I'm sure that some people have probably been wondering how Alex and I have been cooking, doing dishes, and all those other minor details of life. In terms of the cooking Scott and Zizi have an outdoor kitchen that has a gas stove, counters, cold running water, etc. We do that majority of our cooking up at the outdoor kitchen. Unfortunately that means that you are completely exposed to the elements while you are cooking and eating. The first three days we lived at the camp this was no problem since the sun was shining and it was about 60 degrees out. However, the rain started and has continued for two days now making food a bit more challenging.
When we lived in town Alex and I routinely ran out to the grocery store, Co-op, or Walmart at least once every other day. It was really convenient since Walmart was the furthest away and it was only about 4 miles from us. I can say with the up most certainty that we had not gone grocery shopping since we moved to the camp six days ago. I also haven't had any idea what we needed, could make, or even wanted so we ate rice. Rice with more rice, and a side helping of rice. Occasionally we ate some of the carrots from a one pound bag we had moved with us. This diet along with being sick has left me feeling quite crappy. Yesterday while digging in Alex's car for something to eat (since at this point we had also run out of bread) I found a small pouch of hickory smoked Tuna.
All I can say is God Bless Tuna in a Bag. I have never been more happy to see Tuna (especially since I really don't even like Tuna). While Alex was cooking some pasta for dinner last night I sat down and ate the entire bag of Tuna. Surprisingly it really helped so I must have been really running on no Protein at all. Tuna has never tasted so good to me (though with a cold I actually tasted very little of it).
Today before going to work I ran over to Hannaford, and then the Co-op to buy some food for us. I got about 40 dollars worth of groceries including, yes that's right, more Tuna! The store didn't have the hickory smoked Tuna so I bought a lemon pepper one and then 2 regular packages. I also got a bag of corn chips because a girl can't live without corn chips, cheese, more carrots, sugar, yeast, tofu, soy milk, matzo, and I am sure some other things that I am forgetting now...
So that is how our cooking situation has been going, now, on to our resident four year old. I am trying to be a bit more understanding of that kid but boy can he be hard to handle someday. Apparently he drove Alex absolutely bonkers yesterday during work but he wasn't too bad with me. That is if you ignore the fact that as soon as I pulled in he actually chased me the entire way from my car back to the cabin. Then I once again had to figure out how to get changed without flashing a four year old. He certainly is clingy. Alex was out at a meeting so I decided to make some bread. Of course that means baking with a four year old. I thought it was going to be rather hellish but he was surprisingly good as we baked.
We made a double batch of dough and Jasper insisted on helping with every step from stirring the yeast and heating the water, to adding the flour, to stirring some more and kneading the bread. Well his kneading left a lot to be desired but he let me help him so an hour later our bread was sufficiently kneaded and set out to rise. If only I could explain to him that it is counter productive to poke the bread while it's rising we would be all set.
The bread rose overnight and this morning I got up at 6:30 to form, shape, and bake off the two loaves. It was too cold and rainy to let the bread rise outside so I had to keep turning the oven on to about 100 degrees and then turning it off again so that the bread would have a nice, safe, warm place to rise. It seemed to be effective and by the time I left for work the brad was looking gorgeous in the oven and was starting to brown nicely. Unlike the super flat loaves I made last time these were puffy and delicious looking. Now here's to hoping that there will still be some left when I get home tonight at 5!
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