GOOD BREAD

I finally got around to baking some bread.

We really miss our homemade bread when we are in AZ, but baking bread there just doesn't work for me.  I bought a second-hand breadmaker to use for making dough.  When the dough comes out of the breadmaker it seems just fine.  It feels smooth and elastic.  But after shaping it into loaves and setting it to rise, it just flops.  It doesn't rise.

When we lived in Salem, Oregon I had the same problem.  Just couldn't get the dough to rise although I had been baking all our bread for seven years.  There was a rather small wall oven there and I thought that might be the problem.  But then why won't it work in AZ either? 

People have suggested that it's the flour there, not as good as the flour at home in Alberta.  So I took some Alberta flour (I grind my own flour from wheat) along to AZ.  No dice!  It made no difference.  I took some AZ flour to AB.  It rose just fine.  So I think it must be something about the elevation.  We are just under 3,000 ft. here, and at only 1,200 ft there.  Any ideas?

I also last weekend got around to making burger patties.  I like to use a lean ground beef for burger patties, but Jim doesn't want to eat beef, so I make his from ground chicken or 

ground turkey.

The ground meat goes into the big glass bowl.  I add (not measuring): a handful of quick oats, some oregano, some basil, a little bit of nutmeg, some seasoned salt and some garlic powder and some chili powder.  I used to add chopped onion, but now we just slice some onion onto the bun.  That all gets partially mixed through and then I add a raw egg to help the patties stick together.

The white contraption there with the ball of ground beef on it is, for lack of a better term, a patty shaper.    The metal object next to it is a good digital scale.  I scoop up a portion of seasoned ground beef, weigh to make sure I have 4 1/4 oz., roll it into a ball, put it on the patty shaper and press it down with the top part (the white thing with the handle).  They are put onto a cookie tray lined with parchment and put into the freezer until they are hard enough to store in a zip lock bag.  All ready for a Saturday night supper, a tradition here.

I've always loved burgers.  When I was in High School there was a restaurant across the street run by a cousin of my Dad.  An aunt on my Dad's side took care of a room for H.S. students downstairs.  If a student had a permission note they were allowed to cross the street for a burger or hot dog lunch.  One other girl and myself helped my aunt prepare the burgers, hot dogs, fries and malteds.  Our pay was our lunch.  So throughout most of my high school years I did not need to make a bag lunch--I had a burger.  I still liked them when I graduated.  Still not "burgered" out!

In 1987 our oldest daughter and I drove to G.R. to visit Mom who was in a hospital with an operation for colon cancer.  K. lived in Niagara Falls, so I flew out there.  The first evening she didn't feel like cooking so we went out to a Burger King.  That was fine with me!  The next day we drove to G.R., about a 7 hours trip.  Had a burger for lunch on the way.  We stayed in Mom's home and went to visit her in the hospital every day.  For lunch we went to the Burger King right next door--every day.  On the way home we stopped at a plaza on the 401 and got some lunch.  But we couldn't face another burger.  The only other choice was a chicken fillet, so that's what we had.

A few days later I flew home to Portland and Jim picked me up from the airport.  He had a special treat for supper that night: Burgers.  I said, I don't know if I can eat that.  "But you LOVE burgers!"  I did eat it.  It was sweet of him to have one of my favourite suppers ready.