Remember Quarantine Bread, the simple and basic “No-knead” bread? Ingredients are stirred up in a bowl, covered with plastic wrap and a towel and thus started in its first rise the night before it’s flipped onto a floured mat in the morning, gently kneaded a few times to shape it, popped into a parchment-lined Dutch oven, covered with plastic wrap and towel as it undergoes Rise Number 2, then off with the plastic and towel, lid to the Dutch oven is popped on and the bread goes into a cold oven, oven is then set for 400 degrees, bake continues for 40 minutes, then lid from Dutch oven is removed and bake continues for 15 more minutes until interior temperature of 195-205 degrees F is reached. Well, I usually use all-purpose flour or bread flour when I make Quarantine Bread for myself weekly, but sometimes, for others who cannot have “white” flour, I make it with whole wheat flour, as today.
One of my wonderful neighbors has a birthday today. He is insulin-dependent, eats only whole wheat bread and uses erythritol for sweetener. He spent several hours last week to help me save a LOT of data to a new computer (including five books I’ve written in the past 7 years, and around 25,000 photos all stored on my other computer) so I can do my annual “Write a book in November” while my daughter Maria does the same. This year I think we’re both writing scripts as our 2025 November book* and I needed a couple of my past books regarding love and life events related to Bahrain to help me put things in proper order.
Well, the new computer is installed, the external hard drives are connected and I’m off and running. Meanwhile I baked a beautiful loaf of whole wheat Quarantine Bread and made a small jar of seedless fresh raspberry jelly/syrup with Erythritol for my tech neighbor. Last night I inflated balloons and put them along with a Happy Birthday sign next to the computer he uses in the Community Room here, so his day will be full of nice surprises.
*We have used NaNoWriMo, that is National November Write Month, several times to write books. NaNoWriMo as of spring 2025 is no more. Its successor “Writing Month.org” is the ticket for November 2025, with a goal of 50,000 words (approximately 200-225 pages) for the month. I couldn’t be working on my goal without the help of Mr. Tech at the Manor. I’m so grateful for his help and he was delighted to receive birthday surprises.
Ms Chef in Seattle 