Shoulder Lean

Working on new recipes, and not lifting heavy things

Happy #Gratituesday!

I'm still landing on what day of the week I want these emails to come out. But I really appreciated your responses to my last email... so we're trying Tuesday again this week :)

Last week many of you shared very personal and thoughtful things that you felt grateful for. One reply said, "I am thankful every single day for my body. It works, it's healthy... and it keeps me going".

Have you ever forgotten to be thankful for your body that works and keeps you going? I'm certainly not forgetting about that this week. Friday morning I woke up with a sore shoulder, and it has been getting worse before it gets better. In discussing it with a doctor, it seems to be a case of tendonitis in my left rotator cuff. We're hoping it goes away with some time, ibuprofen, icing, and rest. 

But how do I rest my shoulder? When I realized that I won't be able to lift much with my left arm for a little while, one of my first thoughts was, "Oh no! My bread making!" Along this journey of bread making, I've had so many opportunities to be reminded that I really have fallen in love with this art/work of being a baker. I got a good chuckle reflecting on the fact that this was not a part of my life at the start of 2020, and now I'm slightly devastated thinking about how I won't be able to easily make bread for a bit. 

Through stubbornness, I found a solution to this dilemma of needing to rest my shoulder. I'm just focusing my time right now on things that I can bake with one good arm. Today I'll be making English muffins for the first time. Yesterday I made focaccia that turned out spectacularly. In fact, I'd like to start sharing more baking details with you - so let me start with the formula that I followed for yesterday's sourdough focaccia.

300 grams - water
11 grams - salt
11 grams - olive oil
60 grams - active starter
375 grams - unbleached bread flour

This formula and the video on its process both came from Rosehill Sourdough. I found his youtube & instagram this spring, and have learned a great deal about bread and pizza from him. 

I was hoping to do one more #BakersAgainstRacism bake sale in December... but that seems somewhat unlikely at the moment. A big bake like that would be too heavy to handle without further aggravating my shoulder. It still feels worthwhile though to have an excuse to use the time to expand my repertoire by making small batches of things that I've been wanting to learn to bake. 

I've heard from some of you that you would like the opportunity to subscribe to having sourdough bread made for you on a weekly basis. I'm excited to bring a subscription offering like this to you in the near future. While this shoulder injury is a humbling experience, I'm sincerely grateful that it worked out that I hadn't yet launched our bread club as I had previously planned. I know myself well enough to know that I would have been so frustrated by the thought of letting down new subscribers that I would have ignored the doctor's orders. Instead, I'm getting to rest up and spend more time in the planning stages of our next steps together. 

Admittedly this is the most awkward way to tease my Madison readers that this bread club project is in the works... but being on the email list means you get to be behind the scenes of what's going on in my head. So please do to stay tuned for future announcements :) 

Cheers, 
Mo.C

P.S. I’d be glad to hear from you again regarding what you’re feeling thankful for today. If you don't have any ideas... feel free to be thankful for your body that works and keeps you going.