Review of Three Cups of Tea

Three Cups of Tea, by Mortenson and Relin, was a fast read. I loved reading about building schools for boys and girls in Pakistan. I loved hearing about mountain climbers. I loved hearing about a good excuse to move to Montana.

This book made me understand the importance of health care, oddly enough. There was a certainty about how people in remote areas need extra help, and those who can help lose their humanity when they say, " No."

I want to keep track of ikat.org to see how the various projects progress.

No more liberals, no more conservatives

I reject the practice of labeling people as Conservatives or Liberals. After refreshing my memory about a man who shot people in their church last summer and left a manifesto calling on more people  to do the same, I've decided that it is wrong to allow ourselves to be divided into different camps. While it's obvious among friends that people all have different views, for some reason on a grander scale we forget that the world is not composed of two enemy camps. We're all people, and, clearly, we should all talk to each other more often.

Recipe: Beautiful Oatmeal Bread

Revised 12:25p.m., 5/26/9, Note.

Note:  Add author of Crust and Crumb. I would like to reduce the size of these loaves, but the size should not drop as low as 1 1/2 pounds. I have to add less liquid to my next batch.

This recipe is based on working with the White Sandwich Bread recipe in Crust and Crumb, and with the Home-style White Bread with Poppy Seeds in Baking Bread: Old and New Traditions, by Beth Hensperger. The loaves are 2 pounds apiece, with good color, soft squishy crumb, and a delicious smell. This bread makes good pbj's, and great toast. 

Beautiful Oatmeal Bread

makes 4 loaves

Ingredients

2 scant tablespoons instant yeast

2 pinches sugar

1 cup warm water (105-115F)

Your choice:

either 3 cups warm milk (105-115F)

or

3 cups warm water and

3/4 cup nonfat powdered milk

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature, cut into about 16 pieces

5 teaspoons salt

1 1/2 cups old-fashioned oatmeal, cooked in 2 1/2 cups of water, cooled to room temperature

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

8-9 cups unbleached bread flour

3-4 tablespoons vegetable oil

Method

Clean off the kneading surface beforehand so it is clean and dry by the end of step 2.

1. Sprinkle yeast and sugar over the cup of warm water and let this yeast mixture sit for 10 minutes.

2. In a very large bowl and using a wooden spoon, combine the warm milk, butter, salt oatmeal, whole wheat flour and yeast mixture. Add the rest of the flour, one cup at a time, stirring to wet all flour with each addition.

3. When the dough is too thick to be stirred, sprinkle 1 or 2 cups of flour onto the kneading surface. Turn the dough out onto the floured surface. Before kneading, pour vegetable oil into the mixing bowl.

4. With hands dipped in flour, knead the dough for 5 minutes, sprinkling a tablespoon or two of flour on the surface below the dough when it sticks, and sprinkling a tablespoon or two of flour onto the top of the dough when it sticks.

5. With the end of kneading, form the dough into a large ball and dip it into the mixing bowl, oiling the bottom. Flip the dough over so that the top and bottom are both greased. Cover the bowl with a damp dish towel.  Let rise 1 hour.

6. Knead dough for 5 minutes, let rise 1 more hour.

7. Grease the bottoms and sides of 4 loaf pans. Shape the dough. To make 4 sandwich loaves:

Divide the dough into 4 parts. Use a scale to ensure all parts are the same weight, for even baking.

With each piece of dough, which will weigh 1 1/2 to 2 pounds, turn it out onto the kneading surface, and, using a rolling pin, roll the dough out into a 8 x 15 inch rectangle. The important thing is for the width to be the same as the length of the loaf pan, and for there to be no large air bubbles in the dough. Roll the dough up into a tube that is 8 inches long. Place the dough into a greased loaf pan. Repeat with the other pieces of dough.

8. Let the loaves rise under the damp towel for 45 minutes to 1 hour. During the final 20 minutes of rising, Preheat the oven to 375F. If you have an oven stone, use it with the oven rack set in the bottom position in the oven.

