Hanging in there...
Hi everyone! I've been seriously checked out from lj recently, but I'm still alive, and doing well, if not a little overstretched. I'm busily attempting to graduate, and figure out my future plans while still attempting to enjoy myself. Things with James are going wonderfully, and he is one of the main reasons I haven't completely lost it. So, here's a short longish update, and a very tasty bread recipe that I just devised.
School:
I'm taking some very challenging classes, including two graduate courses, and while some are lackluster, I'm mostly enjoying myself. My existentialism course is being taught by this fellow, a philosophy grad student who plays the banjo. He basically has no business teaching a history of philosophy course, and I'm doing my best to whip him into shape. "No. your exam sucks, I'm not taking it, and I'm writing a paper instead. And beyond that, I'm going to tell you exactly what the class should be, why, and why it falls so horribly short." That paired with a philosophy of Language class that is firmly and decisively kicking my ass. So aside from the excitement, I should be able to come out this the other side of this semester without too much horrible trauma.
SCA: I recently finished my warp weighted loom project, and wrote a massive (32 pg) paper on it, but it went very well, and I'm pleased that it's done with, although I did very much get into the rhythmic clacking of the loom, and kind of miss it. Another project for another day. peregrinning swept me away and took me to Hrim Schola, a fiber-geek event in NY. I suddenly understood why people like the SCA so much. I didn't really understand it before that. Twas all kinds of nifty. I have now actually got an SCA membership, and have signed up for about a dozen yahoo groups, which provide necessary distraction when tis needed.
Life Philosophy and whole living:
I'm becoming increasingly obsessed with the idea of self-sufficiency, as much as it is possible with a small amount of land. Mind you, I haven't acted much on this yet, but I've been scheming away. I want desperately to eliminate as much processed food and chemicals from my diet as I can, and slowly stop being tied so closely to big supermarkets for my food. Between Lehman's, a nifty catalog full of non-electric kitchen tools (I want a grain mill!!!!), and Sun Organic full of bulk organic whole grains, and the permaculture food/medicinal garden that's being planned in my head, I'm on my way. My aim is to go through my shopping list, and see how close I can come to using things from their raw forms. Ideally, this would be done by growing them myself, but failing that, producing things from bought whole grains, raw milk, etc.
Bread:
I've been making a serious amount of bread of late, and it's doing well to keep me grounded and sane. It is also tasty. Yay for tasty sanity!! Kneading bread is one of three motions that I've found is in my ancestral muscle memory. The other two are holding babies, and spinning. I just made two very tasty things, pulled from breadnet, which is super awesome. I made an onion cheese loaf, which came out great, and was quickly consumed, and also a maple oatmeal flax bread, which I heavily modified from this recipe. It just came out of the oven and is quite kickass. Here's my modified recipe:
o 1 3/4 cup boiling water
o 1 cup rolled oats
o 1 cup milled flax
o 2-3 tablespoons canola oil
o 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
o 1/4 cup flax seeds
o 1.5 cups all-purpose flour
o 2.5 cups whole wheat flour
o 2 cups oat flour (King Arthur makes an oat/whole wheat mixture)
o 1/3 cup sugar
o 2 teaspoons salt
o 4.75 teaspoons active dry yeast (two packets, plus a little)
o 1/4 cup lukewarm water
o 2 eggs
Combine boiling water, rolled oats, flax meal, maple syrup, sugar and salt in a big bowl. While the mixture cools, dissolve yeast in the lukewarm water. It should completely dissolve and start to get foamy. Toast the flax seeds in a *Covered* frying pan with a bit of the canola oil over medium-high heat until they start to pop (hence the lid). Stick your finger in the oat/flax mixture and stir it around a bit. It should be the temperature of a nice hot bath. If it's too hot for your finger, it's too hot for the yeast. Dead yeast is not helpful. Once it's the right temperature, add the eggs and flax seeds (and their cooking oil), and then the yeast. (you can use the cold eggs to cool down the mixture if it's a little too hot). Sift all of the flours together, then add them gradually stirring and kneading until a stiff dough forms. You will probably have about 3/4 cup of flour left over, which should be set aside. When the dough is coherent and not too sticky, oil the sides of the mixing bowl, and roll the dough around a bit to coat with oil. Turn the oven on to 200 degrees, and then off. Put a damp dish towel over the bowl, and put it in the oven. Let it rise for an hour, or a bit more. It should be squishy and inflated. Clean off the counter, cover in some of the leftover flour, and knead for 5 minutes or so. Be rough! The dough likes it that way. Don't skip this step! You need to knead!!! Work some more canola oil into the dough, and divide it in half, shape into loaves. Coat two (glass) bread pans with oil, and place the bread in, or grease two cookie sheets to make round loaves. Warm the oven back up, cover the loaves with a towel, and let them rise for another hour. Coat with egg if you want a shiny finish, bake at 350 for 35-55 minutes. Keep an eye on them, and poke all the way through with a chopstick before you decide they're done. (if you get dough on the chopstick, keep cooking) I need to make it again, and futz with the amount of yeast and cooking time/temp. Enjoy!
