach (Passover) as it is unleavened according to the commandment.   But it can be substituted and blessed for Sabbath. But it's just not the same.  Here's hoping the new machine, when it is ordered and arrives, will do just as well as this one, which has lasted a minimum of ten years.

[Today's Facebook post:] 

Thanks to a kind friend who gave me a bread machine she'd used a few times, I am up and running again with bread making.  She even found the manual, which includes a conversion between the active dry yeast that is used in the recipes of the booklet vs. the rapid rise/instant yeast I am used to and have, recipes, troubleshooting tips, as well as directions, which I have now read from cover to cover. The main difference is since it doesn't have the yeast hopper (which is not unusual--I couldn't find any on Amazon that did, including the same brand I'd had), you put the wet ingredients in first, then dry ones, then yeast, to keep the yeast and liquids as far away from one another as possible until they are mixed and only at that time should the yeast be activated.  The times are a little different.  There isn't a rapid bake for regular loaves like on mine so it takes a little longer to bake a loaf (but not as long as the regular setting on my old one), but the dough setting is cut by an hour in time, which is very useful since I use the dough setting every week for challah.  I'm going to test it this weekend to do a trial run in preparation for the challah-making on Thursday. Thank you, thank you, thank you for letting me have this, and for meeting me today to get it to me.

:) 

Lovely

So we had Sabbath dinner and the two challah loaves I made in the bread machine over the last couple of days exceeded my expectations immensely. It is rich and buttery, needing no spread but I'm sure it would go well with jam. My roommate said it was much better than what we've been getting at the bakery for $5 a loaf, special ordered. If I can keep this up he won't have to remember to order it on Thursdays, or go out on the bus on Fridays (it takes about 2-3 hours), and it'll save $40 a month. The bread flour is less than $4-5 a bag, and will make four or more loaves. So, I guess I know what I'll be doing weekly.

The recipe came from a book called Electric Bread. Here is the recipe, should you want to try it, for a large loaf [they call it that; they're smaller than a regular white bread loaf, and I thought they'd be denser, but they were incredibly fluffy]:

3/4 of a cup of water
3 cups bread flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 half stick of butter [1/4 of a cup]
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
1 1/2 teaspoons rapid-rise powdered yeast [my machine has a separate bin for the yeast that puts it in at the right time].

Up

I won't say early, because compared to the weekdays I've actually slept in, getting up right at 9 am. But in the 30 minutes that I've been up, I've started a load of laundry, started a loaf of bread making in the bread machine, gone out to the car to get some Diet Sunkist from my car, nicely chilled, and am now caffeinating. It's why I drink the stuff--I don't care for colas that much, preferring fruit flavour, but it's the only orange soda I've found with caffeine. That said, I know soda, in general, is not so good for me, particularly with artificial sweeteners (Diet Sunkist uses aspartame). So I have been exploring other options. I don't care for coffee or black tea. I've tried Mio Energy and Crystal Light Energy but they are artificially sweetened as well. So I'm still looking. And yes, I like water, but I need a little caffeine to get through the day or I'm like a zombie.

Also since getting up, I've also taken my insulin and Byetta (but not the oral meds yet--I'm at the end of my pill container and need to fill it up. I need caffeine before I do that, or I tend to put them in the wrong slot or even drop them, which is not good when you have cats, particularly a kitten, who is fascinated by all sorts of things dropping to the floor.

