Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Issue ONE: Is this Cheating?

A little background is necessary for the title of this post to make some sense. I think I've told you before but it bears repeating; we don't do sports in this house. Period. MBH abhors anything ball related and frankly, while I do occasionally find myself having to watch a game or two (occupational hazard) , I really don't care for team sports either. Instead, we do politics. MBH, bless his heart, is a Republican. I, on the other hand, am a card carrying member of the liberal left (a Democrat). On Friday nights, at 7:30pm, our local PBS station WGBH carries the McLaughlin Group, a debate show with four pundits, two right wingers in the form of Tony Blankley and Pat Buchanan and two lefties in the form of Eleanor Clift and Lawrence O'Donnell, who talk/shout about the big stories of the current week from the world of politics in the form of an issue debate with John McLaughlin serving as moderator/mitigator/and referee. This makes our Friday evening like movie night and fight night all rolled into one! We sometimes get take-out Chinese around the corner and then hunker down in bed to watch Eleanor and Tony go at each other. McLaughlin starts each question with a resounding "ISSUE" followed by a number signifying what issue he is on ("ISSUE ONE!) and he always ends the show with a huge, sweeping hand wave and a booming "bye-BYE". Throughout the week, MBH and I will start conversations with "ISSUE" and mimic John McLaughlin's salutation followed closely by peals of laughter or smirking. So, the title of this post is a bit of inside joke for MBH; who says I NEVER write about him.

ISSUE ONE! Is it cheating if I bake one those bake 'n serve loaves of bread? I'm feeling a bit conflicted by this because last night, instead of baking bread 100% from scratch, I baked a loaf of this type of bread. I had good intentions of baking a fresh loaf of bread and even left work early to do so but then life, in the form of MBH's car breaking down for at least the third time in as many weeks, intervened. By the time I had played moral support on the mobile, called three local rental car places, found and reserved a car for MBH (who was waiting on the side of Route 3 South for AAA during rush hour), and made sure that we had a way to pick up the rental car in the morning, it was almost 6pm. No time to make bread from scratch for our supper. So, I tossed one of these babies in a warmed oven with a pan of boiling water and three hours later? Fresh baked bread and the results were actually not that bad.




I wouldn't want a steady diet of this type of bread but, in a pinch, it will do.

Is this cheating?

And if it is, why does it taste so good right from the oven with jam.