Blondie called me on the intercom, and told me that they've declared an emergency at Turkey Hill. They're afraid that the power will go out, so everybody is supposed to go buy five gallons of ice cream and eat it quickly.

Myself, I'm thinking that it's inappropriate in Pennsylvania Dutch country to buy out the supermarket's supply of bread and milk. Instead, I oughta be baking like crazy, and buying a cow. I wonder if the neighbors would object to the cow on the front lawn, or if I need to figure out a way to get it to the rear lawn.

I haven't made bread for a couple of years, because arthritis was really bothering me, and kneading it really tore up my hands. I had a bread machine, but frankly, bread machine bread sucks. If you vary the recipe even a bit, it gets really dense, or else it overflows and makes a mess and the top burns.

I Got A Deal

I got a "deal" on a KitchenAid stand mixer a couple of years ago. It was a really low price because it was supposed to have been factory-reconditioned. I felt guilty for a while, thinking that it might simply have fallen off the back of a truck, this being Pennsylvania, but then I tried using it, and started wondering if it was cheap because it hadn't been reconditioned. It doesn't have as much power I expected it to have.

In any case, I made Blondie a couple of loaves of whole wheat bread this week. She loves whole wheat. In the 1970s, when I made all my own bread for about five years, I came up with a light honey rye that I loved, and I wasn't too impressed with the flavor of this whole wheat. I found it a lot easier to make bread than I'd anticipated, and although I have a problem with standing up very long, I think I'm going to be making mostly my own bread for the immediate present.

Occupational Therapy

It's not that it's cheaper, although it is, and it's not that it's better, although it is, but it's occupational therapy. It's not that I don't have plenty of other things to do, but they're mostly mental projects, and I need some physical things to do instead, things where I can see the results, and see that what I've created is good. Cooking would work, except that I have to do too much searching in high cupboards and low shelves in the refrigerator, and I have a lot of trouble with that right now. Maybe the baking will limber me up, though and I will be able to do more cooking.

They use malt in the bread at Alfred & Sam's. I've never added it to bread when I was making it. According to one website, malt powder is the all-natural "secret ingredient" savvy bread bakers use to promote a strong rise, great texture, lovely brown crust, and extended shelf life. Vitamins and active enzymes in diastatic malt help yeast grow fully and efficiently throughout the fermentation period, yielding a good, strong rise and great oven-spring. Malt also converts starch to sugar, enhancing bread's browning.

It's not the Carnation stuff for milkshakes. You're supposed to get it from a beer supply house, or specialty baking supply house.