I did splurge just a bit yesterday, buying a Kindle book of a regular book that I have out from the library. It is called Orchid Modern: Living & Designing with the World's Most Elegant Houseplants By Marc Hachadourian, the curator of the Orchid Collection at the New York Botanical Garden. It's a lovely book, dealing with the history of orchid collecting, the different species, plant care, creating decorative projects like terrariums, creating a good environment for the orchids, etc., all in one substantial book and generously and beautifully illustrated. I really liked looking through it, but when it came to reading--and he has a good writing style--I found I was impeded by the relatively small typescript, no doubt small to leave room for the lovely pictures of orchids. So I got the Kindle book because while on my e-reader it would have been wasted, I normally read my books on my tablet now (which is not a Fire, but I use the Kindle application on an Android tablet. I say splurge because it was $10.99 and I don't have much money, and I am trying to get tyres soon. But it is such a lovely book. What can I say, orchids have a long history of causing mania, why should books about them be any different? Anyway, this way I can increase the text size to see what I'm reading. My glasses do correct to 20/20 both in general and with the bifocal, but the small print is still harder to focus upon. This, I think, is the most useful quality of e-books, that they can be manipulated in terms of settings so that anyone can read them who would normally have issues due to age or disability, and most books, particularly non-fiction ones, are not given Large Print editions. Also, you can blow-up images when needed on the tablet, something that the Kindle e-reader does not do hardly at all. Incidentally, I used to keep my Chrome settings at 95% and I knocked up the text and the rest up to a little above 100%. It helps immensely. No sense in getting eyestrain. I think the presbyopia is part of my hiatus from enjoying reading, so anything I can do to read more books is worth it. And I can also read on my laptop, which is a low-end 2-in-1 that folds back to be a very large tablet-like screen when you change to tablet mode and I have the Kindle application on it, as well.

Alright, I'm going to go get some breakfast. I'll probably write some more before I start my Sunday chores proper (although laundry is something I do on Sunday, that's for me, not the household, generally).

It's so fluffy!

It was hard to get out of the pan. This is an extra-large loaf, expanding to the inside of the bread machine's lid itself, which is why the shape is a little off. But it smells great and experience would say it's very nummy.

The wheat loaf came out well

Although, unlike normal, I had to extract the paddle from the bread, probably because it's denser.  But it rose well--just not as large as a normal 'XL' loaf, more like a large one.  At YKWIA's suggestion, I'm making a large loaf of herb bread as well, and everything's cooled down, so I've got that measured out and in the pan mixing and now probably rising as we speak.

In the meantime, I have put a heating pad on my back, which felt nice--whoever invented the things should be applauded--and I've put my laundry away from yesterday, which is good, as I'm bad about procrastinating that.  At the apartment, I often lived out of hampers because quite frankly, the closets were full of books.

Sadly, the cat did not come cuddle while I was lying down.  He stayed with his master, which I suppose is the order of things.    For the last two nights, the little dog has stayed in there with him, too, although apparently, she started out with me, per YKWIA.  I'm wondering if the fans on are too cool for her.  I have them on low (there are two in the library/my bedroom).  They're very comfortable for me, although way too cold for YKWIA to stay long in this room when I have them on, especially tonight, as I may have given my crud to him.  I just made him tea and rubbed his feet.  I've given the dogs their nightly peanut butter treat, chained the door, etc.  I'll turn the light over the stove out when I'm finished with the bread and head on to bed myself, but that won't be for another hour.

Must admit, however, that I am getting sleepy. :)

Whole wheat bread can be a challenge

This is the fluffiest and best-tasting (a little piece fell off in the lower back) whole wheat loaf I've ever made. I used the normal recipe, but had transcribed the dough conditioner wrong before, and it always came out pretty small and compact. Got it right this time, and used olive oil instead of canola. Yay!

Feeling kind of blah today

I've mostly been cleaning YKWIA's house, even though there was no game, and doing my laundry. He's been working very diligently on a project on the computer, so we didn't really spend much time together today. When I finished, I went on home. I'm aching in general, my neck, shoulder, and arm is hurting, and I'm feeling a little oversensitive emotionally, maybe due to my hormones.

So I came home and immediately started putting flour and other ingredients into the bread machine for oat bread, scrambled some eggs, and made some hot chocolate. I feel a little better. There's not much in the house, other than pasta, crackers, peanut butter, and that sort of thing, but it hit the spot. When the bread is finished I'll have some peanut butter and jam on it. It should be ready by 8 pm.

I talked to my mom today. She'd just been discharged from the hospital, and her little dog, Sassy, seemed to be enjoying her being back home. It was hard to understand her and be understood, but I gather than in addition to the other things she seems to have broken her shoulder, although I don't know how. I'll check with my stepfather and see what's going on. But she clearly said something about a broken shoulder, and that they were seeing a specialist tomorrow.

