9.44am - half a blueberry scone, of wholesome flaxseed scone, half of a cinnamon bun and half of a chocolate-walnut-brownie-cookie - all goodies from the Head of Finance, who's assuming that we made our numbers this quarter (won't really now until the last monies have rolled in on Dec 31) and that the company's survival has been ascertained. Until next quarter, that is, when we'll start over again with another seemingly impossible target.
But enough about work. The more interesting thing is this bread dough that I got from Laura about 10 days ago, the day my new godson was born. It's some yeasty dough that you can either turn into bread right there and then by adding some oil, egg and sugar, or you can follow the instructions that come with it and nurture it for 10 days until it has quadrupled in size, at which you point you divide it into four and pass along three parts to three other people and turn the fourth part into a loaf of bread for yourself. Apparently, it's a Catholic thing - the instructions include some story about a certain Padre Pio from Italy who started this in 1971, and there's a prayer included that you can say in order to obtain Padre Pio's blessing and have a wish fulfilled, as the legend goes.
Now, I'm not religious, and somewhat distrustful of things coming from the Vatican, to put it mildly. However, any kind of bread dough is intriguing enough for me to look beyond my prejudice and give it a try. I have a hard time relating to the Catholic form of prayer as suggested by the instructions, but I did come up with my own version of good thoughts that I worked into the dough every time I attended to it. I didn't make a wish as such, but I did focus on an intention that I wanted to pass on to my selected three people. And I actually enjoyed it! It was an interesting experience, handling the dough every day, watching it change and grow - over ten days, it went from a tiny amount of limp white dough to a very substantial brown dough. Shame I didn't take a picture when I got it - but this is what it looked like on day 10, just before I divided it up:
And this is my quarter today, with eggs and oil added, ready to go into the oven
and here's my finished loaf! Ta da!
And it's totally different from what we expected! I thought it would be kind of sourdoughy, but with all the sugar added, it's much sweeter, more like a crumbly coffeecake, or some cornbread. Very tasty, though...
Wonder how it'll turn out for the three people I gave it to - can't wait to hear updates!
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