Thursday

Fresh Bread

While we lived in England, my dear friend Hester was the inspiration for SO many of the things I now cook. She made it all look effortless. But the thing I love the most about Hester is she does everything with this inner Joy. She doesn't begrudgingly make lovely food for her family and friends, she does it with a celebratory heart! I had never met anyone who was able to show me this before. Not burning out and becoming overwhelmed as most of the dear women in my life tended to become when trying to be supermoms and do it all..
At the end of our time in the UK we went to her family for a visit and I woke up one morning to this delicious smell..... FRESH BREAD... The most wonderful part was it was done in a machine!!!! I know those who read this and have the die hard attitude of " That's cheating !" need to understand that if I had expected myself to go from 1 to 100 in my learning curve of making fresh bread and had the pressure of doing it without a machine, I too would have been another casualty in the burned out mom thing. It would not have happened.
Now we delight in fresh bread in the morning! My machine which I got as a birthday gift, has a feature to set it the night before, make pizza dough and french bread too. I love it! So ask for one as a gift or save your pennies, because at the end of the day to buy a huge bag of flour for bread ( I buy 25lb bags from a bulk food shop), fresh pasta, pizza dough and bread is one of the ways my family get's to eat gourmet on a dime!!!!!

                                                Invest in a bread maker! You won't be sorry!


3 comments:

Amy Pak said...

Hey, Beck! Good for you! I fully believe in bread machines--you get the best of both worlds! And there are SO many great breads to try--my favorite bread machine book is "Bread Machine Magic":
http://www.amazon.com/Bread-Machine-Magic-Exciting-Especially/dp/0312069146/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265329471&sr=8-3

Especially good warm, with lashings of butter and jam!

C'est l'abeille said...

For 20+ years I prided myself on baking my own bread, if not daily, at least several times a week. In fact, I also ground my own wheat as well as other whole grains.
Imagine my chagrin to discover all these years later that I am gluten intolerant. It's not a matter of fresh bread being easier to digest. It's a matter of the protein (gluten) in wheat triggering an aut-immune response that causes my body to attack itself. Eating fresh bread is indeed a treat and good for us... but now I use freshly ground brown rice flour. With all the monkeying science has done with our food supply - increasing the gluten content in our wheat, for one! - it is a wonder that more people aren't experiencing digestive disorders.
I too use a bread machine, having learned to eat my words about "laziness"... I no longer homeschool nor am I at home all day. But we still need to eat healthy! A bread machine is a life saver!

Gourmet Cooking On A Dime said...

Thanks for your comments!!!!

Serving sizes and this sight.....

As many of you have come to realize, I am usually making huge amounts of food and alot of times for more than just my family. However, I would be horrified to think that someone who was living alone, or with only a couple people in their home would feel discouraged about this..
Simply use division for most of these recipes if they are too big. With the exception of baking, which requires a fair amount of science, these recipes can be adjusted and modified with ease! And if you feel stuck, either leave me a comment or email me and I will try to respond to you as soon as I can.
Thanks fellow foodies, hope you eat something yummy today and enjoy the fact that you didn't spend lots of money at a high end restaurant!

Enjoy! I love to hear from you all!

Rebecca Turrigiano

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