Future plans:
After much deliberation and depression/panic cycles, I've decided to go be an elementary school teacher. It seems like the right thing for me to do on many levels, and I think will be a sustainable and enjoyable career. I'm in the process of applying to two programs, one of which looks absolutely amazing. I had applied to Teach for America, but it wasn't quite the right match, and I ended up not getting in. I have however found a program called the Boston Teacher Residency which is a 13 month program (which is designed to be free, if you continue teaching in Boston public schools) in which you earn your masters/initial licensure while working with a mentor teacher. You come out of it with a free masters, a stipend for the year, a job, a year of experience, and an organization bent on making you a successful and effective teacher. So... I hope that works. I've also applied to UMass Boston's graduate program, but it's very much a backup plan. If all goes well, I'll be living in Newton, and commuting to Boston to work for the next four years, and hopefully ultimately working in the Newton schools. My dream is to be working at Cabot, and run an after-school program from my backyard designed to teach kids how to be self-sufficient, and know their woods and plants. So, that's what I'm aiming for.
Also, if you have either my mac email, or my school email, please do not continue to use them. They will both be defunct very soon. Please use Dawnfeather at faceofmelinda.com or Samantha.L.Rosen at gmail.com.
School:
I'm taking some very challenging classes, including two graduate courses, and while some are lackluster, I'm mostly enjoying myself. My existentialism course is being taught by this fellow, a philosophy grad student who plays the banjo. He basically has no business teaching a history of philosophy course, and I'm doing my best to whip him into shape. "No. your exam sucks, I'm not taking it, and I'm writing a paper instead. And beyond that, I'm going to tell you exactly what the class should be, why, and why it falls so horribly short." That paired with a philosophy of Language class that is firmly and decisively kicking my ass. So aside from the excitement, I should be able to come out this the other side of this semester without too much horrible trauma.
SCA: I recently finished my warp weighted loom project, and wrote a massive (32 pg) paper on it, but it went very well, and I'm pleased that it's done with, although I did very much get into the rhythmic clacking of the loom, and kind of miss it. Another project for another day. peregrinning swept me away and took me to Hrim Schola, a fiber-geek event in NY. I suddenly understood why people like the SCA so much. I didn't really understand it before that. Twas all kinds of nifty. I have now actually got an SCA membership, and have signed up for about a dozen yahoo groups, which provide necessary distraction when tis needed.
Life Philosophy and whole living:
I'm becoming increasingly obsessed with the idea of self-sufficiency, as much as it is possible with a small amount of land. Mind you, I haven't acted much on this yet, but I've been scheming away. I want desperately to eliminate as much processed food and chemicals from my diet as I can, and slowly stop being tied so closely to big supermarkets for my food. Between Lehman's, a nifty catalog full of non-electric kitchen tools (I want a grain mill!!!!), and Sun Organic full of bulk organic whole grains, and the permaculture food/medicinal garden that's being planned in my head, I'm on my way. My aim is to go through my shopping list, and see how close I can come to using things from their raw forms. Ideally, this would be done by growing them myself, but failing that, producing things from bought whole grains, raw milk, etc.
