Can "Random" be a theme?

     So, I've decided to pay more attention to this blog and try to post each day.  What I'd like to ask all of my readers out there (all, uh, 4 of you) is--Do you prefer the blogs you read to have a theme, or does it matter naught to you and you prefer instead the random musings of a somewhat sleep-deprived, middle-aged, domestically challenged, wanna-be writer?  If your choice is the latter, then hey--this is the blog for you! 

     I find that I've always chafed quite passive-aggressively at being made to write about a particular subject.  In my junior year English classes, my teacher often forced us to write short stories about a subject that she herself would choose. (Subject: Write about a girl on an airplane who looks out of the window. What does she see? What does she do then? Etc., etc. Blech.)  I HATED that.  And I would often rebel by writing the most inane thing I could muster up about her subject. (Sally is riding in an airplane.  Sally sees the engine is on fire.  Oh no.  Sally tries to warn the flight attendant, but he is too busy passing out little bags of peanuts to notice.  BOOM!  The plane explodes and everyone dies.  The End.)  But, I digress.  All of that was to say that I don't really like being limited to a theme.  So, for me, random is good. 

     I often find myself with random thoughts rolling around in my head anyway.  Deep, earth-trembling questions like:  Why does Charlie Brown only ever get rocks in his Halloween bag?  He's in a costume, how does anyone know it's him?  What kind of sick person would do that to a kid anyway?  or  If I use rapid-rise yeast with self-rising flour, will I blow up the house?  or  Why does the Man with the Yellow Hat send Curious George to do the grocery shopping, when he knows it will only mean trouble?  What is the exact nature of the relationship between those two anyway?   You know, the really important questions that NEED to be answered. 

Well anyway, that's how I roll.  Uh, randomly.  And not always with any sort of clear message.  Enjoy.            

Adventures in Domesticity

     I have discovered a new website that I dearly love. It is called Mom On A Mission and she is a veritable font of information regarding cooking in bulk and freezing for later. She also has the easiest--and when I say EASIEST, I mean "could not be simpler, made for dummies"--recipe for making bread that I have. EVER. SEEN. No kneading, no proofing, no letting it rise for the approximate length of the the Hundred Year War, nothing. You mix it (she mixes hers in a 5 qt. plastic shoe box--clever), let it sit in the box on the counter for about 2 hours with the lid on, then stick it into your fridge and let it hang out for 24 hours before you bake with it.

     The next day, you pull out the box, tear off a hunk the size that you need, let it come to room temp (about 1 1/2 hrs) and then use as you will. She even includes a list of all the things you can do with this bread--loaf bread, cinnamon rolls (oh, I am ALL. OVER. THAT.), pizza crust, dinner rolls--you get the idea.

     Anyhoo, this got me very excited. In the past, I have had an aversion to making homemade bread that bordered on phobic. Kneading!  Proofing!  Kneading again!  Rise time! Too much commitment! Cue Cathy-like scream of "Aaack"! (For those of you who do not know who "Cathy" is, try this website: http://www.gocomics.com/cathy ) Nope, no bread for me, unless it came from the store in a plastic sleeve, already sliced and ready to go.

     When I stumbled across this website and read the recipe, I decided--hey, I can do this. 'Shut up', I told myself. 'You have limited domestic skills, you CANNOT do this!' 'No, YOU shut up, I can so do this!' 'No, you CAN'T. For the love of Pete, you set the oven on fire at Daniel's 3rd birthday party just trying to make some lousy Bruschetta! Who are you kidding, Martha?!' 'Listen, you! I am 43 years old and dammit, if I say I can do this, then I. CAN. DO. IT.' And then, I left my psychoses by the wayside and got up, and DID IT. And I didn't just do it once. I DID IT TWICE. And now, I'm going to do it all the time. Because I CAN. So, there. It turned out perfectly, by the way. And all of my men loved it. Happy Mommy.

     Here is the lovely lady that I'd like to thank for helping me to overcome my bread phobia:

http://momonamission.me/?p=1025

     Be sure to check out the rest of her website as well. It is a-maze-ing.

P.S. I'm sorry I don't have a picture of the yummy goodness that my bread became. I promise that I'll try to edit this post at a later date and include the pictures.