Okay, maybe there's a little of both things happening around these parts. I haven't been knitting that much (I haven't stopped altogehter, don't worry), and I haven't been kneading at all. If you haven't noticed, yaiAnn has been turning in to a baking blog as of late. My latest obession has been with bread, the no knead variety. How can you resist churning out something like this with little to NO effort. ZERO. People, I didn't even break a sweat making this. I'm not sure what pushed me over the edge to make this bread, but it was a damn good reason to finally break down and buy the french oven I've been coveting for years. If you haven't heard about it because you've been living under a rock for the past 3-4 months like I have, the no knead bread phenomena has been rocking the foodie blog world for the past few months. It's honestly like magic. Just follow the recipe and in a mere matter of minutes you have this. close up here 19 hours later, you'll have this. close up here 3-4 hours later, you'll have this. It's like magic! The bread even crackled as it was cooling. It kind of scared me, especially since I went a little overboard with the cornmeal/flour dusting before it went in the oven. Taste test? Love it.. something I'm definitely making in the future.. as a matter of fact, there are two rising as we speak. Let's spread the bread love all around.

I'm currently drowning in lots of work, pardon the absence. I've really been meaning to post about knitting and sewing, but the darn work thing gets in the way. Anyways, just wanted to update you with some breadie news. If you haven't heard, A Year in Bread is a place that I'll be spending a lot of time on the next 12 months. I hope to expand my baking skills to beyond my standard vanilla and chocolate cupcakes, as well as the occassional hi-hat, to something more savory and everyday (whoever said there was something wrong with eating cupcakes everyday?). So as I climb out of the huge pile of work I have to get through. Let's dream of bread and baked goods and when I emerge from the other side, I will have FOs to show you (overdue FOs, but FOs nonetheless).

NYT's Quick Whole Wheat and Molasses Bread, Lighter version

I'm not quite recovered from the first of the season's glutonous holidays yet. Are you? It went by so fast, it was kind of a blur. The cooking part went pretty well and the eating part, of course, happened without a hitch. To sum it up, lots of good food was cooked and eaten. The superstar of my Thanksgiving dishes were the desserts.

I think there are nice little, quiet moments we take for granted sometimes because we're just to busy to remember to slow down, sit for a second and just be. This weekend turned into a lazy weekend of sorts. I woke up feeling the need to be productive, to finish up some cleaning, decluttering and organizing. B gave me a ring-a-ding and asked if I wanted to pick up some breakfast. We decided to stay in and cook. I'd bake up something and he'd come over with some other breakfast items as I only had eggs in my fridge (yes, grocery shopping is on my list of things to do).

I had just received a copy of Breakfast Lunch Tea and wanted to try a few of the scone recipes. The recipes have you rub butter in with your fingers. I thought I'd try something new so I left the food processor and pastry blender out of the picture and just went with.

It was just me, the kitchen and silence. And it was quite nice. Although my forearm started to ache, it was really therapeutic. I whipped up maple scones and cheddar cornmeal scones. When the doorbell rang, B showed up with dim sum and a bunch of gai lan. Of course I was expecting some veggies and a protein source for omelettes or the like, but this was a nice surprise. After steaming the gai lan and making some tea, we set the little table in the tiny atrium/skylight area in the house and we just sat, ate and chatted.

And it was really nice to just sit there, taking our time and enjoying each other's company with good food.

It reminded me of those scenes on tv where you'd see a family sit down to a full breakfast in the morning before heading their separate ways to start their day. And it made me think, wouldn't it be nice it this could happen everyday? If we weren't so busy and involved in our own lives, maybe we could share time with each other like this more often.

But of course, the reality of today hits and we'll continue to rush off to do our things. This was a good reminder for me to remember to schedule time to do this more often. Not just cook without the motor of appliances dominating the kitchen, but to enjoy those everyday, unassuming moments with those you love.

*When I was younger, my family would take go out for eitheryum cha or an "American" breakfast every Sunday. mama&papaFasu were your typical industrious immigrant parents who worked hard 7 days a week to keep our family afloat. These weekend eating outings were one of the rare family times we had together during the week. Unfortunately, I don't think I really appreciated it that much back then. I was probably more excited to have pancakes and eggs or my favorite dim sum, ha gow.