Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “bake.” Use it as a noun or a verb, use it any way you’d like. Have fun!
It’s been so long since I’d done a Stream of Consciousness Saturday (on Sunday), that I had to look back at one of my earlier posts to find the link to Linda’s prompt page.
Turns out my cycle of feel great/write/despair/don’t write is one that’s pretty baked in to my existence. And I like baking, so maybe that’s all just part of the fun.
Speaking of baking, I’ve binge-watched about 8 seasons of “The Great British Baking Show” this year. I’d heard people loved it and wondered what the attraction was, so I gave it a shot. I am honestly still not sure what the attraction is, but I’m hooked, so there’s something…
It’s pretty low-budget as television goes, and not especially dramatic as reality television goes, unless you count an unfortunately “stodgy” cake during the “showstopper” round to be full-throttle excitement. “Will Paul like this cake or won’t he? Oh my gosh, I can’t wait to find out!”
Paul Hollywood. Do you think that’s a real name? It doesn’t feel like one, especially when you see him. He LOOKS like a Paul Hollywood, like his name was created to match his physique and persona. Although Pru (who is obviously a Pru – who would pick that name for stage?) also seems perfectly fit for her name. Maybe it’s a British thing. Considering we’re a former British colony, there is so much about the British I just don’t get.
But baking. THAT, I get. I’ve been baking for years, starting in my early twenties with a bread baking kick because a friend told me the kneading process was good for stress and anxiety, which it is. Ironically, I now use the dough hook on my KitchenAid for most kneading. Hmmm. Maybe that’s why I’m a mess. Perhaps the feel great/write/despair/don’t write cycle would diminish in frequency if I went back to manual kneading. Something to think about, at any rate.
My latest foray into baking has been an attempt at sourdough. I’ve been at it a couple months (hang on, let me check my Amazon receipt), yes nearly two months, and I still haven’t baked a loaf of sourdough bread yet. The sourdough starter is finicky. For those of you who are unaware (and I think I can safely assume that’s most of you), sourdough is a yeasted bread, but you don’t actually use yeast. Mind blown, yeah? Well, you DO use yeast, but it’s natural yeast that’s pulled from the air (eww) by your “starter” which is simply flour and water to start with. Over the course of days (5, 7, 9, depending on the instructions you’re following or how inept you happen to be with getting a starter to grow), you eventually get a slurry of naturally yeasted dough which you can then use for sourdough recipes. The “sour” in the name comes from the flavor the starter develops by sitting at room temperature in your home for 5, 7, 9, or more days whilst soaking up all the natural “stuff” floating around in your daily living space. Charming, right?
“But Ben, you’ve had your starter kit since October 27. Why no bread yet?”
I’m so glad you asked!
I mentioned that the starter sits at room temperature. We keep a fairly cool house (down to 61F overnight and only 68 during the day), and that’s too cold a room to keep my starter happy and growing. It just refused to eat. No bubbles. Nothing. Eventually, it got kind of gray and I decided that was the end of that attempt. I later learned I could have resuscitated it, but that’s another story. I tried an online suggestion with my next attempt: let it eat and grow in the oven, turned off but with the oven light on.
BRILLIANT!
It took right off. It was looking like I might have a usable starter for bread in the 5 day estimation I was so hopefully following.
Then my son, whom I love dearly (he turned 15 yesterday!), needed his midnight frozen pizza. Or perhaps he was making brownies. It doesn’t matter.
“Preheat oven to 425 degrees”
“Turn dad’s healthy sourdough starter into a dark brown brick”
He felt badly, I’ll give him credit for that.
I wasn’t angry. It’s just the way baking goes. I just put it in the sink with soap and water and waited until it was soft enough to chisel out the mortar so I could start again. I haven’t started again yet. Not sure why, exactly. Life is busy? (it’s always busy) Afraid of another failure? (there will always be another failure). Just don’t feel like it? (you’ve been alive – you know how that is).
It’s probably a life metaphor if I gave it more thought.
But I’m not going to give it more thought.
I’m going to wrap up this post and go watch “The Great British Baking Show: Holidays”.
Episode 2 just dropped.
On your marks, get set, BAKE!
#SoCS comes from the website of Linda G. Hill.
Here are the rules:
1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing (typos can be fixed), and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.
2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.
defying atrophy 
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