New Skills, Old Skills

I’ve been learning a new skill, making sourdough bread. Making sourdough bread is quite different from making bread using commercial yeast, which I have done regularly for many years. Sourdough dough should be much wetter than what I’m used to.  It has a different feel, a different texture. It rises much more slowly, taking up to 10 or even 12 hours to be ready for baking. Consequently, my old confident bread-making skills don’t totally apply to this new method. I’m learning a very different process.

Today I baked my second loaf, but I started it yesterday. This time I used a little unbleached flour along with the whole wheat, thinking it might rise more quickly. Wrong. I finished mixing the dough and started the first rise at 10:20 A.M. At 8:30 P.M. the loaf was slowly rising in a bread pan, but I was too tired to wait for it to be doubled in size and ready to bake. I’d read about “retarding” the rise, so I set the covered pan in the snake room (entry room), where the temperature wouldn’t go above 50º F.

I probably didn’t let it warm up sufficiently this morning before baking it, but I’m not disappointed in the result.

Sourdough bread has a firm crust on all sides, even when baked in a pan. Its texture is strong – I believe a slice of if would bend without breaking. One would have to cut or tear it apart. It truly has a slightly sour taste and a sturdy mouth feel. We love it.

While this new skill is developing pretty well, an old one has gone rusty. Having finished with bread for today, I turned to sewing a flannel nightgown, a Christmas gift for Pippi. I had cut out the pieces several days ago, but now it was time to actually sew them together. Woops! It has been 18 months since I’ve sewn anything, and years since I’ve made a garment. I’m having to find my equipment and slowly feel my way through the process. My muscle memory is beginning to come back, but my old sewing confidence has eroded.

It’s hard to keep all of one’s skills honed and ready to summon up when needed. It makes me think of the entertainer who used to appear on the Ed Sullivan Show. This guy would set a plate atop a long pole and set it spinning. Then he would start another pole spinning with another plate on top of it. Pretty soon he had eight or ten poles spinning and was rushing from one to another, speeding them up as their spinning slowed. Rather like a juggler having too many balls in the air. As age and disability diminish my vitality, it’s clear that I’d better keep all my plates spinning, lest I lose them.

On a cheerful note, a friend brought me an amyrillis with two fat buds. Now one has opened into four five-inch blossoms. It’s in my sewing room to cheer me on.

Copyright 2013 by Shirley Domer