~RECIPE FOR MOSES BREAD~

Okay, here is the recipe for the bread. I hope that you will take the time to try it because it is REALLY worth it. It looks a little intimidating but it isn't too bad at all. If I can do it anyone can!

Originally printed int he NY Times Nov. 8, 2006
Time: About 1 1/2 hours plus 14-20 hours rising :)

3 Cups all purpose or bread flour, more for dusting

1/4 tsp. Instant yeast (sometimes called rapid rise yeast for bread machines)

1 1/4 tsp. Salt

1 5/8 cups Water

Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed...I use cornmeal

1. The night before you want the bread, combine in a large bowl flour, yeast and salt. Whisk. Add water and stir with a wooden spoon until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap (or lid if your bowl has one). Let rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18 hours at warm room temperature, 70 degrees.

2. Start this step 3 hours before you want to eat the bread. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes (I just put it back in the bowl with the lid).

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton flour sack towel ( not terry cloth ) with flour, wheat bran, or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton flour sack towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size. (I haven't found this to be the case exactly, but it still works) and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger..

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 5-8 quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. I spray my pot with "Pam" to make sure the bread comes right out after baking. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look a mess, but that is okay. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes. (Recipe says remove lid and cook another 15 minutes, but I find it is plenty crispy as is). Cool on rack 5 minutes before slicing. Best way to slice is with an electric knife since it is so crusty. If you like it a little more golden brown take the lid off and cook it for the additional 15 min.

Let me know if you try it and how you like it.

~MOSES BREAD~

This is some of the best bread I think that I have ever tasted! The first loaf is a bit pricey at about $80.00...Yea, I'll explain in a minute...However, it is worth every penny. In the long run I think that it will pay for itself :)

Okay, here is the reason that it is expensive to start, it's because you need the pan to cook it in! It has to be a cast iron enamel coated pan. They are NOT CHEAP. It has to be at least a 5 quart with a lid! I found one on sale at Wal*Mart ( I really hate that store and it was a huge sacrifice for me to even try looking there, but, if you want it bad enough you will even go to Wal*Mart). If you are interested in making the investment let me know and I will post the recipe. In the meantime...drool over the picture!

P.S. It is SO much better with butter and honey or jam or jelly or just butter or...

~SUPER BOWL SUNDAY~

I HATE football but, every year the men in my family get all psyched up for the big game. They start doing calisthenics in about December to help prepare their minds and bodies for the extreme exercise that they are going to experience while watching the game and then as a precaution, they tape their ankles right before the teams run out onto the field just to make sure that they themselves remain injury free while jumping up out of their chairs and pounding their fist and stomping feet in excitement or frustration...I've always thought it a bit odd actually, I think that they really think that the players and especially the coaches at times can hear them yelling at them telling them how stupid they are...because you and I both know that my boys know all there is to know about the game of football and of course they know way more than any professional football coach out there!

Me, I cook, and this year someone should have reined me in! Things just kept "growing"! I am not kidding, I could have fed the entire neighborhood! Of course I had much more fun playing with the little ones and talking to the "girls" than watching football. DUH! We ate and ate but, there was still so much left over that everyone ended up taking it home. NICE. Lisa even made football sugar cookies with the "Colt" logo on it. To bad they lost. We really did want Austin Collie to be sporting a Super Bowl ring his first year in the NFL...I hate football why would I care? Seriously, it was a fun day with family. Even if you don't like football you gotta love having everybody around!

~PERSPECTIVE~

I was feeling a bit down today as I sat at lunch with one of my colleagues at the surgical center. I was complaining just a little about how much things have changed and how I really hadn't appreciated how good things were now that they are gone. She simply stated that things ARE still good. I have my health and I have the gospel. Wow, talk about a wake up call...Time to get back to work!

~I DID IT~

OH HOW LOVELY WAS THE MORNING!
O.R. #1, NO MISTAKES!!! I ANTICIPATED EVERY MOVE AND HAD EVERYTHING READY AND IN IT'S PLACE. 1. BAM, 2. MASTOPEXY, AND 3. ABDOMINOPLASTY! SMOOTH SAILING ALL THE WAY THROUGH!!! I COULDN'T BE MORE PROUD THANK YOU VERY MUCH. IT FEELS SO GOOD TO COME HOME FOR ONCE AND NOT BE DEPRESSED ABOUT THE DAY. YEA!!! I'M NOT SAYING THAT TOMORROW WON'T BE BACK TO MESS UPS BUT, HOORAY, HOORAY, HOORAY FOR TODAY!!!

I SHOULD ALSO MENTION...I WAS WORKING WITH A VERY NICE DOCTOR!

