Who Knew??

That baking bread could be so much fun!

Around our house these days we are on a journey for a more simple life. One where we spend more time outdoors, enjoying the beauty that God has surrounded us with. One where we will be providing for ourselves by raising animals, hunting and fishing (Bug is a big fan of fishing, makes me happy) and gardening. I've been growing some herbs and veggies this year, but that's a post for a different day.

Today I'm going to talk about bread....yummy homemade bread.

Instead of buying bread, I make bread. Once a week I make two loaves of bread. Not only does it taste 100 times better than any store bought bread, it fills you up and leaves you feeling full. Whatever doesn't get consumed by the end of the week gets turned into breadcrumbs and frozen. We will never have to buy breadcrumbs again, and these ones are better tasting than any breadcrumbs I've ever bought from a grocery store.

My first bread baking experience was an absolute dream of perfection, disaster, it was dense. Like a brick. Not to mention, I'm a klutz in the kitchen. I spill things, our kitchen looks like something has exploded in it when I'm done. I've dirtied every bowl, dish, cup and pan we own, I burn myself almost every time I turn on the stove or oven and not everything I make is cooked to perfection. In fact, the last loaves of bread I made just this week, although edible, have what I am calling flour swirl surprises because I didn't mix the dough as well as I should have.

You know what though? It's ok. It's a learning experience and each time I make bread, it gets better. Now if only I had Dobby the house elf (if only I wasn't a mere muggle, and could go steal him from the Hogwarts kitchen) to do my dishes. I hate doing dishes!


Growing up I never really learned how to cook from scratch. My mom was a hard worker and worked hard to provide for my brothers, sister and me. It didn't leave much time for baking and cooking. Although she did teach me how to read a recipe, so I can usually suffer through figuring out how to cook. Thanks mom :)

I've been using our new KitchenAid mixer to mix the bread dough. It works wonders. I would love to be able to knead a good dough by hand, so I've been practicing my kneading when I make flour tortillas or pie crusts and will attempt bread again in the near future. For now I use the KitchenAid. I love to watch the dough form, in fact I never knew I'd enjoying baking so much. The way the dough forms, then rises, the fun of rolling it out and then forming it into loaves, watching it rise again, finding the perfect spot in the kitchen where the warmth is best for rising. Not to mention the smell of it baking, and how it lingers in the house for the rest of the day.

I use the bread recipe from the book "The Homemade Pantry" in fact, I use several of the recipes from that book, so you'll see me mention it a lot. It's one of the coolest cookbooks I've ever purchased. Love it.

One of my favorite things about baking our own bread is that it gives me the opportunity to teach Bug (aka the little munchkin of the family) how to bake. I feel better knowing that I'm giving her a life skill that she will be able to carry with her. This saying comes to mind:

Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; show him how to catch fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.

I feel it's a more fulfilling feeling to give our children skills and lessons in life that will last them a lifetime rather than getting that fulfillment from giving them the latest tech gadget, because lets face it, the world is full of new electronics and toys...but when they get older, those items are going to be obsolete and the memory of baking bread with mom on a Monday morning, will hopefully last a lifetime.


Until next time....