The bread machine has stopped its kneading, which means it's safe to leave rising and baking (my machine 'walks' a bit, and I'm always afraid it'll go off the kitchen island if I don't keep an eye on it). I think I'm going to go put some music on and lie down for a bit. I just realised I have a headache, too. I think some ibuprofen is in order. I'll try to write later. Hopefully I'll feel better then. I have to get A tonight from work at midnight, so I can't take the muscle relaxants yet, so ibuprofen will have to do. But I think just lying down and stretching out should help.

I love my bread machine

It's a Panasonic,  and with the exception of one time when I made a mistake,  the bread comes out perfectly without fuss.  It has a yeast dispenser on top that puts the yeast in at just the right time.

I'm feeling pretty decent today.  Instead of the normal pain and numbness in my arm,  neck,  and shoulders,  I feel a bit sore,  like when you're in a minor car accident. I have PT again tomorrow.  Yay!

Today I reviewed a bunch of abstracts (well,  eleven)  for the upcoming annual meeting of the Medical Library Association, and I updated that on my curriculum vitae.  I had trouble getting into the system yesterday,  but fortunately my new computer at work has Chrome and Firefox in addition to Internet Explorer,  so all I had to do was change browsers.  In my opinion,  the main reason to have IE is to download other browsers.

Did I mention

That I got notice of my final day at my job at Shriners,  barring finding a new job before then?  My last day will be March 31, 2017--right after I reach 20 years there,  and two days before my 50th birthday. Somehow knowing the final date makes things more real--it saddens me and makes a cold pit of fear dwell in my stomach. I'm trying to not be anxious or depressed,  but it's hard,  especially with the other stuff going on right now.

Today I spoke with one of my bosses about the upcoming procedure and small (must remind myself of this) chance of a hysterectomy. She was very encouraging.  I should draw up a plan to complete the shuttering of the library using other personnel chipping in,  just in case.

Tonight I took my friends to the store and A to a meeting, and then came home and laid on a heating pad listening to Pandora on the bedroom Roku box.  I used the time to free up some space on my phone so I could download some updates. Between uninstalling and moving applications to the SD card,  I freed up about 2.5 GB. Yesterday I had a Marshmallow security update,  and it optimised 334 apps. That seems excessive.

Now I'm baking some herb bread.  It should be ready about an hour and a half from now. So, basically it's a quiet night.

Tomorrow I need to pick up some medicine from the pharmacy (on top of everything else yesterday,  I have a yeast infection due to a round of doxycycline for that spider bite). Then there's taking a friend to an appointment.  While he's there I'll try to work on the notes for Sunday's game,  assuming we play (it's Brenda's birthday).  I also plan to work on my closets in the bedroom tomorrow,  as that was my 'homework' from my therapist,  and I see him again on Monday.

Okay,  I'm going to lie down again and listen to music on my phone while the bread machine makes bread.  The heating pad helped,  but my neck is still having issues.  Good night.

I got home about 8:30 tonight, which isn't bad for me

And I remembered to come in the other entrance to the apartment complex, as there is angled parking across from my building and the striped the new asphalt in the opposite direction than it had been, mainly so vehicles would not block the drive as people come around the corner of the wall. I came in and immediately started looking through the cabinets, but didn't find much other than some steel-cut oats, quinoa, and hot chocolate. I did, however, find a full jar of Dickinson's blackberry preserves that I'd forgotten was in the refrigerator. I still have a bit of peanut butter, too. So the first thing I did before changing into comfy clothes or anything else was put the ingredients for bread into the pan of the breadmaker and set it. I should have bread before midnight. Oh, and I found some not-too-limp celery and managed to salvage a stalk, so that will tide me help with my rumbly stomach. I'm so glad I get paid in a little over 24 hours. It's pretty much all spoken for, but I should be able to get some food and restock the pantry some, hopefully.

