Woo Wednesday

Hello fellow social-distancers! I left the house this morning to take my dog to chemo and make a TP run to Target. The vibe is very strange out there. Best just stay inside if you can.

While you’re inside, I have a few things to recommend to make life a little nicer.

Woo Book

My friend, Rachael Herron, in addition to being an amazing writer and writing coach, also recommends good books. Last week, she told me about this book called EXISTENTIAL KINK by Carolyn Elliott.

She told me to read it because it’s pretty woo woo and she wanted to have someone to talk about it with and I’m a freak for freaky stuff. Be warned: This book is full of alchemical metaphors, magical thinking, and cussin’. In other words, it’s my jam. It’s also pretty fascinating because it encourages us to think about our shadow selves in a new way. Well, not totally new because she’s building on ground Freud and Jung tread, but it’s packaged a bit differently.

It’s a pretty short book—the audiobook is only 6 hours long and read by the author. So it’s perfect for your daily walk around the block or while you’re cleaning your house or hiding in a closet with a bottle of wine to escape the constant togetherness.

Woo Aromatherapy

I’ve mentioned before that I get a monthly subscription box from Lunarly. I love it so much, especially now when I’m trapped at home and getting mail is like Christmas. This month’s box came with this amazing aromatherapy spray that I’m now obsessed with. It’s Scentual’s Yoga Vitality Spray.

The scent is a combo of jasmine, sweet orange, bergamot and lemongrass. I spray it on my pillows before I go to bed and on mahself when I need a little boost. I might get some extra bottles for my car and my office.

Woo Baking

In times like these, I tend to nest like nobody’s business. I have picked up like five crafting hobbies in the last week to stay busy. I have also been baking like crazy. At first this was out of necessity because I couldn’t get any bread at the store. Now, it’s just comforting and nothing tastes better than bread you made yourself.

The recipe below is from my mother. She calls it “Peasant Bread” but really it’s just a super simple recipe that is also very versatile.

I’ve been replacing one cup of AP flour with a cup of wheat flour. It has to rise a little longer, but it’s delicious.

Ingredients

·       4 cups (512 g | 1 lb. 2 oz) unbleached all-purpose flour

·       2 teaspoons kosher salt

·       2 cups lukewarm water (made by mixing 1 1/2 cups cold water with 1/2 cup boiling water)

·       2 teaspoons sugar

·       2 teaspoons instant or active-dry yeast

·       room temperature butter, about 2 tablespoons

Instructions

1.     Mixing the dough: If you are using instant yeast: In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, sugar, and instant yeast. Add the water. Mix until the flour is absorbed. If you are using active-dry yeast: In a small mixing bowl, dissolve the sugar into the water. Sprinkle the yeast over top. There is no need to stir it up. Let it stand for about 10 to 15 minutes or until the mixture is foamy and/or bubbling just a bit — this step will ensure that the yeast is active. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together the flour and salt. When the yeast-water-sugar mixture is foamy, stir it up, and add it to the flour bowl. Mix until the flour is absorbed.

2.     Cover bowl with a tea towel or plastic wrap and set aside in a warm spot to rise for at least an hour. (In the winter or if you are letting the bread rise in a cool place, it might take as long as two hours to rise.) This is how to create a slightly warm spot for your bread to rise in: Turn the oven on at any temperature (350ºF or so) for one minute, then turn it off. Note: Do not allow the oven to get up to 300ºF, for example, and then heat at that setting for 1 minute — this will be too hot. Just let the oven preheat for a total of 1 minute — it likely won't get above 100ºF. The goal is to just create a slightly warm environment for the bread.

3.     Preheat the oven to 425ºF. Grease two oven-safe bowls (such as the 1-qt pyrex bowls I mentioned above) with about a tablespoon of butter each. Using two forks, punch down your dough, scraping it from the sides of the bowl, which it will be clinging to. As you scrape it down try to turn the dough up onto itself if that makes sense. You want to loosen the dough entirely from the sides of the bowl, and you want to make sure you've punched it down. Then, take your two forks and divide the dough into two equal portions — eye the center of the mass of dough, and starting from the center and working out, pull the dough apart with the two forks. Then scoop up each half and place into your prepared bowls. This part can be a little messy — the dough is very wet and will slip all over the place. Using small forks or forks with short tines makes this easier — my small salad forks work best; my dinner forks make it harder. It's best to scoop it up fast and plop it in the bowl in one fell swoop.

4.     Let the dough rise for about 20 to 30 minutes on the countertop near the oven (or near a warm spot) or until it has risen to just below or above (depending on what size bowl you are using) the top of the bowls. (Note: Do not do the warm-oven trick for the second rise, and do not cover your bowls for the second rise. Simply set your bowls on top of your oven, so that they are in a warm spot. Twenty minutes in this spot usually is enough for my loaves.)

5.     Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce the heat to 375º and make for 15 to 17 minutes longer. Remove from the oven and turn the loaves onto cooling racks. If you've greased the bowls well, the loaves should fall right out onto the cooling racks. If the loaves look a little pale and soft when you've turned them out onto your cooling racks, place the loaves into the oven (outside of their bowls) and let them bake for about 5 minutes longer. Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes before cutting.

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What’s Woo with you this week?

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