Hopped on the No-Knead Bread Wagon

Months after reading this article in Mother Earth News, reading blog entries and listening to my friends rave about this incredibly easy No-Knead Bread recipe from the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day I gave it a go.

I make sandwich bread everyday in my bread maker but I have never tried artisan bread. The thought of the kneading and rising seemed so difficult and time consuming. This recipe is so so simple.

The only thing that had me a bit discouraged about the recipe is the suggestion of putting the ball of dough on a pizza peel. The article does say that you can use a cookie sheet or cutting board but it might be more difficult to handle. I mentioned my teeny weeny discouragement to Paul who quickly went out to his workshop/garage and whipped out a pizza peel in minutes. That man is amazing.

So here is my first small loaf of artisan bread displayed on my new handmade pizza peel.




Why, oh why did it take me months to try this. It was absolutely delicious and habit forming.

Brandy

The past week we had a four-legged visitor at our house. Brandy belongs to a co-worker of Paul's who was on vacation. She's a 9-month red Golden Retriever.

Brandy taught our family many things. Alix and Chance learned to pick up their toys unless they wanted mom to have to pry them out of Brandy's mouth. I learned that going for a walk after lunch is a splendid way to spend an hour, and going for a walk with Paul after the kids are in bed is also very good. The cats learned that having a dog around is doable. Paul learned that a cat sleeping on the bed does not take up nearly as much room as a dog sleeping on the bed.

We miss Brandy. But I don't miss having to keep the kitchen garbage can in the laundry room; having our cloth napkins stolen from the table; and having to replace the kitchen sponge everyday because Brandy thought they were fun to eat.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

After having breakfast which included green milk my little leprechauns got busy making festive head gear.

Alix and I are involved again in Destination Imagination. "The Destination ImagiNation is a process-based program grounded in well-established creative problem solving theory. It helps young people build lifelong skills in creative and critical thinking, teamwork, time management and problem solving. Up to seven participants work together as a team for several months to create their solutions to Team Challenges, which can have a theatrical, structural, improvisational, scientific or technical focus. Teams also learn and practice creative quick-thinking skills for the Instant Challenge portion of the program."

One of the important aspects of this program is this is a kids hands-on, adults hands-off educational program. As Team Managers, Anne and I had the job of facilitating the process. The Team Challenge solution is owned and operated by the team! Only team members may contribute ideas and create the Team Challenge solutions. Help from non-team members, including Team Managers and parents, is called Interference.

Anne and I had to take a pledge to stand by and MANAGE, not direct, not coach. We could facilitate discussions and/or disagreements. Help the team manage their time to meet their deadlines. Make sure they were working in a safe manner, and acquire items requested by the team.

For the past 16 weeks. Alix and her other four team members have been working on their Challenge - ViDIo Lit Hits. For this Challenge the team had to:

• Create a live Music ViDIo that dramatically retells a piece of literature.


• Integrate music and team-created lyrics into the Music ViDIo.


• Dramatically portray a character from the chosen piece of literature.


• Create and integrate choreography into the ViDio.


• Create and present a Grand Entrance or Grand Exit using technical methods.

It was pure joy for Anne and I to watch the process over the weeks. This team worked very well together and had so much fun finding a solution to their challenge.

The work of the past 16 weeks was put to the "challenge". Today was the Regional Tournament in Tilton, NH. The day was long but SO MUCH FUN.










The team chose to dramatically retell the story of Aladdin with a Disco theme which explains all the sequins and glitter. They wrote lyrics for two team-created songs. (For the past several weeks our family has been singing and humming both songs. They are seared into our brains.)

Following is a video of their performance. I dare you to be able to sit still watching it. I don't think I will ever be tired of watching it. It's just too damn wonderful. So turn up your volume and enjoy!





The stars of the show: Alix (my much too cute daughter and loudest singer) as Aladdin.



Ethan, the Jiny of the Lamp



Becky as the Jiny of the Ring



Anna, the Princess and Aladdin's love



Cindy as Fatima - the Princess's friend and servant







The teams was excited to hear their name called for 3rd Place in the Elementary division. Congratulations Magical Sparkle Squad! We are so proud of you!!

And Again

By 8:30 this morning we had 8" of the white stuff and it showed no signs of letting up.





By the time it ended we would have a total of 11 inches. Thank goodness for the fine company of these informative women Laura Knoy, Diane Rehm, Robin Young,and Lisa Mullins. Shoveling snow with my MP3 players isn't such a bad way to spend the day.