Stateside and So Behind

I'm back at home after ten weeks of wandering, and the first things I did after my long absence were tussle with Aja and cuddle with my guitar. I might also have hugged my parents, but only because there were too many kitchen appliances for me to decide which one to embrace - after months without a whisk your head starts to go funny.

That was Thursday; it's now Saturday and I'm no closer to being caught up on my updates than I was before. What did I do today instead of lovingly posting pictures of Prague? I ground a kilo of flour and kneaded dough for eighteen straight minutes, because I came home to a house devoid of any carbohydrates save tasteless crackers (Ryvita: cardboard's answer to bread). So out came the yeast and all of Mom's Austrian cookbooks, and in the sweltering jungle of Maryland humidity I pounded out a loaf of Weizenvollkornbrot.

The recipe I used was charming - the authors included explanations for all of the waiting and whacking peculiar to making bread. Why, for instance, one has to knead the bread for another five minutes after the initial kneading and waiting (so that it's a consistency that doesn't crumble when you cut it), or brush the freshly-baked loaf with water (so that it appears more appetizing, because we eat with both our mouths and our eyes). Oh, those Austrians, they are so wise.

There are dozens of recipes in the book that I want to try out, so I'll do an illustrated post on baking bread later this week, after I've finished off the second leg of my journey (Prague, Berlin, Paris round two), the tail end of Barcelona, and the recipes remaining from my Viennese experiments.... and to think, I actually made plans for tomorrow.

What are these plans, you may ask? Making ice cream.