Follow up –
The Follansbees have provided the following and previously promised article…
“Washing Household Linens and Linen Clothing in 1627 Plymouth” by Maureen Richard
I can’t figure out how to get it here on the blog but the link below will provide you with a pdf file which you can open any way you like.
I’m looking forward to reading it over my lunch hour. It’s hot dog day.
Secondly,
Someone requested the recipe for that fabulous looking loaf of bread featured in part A of this blog post.
I don’t remember where I got it but I tweaked the original so I get to rename it…
Quarantine Potato Bread
1 med Starchy Potato
1/2 cup potato water (twice…twice… I have dumped the water out while draining the cooked spuds so I’m giving this helpful hint…save that water)
3/4 cup warm water
2 Tablespoons Honey
2 1/4 tsp. Yeast
3 1/2 cup Bread Flour (best of luck finding that)
Cut that potato into small chunks and cook for 15 minutes or so then mash fine…
Drizzle the honey into the bottom of your grandmother’s pyrex measuring cup, then add the warm water up to the red 3/4 cup line and sprinkle the yeast on top. Set aside for 10 minutes until foamy.
Combine all ingredients and knead for 10 minutes. That’s my favorite part.
Proof in a lightly greased bowl covered with a damp tea towel and set up on some high warm surface like on the top of your old mustard colored double oven…1-2 hours. This is a good time to weed one bed or do two crossword puzzles or play 12 Maj-Jong games on your ipad.
Return to that bowl and marvel at the rise you got from all that kneading. Knock it down and roll it up into a buttered loaf pan. Cover with that damp towel and proof for 45 minutes.
Bake (with the towel off obviously) 30-35 minutes @ 375 degrees.
Another helpful note, I found that placing it on the bottom rack in my top oven gave a more even bake …and 30 minutes is the exact right time for same oven.
If you buttered that pan like my Mima would have then your own fabulous loaf will fall gently out…let it cool on a wire rack as long as you can stand before cutting it open and slathering it with butter.
In the original recipe it was said that the addition of the potato somehow helps the bread to last longer. I can attest only that the previous two loaves I made each lasted one week. On the last day save two of those older pieces per person in the household to make french toast. It’s quarantine bread after all…you need your strength and maple syrup is well known to stabilize one’s sanity.
You are welcome.
And as a bonus…here’s a look at that wonderful stove…
Hot Flash – 2007
If you need to ask… you won’t get it .
A list of thank yous is in order though.
To Julie, for the long term loan of her grandmother’s fan and for recognizing in the first place that I “needed” to have it in the prop room.
To Susan, for the gift of her magnificent old stove and for recognizing that I “needed” to have it in the new studio.
To Mima, for the hours spent in her Uniontown kitchen and recognizing that I would someday go out of my way replicate it in the hopes of channeling her love.
And, to my dearest Pat, for paving the way before me…and for smiling as she recognizes, with such affection and that ever so tender hint of knowing sarcasm, that the battle has only begun to rage inside my hormonally challenged almost fifty self.