Dumpster Diving Dreams

I've started baking bread.  A sack of flour costs $3 dollars, and it turns out to make rosemary foccacia you just need water and olive oil, a pinch of salt and sugar, one of those little yellow yeast packets, and some rosemary sprigs lifted out of your neighbor's garden.

I made my first foray into the yeasty wilds of bread making last sunday, following the trail of words left by Deborah Madison in her book, Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.  I found that book for $5 at the used bookstore, and it is heavy like a bible.  I decided on rosemary bread because that was my favorite bread to get out of the dumpster in back of Essential Bakery in Wallingford, before they moved their production to South Seattle, thus cutting off much of the city's supply of delicious day old loaves.

On a side note, one of the things I loved about the Essential Bakery dumpster was that it brought people together.  My roommates dumpster dove.  My cousins from Virginia dumpster dove.  So did my neighbors, and my Mom.  Once I went there to stock up and there was a couple who had just cleaned out the Naked Juice dumpster, so we exchanged goods and headed to our respective homes to feast on pecan and raisin loaves and orange juice.

We would keep the loaves in the freezer, and heat them up in the oven whenever we needed some for dinner, sandwiches, or toast in the morning.  It fed so many people, and I frequented the bakery more and bought sandwiches inside to thank them for the sweet bounty they threw out.

Since I don't have a bread dumpster at my disposal here in Austin, I decided it was time to recreate the rosemary bread that I had loved so much.

In addition to bread I've been cooking other things too, dishes like pot roast and potato leek soup, apple cake and pumpkin pies, chocolate chip pumpkin bread and our family recipe for chili.

All of this food is nourishing for me in a soulful kind of way. And something about bread in particular, is so fun to make.  The mixing and the kneading and the magical rising, and the smells that fill house.   And, you can throw so many things in bread- like cheese and nuts and pumpkins! As much as a I love snacks such as carrot sticks, they are no match for a hunk of fresh baked bread with butter.

If you were wondering about the rosemary foccacia, it turned out splendidly.  Next time I may throw in a  handful of olives, or some roasted garlic and gorgonzola.

My friend came over, and we had a big salad for dinner, with thick slices warmed up in the oven, covered with goat cheese and honey.  It was paradise.

On another note- speaking of cheap and easy, yesterday I went to the neighborhood cafe down the street to get a hamburger.  When the girl asked for my name, I said, "Lindsey."

She looked at me and said, "Easy?"

"No," I said, "LINDSEY."

Now, why in the hell would someone's name be "Easy?" I think the appropriate thing to say is "Sorry, didn't catch your name. Could you say that again?"

Alas, I get called "easy" by an east austin hipster wearing coveralls and a bowl cut. So bizarre.

It reminded me though, that some things in life, like making bread, can be just that- easy.  Sometimes we underestimate the creative and nourishing payoff of things like long walks, reading, mending torn clothes, or spending the afternoon making Challah.  And when our pocketbooks are feeling threadbare, things like $3 sacks of flour present a world of possibility.

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