Baking Bread

Sometimes it seems like we work days, weeks, months to see the littlest improvement in Emma's motor skills.  Day in and day out we modify our activities so Emma can more fully participate while we position her just so to work on sitting or standing or any other number of things.  The little changes have become such a part of our routine that often we don't even notice we are doing it anymore.  It's easy for this Mommy to get so wrapped up in doing things all day long for my children that at the end of the day I feel like I've actually accomplished very little that is tangible.

We've been improving our diet over the last few years.  Trying to eat more organic fruits and vegetables, buying food from farmers markets and minimizing our consumption of processed food.  I checked the book Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day out of the library and then renewed it and finally decided to actually try and make a loaf.

Have you ever read the ingredient list on the bag of bread from the supermarket?  What the heck is most of that stuff?  This book made making beautiful crusty bread sound easy - and I'm all about easy.  You just have to give my crock-pot a glance to see how well used it is and you'll know I don't have a lot of extra time in the day to get a good meal on the table for our busy family.  I also remember the delicious bread our neighbor from Yugoslavia used to make us when I was little and how good it tasted with a bit of butter.  So with a bit of hesitation - because I have a hard time rolling out pre-made pizza dough let alone make some dough from scratch - I decided to make some bread.  And it actually seemed to take less than 5 minutes hands-on to make it.  There was a bit of time to mix the dough, let it rise and bake it in the oven but my total hands-on time was definitely no more than 5 minutes.

There is something about the smell of fresh bread in the house.  Mmmmm....it is so comforting.  And very tasty.  And really easy.  I feel like I've accomplished at least one thing on the days I bake bread.  Something tangible.  And it feels good.  Oh...and the fact that it's delicious, too, is a nice bonus!