Update - and more comfort food: breads

First an update on my little hound: Made' came home from the hospital yesterday - and oh what a pathetic little beagle she was. She cuddled and cuddled all the way back, although I am sure she would have been more comfortable not on a lumpy lap. She's doing much better today, and that little tail actually wags sometimes when it's not firmly tucked between her legs. We are waiting now on the pathology reports - the long weekend getting in the way of the usual turn-around time. Meanwhile, she is well medicated, eating well, and sleeping as hard as she can. Brave girl!

Meanwhile, while I was collecting our invalid from Toronto, my dh was cat and dog sitting and getting lunch ready. The scent of this (quickbread) loaf met me as I came through the door. Absolutely heavenly. Well, it was a loaf once, but this was all that was left after the afternoon was over. It was one of Barnard and Kramer's recipes, he tells me, one we had not tried before. It has, as you see, raisins (he skipped the nuts), cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg and I forget what else. Considering how quickly it went, I'd say it's a Must-Try-Again Recipe.

We tend to bake, make soup, and concoct stews when we are stressed, bored, or just plain hungry. Fortunately, we have a repertoir of things that will freeze well, and it's automatic with us to cut a loaf in half and freeze half (which explains my strange method of presenting bread in these photos), since there are just the two of us. Here are some other results of this week's baking:

The first is what we call cranberry bread - another Barnard and Kramer recipe, this time for soda bread. We add dried cranberries (craisins) rather than leaving it plain. Love those cranberries! The second shows two loaves - my rye bread, which you have met before here on this blog, and a yeasted raisin bread made with half barley flour. Right now I'm trying someone's recipe for a pumpernickel bread (really just a rye bread) using sourdough starter and a little yeast to speed things along. I have my doubts about it, though, but I'll reserve judgement until it has risen, risen again and come out of the oven :) If nothing else it will make the place smell wonderful. With luck it may be ready to have with our evening meal. If not, I still have that barley bread and some rye!

Tune in tomorrow in this ongoing saga of the bread! I should mention that breadmaking is to our beagles better than TV to us - smellavision, I guess. And of course they always get a taste!