We are off-island for the morning to pick up supplies (Home Depot, Maine Paint Store, Hannaford's); and since the General Store closed there is no internet on the island. We are finally working full days -- scraping, sanding, priming, painting. We run in the evening before dinner, make bread every day or two (recipe below). We've made cookies three times:

1. I was pondering our recipe, trying to decide how to improve it. Emboldened by our success at the vegan coop, Stewart (guru-like) recommended that I eschew measuring and make a batch by what looked and tasted right. I had wanted to try less butter and sugar, maybe increase the oats, but what I ended up with had in it (I think, we'll never know for sure) less sugar and flour, and the same amount of butter, which means they came out sizzling in a puddle -- fried, not sweet, chocolate chip biscuits.

2. I went to town for vegetables and left Stewart alone, during which time he resolved to stop eating cookies and to exercise more. He immediately made a 1/2 batch (adding poppy seeds and his trademark dash of cinnamon) and we have started running double what we used to (3-4 miles now).

3. I made cookies with only 3/4 of a stick of butter and a whole cup of oats (see above). They came out well, maybe a little too dry. Stewart ate and enjoyed them.

BREAD
2 tbsp sugar (brown, white or honey)
1 cup warm water (it helps to warm the bowl too)
1 tsp yeast
wait for bubbles
1 cup white flour (we try to keep the ratio of white to wheat flour 1:2)
rise 15-20 minutes (called "the sponge")
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
little things to taste (seeds, nutmeats, raisins, cinnamon)
add approx. 2 cups whole wheat flour gradually as you knead
cover with a damp cloth and let rise for 30 minutes
knead again
place in pan on a bed of oats and let rise for 30 minutes
bake at 350

By popular demand we remade our vegan cookie recipe for the coöpers tonight. We quadrupled the 1/2 batch, filled three sheets and made a cookie pie. The pie we pressed down so it came out denser than usual. Also, because Stewart went to play soccer and I went to an experimental film screening, we left someone else to supervise the baking. Stewart's van is officially busted, with broken brake lines that will take hundreds of dollars and at least a week to fix. So we are leaving it to the wasps and returning to Maine with my parents car -- loan generously extended. We should be painting by Saturday if the weather along the coast of Maine is anything like the Hudson River valley.

UPDATE: The same "someone else" mentioned above saved us three cookies which she delivered to our car-side as we were leaving this morning. Thank you thank you. In a contentious decision, I ate two and Stewart had one.

We are at Bard to pick up Stewart's van. It had been sitting in a lot all summer and wasps had built twelve nests: in the exhaust pipe, the roof rack, under the hood and around the hinges of the doors. We literally used a ten foot pole to swat them off -- a frightening operation. Then we pumped up a flat tire with a bike pump, mostly Stewart because I don't have near his strength.

We are staying the night at a vegan coöp and made two batches with this variation on our recipe:

approx 1/2 cup whipped earth balance
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 squirt of agave nectar
2 capfuls vanilla extract
splash (amount equal to 1 egg) homemade peach jam
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1/2 cup oats
1/2 cup coconut flakes
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup chilled vegan chocolate chips OR 4/3 handful dried cherries

Both the chocolate chip and cherry batches came out surprisingly well and were a hit with a boisterous group that arrived just as the pans were coming out of the oven.

I fulfilled a nearly half-decade old dream when I finally made cookies in Hungary. I leave today.

I went to Russo's in Watertown with my parents. From a teenager working in the bakery section (who told the customers ahead of me he had never heard of phyllo dough or challah) I got a Tollhouse cookie. They keep them in a refrigerator and they were not very good.

Back at the house in Maine, I used the last stick of butter, only half a cup of chocolate chips and added half a cup of walnuts. With a power washer and heat gun, the prep work is almost done; in a week, Stewart will be home and we will be painting.