As my friend Rachel says, I'm now in my late thirties. On October 1st, I turned 37. Several friends helped me celebrate a couple of weeks ago. We gathered in the mid-afternoon to learn to bake bread. While Reggie is the cook in our family, I've always been the better baker but I've never experimented with yeast breads. My freind Betty humored me and brought her kitchen-aid, her 50 pound bag of bread flour, some sourdough starter, her measuring cups and breadpans to our friend Pride's house and we started.
It takes a long time to bake bread. You mix it, knead it, let it rise, punch it down, let it rest, shape it, let it rise again, then bake it. All in all, there are about 3 hours of "down time" when the only task you have is to wait on the bread. I didn't really plan it this way, but I think this is a really good skill for me to learn at this point in my life. Life is really good but it's really full and really busy. Perhaps every once and a while, I can carve out 3-4 hours when my only task is to wait and watch my bread rise.
By the way, Betty gave me a jar of sourdough starter and I successfully made two loaves of bread last weekend. Yum!
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