BulgingButtons

May 3, 2015
by BulgingButtons 9 Comments

Baking as Entertainment

Today I have a task, I am to bake two loaves of bread. It’s part of a service learning project that my school is doing, in conjunction with the good people at King Arthur Flour .

From the King Arthur website. I hope mine look this good!

When I first heard about this project, I was interested, but not overly enthusiastic. I’m not much of a bread baker, so I wasn’t exactly rushing to sign up. Then things changed. Then Nate the Baker showed up.

A little back story: King Arthur Flour company (which is owned by its employees, by the way) does this incredible service learning project with schools across the country. They provide not only flour, but bread baking kits, for kids to make bread. There is enough to make two loaves, one to keep and one to share. The second loaf is brought back to school and donated to feed the hungry.

Neat project, right? But there’s more. In order to get the kids enthusiastic about participating, and to teach them about bread baking, King Arthur sends a baker to school for an assembly. I know what you’re thinking, “Gee, how exciting, watching someone bake bread.” I was slightly skeptical myself, but I’m here to eat my words. It was probably one of the best school assemblies I’ve ever been to, and as a long time teacher, that’s saying something!

Not only did Nate the baker demonstrate the technique for making the bread (with his two student assistants, the Diva of Dry Ingredients and the Lord of Liquid Ingredients), but he engaged the entire audience and brought in lots of science content, as well as developing vocabulary. There was pizza dough twirling (and drops on the floor… oops!), cinnamon roll cutting (with dental floss!), and bread braiding (it’s NOT like your hair). This man was not only a born showman, but a top notch educator. I imagine he’s a pretty good baker, too.

We all left enthusiastic about our gifts of flour and other baking supplies, and dreaming about the fresh, delicious bread we would bake. I’m excited to make mine this afternoon, and I’m really looking forward to being part of that long line of bread donors tomorrow. What a wonderful experience for our students, thanks to this generous company.

I will be a King Arthur Flour customer from now on.

May 1, 2015
by BulgingButtons Leave a comment

In Honor of the Sabbath

Jewish food is not for everyone. A lot of it is seriously lacking in flavor, and seasoning? Well, let’s just say we don’t really go for that sort of thing. This video of people trying various Jewish staples is quite funny, especially to me, since I have plenty of experience will all of those foods. I love the use of the word, “compressed.” If you aren’t careful that’s how your stomach can feel afterward. Now lift a glass of Manischewitz and say, “L’chiam!” as you enjoy this fun clip.

Have you tried any of these? What did you like or dislike?

April 30, 2015
by BulgingButtons 4 Comments

A Night Owl Living in an Early Bird’s World

Once again I sit here at my computer past the hour when I should be in bed. Why? Because I don’t want to go to bed! I don’t like going to bed. Oh sure, I’m perfectly happy once I’m there (most of the time) but the little kid in me still thinks I’m somehow going to miss out on something if I go to sleep.

This thinking, fortunately, doesn’t extend to naps. That’s good news, because by the time the weekend rolls around I usually need one. My sleep debt hits its peak and I have to make up for it somehow.

Back in the day, I used to stay up late reading. Then I went to college. It seems like nothing fun ever began before 11:00 pm, so my natural night owl tendencies were rewarded and strengthened. After college my first real job started late in the day, so I still had no reason not to stay up late. This pattern continued for a while, until I decided to go to graduate school to become a teacher. What a rude awakening that was (I’m sorry, I couldn’t help myself).

Student teaching on the far side of town during the winter months of snow and ice required me to get up by 4:30 each morning. It was hell. I was used to just getting home around then. Still, I was motivated, so I adjusted. I also collapsed every day when I got home from school. I remember that time of my life as being sort of zombiesque.

Over the years I’ve managed to function pretty well in the regular world, in spite of my preference for late bedtimes and later wake up times. I’ve even begun waking up at about 7:00 am on the weekends for no good reason, other than it’s better than my weekday time of 5:20. Still, over my breaks from school, I find myself staying up later and later and then sleeping in more and more. At one time I figured I would do best sleeping from about 2:00 to 9:00 each day, but now that I’m older, I’ll say about 1:00 to 8:00. Honestly any seven hours in a row would do me a world of good. Maybe it’s time to get off the computer and go to bed, but then again, I might miss something if I do.

What kind of hours do you keep? Are you an early bird or a night owl? And how much sleep do you typically get each night? I know that sleep patterns change over time; have yours?