Domesticness

Over the long holiday weekend, I took my first foray into the mysterious world of the domestic arts. I made bread. By hand. And it was healthy-type bread, too.

My friend Amanda is my inspiration. I bought her old bread maker from her, because she prefers making bread by hand. Seriously? Who does that? Amanda does. And she's awesome.

I also lifted a yummy bread recipe from her, intending to do it the cheater way and make it in my newly-acquired bread machine (newly-acquired being a relative term. I bought it from her three months ago, but hadn't used it yet.). So I went to my lovely neighborhood Macey's and bought a bushel of ingredients--honey, wheat flour, oats, 7-grain cereal, yeast, nuts, etc.

I unloaded all my pretty new foods in a strategic line on the counter, ready to do battle with the bread machine. But, to my chagrin, I found that the recipe was too big for the bread machine to handle. It made two loaves, and called for two bread pans (obviously) to cook them in. I only have one bread pan. A Puzzlement.

I thought about halving the recipe, but as this was my first bread adventure, I didn't want to risk not following the directions to a "T," so I sucked it up, made the bread by hand, and cooked one loaf in my lone brad pan and cooked the other in the bread machine.

So the bread machine had officially been christened. The bread turned out ok. I don't think it rose properly, so it was rather dense, but still yummy. But there was a TON of it and we couldn't eat it fast enough. Lesson: make less bread.

In my next attempt at homemaking, I think I'll follow a simple recipe from the instruction manual. I think I tried to fly too high, too fast. Take it from me. Flying in the kitchen is not advised.

You won this time, bread, but I shall conquer in the end!