Sunday, March 8, 2009

apartment bread


We have been baking for seven months or so. Because of our cats I need a room with a door, where I can leave the bread to cool. This being a New York City studio apartment, my choices as to where I leave the bread to cool are limited to the bathroom and our 'office'. This being a New York City studio apartment, our office is one of the cupboards in the hall.



We have a painting on our wall of St. Pasqual (the patron saint of the kitchen) contemplating the night air from his kitchen doorway. Cats sit next to him and, further back in the picture, eat food from bowls on the floor. On a large bench there is bread laid out to cool. On a table there are pies fresh from the oven. There are no cats on the bench or the table

This is not the way things work in our home.

Gus, one of our 3 cats, has the mandatory curiosity and is a healthy disrespecter of convention. I like to think the bread benefits from his attention.

3 comments:

Richard said...

Great sequence of photos. Is Gus more of a crust or crumb cat?

More drawings please.

Vajra said...

San Pasqual is the quintessential Santa Fe kitchen icon. Usually shown, in addition to bread and a cat: horno (oven) and ristra of chile.

When my children were young, I baked bread all the time. Haven't done it in years but I've ordered a large Dutch oven to bake bread in. It's going to happen again. Baking bread. Wonder. Full.

Derek said...

Richard - you commented - wow, thank you - more pictures to come...
Vajra, the picture of San Pasqual comes from Cafe Pasqual in Santa Fe (and there are cats, a ristra, oven, etc.)...very exciting that you are going to bake bread again...nothing like it...