Baking Day

I awoke Sunday to the sound of gentle rain tapping on my roof and a not-so-gentle baby coughing phlegm on my chest.

The cold has returned. The slime knows no bounds.

Corey bundled up Natalie and headed for church. Connor stayed with me and the smiling but sneezing Teyla. I decided there's only one appropriate answer to a cool and gray Sunday, and that is to bake.

It took me a while to get down to business. Blame Teyla. The poor thing would manage to nurse herself to sleep, amidst a tussle of snuffles and gasps. But when I tried to lay her down in her crib, she would wake up and cry most pitifully, reaching out for me with her sweet little hands. I couldn't leave her. Sixty seconds later, of course, she was laughing at Connor and sneezing small monsoons of germs across my kitchen. Such is the nature of the Love Well children when they are sick.

But by 3:00, after four failed nap attempts, I pulled out my beloved red Kitchen-Aid and got to work. Butter was creamed with peanut butter and brown sugar. Chocolate chips spilled across the counter. Vanilla was sniffed. (Can anyone add vanilla to a recipe without inhaling more deeply?) Black bananas were pulled from the back of the fridge and made into bread. And the pièce de résistance -- I heated oil, honey and water, added flour, yeast and salt, mixed in two sunny eggs and spent ten immensely satisfying minutes kneading and braiding challah loaves, Corey's favorite.

Last Sunday, I spent the day hiking among fiery trees, screaming down a mountain next to Lake Superior, throwing off my jacket and admiring the sunshine.

And today, I turned on my fireplace to fight off the chill and baked three dozen cookies, two loaves of banana bread, two loaves of challah -- and I made homemade meatballs for our spaghetti dinner.

This is how I know fall has arrived.

19 comments:

  1. It's cool here, and all I want to do is bake, bake, bake. Maybe tomorrow. . .

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yum. I want to be a guest of the Love Well's on a cold day.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh, I'm sure your family is very, very blessed by their patient, Love Well wife and Mama! You are wise to make the most of these moments. I hope that everyone feels better tomorrow!

    ReplyDelete
  4. We've got colds raging here too--just in time for the snow.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love this. Makes me want to get out my kitchenaid today . . . yes, the perfect start to fall, good idea.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Lit the fireplace?! Our low yesterday was 63 and the high was 90. Sigh.

    You'll laugh when you read my post today. I really need to find another one to link to! :-)

    Oh, and "sneezing small monsoons of germs across my kitchen? And then you baked? Yum.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I LOVE IT when I can have a fire in the fire place. It just makes the whole house cozy! :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. You are the woman. Can I come to your house for dinner? Oh wait, I have a cold, along with my whole family, so I better stay home and eat PBJ's.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Oh my. You really ARE the real Martha Stewart. Seriously. You just made me want to move in with you!

    ReplyDelete
  10. My sister is the the Martha Stewart between us. My kitchen specialty is frozen pizza. I wonder if by reading things like this, just a tiny, tiny bit will rub off on me.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I put a congested baby down to nap in his/her car seat. This keeps the head elevated and alleviates the congestion.

    I love rainy Sundays for baking!

    ReplyDelete
  12. I spent all morning baking too! It's funny how the predictable rythym of baking - and its yummy results - make even very hard days feel a bit better.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Yum! I have a pile of bananas waiting to be used up :)

    ReplyDelete
  14. Donn has had a nasty cold, and the weather today is cool. Maybe I need to spend a day baking?
    Except we're still in a furnished apartment, and you know they never have well-stocked kitchens. For me, this will need to wait. Sigh. And I wish I'd remembered to bring vanilla--you can't get it here.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Wow, you're a real Betty Crocker! Sounds delish!

    ReplyDelete
  16. You obviously do not play when it comes to baking. I think if you take eating the baked goods as seriously as the baking...we could be best friends.:) Sue

    ReplyDelete
  17. Wow. I'm well impressed with your fall baking skillz.

    Me, I know it's fall when...um...I can wear jeans, a long sleeved shirt, and closed toe shoes without sweating by 10 am ?

    ReplyDelete
  18. I TOTALLY got bit by the baking bug today. 2 pies, one apple crisp, apple spice cake and one big vat of minestrone later we have squashed that bug!

    ReplyDelete