Bread, Take 1

This was originally published on 8/31/2006 at keeping feet
Yesterday was a good day. At work, I felt like I accomplished things and helped people out, allowing them to do their jobs better, more efficiently, or without whatever roadblocks that I was able to fix.

I accomplished things once I got home too: I got home and put away laundry that had been sitting clean and unfolded on our floor. I got a load of dishes done and put away, and the remaining dishes loaded into the dishwasher, effectively clearing my counter and sink and making me feel better. I decided to do a kitchen experiment and try to bake bread from scratch, a lofty goal for me who can't seem to get grilled cheese sandwiches quite right. I don't know why I wanted to do this, I think it was just to say I had, or something. I thought it would be a fun adventure, in a way. Also, Josh was at his first choir practice yesterday evening and I didn't have anything else to do.

So, my first goal was to find a recipe in which I had all the ingredients and equipment. The limiting factors included the fact that I don't own a bread machine or any loaf pans and, the primary factor, I had just over 3 cups of flour, and most bread recipes called for 7+. I finally settled on a white bread recipe I had the ingredients for, and I was ready to give it a try. I decided to not make the bread in the suggested shape of a turtle, however. My goal was to at least get the loaf shape right.

Well, an hour and a half or so later, just as Josh was walking in the door, my efforts succeeded! His first comment, before he was all the way in the door was, "Something smells good...", which I knew was a positive sign. The bread came out of the oven looking and tasting as it should! To my surprise, it was not much like bread-machine bread, the only other homemade white bread I can remember having, but still very yummy.

Of course I documented the adventure in pictures. The pictures before it was cooked were all taken with my phone- I'm still trying to figure out how to get a good picture out of the thing.

Check out the results: