Hi friends! This past week was way crazier than I had intended it to be. I had planned to make some loaves of pumpernickel bread, and I did that for sure. BUT, I also ended making hummus, peanut butter, chocolate peanut butter, sourdough discard crackers, two ginormous loaves of sourdough, and homemade pitas! I don’t know what overcame me. The kitchen was a complete disaster most nights, but I had some freaking good food. One thing cooking so much this week has emphasized for me is how much I LOVE eating stuff I’ve made with my own two hands. There nothing like sitting down to a meal and knowing exactly what is in every single thing on your plate.

Anyways, enough with the jibber-jabber, let’s get down to business. The pumpernickel recipe I used came from “The Bread Book” by Linda Collister & Anthony Blake. This book is from 1993! Melissa found it at her nana’s and gave it to me to add to my collection of bread books. There are many more recipes in it that I want to try out too, so watch for those in the future!

Back to the pumpernickel. My memories of this bread pretty much just involve I think either Outback Steak House or Bugaboo Creek. One of the restaurants served this bread, in a perfect oval loaf that I remember so distinctly. I was super excited about this bake because I would devour that bread! Fun fact: there is no pumpernickel flour used to make this bread. Its made with a mix of flours, rye, whole wheat, and white, and molasses. This recipe was your basic bread recipe, mix all the ingredients, knead, let rise, knead again, shape, rise, then bake! These loaves tasted exactly how I remembered it tasting. My only qualm was, I ended up making two loaves out of the recipe, so they turned out pretty small. I think this bread would make delicious sandwiches, but with the size of the loaves I made, a sandwich is not feasible unless you are looking for finger food. I have added a note for next time, bigger loaves for sandwich-making : )

This past week was also Valentine’s Day. Being on separate coasts has been difficult for Melissa and me, but we try to make the best of it. We have this tradition that we do something active on Valentine’s Day and so this year we decided to go for a stroll in our respective neighborhoods while chatting on the phone. We planned to cook the same type of meal, fajitas/quesadillas with chocolate strawberries for dessert, and had a dinner date over zoom. We finished off the night with a game of cribbage and a movie. For us, finding the time to have each other’s undivided attention has been one of the things making the distance more manageable. Nothing beats being together in person but trying to find those special moments every day is one of the things keeping me going.

I hope you are staying warm, see you next week!