Bannock is a tricky biscuit. It goes stale quickly, so you want to make sure that you are making it as close to the time that you need it as possible, or that you know it will be consumed quickly. I had to hold off on making bannock for that reason, and tomorrow we'll be packing and taking care of last minute details, so there is no time to bake then. Tonight it is!
Well, if I'm going to make Bannock using my Gramma's recipe, it only makes sense that I should also engage in other nostalgic activities that remind me of her and of growing up. I'd had Etienne pick up a Patsy Cline Greatest hits album on vinyl last week, and now just seems like the right time to put it on for the first time. Elbow deep in all-purpose flour, with Patsy crooning her sad tunes, it should have been the perfect moment of nostalgia.
But my house was not cooperating.
Our current kitchen has just a pathetic amount of counter-top space, and can't accommodate the space needed for making and rolling dough, so I had to move my operations to our polished granite dining table. Yeah, this is where I discuss how bannock and polished granite do not work well together. There is not enough flour in the world to make that work.
And, I didn't have any wax paper that I could tape down to make this easier.
Nor do I have a rolling pin.
Hm.
Necessity is the mother of invention, or some such silly platitude; I solved the rolling pin situation by using a roll of tin foil. Yeah, not my finest moment, but if I do say so myself, it was quite resourceful. And hey, it worked okay. But yes, I will be looking into a rolling pin ASAP.
The table situation though...far less easy to solve. I remembered too late that I have a clear plastic cutting sheet, but by this time, I couldn't tape it down because of the state of the table, the dough, and my flour-covered arms. Before I remind myself that it's a lesson learned, I note that our new apartment has oodles and oodles of counter-top space, and with the right tools (e.g. rolling pin), I could bake bannock to my heart's content.
The bannock turned out mostly great, but there were some burned bottoms because the oven's element is a bit wonky, and heats a little higher than the other side does. It's always something.
I think Gramma would have been proud (and amused) to see how I handled this goofy situation.
Gramma...
...Wish you were here.
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