Wild Yeast

First, a huge and heartfelt thanks to everyone who donated to my Team in Training fundraising to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. You all rock! With your help, I reached my $2500 goal with plenty of time to spare before my marathon in October. Of course, additional donations will not be refused and will go to a most worthy cause.

I am happy to announce that my friend Patricia, author of the wonderful Brownies for Dinner, is the winner of the Sony camera fundraising raffle. I’m also happy to announce that my friend Cora (Cora Cooks and says she doesn’t bake, but she really does) has won the BlogHer Food ticket that I am unable to use because I will be out giving my feet a 22-mile trial on conference day.

Last weekend I did my longest training walk so far, 16 miles. If my daughter M were here, she would say “Do you want a cookie?” Yes, I do, thank you very much. Chocolate chip will be fine.

I like this blog to be informative. Looking at the search terms that land people here helps me know what information they are looking for. Sometimes, though, I think they’re let down because I haven’t really addressed the topic in the way they probably expected.

I don’t like to disappoint, so allow me to address a few of those search terms now:

firmament baking stone — It’s not hot enough in the firmament for a baking stone. Try going in the other direction.

potatoe bread — I only do potato bread, but Dan Quayle may be able to help you out.

does putting bread yeast in my septic do any good? — I’m not sure, but I put my yeast in the refrigerator, and that works fine.

how to make a miche slip cover — I don’t slipcover my miches unless I’m having company, and then I usually just get one of those cheapo ones from Target and add a few beads for that personalized touch.

my eclair cannot pop up — I’m always getting spam about remedies for this. I’d be happy to forward some of it on if you send me your email address.

As my dad used to say, “Call Walter Cronkite!” Almost a year later, it looks like my earth oven might finally be dry.

I fired it up last weekend and lo and behold, it actually got hot. So hot, in fact, that I burned the bottoms of the loaves because I haven’t exactly got the temperature-gauging thing down yet. But after that layer of carbonized crust was lopped off, the bread was actually quite good. Maybe I can do this.

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Thank you, thank you!

I am overwhelmed by your kind and supportive words, your own stories of how cancer has touched your lives, and your donations to my Team in Training fundraising. Thanks to you, my motivation and confidence that I can do this marathon thing are higher than ever, and I have already raised over $1900 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

The Sony camera raffle will close once my fundraising total reaches $2500, so if you’d like to get in on it, now would be a good time. Donate here and get one virtual ticket per dollar.

Some people have asked me to post my training progress. These first couple of weeks have been all about learning new skills, mostly ones I thought I had mastered a few decades ago. My teammates and I have been schooled by our wonderful coaches and mentors in how to:

• walk
• get dressed
• tie our shoes
• eat and drink
• act like a dead bug
• say please and thank you

Please know how much your support is appreciated, and thank you for everything!

(This is a camera, and a very good one. More about that later.)

I know I ask a lot of you. Please send me your breads for YeastSpotting. Please weigh your ingredients. Please love baking as much as I do.

Now I have a particularly cheeky thing to ask: Please give me your money. Before you scroll on down to the next post in your feed reader, hear me out! (Psst! camera, camera…)

On October 18, 2009 I will walk 26.2 miles in the Nike Women’s Marathon in San Francisco. I have never done anything like this before.

I know why I’m doing it: to push myself; to step outside my box; to challenge my heart, my lungs, my feet, my will; to keep all the bread I eat from getting the better of my health; to raise money for a great cause.

But frankly, I’m not entirely sure how I’m going to do it. I am not what you would call an endurance walker — yet. This is where Team in Training comes in. They have assured me that if I do my part, they will train me to go the distance. They will teach me, coach me, support me — so I will be able to walk the 26 miles.

But I do have to do my part: I have to show up at twice-weekly training sessions and walk increasingly long distances with my coaches and other team members. On most other days, I have to walk and do core strength or weight training on my own. And I have to raise at least $2500.

Say what? $2500? If you haven’t heard of it, Team in Training is an organization that benefits the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society by training people like me who are not athletes to participate in endurance events in return for us raising fairly large chunks of change. The money we raise goes to LLS to fund research towards finding a cure for blood cancers such as leukemia, lymphoma, and myeloma.

If supporting cancer research is not reason enough, consider some other reasons to help me out here:

• You love me. (I can dream, can’t I?)
• You like me.
• You can’t stand me and relish the thought of all those blisters on my feet.
• You want a chance at winning this camera.

WHAT camera?

If you’re looking for me today, catch me on Ari’s fantastic blog, Baking and Books, where I make a guest appearance with Pain Sur Poolish while Ari cruises the Carribbean. Not a bad deal for either of us.