Things I Learned This Week | 9.16.22
This week was a good week for learning… at least for me…and I thought I’d share what I learned with you all!
Thing One:
Pita success happened. Or at least I found a very tasty and easy recipe. And while some of my pita’s puffed up, not all of them did – or at least not the entire pita puffed up. The answer to this dilemma is right here! (Hint… apparently I have a cold spot in my oven and Steve thinks that the baking steel heating the entire preheat might be triggering the oven to turn itself down.) So when I bake them again I will turn my oven up and put the baking steel in just 30 minutes before I am gonna drop those pita’s on it. Anyways. They were soft and delicious. The bit of whole wheat flour was the perfect addition… the taste was brilliant. To celebrate we had a “mini-happy hour” last night with my favorite baked feta with these tomatoes and these chickpeas.
Thing Two:
Also in the baking category…and perhaps this will give you a huge hint as to how incredible the weather was this week. I had the urge to bake.all.the.things! Ha! Anyways, I had such a craving for chocolate chip cookies… but I really did not want several dozen cookies laying around the house. Occasionally, nothing hits the spot like a warm cookie and I like the idea of the “ready to bake” cookies that the grocers have… the taste, however, leaves a lot to be desired. I wondered if I could make a batch of dough, bake a few cookies, and freeze the remainder of the batch…
And you know what! YOU CAN! Oh.my.gosh! This is a game changer people! I used the “recipe from the back of the chocolate chip bag” so the most basic of recipes. I then lined two baking sheets with parchment and scooped cookie dough exactly like I would if I was going to bake them and then I popped those baking sheets loaded with cookie dough in the freezer. The next morning, I pulled the baking sheets out and filled a ziplock bag with frozen cookie balls. Now here is the BEST PART! Want a cookie with your afternoon coffee… simple. Turn on the oven, pull out a ball (or two) of cookie dough and bake it exactly as the recipe says. Voilà! Fresh baked cookies! (Note… if you are baking a pan of frozen cookies, you probably will need to add some baking time)
Thing Three:
This had a visceral effect on me this week… another tick in the “man’s inhumanity to man” category. And then I learned that this was not a first. This listen by Codeswitch was eye opening, I had never, ever heard about Reverse Freedom Rides… and listening to the Codeswitch podcast from 2020 eerily similar to what happened this week. My hope… is that there are more people in Florida, Texas, and Arizona who are embarrassed (angry…disgusted…enraged…) at these tactics by their governors and that this will be a tipping point for change.
And that is all I have for this week! (Sorry for the somewhat lame image above… that is the Feisty Carolina wren who sings to Sherman and me everyone morning!)
Have a great weekend and I will see you all back here on Monday!
