Progress! We have our Social Security Numbers now, so I can get all my paperwork submitted! Wooo! The end to my unemployment may be in sight! When I say in sight, of course I mean in about 3 months time when it all goes through, but still….. Progress!

We also have been busy checking out apartments and houses to rent for once our stuff arrives, we hope to be in a new place and settled by Christmas, and I went for a stroll about the ‘hood yesterday, it isn’t quite as far away from stuff as I previously thought, but still 40 minutes or so from the nearest store (the neighbourhood is mainly office buildings and apartment complexes, and I don’t count Starbucks as being a “store”).

Today I was feeling a little tired, the jetlag is still not banished, but I forced myself to the fitness centre anyway, go me! The rest of the day? Well, I have been doing a little bit of knitting:

Can you tell what it is yet? Haha!

But yeah, double-pointed needles! Erk! I’m not too good at knitting in the round, but am trying to do another little-ish project, as I totally have my eye on making myself a Weasley-esque number from this book (NB. no idea why Amazon now want so much money for this, I guess it’s now our of print, but Amazon has informed me that I have had it since September 2011, and have therefore been after making myself a Weasley jumper since then….. SHAMEFUL!) The thing I’m working on at the moment isn’t for me, or at least I intend it to probably be a Christmas present, but this depends on me finishing it, and as it has been a work in progress since last winter…….. this may not happen. But as I now have nothing but time on my hands… who knows? (oh and yeah, I am totally wearing my beautiful Tofino PJ pants!)

Of course the perils of knitting, and it seems to be especially bad with DPNs (or is that just me?), is that I now have knitter’s finger, that blistery callus developing on my left index finger:

Yep, that little white thing. Don’t let the small size of it fool you, it is really getting kinda sore! Boo!

So in between knitting, I took a break to do a bit of baking, partially because we didn’t have any bread and I thought I would have a go and make some, especially while I can’t cheat and use my Kitchenaid to knead it!

Sundried Tomato and Oregano Bread Recipe – adapted from Leiths Baking Bible

Ingredients

15g/ 1/2oz fresh yeast (I substituted 8g fast action yeast, as I didn’t have any fresh yeast)

2tsp caster sugar

200ml/ 7 fl oz lukewarm water

340g/ 12 0z strong white flour

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp dried oregano

2 tbsp oil from the jar of sundried tomatoes (for a little added flavour)

55g/ 2 oz sun-dried tomatoes, cut into 1/2cm/ 3/4 in pieces

Method

Place the yeast in a small bowl with the sugar and 2tbsp of the water, and mix to a smooth cream.

Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl and make a well in the centre. Add the oil to the well, along with the sundried tomatoes, oregano, and yeast mixture, and mix with enough water to make a soft but not too sticky dough.

Knead for 10 minutes (or 6 minutes by machine), until a smooth shiny dough is achieved.

Place the dough in an oiled bowl and turn the dough to coat it in a thin film of oil. Cover with cling film and leave in a warm place to rise until doubled in size, about 1 1/4 hours.

Knock back the dough by kneading lightly and shaping into a loaf. Place in an oiled loaf tin and cover with oiled cling film. Leave in a warm place to prove until just risen over the top of the tin, about 40 minutes. Note I don’t have a loaf tin, it’s still in the container… somewhere on the Atlantic along with pretty much everything else I own, so I just shaped into a bloomer of sorts on a tray.

Preheat the oven to 220C/425F.

Place the loaf in the oven, then turn down the temperature to 200C/400F. Bake for 30 minutes, or until golden brown. The loaf should sound hollow when tapped on the underside.

Remove from the tin (or tray!) and allow to cool on a wire rack.

Done! Tasty! Not the prettiest, but tasty and ugly-ish is better that pretty and tasteless!