“Wounding and healing are not opposites. They’re part of the same thing. It is our wounds that enable us to be compassionate with the wounds of others. It is our limitations that make us kind to the limitations of other people. It is our loneliness that helps us to find other people or to even know they’re alone with an illness,” reads the cancer patient (me) in Rachel Naomi Remen’s lovely Kitchen Table Wisdom on the eve of yet another chemo infusion.
We gave such thanks over this weekend. Midcity Friendsgiving at the Wilkinson’s was a smash. I baked for the first time in months (has it really been that long?) and I made rosemary garlic knots from a mash up of a Tartine Baguette recipe hybridized with focaccia, with spelt and wheat bran flakes just to healthy it up a bit. Do tell? But of course.
Garlic Rosemary Spelt Focaccia Knots
First, make a poolishof 200 g water, 200 g flour, and a dollop (~100 g) of sourdough starter, cover and let it rise overnight, or at least four hours.
Then, make a baguette dough
Sourdough starter 400 g
Water 500 g
Poolish 400 g
Spelt flour 250 g
Wheat bran 100 g
All purpose flour 650 g
Salt 24 g (always make in a slurry of about ¼ cup water)
Wild Groves Olio Nuovo olive oil– you’ll need almost a whole bottle
10 large sprigs of rosemary, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
Follow the classic Tartine steps for bulk fermentation for the next 3-4 hours, adding the salt in the last hour in a slurry. For this batch, I put the dough in the fridge to slow rise overnight because [exhaustion from chemo] of timing for the Thanksgiving meal. I took it out with about 10 hours to go before the meal, let it come to room temp for two hours.
Then I dusted my surface with flour, chopped the rosemary fine, the garlic too. I put the garlic into a small bowl with olive oil.
Then I cut off small pieces of the dough, approximately 100-120 g each, and rolled each into a snake, slathered with the garlicky olive oil, then rolled in rosemary and tied in a knot, like so. I dusted with kosher salt and sesame seeds and covered.
I let rise for another 2 hours, then baked at 450 for 10-12 minutes until bottoms browned. They did not rise much, I think because I really overdid it with the olive oil so as to turn them basically into focaccia—but OH the FLAVOR. WOW.
I’m sure this is why the Saints won. Golden good voodoo from the Bake This Day kitchen.
I read up on various techniques in this Fabulous artisan bread baking book—stay tuned, when I really get back into my bread baking full time it will be recipe after recipe from Living Bread by Daniel Leader. I love sprouted grains bread, and currently in my neutropenic state I am avoiding sprouts, but very soon I’m hoping to have my white blood cells back on my side and my fridge full of sprouting grain tendrils.
This next week I am anticipating pain, thanks to neupogen, but given my go-around once before, I know a few more tricks. This is just my own experience, be sure to consult your own doctor before fiddling around with over the counters (obviously), but I’ll share what’s working over here for me. Also note the hyperlinked products have been gifted.
Quanta CBD muscle rub, along with a hodge podge of Doterra oils and Deep Blue Rub as often as I can convince my husband or kind neighbors to lather up my aching back. CBD bath bombs are also a godsend when it comes to neupogen bone pain (but be sure to take an antihistamine like Claritin for best effect!)
Lidocaine patches are helpful too, I used a few of these from Salonpas.
For the skin dryness plaguing those who are unlucky to have chemo treatments coincide with the winter season, body butters from Garner’s Garden, along with their super duper natural skincare products are wonderful. I switched to all natural deodorant after my cancer diagnosis (too late) but I find these essential oil-based, magnesium and arrowroot/baking powdery deodorants to be lovely. I just have to keep one in my purse because I need to reapply like three times a day (due to New Orleans humidity and also my hypermetabolic state). Their mouthwash and charcoal toothpaste is nice for the mucositis and alcohol-free (less sting!)
And then for funzies and laughs, I love the silly products from Teddy the Dog—a dogs rule corner of the cybersphere. I’m probably going to wear these This Totally Socks tomorrow to chemo. Kermit approves.
