All Rise…for a BREAD Surprise

 One of the hardest things about staying safe during the pandemic is that most of the days seem the same. We’ve all narrowed down what we personally “permit” ourselves to do and the people we feel safe to see, so our routines tend to be static. But one thing that can always liven up the week is a surprise – and a fresh baked bread has risen to the occasion for these sisters.

We are sharing a monthly subscription to BreadEx – fresh, artisan bread delivered to your door every Saturday morning. For each of the first three weeks in a month-long subscription, Pastry Chef Uma Iyer focuses on using different flours and creating loaves that highlight various countries. Then the fourth and final loaf is a surprise where customers don’t know what they’re getting until the beginning of that week. “We say that we want you to explore the world one bread at a time, so every week it changes,” Iyer says.

September’s breads are Buttered Oats Sandwich Bread, Broa – Portugese Corn Bread, Limpa – Swedish Rye Bread and Baker’s Choice Surprise. We’ve already received the Buttered Oats, with two oatmeal cookies thrown in as a surprise – and they were delicious! Bread-Ex is offered by the gourmet French bakery Tart-a-licious in Plano, which we intend to visit soon because their tarts look amaze-alicious!

OVERCOMING Inertia

It has been such a challenge coming up with interesting activities to use for the ABC Covid-19 Life. Currently, we are overdosing on intellectual pursuits – Zoom classes, Great Courses, movies and books (Barbara hit a record of nine books last month). But thank goodness for them or we would be twiddling our thumbs. So, this month we are grasping at straws to find something more “hands on” to do.

Barbara – Ever since I worked after college at the American headquarters of a company based in Japan, I have felt a strong fondness for all things Japanese. Still hoping I can someday go there and am mightily regretting not doing it when I was younger and a 14-hour flight wasn’t as overwhelming. Since Laura and I covered the haiku I thought this time I would try my hand at ORIGAMI.

Origami comes from the Japanese words meaning to fold and paper and dates back to the 6^th century. One of the most famous origami designs is of the crane and it is said that if you fold 1000 origami cranes you will have your hearts desire come true. Unfortunately, I tried 5 different YouTube videos and could not make 1 crane so I’m hoping my heart’s desire is not dependent on my origami skills!

Laura: With all this time spent at home, you would think I would have ORGANIZED my entire house. Or falling short of that, I would at least have every drawer and closet ship shape. Alas, that is not the case. But this week, I had reached a point where I decided that each morning I would fill out a quick list of things that I would do that day and one or two of them have to include something productive. So, one of the first things I tackled was to ORGANIZE an old recipe box and my spice rack. The recipe box had a few recipes from my mom (keepers), a few from former co-workers (keepers) and lots of clipped-from-magazines (tossers). The spice rack was more of a challenge: did I organize by size so it looked better? Or alphabetize for quicker access? I went with the latter and a few shelves for specific groupings. So much better…and I actually was able to grab the Ground Cinnamon immediately to spice mom’s sweet potatoes!