~WIND~

The wind blew
bringing with it sudden change
not really sure what it all means
can't honestly say that I care

The wind blew
things are no longer where they were
can't really see why it matters
don't really care anyway.

The wind blew
that was yesterday
today we are putting things
back the way they were

See I told you it didn't matter.

(Sometimes my mood is disturbing...).

~LIFE IN THE OR~

Okay, I haven't posted a "Life in the OR" for awhile. There is a reason for that, I have been too close to tears for the last 5 months to really be able to talk about my job let alone really write about it. I can say that it is getting better but, I still don't like it very much and would really like to be able to say that I do so, obviously it hasn't gotten that much better. I have started to anticipate better but, the reading the mind part of the job hasn't kicked in yet. It gets me in trouble almost everyday. Man, I wish that would start working!

I am always on pins and needles when I have to be in OR #1. It is the major plastic's room. In fact I don't know if there has ever been any other surgery done in that room other than "plastic surgery". My good friend is one of the doctors that frequents that OR on a regular basis...twice a week. Good friendships go out the window in OR#1. In fact, your lucky if your called by your name! Things are expected to run like clockwork and nothing, NOTHING should ever go wrong! My doctor friend is very particular ( what surgeon isn't) when it comes to what I lovingly refer to as his "potions". Now, all of the surgeons have medications that they use before, during and after surgery but, my friend takes it to an all time O.C.D. high. All of his medications that he injects and uses are drawn up and pre-measured before the surgery begins. The other surgeons medications are basically the same, easy to mix and simple to have ready. Not my friend... His is a process that makes me VERY nervous but, I am getting used to it and more comfortable all the time with his "Monk" tendencies. This is how I begin my day in OR #1. Usually, the fingernails are history before the surgery begins.

Today I was asked to go to his locker ( in the men's room ) and bring him some suture that he had brought with him and left in there. As a circulator, I am not scrubbed in or sterile so it is up to me to get whatever is needed for the doctor who is but, come on, the men's room! Yup, off I go, I knock on the "men's" locker room door and finding no one there, I quickly ran in, grabbed the suture out of his locker (the one with the red tag hanging "neatly from the lock) and ran back out without "seeing" anything. Hehe. I took it into the OR and opened the suture that I had taken directly from "THE BOX"...WRONG suture. Of course, it is my fault because I should have known that what was "IN" the box was not what it said it was "ON" the box right? I then get the lecture about NEVER handing a doctor anything that you haven't looked at...I looked at it, It said it was the right stuff on the box! I even showed it to the doctor before opening it and got the "nod". Why would I ever think that Dr. O.C.D. AKA MONK would mix two different types of suture in the same box...Now, I ask you, put yourself in my Crocks and tell me how you would handle that. Oh, I left out the part about answering his personal phone calls that come into the OR every 10 min. or so on a phone that I can't figure out. Calling to make appts. for him while trying to do my job on a phone I can't figure out. Making sure that his "Talk Radio" station is doing just the right amount of Bama Bashing on a phone I can't figure out... All the while hoping that not one machine goes down or nothing hits the floor, all medications are ready to give, everything is in the room that he will ask for, his stool is where he can reach it, until the case is finished! This can sometimes take HOURS! I just smiled with my eyes cuz I have a mask on... and said, "Your right, I should have noticed that it was the wrong suture...you see I have found that it is hard for the doctor to be mad at you when you are nice!

Things I did wrong today:

1. There wasn't a tourniquet... ( Wasn't on the order but, that's the mind reading part that I haven't quite got a handle on yet...)

2. I walked out of the room at the wrong time...It was to find a pathology report for him but, that did NOT matter...

3. I stacked the implants improperly... Sideways instead of up and down (Monkism).

4. I missed a call... Stupid phone.

5. I didn't put a sticker on his paper work...It was his own "personal" paper work, should I really be going through that stuff??? It says how much stuff costs etc...

6. I handed him the wrong suture...Yea, we already went over that one...

Did you know that it takes 100 sincere and genuine "positive" comments to make up for 1 negative one? Doctors don't...They feel that it is their divine right to say and do things that no one else would ever think kind or proper but...comes with the territory I suppose. The unspoken right to every now and again be a jerk and get away with it!

The reasons I like this job...Sometimes I am home by 2:00 or 3:00 in the afternoon. I LOVE that. I know that I go in early and that I am still putting in 10 hours or more but, it really seems like I am getting off early! I still have time to actually DO stuff! Once in awhile I get to work with doctors that are very pleasant and fun. Yes, there really are some of those out there and it is with great pleasure that I point out to our young and impressionable medical students just who they are, and why they should emulate them.