Bread:
I've been making a serious amount of bread of late, and it's doing well to keep me grounded and sane. It is also tasty. Yay for tasty sanity!! Kneading bread is one of three motions that I've found is in my ancestral muscle memory. The other two are holding babies, and spinning. I just made two very tasty things, pulled from breadnet, which is super awesome. I made an onion cheese loaf, which came out great, and was quickly consumed, and also a maple oatmeal flax bread, which I heavily modified from this recipe. It just came out of the oven and is quite kickass. Here's my modified recipe:
o 1 3/4 cup boiling water
o 1 cup rolled oats
o 1 cup milled flax
o 2-3 tablespoons canola oil
o 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
o 1/4 cup flax seeds
o 1.5 cups all-purpose flour
o 2.5 cups whole wheat flour
o 2 cups oat flour (King Arthur makes an oat/whole wheat mixture)
o 1/3 cup sugar
o 2 teaspoons salt
o 4.75 teaspoons active dry yeast (two packets, plus a little)
o 1/4 cup lukewarm water
o 2 eggs
Combine boiling water, rolled oats, flax meal, maple syrup, sugar and salt in a big bowl. While the mixture cools, dissolve yeast in the lukewarm water. It should completely dissolve and start to get foamy. Toast the flax seeds in a *Covered* frying pan with a bit of the canola oil over medium-high heat until they start to pop (hence the lid). Stick your finger in the oat/flax mixture and stir it around a bit. It should be the temperature of a nice hot bath. If it's too hot for your finger, it's too hot for the yeast. Dead yeast is not helpful. Once it's the right temperature, add the eggs and flax seeds (and their cooking oil), and then the yeast. (you can use the cold eggs to cool down the mixture if it's a little too hot). Sift all of the flours together, then add them gradually stirring and kneading until a stiff dough forms. You will probably have about 3/4 cup of flour left over, which should be set aside. When the dough is coherent and not too sticky, oil the sides of the mixing bowl, and roll the dough around a bit to coat with oil. Turn the oven on to 200 degrees, and then off. Put a damp dish towel over the bowl, and put it in the oven. Let it rise for an hour, or a bit more. It should be squishy and inflated. Clean off the counter, cover in some of the leftover flour, and knead for 5 minutes or so. Be rough! The dough likes it that way. Don't skip this step! You need to knead!!! Work some more canola oil into the dough, and divide it in half, shape into loaves. Coat two (glass) bread pans with oil, and place the bread in, or grease two cookie sheets to make round loaves. Warm the oven back up, cover the loaves with a towel, and let them rise for another hour. Coat with egg if you want a shiny finish, bake at 350 for 35-55 minutes. Keep an eye on them, and poke all the way through with a chopstick before you decide they're done. (if you get dough on the chopstick, keep cooking) I need to make it again, and futz with the amount of yeast and cooking time/temp. Enjoy!
Future plans:
After much deliberation and depression/panic cycles, I've decided to go be an elementary school teacher. It seems like the right thing for me to do on many levels, and I think will be a sustainable and enjoyable career. I'm in the process of applying to two programs, one of which looks absolutely amazing. I had applied to Teach for America, but it wasn't quite the right match, and I ended up not getting in. I have however found a program called the Boston Teacher Residency which is a 13 month program (which is designed to be free, if you continue teaching in Boston public schools) in which you earn your masters/initial licensure while working with a mentor teacher. You come out of it with a free masters, a stipend for the year, a job, a year of experience, and an organization bent on making you a successful and effective teacher. So... I hope that works. I've also applied to UMass Boston's graduate program, but it's very much a backup plan. If all goes well, I'll be living in Newton, and commuting to Boston to work for the next four years, and hopefully ultimately working in the Newton schools. My dream is to be working at Cabot, and run an after-school program from my backyard designed to teach kids how to be self-sufficient, and know their woods and plants. So, that's what I'm aiming for.
Also, if you have either my mac email, or my school email, please do not continue to use them. They will both be defunct very soon. Please use Dawnfeather at faceofmelinda.com or Samantha.L.Rosen at gmail.com.