all done all done all done

[thanate]

We have progressed into an era wherein "ALL DONE" means "I want milk." It also continues to mean "I'm all done with this diaper change you're in the middle of," and "I've finished everything interesting on my tray and would like more to eat," and occasionally "I'm ready for naptime." Attempts to re-introduce "MILK" have been futile and "MORE" continue sporadic. Oh well. At least she's got the idea of communicating. (and she's got this look when I try to suggest other ways of saying what she wants of "you know what I *mean*, Mommy, why are you being difficult?")

Ahem. Ways to embarrass your future teenaged children!

We finally made it to the Baltimore Zoo yesterday, which turns out to be a great deal easier than I was expecting. (Yes, it's in the middle of the city, but it's also practically a straight shot in from 295.) Should anyone local or visiting wish to meet up with us there, I can get an extra adult in free for the next year, and they even claim they'll be done constructing all the things by fall. It was a lovely day and the zoo was sparsely populated by parents and kids in the Megatherium's age bracket, so we had lots of it to ourselves and lots of other-baby-watching, plus a little bit of chance to walk about (holding both my hands) on actual pavement surfaces. And all the prairie dogs and bats and an okapi who found her even more interesting than she found it. I was also fairly impressed with their interactive play areas in the local biomes exhibits, so that will be nice in a few years.

Unrelatedly, I tried to make bread the other day with actual kneeding, and determined that the confluence of baby, drafty house w/o a nice warm place to put stuff, and various other factors make this less of a good idea than I'd like. I'm considering bread machines (and a digital scale, since my measuring habits do not lend themselves to mechanical precision) on the grounds that they are more likely to produce a product that someone other than the Megatherium thinks is food. (there was a problem with poor timing and slow rise and then the outside of the loaf dried out to the point of preventing more rise...) And since bread is the new awesome thing-- not quite as good as strawberries or raisins, but a toddler's got to have *some* standards-- I think being able to bake consistent yeast breads that aren't full of weird mass manufacture stuff would be rather nice. And then I can make bread that's full of weird us-approved stuff instead. Because ground up hazelnuts in my cinnamon raisin bread sound *far* better than corn syrup or potassium sorbate.

Has anyone got relevant bread machine experience to share? Either brand/model- or useful feature- specific would be nice to know.

Comments

[dragonvyxn.livejournal.com]

homemade bread is pretty fun... i haven't done any yet myself, but my sister has made bread in my house with my things. as far as bread machines go, they are pretty reliable these days, and allow for many different ingredient additions. a friend of mine had one and loved it very much. you'll only get a crunchy crust on top, though. if that doesn't matter so much to you, then that's not an issue.

i love all the baby language things! lili uses 'all done' for attempting to terminate undesired activities, but when eating she's sometimes say 'all done' and then eat more food. so i'm not sure what the deal is there... :-) have fun with all the great communication!

[thanate.livejournal.com]

Yeah, our food "ALL DONE" is pretty clearly from "I'm all done with what you've given me." Except of course that it might be that she's all done with the strawberries (except that one hiding behind her arm) and would rather have more of them than eat the puffed wheat.

I've been doing no-kneed bread for a while now, but the best place to let it rise is on top of the heat vent in the kitchen, which, well, is on the floor. And all the bread making books go on about how to get snappy crusts, which I find frustrating because I don't feel that bread ought to be crunchy at all.

[funnylori.livejournal.com]

I got a Williams and Sonoma bread maker from my gran. (I took a peek at the website and can't find it, but the one they have now looks interesting and expensive.) It has some pretty good settings, but it I can't really customize them. And there isn't an option to not bake unless it is pizza dough, which is mildly frustrating because I'd like to bake some of my loaves in the oven so they are less coffee can shaped. I like to make breads with all kinds of different flours and it seemed like sometimes the settings weren't long enough to let the dough rise properly. I need to try using it again, it has been far too long.

[thanate.livejournal.com]

Do you know how old your machine is?

I did a little amazon review research and it looks like the newest ones have all kinds of crazy settings to do stuff like make jam or kneed pasta for you, as well as "whole wheat" and "multi-grain" settings. I also read stuff about trying to get something with a "hold" or at least a beep option between cycles so that you can pause things before the bake cycle, either to get more rise time or to pull out the dough and bake it elsewhere-- sounds like you'd second that as a good thing to have.

Yay bread!

[cheshiretiffy.livejournal.com]

We need to get Dommy to a zoo eventually.

I don't have a bread maker at all, but I've really liked this recipie (http://www.alexandracooks.com/2012/11/07/my-mothers-peasant-bread-the-best-easiest-bread-you-will-ever-make/) for peasant bread. She uses a hell of a lot of butter and the crusts aren't terribly hard until it's sat for a couple of days. The buttery lower half comes out more like grilled cheese bread.

[thanate.livejournal.com]

Zoos are awesome, but admittedly they're kind of a perk of living in city or suburbs.

That's interesting-- the no kneed recipe I've used isn't quite as wet, but pretty similar, and I like the idea of doing your second rise in the baking bowl. I may try that sometime when it's not quite so cold in the house. Thanks!

[cheshiretiffy.livejournal.com]

My second rise tends to be a flop. I think it's just a bit cold in here. It never occured to me to put it by the heat vent!

[heuchera.livejournal.com]

We have one that works pretty well for whole wheat and white bread; it is at least 10 years old though. I will look up the brand. On the dried out rise issue, I learned from my mother about putting a bowl/measuring cup of hot water in the microwave with the dough that is rising. (Not turning the microwave on, just using it to hold in warmth and humidity). If you have a rack for the microwave, put the water on the bottom of the microwave, and the bowl of dough on the rack. Requires a microwave that is big enough for this of course.