Some things that worked and some things that didn't

 I work out every day. Those of you who know me from childhood know that the household I grew up in was the opposite of athletic. This is also the opposite of a Thai family mentioned in today's Wall Street Journal that had such high athletic hopes for their children that they named them, Bowling, Baseball and Tennis. Tennis just won a gold medal in taekwondo.

My family's expectations was that I do well in school and athletics was something of no great interest. Anyway, despite my upbringing I work out daily for about ninety minutes. I watch TV to stay on task. Often i watch videos on YouTube.

The other day

this video about making Uzbeki bread showed in on my feed. Of course I don't know Russian or Uzbeki but the idea of baking the bread on the underside of a pot lid with the pot serving as the oven seemed like a great thing to try. Besides, we love the Uzbeki bread we are served in Uzbeki restaurants. It was hot and muggy and we needed bread. I liked the idea of only having to heat up a burner rather than having to turn my oven up to 400 to bake when it was so hot and muggy.

I mixed up a dough. I heated up a pot lid.   I put some dough on the center of the hot pot lid, used a fork to puncture the dough in the center and egged the dough to create a shiny crust and put the lid with the dough adhered to it on the hot but empty pot.

This was the result.

I tried to make a second second loaf. I hadn't allowed the lid to sit on the flame long enough before adding the dough, so as I baked it inside the pot the dough fell off of the lid.  I attempted to re attach the dough to the pot lid but all that happened is that the bit of dough that touched the bottom of the pot burned. 

I then took out a baking sheet and covered it in parchment paper and preheated the oven. I tasted a bit of the broken Uzbeki loaf. UGH! I had forgotten to add salt to the dough.  This made the bread extra fluffy and tasteless.

I put the loaves in the oven and then had a mishap with the pan when checking on the progress of the breads. I had to rescue the three loaves from the floor of my oven, leaving enough dough behind to make the kitchen REALLY smoky.

I may have to find another source for baking bread on a pot lid in a language that I can understand a bit better. I may also try it when it isn't quite so hot out.

I did redeem myself the next day by making a tsibbile pletzle, an onion board using a really wet dough--I think that is an Italian bread baking technique. I covered the dough with olive oil, dried onions, black pepper and poppy seeds.

For reasons that I don't understand, my husband who detests onions LOVES tsibbile pletzle. The Jewish bakeries in Boston occasionally sold it. Whenever they did, my father would get all softly sentimental and buy some. We always ate it as we walked to the car because such a treat couldn't wait  until we had gotten home. I don't think that I ever ate tsibbile pletzle  on a plate and not out of a white waxed bakery bag while walking, until I was an adult.

So despite failing at the stove top Uzbeki bread I did redeem myself with the onion board.

Another item on the success list is this.

My old sewing books would call it a utility slip. I had made a full slip with the rest of this fabric years ago. That full slip died a while ago after lots of long, hard wear. The off cut was a bit uneven and for some silly reason it seemed like a job too difficult for me to tackle. I put on my big girl pants and cut this fabric remnant to size and made myself this perfectly boring half slip. I am wearing it as I type this post. It probably helps that I have a better serger these days. My old one liked to chew up this kind of slippery knit fabric.

 Once again I'm not writing about what I am making for Shabbat dinner. I have been under the weather and not feeling like cooking a whole lot. I had made a stew out of  leftovers that had been in the freezer and tonight we are having leftovers of the leftover stew.

Shabbat Shalom!

and as we anticipate marking Tisha B'av our national day of mourning..

Hoping that the disasters that threaten to strike us this year are averted.