So now I'm in the bedroom, listening to the OneRepublic station on Pandora. I'm surprised I still have Wi-Fi, to be honest--I need to pay the Internet and electric bills or they'll be disconnected later this week. Sigh. Things will get better. I will find either a part-time job that will help, or a full-time job that will let me avoid the unemployment line next April when my current positions end. The only job of note out there is an associate at Lexington Public Library, which is part-time and I could do that as a second job, but I don't know if they'd hire a degreed librarian. I think I'll call tomorrow; it closes Friday. It can't hurt to ask if they would at least consider it. In the meantime, I've checked out several books on using LinkedIn and other social media to brand oneself, create a network, and find a job. Maybe that can help. One thing about being a librarian, you tend to think the answer to something is to be found in a book. That's not always the case, of course, but educating oneself can never be bad.

Speaking of which, I'm going to go work on my LinkedIn profile a bit. Hope you're having a good week. Oh, and PS, I think I've finally stopped the second period of the month, which is a relief. I still need to make that appointment, though.

Important tip when using bread machines

Make sure the paddle is in the pan before putting in all the ingredients. Really. I just had to reach in and place it after the fact, and it was pretty gooey. At least I realised before I turned the machine on. I hope it still works okay. :)

I came home terribly tired. I'm not sure why, really. I didn't do anything particularly tiring. I went to my ophthalmology appointment this morning, nearly got run old while standing for a moment perfectly stationary in an empty parking place fiddling with my purse by someone who obviously wasn't paying attention to the 300-lb woman in bright turquoise, did my normal stuff at work--where I struggled to stay awake and alert--then picked a friend up from work, took him to the bank, and then met up with another friend so they could both go grocery shopping (I stayed in the car), and then took them to their respective homes. I got home after seven, parked out on the street because they'll be resurfacing our section of the lot tomorrow, spoke with YKWIA briefly on the phone, and then fell asleep for about three hours, finally giving in to the sleepiness. I slept well last night, my blood sugar has ranged from 80 (fasting)-149 (two hours' after lunch) today (which is good, even a little low on that first number). I don't know what the issue was. I just got up and got some pasta leftovers and I'm apparently quite hungry now. While that was heating up I put the bread ingredients together, then realised the thing about the paddle. Now it's happily mixing the ingredients. There's a storm brewing, so I hope it doesn't interrupt the power, as I don't think that would work well for the bread.

I went to the bathroom when I got up and I am unexpectedly bleeding. Now a guy would panic. A woman who's already had a period two weeks ago would surmise break-through bleeding, although this is heavier than the normal spotting. If it continues, I'll check with a doctor. Maybe my iron is low--I gave blood, had my period, and now I'm bleeding again, and they have me on iron (and were quite annoyed that I gave it away in my donation, which I honestly didn't think about). I won't worry for now.

My house smells like roasted pine nuts--not unpleasant, just a little odd, and the smell was something I got strongly through the CPAP machine and couldn't figure out at first.

Ah, here comes the rain. I wonder if they'll be able to work on our lot tomorrow, after all. It's a 40% chance of rain tomorrow, and the rain right now is strong enough to be hitting the windows. On the plus side, it's watering the geraniums on my windowsill outside. We just got a strong lightning burst nearby that made me jump so hard my hand is now cramped, and the car alarms for several cars just went off. There's nothing on the radar to indicate this storm; it must be terribly localised, as in where the pin dot is for Lexington.

Okay, I'm finished eating. I should go on back to bed until the bread is done, because I need to go into work early tomorrow, as I will be leaving to take a friend for a minor procedure and want to make the most of my time. I need to put a book order in tomorrow morning and catch up a little on my data entry. Good night.

Yay!

Loaves of whole wheat bread,  one with 1 teaspoon of yeast,  one with 1 tablespoon of yeast.  Can you tell which is which?

Random thoughts

When trying to make microwaved baked potatoes, one does not simply put the potatoes in the microwave and walk away without setting the time and hitting the start button.

