Pond Hockey!

What a day! Freezing cold here...the Saab said -5 Fahrenheit, but you know the Scandinavians tend to exaggerate. Lindsay, Charlie, and I had the chance to do some ice skating at Jack and Jodie's house. Jack made a nice rink, bringing me back to the old days of skating on our pond in Mason. It felt great to strap on the skates and scoot around on the ice. Periods of mayhem, nasty falls, blind cross checks, and tripping on cracks in the ice ensued.

At some point Charlie found some beer. Typically, he shows restraint, but apparently Busch Light is too much for this doggie to handle. He interrupted our game several times with raucous frat house behavior.

We warmed up once the game got going, and I am looking forward to getting back on the ice soon!

Photo from the archives!

Well, it really wasn't that long ago, but Bea, Charles, and I shared the futon on New Year's Day for some Michigan football. This is the one and only day Charlie is allowed on furniture, and he took full advantage of it all afternoon!

10 day hiatus

Several months ago, Lindsay received an email from a coworker detailing an article from the New York times written about a revolutionary....bread. Now, try not to jump through the monitor, but this bread is very exciting. The ingredients, simple. The method, elementary. The taste, revolutionary.

I know what you are thinking, it's just bread. Try the recipe and you will find out it is so much more.

For those of you who would not get caught dead reading the New York Times, here is the recipe:


No-Knead Bread
Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery

Time: About 1 1/2 hours plus 14 to 20 hours' rising

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place doughon it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

Yield: One 1 1/2-pound loaf.

Post Christmas/New Years

It is quite a challenge to adjust back to school, even with the short week. I found myself yawning for most of the week. Listening to Green Gloves by The National right now--great recomendation from Matt M. You can find his best of '07 song and album list here.

My sister and brother-in-law, Gretchen and Karsten, are in San Cristobal, Chiapas, Mexico right now for a 3 month sabatical. Karsten wrote an excellent first entry on their blog--check it out!

Christmas 07

Lindsay and I got back from an awesome week out in Idaho last night yesterday. It was wonderful to meet up with friends and share time with our parents and brother and sister. This was also a time when Linds and I both felt like we had gotten a ton of stuff done in the course of a week. Please allow a few words and pictures to explain our break.

On Christmas Eve, Lindsay and I woke up to 6 inches of fresh snow, and a beautiful, sunny day to ski! We left after I made omelets for the first time time ever, and had an awesome day of skiing with the whole Brown clan! After skiing, we rushed to the Donnely Bible Church Christmas Eve service, where we experienced a refreshing and renewed sense of Christ's birth.

Christmas Day, we woke up to Handel's Messiah, and then exchanged presents. This took most of the morning as well as early afternoon as breakfast was a main priority. Dad Brown took care of the Sheepherder's Skillet (scrambled eggs, potatoes, bacon, cheese), as sou chef Luke took notes and cracked eggs. Brother Matt was in charge of buttering the toast.

After breakfast and a romp outside in the snow via snowshoes and x-country skis, it was time to mount the mantel above the fireplace, which turned out to be a very memorable experience. A shortened version of this story would be that the mantel was very hesitant to fit perfectly, which caused us great anguish as we continually mounted, re-mounted, chiseled, mounted, and remounted. In the end, it was an almost perfect fit, and the construction glue will hold fast for years to come. It looks great!

Finally, the beard came off. Two days after Christmas, I took the step of removing the main target of ridicule and awe (besides my nose) that I had endured the past two months. In order to look presentable for family functions and grocery shopping, but also to maintain the "western" feel that Idaho emits, I chose a timeless look:

I then watched Miami Vice and decided that the late 70's and 80's were really the peak of fashion sense and moved to change my facial hair:

In the end, realizing that my professional career as a mustached teacher would be in jeopardy with this atrocious bit of upper lip hair, and despite us attending a Baptist church where the mustache is next to godliness, I shaved the rest off. It feels good, and I don't miss the hair one bit.

We have a ton more pictures, and even more stories to tell, so stay tuned for more updates!

A little fun--

One of the great parts of meeting up with guys over Christmas is the vast knowledge of funny YouTube videos that can be gained. This makes the grade as worth watching:

Day before break

Well, winter break officially starts tomorrow at 2:42 for Linds and I. We will be heading out to Boise, and then up to Cascade, Idaho to the Brown family cabin. We are looking forward to seeing Lindsay's family, especially her brother Matt and sister-in-law Vanessa. Matt recently started a clothing line. It is pretty cool stuff--check it out, he is the dude with the hat over his eyes on the main page.