The Narrowed Lens: The Hobby Hunt

“All young ladies are accomplished! They sing, they draw, they dance,speak French and German, cover screens, and I know not what.” --Charles Bingley, Pride and Prejudice, 1995 A&E Miniseries

I was starting to feel very under-accomplished this week; one can only get so into washing dishes and folding laundry. So I set out to find myself a hobby. No, literally. I literally “set out” and went looking for a hobby.

I started at Michaels, the craft store, which should make you laugh. I am about the least crafty person there is but I thought it was worth a shot anyway. I went to the back corner of the store, under a sign that said “Yarn,” and surveyed the row upon row of knitting needles. I’ve attempted knitting before, but never with any amount of success. I strain my eyes, neck and fingers trying to worm a slippery strand of yarn around an even slipperier pair of oversized “needles” (they call those things needles), all the while trying to keep count of how many stitches are in my row without dropping any of them. It conquers me every time.

I was sitting on the floor, reading through a beginners knitting book, and was really leaning towards giving it another shot when I realized how absolutely like punishment it seemed. The more I tried to make sense of the confusing instructions and indiscernible diagrams that accompanied them, the more my head hurt. I decided against putting myself through the torture again. At least for now.

I left Michaels, my head spinning with gibberish like “casting on” and “binding off.” I decided to stop off at Books-A-Million and see what I could find there. It turned out to be a pretty god place to find a hobby. I saw books on jewelry making, gardening, flower arranging, letter pressing, soap making, origami, mosaics, “creative reuse” (fancy way of saying recycling, I think), mini-book making, and pottery. So much to choose from and still...nothing.

My visits to book stores inevitably lead me to the cooking section, and it is here that I finally felt myself back in familiar waters. It might not be the most rewarding hobby, or have the most permanent results, but it is one in which I have gained considerable ground over the past couple of years, most recently in the bread making department.

I’ve put my quest for another hobby on hold for now, deciding rather to continue my pursuit in bread art. Here are my latest masterpieces. :)

Cranberry Cinnamon bagels. Not the pretties thing to make, but Todd said they tasted good. I made this out of the leftover dough from my original artisan loaf (pictured in my previous post, My "What About Bob?" Moment)

After half a century of eating anything she liked, my mother contracted a bizzarre collection of food allergies, among which is gluten. This gluten-free brioche loaf gave her something other than cardboard to eat her non-red lunch meat and goat cheese (also thanks to allergies) sandwiches on.

You can't help but feel a little gourmet when you make something called Pear Tarte Tatin with whole wheat briche. It's especially good with whipped cream. :)