As I write this blog, the smell of freshly baked bread wafts through the house. I’ve returned to the pleasure of making home made bread today to amuse myself while under treatment. It’s one of my boredom busters.
There is something soulful about baking bread from scratch and smelling it throughout the house as it rises and bakes on this late summer day.
I took on making bread today because I feel quite well in this third week of my second chemo treatment. I am counting down to my third chemo session next Tuesday, which will be halfway through this second stage of fighting cancer.
Living with a cancer diagnosis seems so far away as I get lost in baking for a few hours today. It is a joyful time. I’ve been waiting to do this for some time, as my right (dominant) arm hasn’t been strong enough to bake bread since before my mastectomy this past spring. I am thoroughly savoring the experience.
While combines ride over Manitoba fields harvesting wheat, oats, rye, and barley at this time of year, I’m reading recipes that don’t use any of the flours made from these grains for the baking I am doing. Unfortunately, my gluten intolerance disallows using of any of these wonderful grains in baking.
Instead, my culinary flours come mostly from far away places, some with exotic sounding names. Recipes I am using today will comprise of several combinations of flours including: amaranth, sweet rice, garfava bean, sorghum, chickpea, urad (black lentils), corn, quinoa, brown and white rice, coconut, mesquite, potato, soy, bajra (millet and rice), buckwheat, millet, teff, and tapioca.
Ground almonds and flax, potato, corn, and tapioca starches, sunflower, pumpkin, millet, sesame, chia and poppy seeds, honey, cider vinegar and maple syrup will round out the recipes and add delightful tastes to the breads that will be made. Because gluten free flours don’t bind dough or batter the way gluten does, xanthan or guar gum will be used to do so.
The lack of gluten also means that one bakes bread without kneading dough, relying on drop batter to form breads. There is a definite knack in baking with gluten free flours, and after several years and many recipes later, I am finally starting to master the art of gluten free baking.
Today’s baking will result in breads that are healthier and tastier than any gluten free breads I can find locally in stores, and far less costly. By the end of the baking session, I will have made savory, dessert, and sandwich breads. All of them will taste quite similar to their equivalents made with traditional flours, but their texture will be slightly different.
Breakfast tomorrow will be a treat as gluten free foods can make the first meal of the day a challenge!
More Boredom Busters
Yesterday, I bid adieu to several pots of summer flowers that surrendered to this year’s growing season. They were no longer able to endure the long stretches of scorching heat, downpours of rain and gusty winds that we’ve experienced these past few weeks. By Labor Day, I expect that the rest of the patio flowerpots will have also surpassed their summer glory.
It was nice to have something concrete to do to take away the boredom for part of the day.
Yesterday’s weather was a pleasant change with lower temperatures. I welcomed the lower temperature, as I was finally able to be outside comfortably. The blood thinner and chemo drugs I am on make tolerating hot weather and humidity difficult, and there is a heightened sensitivity to sunburn while under chemo treatment. However, yesterday’s air felt like a whiff of fall outside with a daytime high temperature of +17.
As I worked and looked around the yard and neighborhood, the signs of summer ending are surfacing everywhere. Slowly, summer is drawing to a close.
Early morning dew was on the windshields of vehicles parked outside. Some leaves in our back yard are starting to turn yellow. The return of wasps around our windows is a sure sign that late summer has arrived. In the near future, we will have our first frost, signaling that summer is over. Next week, schools will open their doors to welcome this year’s classes of students. Cocooning for colder weather isn’t far away…
Yesterday also marked a return to part of my past.
It’s been over 20 years since my sewing machine and I were well acquainted. It took me two weeks to get my courage up and convince myself that sewing might be a good boredom buster, as I find ways to occupy my time from now until next summer when I may be able to return to work.
As with anything new that I undertake in life, I need to spend some time ruminating about what I want to do and how to tackle the project. I also need to prepare to get the things I need in place before I start a project. Getting reacquainted with my sewing machine was no different.
So, I’ve spent the last two weeks in and out or fabric and second hand stores scouring for supplies. Our dining room and spare bedroom have been converted into sewing and sewing storage stations.
I will ease into projects that were once familiar by using cheaper materials until my comfort level rises, and I have once again mastered the intricacies of sewing and using my machine. The last time I sewed extensively was over 20 years ago when my kids were small and I was a stay-at-home mom.
My goal with returning to sewing is to learn how to quilt so that I can make tapestry quilts. It has been something I have wanted to do for a very long time, but didn’t have the chance to do so while raising a family and building a career over the past three decades. My cancer diagnosis is giving me a chance to do something that was put on hold for a long time.
With chemo being an unpredictable experience with each treatment, it would be difficult to attend classes to learn how to quilt. I’ll learn the art through self-teaching using two new “how to quilt” books I purchased.
Eventually, I will have to figure out what to do with the stockpile of items that will be made. Ten months is a long time to be productive with a sewing machine! My daughter says I should open an on-line store on an artisan web site. Perhaps this could take care of the “mental” challenge that’s missing for me with treatments. It might be fun to create a business plan to do so.
With September upon us next week, I have enrolled in two classes for cancer patients that start next month. One class is in art, the other in yoga. Both are new experiences for me. The classes are designed to give patients alternatives in learning to live with their disease, and provide tools to manage the stress that comes with a life-threatening diagnosis.
I look forward to the changing of the seasons, my new classes, and the challenges that lie ahead in finding things to keep me occupied. I continue to walk on this cancer journey with Strength, Courage, and Determination.