Baking Bread

So how has retirement been so far? I am keeping busy as you can see. I have been baking all the bread we eat. I am cooking up a storm too. Today I baked rolls. Not how I started baking bread, but the new way is the best! After they came out with bread machines, I told my family I wasn't interested. Finally one year I said OK and started using the bread machine. We must have continued to gain weight because I got rid of it. :-) Now I started up again.

I bought this bread machine from the church rummage sale several years ago for two dollars and it didn't have the recipe book along so I have been going online to find recipes. I think I have finally fine tuned this one recipe. My husband wants more grain in the bread so I'll experiment with that too.

I am going back to my Amish days and cooking from "scratch". Fortunately my husband enjoys soups which is easy to make and have on hand. I made a pot of soup this week; Zesty Vegetable Soup. I didn't like it too much, it had a clear broth base and I prefer a tomato base for my soups.

Growing up we baked a batch of bread every week, or maybe every 5 days? I can't remember for sure. But with our large family a little bread machine wouldn't begin to make enough. We had this huge pan and I think we used at least a quart of water for starters. (I use 1 1/4 cup water). It would be an all day process! Summer and winter! I got sick and tired of kneading the dough! It was a big batch and my mom had me start baking early on, I could have been 7 or 8 years old. I was always interested in whatever they were cooking so I got put to work. It was fun when I started but after awhile it got pretty boring and repetitive! We baked at least 6 or 7 loaves of bread each week.

So what do I do as a mom? I didn't make my children help me in the kitchen. When Holly was growing up I told her she should never tell anyone that her mother grew up Amish! Because I didn't make her cook or sew. But the good daughter that she was told me that she had more important things to do with her life, like study and play the piano! She has turned out to be a good cook and she's a great mother too.

For lunch today I made Enchiladas. Yummy! Let me know if you want the recipe and I'll send it out.