On the Joy and Glory of Modern Devices

I love my crockpot. I love my rice cooker. Between them they make making dinner fairly easy and stress-free. I love the dish washer, which ensures that most of the dishes I don't have to do by hand, and I love the clothing washer and drier, which also make life immeasurably easier. I love the electric iron, and the electric microwave, and the gas stove. I even love the vacuum cleaner. Because combined all of these things mean that in a middle-class household such as ours one person doesn't have to stay at home all the time just to get food on the table, clothing cleaned and presentable, and the house tidy. I'm able to go out and have a job and earn money. Of course, society has accordingly shifted such that it's necessary for both partners to work, but still I end up wondering... would women's lib have been possible in the absence of an industrial revolution? Which is the symptom, and which the cause...?

Discoveries in Baking

The discovery of the day is that the load capacity of our stand mixer is precisely a double batch of oatmeal raisin cookies. ^_^

Back to baking.

Baking: Update One!

The first round of cookies (a double batch of oatmeal raisin) are completed and mostly packed--the last three sheets' worth are still cooling a bit.

Wonderful Husband is mixing up the batter for the triple batch of chocolate chip cookies. Due to the sheer volume of this project, he is using our largest mixing bowl (the one usually only used for my making salsa, a recipe that begins with "take the CostCo can of tomatoes and...") and the hand mixer instead of the stand mixer. Wonderful Husband has just called me downstairs and informed me that we have now killed the hand mixer's motor. As in, it is dead. At least this happened at the point when all that was left to be mixed in is the chocolate chips, which need to be done by hand anyway...?

I'm going to miss that little mixer. It's been a steadfast companion for a long time now.

Guess this means I use the stand mixer for the scones, which are next up after the chocolate chip cookies are done....

In the meantime, I pack.

EDIT: Wonderful Husband just came upstairs. Last night he'd measured out seven cups of chocolate chips from our last Ginormous Bag Of Chocolate Chips, and was going to add the last half-cup from the new bag while making up the cookie dough tonight. He opened the new bag, but then stopped and checked the ingredients list, just to be safe. The new bag is "manufactured in a facility that also processes peanuts." Errr... I think not. So he did NOT add the last half-cup and now we need to find someone to dump a Ginormous Bag Of Chocolate Chips onto. And hope that we can find a replacement bag for next time which is nut-safe.

Baking: Update Two!

Chocolate chip cookies are done! So is packing, save for the toiletries we need tonight and in the morning. YAY~~! Due to time crunch, scones ain't happening for this Fanime, but this is a small imperfection in the face of things.

I... really like baking. I like cooking in general, and wish I had more time to devote to it. I also wish I had more people to inflict it upon. Cookies are a good case-in-point for this: I like making them, but I don't like the fact that I have to eat all of them. Taking them in to our offices only goes so far. I have all these wonderful cookbooks and magazines, and I don't feel I use them often enough. I can happily spend hours reading about the different effects different types of fats and flours have on baking, and how room and oven temperature variations affect starters and rising and such. Among my current covets (being in a baking mood at the moment) are Rose Levy Berenbaum's three "Bible" books. I really should've gotten The Bread Bible when I saw it a few years back used for fifteen dollars, but hindsight is ever perfect. And I have a deal with myself that I can't buy new cookbooks unless I get rid of some of the old. As soon as I copy my beloved Irish Soda Bread recipe out of one I never use for anything else, though, I think I can get rid of two.... *contemplates*