Three men were putting a car on a U-Haul trailer in front of my apartment last evening, and one actually pulled out (and read) the instructions. I was amazed. I bet he'll ask for directions, too. If anyone is dating him, he's a keeper.

No matter how hard one is hit with the urge to twirl upon entering the building one works at in the morning, one does not do it, because one is an adult. Exceptions may be made for days when one is wearing a skirt with sequins on it while walking in bright sunlight, but today was not that day. What can I say, I got rest (hence no blogging last night) and was in a happy mood.

When trying a recipe for the second time that didn't turn out right the first time, one should check and double-check the ingredients and amounts and directions. I am trying the bread again. This time I put a whole tablespoon in the yeast bin (I have a bread machine that has a separate yeast compartment which releases it at the right time in the process). We will see how it turns out.

Despite having a driving phobia, one's best friend has an incredibly calming effect on one, so that even if one forgot to take one's medicine, the drive across town to the pharmacy and back was pleasant and almost relaxing, even in rush-hour traffic. When one dropped off one's best friend, everything went downhill from there. Fortunately rush hour is now over and one is home.

When leaving the pharmacy, one does not turn sharply to exit into the parking lot, or one makes a horrible scraping noise on the kerb. However, there does not seem to be any damage, so one was lucky.

When one is driving someone with back problems who has expressly told one that his back popped earlier and he has been in quite a bit of pain, one should not turn suddenly or move quickly while driving (or run up on kerbs). One should instead pretend one has plants, animals, or children in the car, and drive gently.

A great big thank you to my bank branch at the Alexandria Road Kroger, which stays open on weekdays later than the others, so I was able to put $1.50 into my account rather than $2.00 to cover a bill I will be paying tomorrow, and as a result I had a whole $4 for gas. :)

It was nice getting free stuff via the Apple settlement from Amazon today--I got a blue cloth elephant-print purse, a phone case (what can I say, I like them, even though no one understands my need to match them to my outfits), and the second series of 'Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries'. One more DVD to get at some point, and then I'll have them all, yay!

I was so happy to see a co-worker who had been hurt return to work today. She started at the hospital the week I was born, and so next year, she will celebrate her 50th anniversary with the company before the hospital closes and becomes an ambulatory care centre instead, moving over by the University of Kentucky hospital.

I moved an appointment I had for tomorrow to Tuesday so I could have more time to get ready, and be on time, for a meeting of the library committee tomorrow. I already had a noon appointment Tuesday, so now I have one (same general area) at 2:30 as well, so I took the day off. That means I have a four-day weekend, although one will mostly be spent at appointments. :( I don't think I'll go to the downtown festival for the Fourth this year, as I haven't really had as much fun in recent years. However, I still plan on going to the Idle Hour fireworks as per usual (employees can park at the hospital using our badges to get in, and we're right across the street from the fireworks display). People normally park along the road and spread blankets or take chairs and sit on our front lawn. It'll be the last year the hospital will be open for it, and who knows whether the new owners will allow that sort of thing. We also allow sledding in the winter, and again, I think things may change. The neighbourhood tends to treat our grounds (there are slightly over 29 acres, mostly rolling grass and trees) as a local park, walking, biking, taking the dogs out to play, etc. There's even a bunch of little kids (very little) who practice soccer out in the back forty some afternoons. If the property is developed, or if the new owners don't want that kind of thing, the neighbours will be very disappointed, I think.

Okay, I'm going to make boiled eggs and the eggplant pasta later, but the bread machine is going right now. I think I'm going to lie down for just a bit, as I have a headache. I should write later.

Happy bread

It's done.  You can also see the canisters of beans and rice in this photo. Still haven't taken that nap,  so I will now.

I seem to be

terribly incapable of washing more than a dish or two without getting soaked down my front to the skin. Tonight was worse, as a lid under the water at the wrong angle meant water in my face and on my glasses. It got everywhere. Even when I filled up the ice cube trays, I sprayed water everywhere. Plus, I have a small leak, and I tried to turn the faucet off completely in case that was it, and the whole faucet came up a tad, still attached to the pipe, but moving about. I'll call about that on Monday.

