Baking

Hi

As I've mentioned before, if I'm off work ill ( asthma type ill, able to move a little, not infectious) I generally get the urge to bake.

This time I have dug the bread maker out of the cupboard where its been hiding for several years. The first attempt the other day was sabotaged by a power cut and had to be scrapped out of the bowl. The second attempt was a bread mix from Aldi, basically to check that the machine still works ok more than baking bread. It did produce a loaf of quite dense brown bread which was  delicious when cut into thick slices, toasted and eaten with marmalade.

Today I have popped in all the ingredients for a spiced fruit loaf... we will see what happens :-)

OOOOOppps   all fruit on the outside !! tastes ok but need to rethink :-)


All this has made me think about the number of electrical items in our kitchen, all gadgets to save time, make life easier. The sad thing is that I would struggle without some of them and when we had the power cut I realised how much I rely on them.

The radio, DAB radio essential for good reception here ( we live in a valley, we can see the mobile phone mast, we can't get mobile signal in the kitchen! many conversations are carried out on the stairs)

Electric kettle, we have an electric cooker so popping the kettle on the stove isn't an option.

Slow cooker, stick blender ( perfect for soups) hand mixer, multi mixer (tends to live in its box)
bread maker, toaster, Tassimo (coffee machine, makes a good chai latte) microwave, tablet ( I keep my recipes on it)

Yet in my craft room other than sewing machines (if I had an old treadle machine I would happily use it), computer and embellisher everything is hand operated. Spinning wheels, drop spindles, hand carders, drum carder, weaving looms, assorted knitting and sewing projects, lace bobbins, tatting shuttles.

I'm not sure why my love of traditional crafts doesn't spread to my baking, why don't I get the same satisfaction from beating a cake mix with a wooden spoon that I do from combing out some fleece, both actions take time, are comfortably repetitive, traditional.