Sick, Homestead Style

I was assuming we brought our colds back from Canada [and the trip would still have been well worth it] but everyone in our town is sick, too, and it can't ALL have been from my Typhoid-Homestead family.

When our family falls sick at the same time, it is actually pretty enjoyable. There is lots of quieter playing on the new rug in front of the fire. Pequita is perfecting her tower building technique, and her brother is working on the restraint required to let her.

There is lots of rolling around in blankets, hiding underneath them and zoning out in a pile of warm coziness. Monito asked to have the tunnel and playhouse built. He then curled up inside it with his blanket and relaxed to the Teletubbies. There is also lots of laundry folding, as evidenced by the pile on the couch, because the kids are quiet enough for me to actually get it done in daylight hours.

There is lots of napping, woozy waking, and being nursed back down to sleep for an extra half hour.

There is lots of comfort food. The kids got sherbet cones for breakfast the last two days to soothe their throats. I found tiny kid cones that are about 2.5" tall; difficult to fill with frozen ice cream, but perfect for a special treat medicinal-sized serving. Popsicles and macaroni and cheese have figured more prominently in our diets than usual, alongside homemade chicken soup and kale with brown rice to balance it all out. After the kids went weepily, clingily down to bed last night, Homestead Mama and I had a battle of the breads. She started a batch of Bittman's "no-knead bread", a sure-fire recipe I've written about before. It is a chewy, crusty french peasant bread style loaf. To complement that, I made a loaf of sandwich bread in the bread machine. My favorite recipe is called Anadama bread, and it is in the recipe book that came with the machine. It has oatmeal, cornmeal, and molasses in it, and wheat gluten is added so it is chewy and soft. It is perfect. If anyone wants the recipe, comment and let me know.

This morning I woke up and punched down the no-knead dough and set it up on the top shelf in the warm living room to finish rising in the green milk-glass bowl. This bowl is over fifty years old and brings me joy every time I use it and think of how many other women have baked bread with it. I put away most of my Fire King dishes when the kids were born, but kept a few most used pieces out to keep me happy in the kitchen.Then I served us all slices of my bread with butter and honey. Hot coffee for me, and water with a splash of juice in it for the kids in baby bottles, their cup of choice when sick. Homestead living at its best.