officially domesticated

today i made bread for the first time.  i was initially inspired by isaac, but hadn't attempted it earlier because i have always thought of myself as a very ill baker indeed.  my cookies always taste like cakes with burnt crusty bottoms.  then jesse gave me a beautiful new mixer for christmas.  my beautiful new mixer came with a dough hook, and a dough hook can make anyone a good baker of breads i think.  

i was going to photograph the whole process, but i was so concentrated on correctly using the mixer that i forgot to photograph the main part of the breadmaking process: that is, the kneading.  so just pretend the mixer mixed the ingredients (yeast, flour, etc.), kneading on speed 2, and then it became a big dough ball.  then i cut the dough in half, and rolled it out into two loaves.  here are some photos of what happened next:

it was a special sort of bread which required refrigeration for several hours.

after refrigeration, i punched the gas out.  truthfully, it wasn't especially gassy, but it felt good to beat the shit out of dough, so this step went on for quite some time.  then i put it in the oven.

here is the finished product.  

truth be told, i have mixed feelings about letting a machine knead for me.  my bread will never know the touch of human hands lovingly kneading for halves of hours on end.   it knows only the cold and lifeless touch of a metallic hook.  i think in some ways i've done it an injustice.  my bread is soulless bread.  but it sure was delicious.  

it shouldn't feel like outside in the living room

seattle is terribly cold: perhaps the coldest it's been in the six years i've lived here.  it started snowing last night, which was quite fun, and tonight it's still all over the place.  this is cole's first snow, and it is pretty adorable to watch him prancing around and catching snowballs.  he's like a little kid:

and a lovely wintery picture of the house:

normally i don't mind the cold, but tomorrow i start a temporary job that involves sitting outside and counting people with a clicker in 20 something degree weather.  i don't know why they want me to count people, but there it is.  

i've borrowed jesse's wool socks and beanie, and i'll wear the mittens that laurel knitted me for my birthday.  if it's still unbearable, i will pick up some long johns, and put baked potatoes in my pockets.  deliciously effective i think.

jesse's brother and sister-in-law came to stay with us this weekend.   iris is terribly pregnant, just like jessie burg.  it seems to be going around.  jesse's brother, isaac, made 3 beautiful loaves of bread from scratch, as well as a delicious potato leek soup.  he also made a wallet out of duct tape, and this:

i am going to try to be this creative in the future.

also, i finally graduated.  i wish i could enjoy it more, but i'm in a financial panic and need a job very badly.  unfortunately, i've picked the worst possible time of the year/decade to be unemployed.  i'm torn because i'm aware of how terrible the economy is, of course, and there's a part of me that knows i should take whatever job i can - but i can't help feeling that i should hold out for a job that i actually believe in.  otherwise, what the hell was the point in going back to school to begin with?  oh sigh.  life's so hard.

the scattered thoughts of a tired first time blogger

i googled mildred christmas just now, and this is what i found:

seriously people, it doesn't get any better than that.  

i am half asleep, but here are some other things that i am thinking/wondering about:

is it bad that i've had no feeling in my big toes for several months?  do you think it is my shoes, or diabetes?  frostbite?

is jesse gay if he's playing a video game in which giant illuminated butterflies attack scantily clad men?

is jesse now mad at me for writing that, since he is likely the only one seeing this?