Chaos Theory: Some Pig In Mexico & Kamut Flour

Posted by Dave


It wasn't supposed to be this way.

Our 4-day weekend was supposed to start with a somewhat precarious 4-hour car ride to Sunriver bright and early on Friday morning. We were to meet up with various and sundry friends at a nice house, ride some bikes, play some games and watch some college football. Hilarity and hijinks would no doubt ensue. It was to be our first weekend "away" with the baby, unless you count our state of mind (which is constantly on direct flights to and from the small Eastern European nation of Utter Insanity).

I was in the middle of 5 meetings on Thursday, trying to finish up a week's worth of work in 4 hours, when Jessica called me at work. I think our conversation went something like this:

"Hi honey, I'm on the other line on a conference call. Can I call you back?"

"Yeah -- just real quick. Um, Julie is sick and may have the swine flu. Call me when you're done with your call."

"Whaaaah?"

Julie is our dear friend, known to some as Binkie Goddess. She is also the linchpin of our weekend getaway. The poor lady spent the next few hours trying to get our refund for the house rental (which she did successfully, as she is in all things), and we spent the evening re-planning our 4-day weekend. When I say "re-planning our weekend," we really mean going to Trader Joe's and feasting upon homemade pizza, drowning our swine flu lamentations in -- ironically -- pork sausage and pepperoni.

I'm happy to say, however, that we rallied on Friday. We got Annalise's pictures at Babies R Us, and headed to Bob's Red Mill for a little change of pace.

What's Bob's Red Mill, you say? It's Heaven for Whole Wheat, Disneyland for Durum, The Caribbean Cruise of Cornmeal, The Grand Ole Opry of Granola... you get the idea. If you love anything that has ever been baked, you automatically love Bob's Red Mill.

Our initial objective was to try something called Kamut flour, which I read about in a book called "Hungry Monkey" that I highly recommend if you have small kids. Kamut Flour is whole wheat flour (which I like) that supposedly tastes like enriched white flour (which Jessica likes). I was intrigued, and we suddenly had a free afternoon, so we headed to the Bob's Red Mill store for a little carbohydrates shopping and some lunch.

We got our Kamut flour. And cornmeal muffins. And a high-fiber pancake mix. And a whole wheat spiced apple coffee cake. And ate two wonderful toasted sandwiches. Everything looked fascinating and amazing. I looked around for a Willy Wonka and semolina-covered Oompa Loompas, it was so magical. We will certainly be back, especially when Annalise is old enough to enjoy the mill tour and sample some of their fine goods.

So there you have it -- some pig in Mexico starts a flu epidemic, and because of it we have Kamut flour in our cupboard today... and cornbread muffins in our tummies.