Cape Cod Cloche

Cape Cod girls, they have no combs
Heave away! Heave away
They comb their hair with codfish bones;
We are bound for Australia


Heave awy me bully bully boys
Heave away! Heave away
Heave away and don't ye make a noise;
We are bound for Australia!


Cape Cod boys, they have no sleds
Heave away! Heave away!
They slide down hills on codfish heads
We are bound for Australia!

Guess where I got to get snowed in last weekend...

A foot and a half of beautiful snow deep in a many-windowed house in Welfleet, generously lent by Judy and Richard, good friends to me from the day I was born. They did themselves one better this time, opening their house to me and three dear friends for a wool-socked, Scattergories-playing sister weekend. The snow was deep, the kitchen was stocked, and we couldn't have asked for much more.

As I mentioned once before, Judy is a potter, and a big fan of the no-knead bread, and now she's experimenting with making clay baking vessels. One such attempt was waiting for us on the counter at the cape house, with the bread recipe etched right into the glaze under the lid. The compact shape and the recipe combined were almost irresistible, and I was glad when Judy encouraged me to try it out, and then to take it home. She doesn't consider it her finest specimen, but that only makes me want to make with it more--no danger of ruining high art, and the shape is just so satisfying--small without being tiny, and perfectly rounded. I made a nice no-knead raisin bread on the Cape, but took no pictures. Many more to come, both kneaded and no. I might even think about baking some beans.

I did take a picture of the bread I made after I got home, Hamelman's pain au levain, which I tested for the bakery. The test was successful, and as I write this there's a batch rising in the proofer for Saturday's crowd. Hamelman says that refrigerating the dough overnight isn't recommended for this variety, so I started from the beginning at about 6 am, and am just nearing the shaping point by 9:30.