Daily Bread (part 1)

I love to cook. And for the most part I am fairly successful at it. I don’t usually try to make a recipe up…I’m not that creative. However I have been known to try a new recipe a few times and tweek it a little before settling on a version that suits us best. I love to try new things. New recipes are awesome and fun. However, I have been an utter failure at 2 things:

1. Pie crust
2. Bread

The thing with the pie crust is that it works when I do the recipe WITH someone. But never when I’m going solo does it actually turn out to be edible. Figure that one out.

And bread. Oh, the lost art! My mom wasn’t a bread maker. And my great-grammy wasn’t one either, at least not in the years that I noticed her cooking. Apparently Grammy baked bread daily for her brood of 9.……years and years slash generations ago. ;-) How I wish I could be a fly in her kitchen when she was in her prime. What an experience that would have been.
Anyway, the extent of my bread making has always been with a bread machine. Sure bread in the bread machine is homemade, but there is just something about bread “the old way” that makes a heart melt and a tummy satisfied. Every single time I’ve tried handmade bread it either doesn’t rise, turns out too flaky and dry, it’s a brick, or it tastes like nothing. Not one single time do I remember a loaf that was successful. And believe me, I’ve tried. I’ve tried different techniques like in which in theory works. I know it has worked for my parents. It has worked for friends of mine. But me? Nope. Or of course there’s my good old friend Betty Crocker who always pulls through for me. Except in the bread department. I’ve tried the old church cookbooks. I’ve watched tutorials. No success.

Until today. I decided it was time. Early this year John’s Aunt Maralene came for a visit and brought me a Sam’s Club sized package of yeast, some bread making tips that work for her, and this cookbook I was grateful and I tried a couple recipes but they didn’t quite work out for me so the cookbook has been sitting on my shelf for months. Today I thought I’d give it a whole hearted try. I literally “slaved” over the very first recipe all day. I spent this morning following the recipe step by step. I was patient and loving in my attempt. And guess what. The most yummy, perfectly golden, evenly shaped, moist and not crumbly loaf of bread came out of the oven early this evening. Just in time for dessert. Yup. Homemade bread for dessert. And the kids loved it! I’d share a picture but…the camera has disappeared. (Yvette likes to roam around when she is supposed to be napping and I’m certain she was playing around with it and won’t fess up because it was next to the computer before naptime and after naptime it was gone. Hmmm….) I’m sure it will turn up soon.

And when it does, I will share a pick. IF of course I can do this again. Big IF...