Monday, November 17, 2008

healing and homemaking

Well that was fun. And I say fun only to throw you off, because really it's kind of gross. I went to get my stitches out today, much to Donovan's fascination (can I WATCH?! yes, you can. COOOOOOOOL.) and after the nurse had pulled them out, she turned to do...I don't know what because I was too consumed with watching my incision s-l-o-w-l-y p-u-l-l a-p-a-r-t. Uhmmm...Is it supposed to do that? I ask because the only other stitches I've had have been child-delivery related and those dissolve and I never ever have to see them. But this...was different. And it doesn't inspire a lot of confidence when the response is a higher-pitched, "Huh. Um. I'm going to go ask the doctor." Anyway, she came back and asked if I had kept it covered the whole time. "Yes, except for when I was in the shower," I replied. "Yeah, that's the problem - we usually have you just keep it covered for the first 24 hours and then leave it open to air," she tells me. "Usually? As in, except for the doctor last week who told me to keep it covered?" So she stuck on a steri-strip and it is supposed to fall off in the next couple days and hopefully my insides don't come pouring out as Donovan predicts.

So on the way home we stop off at the new French bakery that opened near our home. Donovan and I tasted a number of delicious items before heading home with a couple pain au chocolat (avec nutella), a few croissants and a quiche Lorraine. I'm now in somewhat of a puff pastry-induced coma right now. And let me tell you - this is one of the GOOD comas. They're going to be doing seasonal items and so in December they'll have a bouche de Noel and in January some kind of pie with almonds and cream, I think? Oh, and it's all organic (except for the Nutella) so see it's healthy (*nods head convincingly*).

And as much as I love really awesome bakery bread, I have a secret: I can make my own. Inspired by a friend who I think is on the cutting edge of all things cool, about a month and a half ago I decided not to buy bread any more. How hard could it be? So I started making my own just to see. And you know what? It's not hard. It's actually pretty easy. And it's sooooo delicious. So then I checked out a really amazing book from the library that the above friend recommended and...it just got easier. And even MORE delicious. Seriously, a couple days ago Joel pronounced this the best bread he has ever had and could we please always have it around? And I am happy to oblige. Especially since I bought one of those giant bags of flour and packages of yeast at Costco and had Joel pick me up some awesome square food bins at a restaurant supply warehouse downtown. Let me just put it this way: My bread costs about 32 CENTS per loaf. Yeah. And it tastes incredible. And my house smells delicious. And I can walk around feeling incredibly satisfied. I can't sew or scrapbook worth a fig, but when it comes to food, I am totally on board.

And this is especially timely since everyone in our house now is now eating FOOD. Ok, so Gemma has just stepped into the arena, and only once a day, and only a little bit, but she is loving it. And the kids were having a great time feeding her, though they did learn the all-important lesson of portion control and what happens when, say, you combine an Ainsleigh-sized bite with a Gemma sneeze. And while I did pick up some baby cereal, I opted, instead, to try something a little different for her first food.

I picked up an acorn and butternut squash, along with about a million apples ($.48/pound! What?! Don't ask, just buy!!) and roasted the squashes and then scooped them out into my food mill and cranked it out, added a little water, and there I've got about 3 months worth of squash for $3. And then I peeled, cored and sliced about half of the million apples, threw in a little water, and cooked the bejeebers out of them until I was ready to throw THEM into the food mill and voila - applesauce. Portion them out into ice cube trays, freeze it, then release them into a giant labeled zip-lock freezer bag and there you have it. I just may end up back in Urgent Care from breaking my arm patting my own back. But it will be totally worth it. As long as my insides stay inside.


8 comments:

Willyerd Family said...

You are AMAZING, Sarah! You make your own bread and baby food?! Can you come to CA and teach a class on that? Or I'll just some to CO and learn. Where do I sign up?

Christina said...

Ugh... I got a little nauseous reading about your incision ripping apart!
That is so funny about the bread. I just started trying to make my own bread. It has gotten SO expensive. I just put that book on hold at the library. YAY!

NancyO said...

Sarah - I'm at Besaro and Nancy Clemens and I just read your post with great interest and appreciation. We agreed that you were born to be a homemaker par excellence. You should put together a book a la Heloise Hints or some such thing. Loved the pictures! Hugs and kisses from Besaro!

Dawnette and Mark Coltrin said...

It's about time you updated your blog. You were starting to worry me... I was thinking you would never get back to work form the kitchen/cooking thing. Whew!

First of all... Nutella totally grosses me out. Mark loves buying it because he was introduce to it on his mission in France. So he keeps telling me that I should have Nutella with my crepes. No thanks! I stick to my sugar and lemon juice. (don’t knock it until you try it!)

Ok... one last thing. You talking about cooking brings be back to the good ol’ days of being in young women. I clearly remember going to your house to make cookies and maybe something else… but I really remember the cookies because Riesel never ate raw cookie dough before and she was shocked that we could eat it… Anywho… You really were a good leader and really came to our level to relate to our problems. I don’t think I ever told you that… you rocked. Of course I wasn’t the best YW girl in the group… but Thanks for everything.

Melin said...

i'm so glad you're back...i was beginning to think the knifing incident was to get out of blogging.

wanda said...

David is getting so excited to see Gemma (and the others) at Christmas time. Her pictures are aDORable.

Lisa said...

How did you do that block of pictures thing? That's pretty awesome.

And I requested that bread book at our library, by the way. I want the best bread ever. :)

laura said...

Heh, I love the mid-left picture of her with her eyebrow raised, all, "muhhh?"