Why Moreena Is One of My Favorite Bloggers

Not to mention mothers. It’s because of posts like this one.

So tonight we went trick-or-treating, just like last year. This year,
Annika only made it to 5 houses before she announced that she was ready
to return home. But the other two girls, Frankie and our neighbor,
Sabrina, were just getting started. So I pulled Annika along in the
wagon while Sabrina and Frankie ran ahead to ring doorbells. Annika and
I talked about pumpkins and spiders and bats. We talked about what her
costume will be next year. And while I was getting ready to feel sorry
for her that she was missing out on trick-or-treating, I realized that this
was the celebration for her. Riding along in a wagon, bundled up in a
lovely new hand-me-down coat from Sabrina, her hair sprayed green and a
witch’s hat perched on top of her new coat’s hood.

This is the celebration. Amen to that, Moreena.

The Answer to this Question May Be Where I’m Moving Next

Ria is a homeschooled ninth-grader who loves Chesterton, Tolkien, Irish dance, and chocolate cake—proving her to be a girl of excellent taste. On her charming blog, Liber Parma, she has issued a challenge: find a place where you could have a chocolate cake farm. That is, where on earth could you grow or produce all the ingredients necessary to make chocolate cake without buying anything? Ria writes:

Cocoa beans and sugar cane grow in similar climates, wheat can grow in
many places. We are not sure where you can get baking powder and baking
soda but if anyone else knows please let me know. Salt you can get from
the sea, for eggs you need a chicken and for milk a cow is necessary.
You need a vegetable and a press for vegetable oil, vanilla beans grow
in warm climates just like cocoa beans and sugar cane, and water is
likely to be in any place where people live.

Okay so you have
the background, now I have a challenge for you. Find a place, or several
places where you could have a farm that produces all of these things.
Use books, internet, whatever and have fun. Please comment back and
tell me what you found.

There is already some very interesting information in the comments. Related posts can be found at my favorite geography blog, The Map Guys, and at Studeo.

Ria, I’m afraid I must add a critical ingredient to your list: pecans. You can’t make my mom’s now-famous Rocky Road Sheet Cake without them!

I Unpacked the Card-Reader

Which means lots of pictures coming soon…like these from our first stop: the New River Gorge Visitor Center in West Virginia. I loved the beautiful garden

Wvnaturectr

and the stunning view…

Viewwv

(Wish I’d gotten a better picture of it!)

Jane’s favorite part was the science mystery game inside the center

Wvctrtree

but what the younger girls liked best was the big mound of dirt in the parking lot.

Dirtmound

Of course!

More Questions About Breadmaking

I knew I could count on you guys! The comments section of yesterday’s post is filling up with wonderful bread recipes, and a few of you have emailed me recipes as well. Thank you!

Now, let’s talk equipment. Not mixers with dough hooks— although, what the heck, go ahead and recommend your favorites while you’re at it, and then I just might know what hints to drop my husband for Christmas. But right now I want to know about loaf pans and kneading surfaces. We have one battered old nonstick loaf pan I use for meatloaf and packaged quickbreads. (It works just fine for that yummy beer bread my friend Lisa mentioned in the comments. I do love that stuff! And no, I don’t make any money off my frequent Tastefully Simple endorsements—I am just a big fan.)

Pan
My friend Joann recommended this pan de mie, which bakes loaves shaped like storebought sandwich bread. Very cool. Sounds like something else to hint for come Christmastime…

But I have learned that I should not invest money in supplies for any hobby or endeavor TOO SOON. I have to try this out for a while to see if we (all right, Jane) are going to stick with it. So will my one old loaf pan serve us all right? For now? And when/if we do decide to invest in more pans (since Becky points out that you never want to make just one loaf at a time), which ones do you like, O wise and experienced bakers of bread?

Also, will a big wooden cutting board work as a kneading surface? My kitchen table is kind of rickety (it is a treasured hand-me-down from my dear Aunt Genia—given to me when I was in college, yikes!) and I can’t imagine it standing up to much pounding and pushing. The countertops in my kitchen here are some kind of tile—beautiful but bumpy. I use a plastic cutting board for chopping veggies, but I found a nice wooden 10×16" one during the unpacking. Would that work? Wow, am I clueless. I told you so. Go ahead, someone ask me a question about Charlotte Mason or, say, the domestic practices of late 18th-century Scotland, quick!