Thankfully, however, the kitchen is completely cleaned up, the dishwasher is drying dishes, the plastics and cookware are in the drainer drying, and sunflower seed bread is baking. I hope it rose okay with the dishwasher going and all my clanging about. I had just enough whole wheat flour and sunflower kernels to do the bread, and I thought it would make a nice change. Before I go to bed, I'm going to put a pound of beans to soak overnight, and then tomorrow I'll cook them with the onion and some garlic in the crock pot.

I need to head over to Facebook and wish one of my former co-workers a happy birthday. The bread has just about an hour to go, so I'll probably stay up till then, but then go on to bed soon after. Have a good night.

Magnifico!

That is one of the best loaves of bread I have ever made--large, light, fluffy, with a thin, crispy crust, great with a buttery spread and full of flavour without having to add anything else. It has: dill seeds, caraway seeds, parsley flakes, marjoram, thyme, oregano, basil, and I think, rosemary (the latter few lumped together in an Italian herb mix). The herbs are not overpowering, just add flavour to an excellent bread. Yay! I'm glad, as that was the last of my white flour and all but one tablespoon of my butter (it takes two tablespoons to make a large loaf, usually). I just guestimated in terms of putting in the herbs; 1/4 tsp. for each of the seeds, 1 tbsp. for the Italian herbs together, 1 tbsp. for the parsley, and another 1/4 tsp. for basil. It worked really well. I didn't put sage in, as I thought that might be too strong. Anyway, it came out nearly perfect. The only herb loaf I ever made that was a better texture/taste was the one that I substituted garden herb cream cheese for part of the butter because I'd run out. That was very creamy, and denser, but very good. But I like this immensely.

PS: The house now smells absolutely wonderful.  Okay,  good night,  for real,  this time (I think).

Not quite sure what happened

with the bread I was baking, an oatmeal loaf. I measured out all the ingredients correctly. I think maybe I thought it went from small to large on the settings, but it was still on small, but I'd put in enough for a large loaf. (I was at a bad angle for seeing the screen.) It's very dense and about half the normal size. Mmmmm...it's still good as far as taste, at least. :) I may try again once everything cools down. Meanwhile, I'm on the last song of the playlist, 'Your Bones' by Of Monsters and Men. I love that one.

I've been doing some things around the house

I discovered that it was a bad thing to have gotten Lysol toilet bowl cleaner with bleach,  because it took my breath away and caused some problems.  Sometimes I forget I have sensitivities to cleaning products,  especially those with bleach. I used to have a horrible time going down the cleaning aisle of the grocery,  although that's been better of late.  I usually use natural cleaners in the bathroom,  and whenever possible.

I'm also making bread.  I can't for the life of me seem to find the recipe booklet that came with my bread machine,  but fortunately I have a book called Electric Bread that covers the basics and has some good recipes.  Tonight's is Sun Crunch,  which has sunflower seeds,  honey,  and both white and wheat bread flour.

Okay,  it's about an hour and a half till bread time. Time to get some rest.

I managed to read

several chapters of a book which I have been trying to complete for a couple of years now,  on and off.  It's Grave Secret,  by Charlaine Harris.  I like so many of her works,  including the Sookie Stackhouse and Aurora Teagarden books.  This is the last in the Harper Connelly series,  about a woman who has the ability to find dead bodies and find out how they died.  I like them,  but for whatever reason,  I've had trouble getting into this one.  I've checked it out from the library several times,  bought the Kindle book,  even checked out an audiobook.  The last may have kickstarted things a bit, so I was able to return to my Kindle.  I haven't read much in awhile,  and almost none in the Kindle,  although I keep it charged and with me.  If I retire to the bedroom,  I usually fall asleep within a few pages.  I used to read avidly.  I think I just need to get back into the habit.

The first loaf of bread is ready and packed up.  I'm waiting for the temperature to fall back to where I can start the next one. The first was a general white bread.  The other will be an oatmeal honey loaf. Unfortunately,  that takes up the last of my yeast.

Okay,  I'm going to climb into bed for a bit.  Good night.