Snow day! And baking bread...
I got home from work (early)-- just making it home before the worst of the Portland-panic snow gridlock hit. Bob was stuck in traffic for 4.5 hours on his normal 40 minute commute.
We had no bread in the house and I decided the snow was a great excuse to make bread again. It's been quite awhile. I'd forgotten how much I like baking bread. I started when I was 18 after staying the weekend with a college friend and eating her mother's homemade bread. Back then I was working swing shift at Tektronix. I would get home after midnight, rev'd up from work and would spend my nights teaching myself through trial and error, the art of breadmaking. Back then there was not such a thing as cable TV. 5-6 channels, most of which went off the air around 1am. I had a lot of disastrous loaves and rolls in the beginning. But by the time I went off swing shift I could make bread with my eyes closed without a recipe. I still mostly can.
When automatic bread machines came out I would cross myself against them like they were the devil incarnate. It was sacrilege to think of leaving the making of that gorgeous bread to a machine. Of course I did finally compromise after I got married and my husband bought me a kitchenaid mixer. It does most of my kneading for me these days. But when I was tense, I would still revert back to good old fashion ten minutes of hand kneading. Nothing like it. Bread is magic. Too bad whatever we've done to our food chain and ourselves mean that so many of us can no longer enjoy it as we once could. But it's still magic.
Here is a crappy-ish iphone photo of the book I've been using since about 1978. Published in 1974. No longer in print (and I see some online places trying to sell some for several hundred bucks(!) Seriously?) This think is well used and well worn and well loved. Only about 6x9 inches in diameter. I have a lot of prettier bread books, but I always come back to this one. :)
I may decide to make this my Project 365 photo of the day. Unless I break out my DSLR a bit later and take some photos of the loaves that are in the oven right now. :) I used loaf pans. I usually don't. Preferring to bake free form loaves on my break brick (which has been in our oven for almost 20 years). But I decided to try the loaf pans again. Generally they don't work as well for me. Plus I really love the crust from a free form baked bread. But no matter. It smells good and will taste good anyway. :)
(Oh look at that, I have an LJ tag for bread baking, I must check that out to see what I've tagged in the past.)
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We had no bread in the house and I decided the snow was a great excuse to make bread again. It's been quite awhile. I'd forgotten how much I like baking bread. I started when I was 18 after staying the weekend with a college friend and eating her mother's homemade bread. Back then I was working swing shift at Tektronix. I would get home after midnight, rev'd up from work and would spend my nights teaching myself through trial and error, the art of breadmaking. Back then there was not such a thing as cable TV. 5-6 channels, most of which went off the air around 1am. I had a lot of disastrous loaves and rolls in the beginning. But by the time I went off swing shift I could make bread with my eyes closed without a recipe. I still mostly can.
When automatic bread machines came out I would cross myself against them like they were the devil incarnate. It was sacrilege to think of leaving the making of that gorgeous bread to a machine. Of course I did finally compromise after I got married and my husband bought me a kitchenaid mixer. It does most of my kneading for me these days. But when I was tense, I would still revert back to good old fashion ten minutes of hand kneading. Nothing like it. Bread is magic. Too bad whatever we've done to our food chain and ourselves mean that so many of us can no longer enjoy it as we once could. But it's still magic.
Here is a crappy-ish iphone photo of the book I've been using since about 1978. Published in 1974. No longer in print (and I see some online places trying to sell some for several hundred bucks(!) Seriously?) This think is well used and well worn and well loved. Only about 6x9 inches in diameter. I have a lot of prettier bread books, but I always come back to this one. :)
I may decide to make this my Project 365 photo of the day. Unless I break out my DSLR a bit later and take some photos of the loaves that are in the oven right now. :) I used loaf pans. I usually don't. Preferring to bake free form loaves on my break brick (which has been in our oven for almost 20 years). But I decided to try the loaf pans again. Generally they don't work as well for me. Plus I really love the crust from a free form baked bread. But no matter. It smells good and will taste good anyway. :)
(Oh look at that, I have an LJ tag for bread baking, I must check that out to see what I've tagged in the past.)
╚══════.♢.═╝