Bread Making

I've always thought that bread making is for hippies :) But... since I now own a fancy Kitchenaid mixer and thanks to this No-Knead Bread Recipe modified from the original one from the NY Times, I gave it a try. It took lots of patience as this recipe calls for 20 or so hours of waiting for the dough to rise. I started last night and by 9 pm tonight, we had yummy, artisan quality bread! Wow-wee! I didn't know that I'm a hippie :) It wasn't perfect as we followed the original recipe this time. But the experience has created confidence to venture into the world of baking. I was never really good at it, because it required measuring. Growing up in my family, where things are "eh, half or wait, a bit more than half of an asian spoon of soy sauce plus 2 and a quarter asian spoons of sugar...", I never learned and quite frankly, never had the patience to measure. Anyway, hopefully, I'll continue to make yummy baked goods with the help of good tools and an asian spoonful of patience :)

Here are a few pictures of my creation. And if I can do it, you can too! Oh, and Happy New Year!!


Bread in my Le Creuset dutch oven

All smiles and so proud :) Hm.. I need a cookie sheet and ooh...please excuse the messy hair & kitchen

Retreat

Last weekend, we went to Skamania Lodge for the annual residents' retreat. Food and lodging was paid for, which was really nice. The place was awesome! Food was great (I think we'll come back just for brunch one day), and it was a relaxing time to hang out with friends and family. We had an informal meeting most of Friday, then Quoc drove up for dinner. We stayed, slept in, played in the snow and swam/relaxed in the hot tub, ate lots and left Saturday night because I had to work Sunday. Speaking of which, yay Giants!!! I caught the last bit of the Superbowl because I was in the ER admitting most of the afternoon. Anyway, here are some pictures of our brief stay away from the hectic & busy schedule of residency.
Outside of the lodge.


The car covered in snow.