rosemary and thyme bread

I'm playing hooky today. I emailed out sick to my volunteer job early this morning, and I've had a couple of moments of chest-tightening guilt and anxiety about it, but I still don't regret it. Last week was a rough one, in which I cleaned up all of the things that can come out of a human; there were seizures and choking (I actually did ask, "ARE YOU CHOKING?"), and more unpleasantness, and uh, I had sort of a moment when I was like, "dudes...I'm not getting paid, so I'm getting out of here". It made me realize that I could never get paid to do this kind of work, because seriously, guys - how does a person clean up someone else's vomit without retching?  What if that vomit had turkey bones in it? (*shudder*) I do maintain that it's important - no, essential - to have something to do with one's day, even if it kinda sucks the life out of you and sometimes makes you dry heave. Something to dread going to is crucial to fully appreciate the time one isn't at that place...like the times when one pretends that she is sick.

I've had a really great time so far today, reading things (mostly about the planned parenthood thing, I can't get enough of it) and listening to things (Marc Maron's WTF, and RISK!, a storytelling podcast hosted by Kevin Allison - the "redhead gay" from The State) and watching things (Downton Abbey! May that show go on forever and ever). After I post this, I plan on going in the pool on our property for the first time. We've never seen anyone maintaining it, so we were a little wary (read: Leah forbade it) to take a dip in case there were any brain-eating amoebas making a home for themselves in the water. Luckily, our neighbors were ignorant of the possible horrors and have been swimming many times.  It's been a couple of weeks now since we first saw them out there, and I am happy to report they are still alive and seem to have their brains intact. Which is good for them, of course, and now we (read: Leah will never go in there) can swim!


I cooked some things today, too, of course. The main event was making bread, which I haven't done since we moved here, and hoo boy. So delicious. I got this recipe from this person who's probably really famous but I've only just stumbled upon today - the pioneer woman? (http://thepioneerwoman.com/)  Who is this woman and how does she have the time to do all the things she does? She probably never plays hooky.

Ingredients

• 20 ounces bread flour, about 4 cups (I used that delicious whole wheat flour and regular all purpose flour)
• 8 ounces water
• 4 ounces melted butter, chopped herbs of choice (I used thyme and rosemary, about 2 tablespoons)
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon  instant yeast

Preparation Instructions

Combine all ingredients together in the KitchenAid stand mixer with the dough hook for about 10 minutes or until the so-called "windowpane" test shows you've kneaded it enough (I did it by hand here and it took about 12 minutes).

Form the kneaded dough into a ball and set in an oiled bowl; cover with plastic wrap. Allow to double in size, about 1-3 hours.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Grease a dutch oven with olive oil. Punch down risen dough and form into a ball, then roll the ball around in the oiled skillet. Sprinkle kosher/coarse salt on top and cut a large "X" into surface of bread dough.
Bake on the center rack of your over for 30 minutes with the lid on, them remove the lid to finish it off for another 15 to 30 minutes (check for golden-ness).

I removed it immediately from the pan because I thought the bottom was burning (it was, a little, but not terribly). My loaf looks absolutely nothing like the pictures on that lady's site, but I am not at all disappointed.