9. Bake the bread on the lowest rack of the oven for 45 minutes.

10. When removing the loaves from the oven, remove them from the pans immediately and let the loaves cool on a wire rack.

Mothering

I tell you. I never meant to write a Mother's Day piece, but I have to write about what I just read in the Washington Post's Book section. 

A new book is coming out that I must read, Ayelet Waldman's Bad Mother. 

One of the strangest things about being a mother, for me, is discovering that my mistakes, which I learn from, are not as detrimental to my children as I had supposed. I seem not to be able to make any progress without making mistakes. Meanwhile, I try to set an example for my kids, to show them how to do things, to show them how to live a good life, and I make mistakes doing these things. It's funny. Maybe the finest thing I do for my girls is to show them how to make mistakes, and to learn from them. At least, I hope that is what is happening.

All this is on spec, of course. I won't know how well they turn out until my children grow up.

CPAP, Compassion at 9 a.m.

I started using my CPAP machine again last night. I haven't used it in over a year, I think. I don't remember when I stopped using it, only that I stopped shortly after receiving a humidifier accessory for the device. I couldn't figure out how often I was supposed to clean the humidifier, and it seemed like a lot of work. At the time, I weighed 10-15 pounds less than I do now, and I didn't snore as much, so I stopped using CPAP. Now I weigh more, snore more, and have to make a different choice. I used the machine last night, and cleaned everything cleanable, this morning. Now I hope to find my care instructions, and to put a cleaning schedule on my calendar.

Meanwhile, I read something that focused my mind in a new way. I read a book by David Foster Wallace, This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life. This book was short, so I read it at the bookstore where I found it. I didn't buy the book, instead choosing to try the author's Infinite Jest. Wish me luck. IJ is a weighty tome, comparable in size to War and Peace. 

Wallace writes that people automatically think on a self-centered level most of the time, living in the center of their worlds, with the perspective that they are surrounded by bandits trying to ruin their days. An example he could have used comes from George Carlin:  I drive down the road in my car, mad at the driver in front of me for driving to slowly, and equally mad at the driver behind me who seems to be driving too quickly. Wallace wants us to leave this kind of perspective and see the other people around us, to see the pain in other people's lives, which I say we can easily infer by remembering the details of our own lives. Wallace plays with cliches in this book, including using the phrase "teach you how to think" to explain how going to college, or simply living in the world of humanity, can change the subjects of your thoughts, and the ways you think about them. Compassion comes when you see that every person has pain, when you are changed by the  knowledge of that pain. Compassion can change you, and what you do with your life. Other writers who are called to my mind right now are Descartes, who couldn't tell if the people outside his window were real or merely automata, and Mary Pipher, who has written powerful stories about refugees (see The Middle of Everywhere).

Around the same time, I noticed that after a week of Brad and me together at home working with the girls on household chores, the girls seem happier when they have work they have to do every day. Instead of being happier when they have few chores and plenty of time for open play, the children seem happier or more satisfied when they have to do chores and help their parents with work--even if the task is unwelcome to them, like putting dishes away or sweeping the floor. Obviously they like to do things with their parents rather than without them--kids would probably enjoy doing just about anything if they could do it with their mother or father. In addition, though, they respond well to having work they have to do; it seems to make them feel less bored, more satisfied. 

Do compassion and work fit together somehow? Stay tuned.

Is a storm coming?

We watched the weather change today. I had heard that a thunderstorm was coming. I still don't know if we'll get that storm, but the sky has darkened, and large clouds are moving in from the west. It may or may not be raining. I still imagine hiding under a table to avoid falling tree branches. I guess that was a really exciting and anxious moment for me, so it is vivid in my memory.

The Treat Shop

I am recommending the Treat Shop, on Cranberry Road in Westminster, Md.  They have lots and lots of Easter chocolate for sale, including a larger-than-life chocolate bunny that's very expensive. I chose something smaller than lifesize, plus some candy-covered malt balls. You can watch people make candy in the back of the store. This place is a real candy store. They also have ice cream, coffee and tea (loose, by the ounce).