Rochester

Yesterday I got up before sunrise to get myself down to the train station for a 7:15am train up to Rochester. (Said train was significantly cheaper than the next train of the day, and got me in with enough time to actually have part of the day here.) It's been quite a long time since I've traveled any real distance by train: I'd forgotten how peaceful and pleasant it is. So I spent the morning and first half of the afternoon cheerfully reading (I started R. Roth's The Halakhic Process, finally- I used to pick it up at zodiacmg's place, back in college, and read random sets of pages, so it's good to actually read the thing, finally. Then I got into a more distractable mood, so I read Robin McKinley's Beauty, finishing it just as we were supposed to arrive. Then we didn't, quite.), crocheting (I'm working on a kippah for [Unknown site tag]'s nephew, age approximately 2 1/2), and napping. My seat companion was a woman taking her daughter off to college at Syracuse, for the daughter's freshman year. The train was quite packed for much of the trip- quite to my surprise, honestly. However, it was very good to see the train getting good use.

I arrived, and jakal88 was waiting for me. We went back to his place and relaxed for a while. We did a grocery and utensil shop- he now has actual plates and utensils for when I come to visit, rather than using paper and plastic, which is excellent for the environment, and quietly pleasing to me too. We came home, made dinner, and finished cleaning the oven so that we could kasher it. This was complicated by the difficulty that we had finding oven cleaner- but we've made do. After that project, I basically collapsed due to exhaustion- which is, I suppose understandable, considering when I woke up. Train sleep is lovely, but not quite as energizing as sleep in a bed.

Today I've hung out, read, and puttered, where by puttered I mean baked challah. The recipe said it makes 8 loaves, but the lumps of dough looked rather small, so I made 5 and two small babkas. Two of the 5 loaves turned out rather large- I think I could have done 6, plus the babkas, instead. It's the same recipe that we were using at camp (hence my possession of sufficient confidence to finally try baking bread on my own)- so tonight we'll see how well I managed it on my own. They look good, at least... (The babkas are still in the oven.)

It has also been a learning experience- for one, although the recipe is amusing in that it can be made in a (clean) trashbag, and kneaded in there as well- I learned that regular shopping bags are Not strong enough to hold up. So first I doubled them, then I just floured the table, and pulled and turned out as much dough as I could extract, and did it the normal way. At least the stuff was pretty much mixed by that point. Still, it was a good idea- especially since I don't have access to a large mixing bowl here...

Our other adventure in bread making was that the recipe calls for fresh yeast, and when we went grocery shopping, we could only find dry yeast. So we bought some, and I figured I'd deal. Then this morning, we were going through where things were, and I asked where the yeast was. Well, needless to say, jakal88 and I couldn't find it anywhere. So we went out to the store, and this time there was fresh yeast, and all could be done according to plan. It just made him a little bit later to work than he had originally planned. It's a good thing that his professor isn't hugely particular about his precise hours, as long as he's there and working, over all.

Now th apartment smells cheerfully of baking bread. That and th actual bread does, I think, make the mess and bother worth it...