i'm making naan. pretty excited. really hopeful that it'll turn out well. i found the recipe here. [i've also scoured the recipes on the original site, and am planning to very soon be making lovely indian food! i even ordered an indian cookbook from the library. i hope my family likes it, because i know i will!]

i'm also making whole wheat artisan bread from Healthy Breads in Five Minutes a Day [the sequel to Artisan Breads in Five Minutes a Day... of which i am continually hearing rave reviews].

therefore, i ground wheat this morning. i wish it was with a water mill, or a mule mill, or even a hand crank mill, but it was electric. gotta love that make-your-ears-bleed scream of whole white grains becoming whole white flour.

i really, really like to bake. i really like to make involved things. i really like to follow directions and see things turn out, incredibly enough, how they are supposed to turn out. i think tomorrow i'll bake my first batch of dough- the general batch should see me through at least four days of baking. i'm leaning towards boules.

the last time i made ciabatta it was kind of a disaster. the dough got all peppery looking on top. so i threw it out. but i emailed the guy who wrote the recipe. and he wrote back in a couple of hours. that was nice of him, wasn't it? i think i forgot to write him back.

i reorganized the top drawer in my window cabinet, which is sort of an abandoned wardrobe-turned-catch-all. it is now a gloriously inspiring fabric shop. for free. i'm going to make a crazy quilt. i am very, very excited to do this. i have always wanted to do this.

we have to go to sioux falls twice this week. once for the chemo, and the next day to go see another doctor [and possibly a third]. oh joy. don't you just love doctors? i'll be gracious though, because they always hook me up with such nice doctors. and i'd way rather see three nice doctors in a week than three dentists. or even one dentist.

after a whole week of 40s [that's above zero, not below], winter has decided it's not over, and has brought us another snow storm. i don't know how much we've gotten. a foot? i think it's still snowing.

my brother hooked me up with a usb stick full of new music. well, it's not all really new. i've heard pretty much all of it already, in the company of my brothers, but it's new to my computer. and two of the albums came out this week.

sometimes i second-guess myself. for example, ought i to have gotten red classic or saffron cord toms instead of grey classic?

oh, i finished Eat Pray Love. it only took me five days, but it felt like the book was almost never-ending. i like how she writes, as i said before. i liked some of what she said. she knows a lot of interesting things. she spent no less than half of the book [probably more] talking about meditation; her beliefs are a very interesting conglomeration of every religion i've ever heard of, with psychology and other variables added frequently. so, while i'm glad that i read it, i wouldn't recommend it in general. there was enough content that was unnecessary and unedifying that i can't get fully behind it. i wanted to mention this again on here, in case people saw my book list as a Must-Read Suggestion/Commandment List.

the one thing i do like about reading books that aren't quite equal to my beliefs is that it helps me to grow. it helps me to think. it helps me to see things as others see them and then to go back to my foundation and read my Bible with new eyes: not humanistic or psychologically effected eyes, but eyes that want to understand and know the Truth, having been made aware of something that is an adaptation of [or substitute for] Truth. i don't read a book full of secular humanism and pantheism and go throw away my Bible. i look at the argument for an "alternative truth" [which is an oxymoron, but you see what i mean], and realize why i believe what i believe. i am comforted by the truth and wisdom of the Scriptures. i am loved by an All-Powerful and All-Knowing God, who has set boundaries in which we can most joyfully live, for our especial benefit and His especial glory. Jesus is still the way, the truth, and the life, people; and no one comes to the Father except through Him.

well, off to fire up the tandoori oven.

[just kidding, it's a skillet.]