Boredom, Baking and Avonlea Days

One of my most favorite things to do in the kitchen is baking. I love the feel of a good dough in my hands, the smell of spices on the air, the sound of the mixer going amidst whatever crazy music I have blaring. (Anything from musicals to metal!) And of course, that warm, delicious aroma of freshly baked bread or cookies! I love baking. The thing I love to make most is bread. Its quite stress relieving really to work a good dough with your hands, smack it around a bit and show it who's boss. And then of course, you get to eat it later! My husband loves it when I bake bread. Usually because I made some savory roasted something or another with a good gravy to sop up!

When we first got married, my husband learned very quickly that I, unemployed, and in a strange city and little else to do, would find SOMETHING to fill up the time! Usually that involved writing, needlepoint, or watching a very favorite long lost television show that I had a few precious VHS tapes of. I loved the Anne of Green Gables mini series on PBS when I was a kid. And as a teen a spin off show was on Disney and Hallmark channel called The Road to Avonlea. Something strange would come over me when I watched Avonlea. I would be overcome by this overwhelming urge to bake and do cross stitch. I don't know why. I don't question it. It just happens.

So on these days, which were later to be known as "Avonlea Days", I would pop in a VHS and play in the kitchen. The first time this happened, my husband came home to three dozen cookies, four dozen mini muffins, a dozen mini pies in two flavors, fresh bread, a pot roast and mashed potatoes, and chocolate pudding for dessert. He came to love "Avonlea Days." So much that while in Kuwait for 18 months, he ordered and had mailed to me the entire 7 season series on DVD so I could have my Avonlea and he could reap the benefits. (Lets just say the pants he wore when we got married, didn't fit a year later!)

To this day I am still seized by sudden bouts of boredom that result in an "Avonlea Day" and a pile of tasty baked goods!

Like I said, I love to bake bread! I think the best "Avonlea Day" result ever was the time I took a bottle of our homemade apple spiced mead, poured it into my roaster with a massive pork loin, some spices, some slurry, a package of IKEA Swedish meatball gravy (it has apple notes in it) and some beef broth and let it cook all day. I then threw together some Milk and Honey bread to go with it and mashed potatoes. The house was full of the tales of Gus Pike, Felicity King, and Sarah Stanley and of course the mouth watering scents from the kitchen!

 The meal was declared one of my best yet, as my hubby had at least three helpings. The gravy was sopped up with the bread, and the plates cleaned. Its kind of funny how a little boredom and a beloved television show can become an inspiration for culinary craftiness! Hmm...I think I hear the residents of P.E. Island beckoning me again. I wonder what I'll cook up this time!

Brightest Blessings!