The Ceremony of Baking Bread

There is something special about baking your own bread. mixing it. kneading it. shaping it. watching it. baking it. slicing it. eating it. It is quite the process. Maybe it is the smell or the taste, or the science of it with how magically it rises from such basic ingredients...or perhaps it is ritual. For so many years bread has been a staple food; one of the oldest prepared foods. Women have slaved over baking their own homemade bread for their families for years. I was reading recently about two women in today's society that got together each week alternating houses to bake bread for their family for the week. This is a beautiful part of community that was talking about in an earlier post.

I was intrigued by the thought of baking bread as a ceremony after reading "The Organic Living Book," by Kohn. (didn't catch the first name, I already brought it back to the library) In many cultures bread has significance beyond its nutrition. The simplest kind of bread is a mixture of flour and water that has been baked. This is known as "the matzoh," or unleavened bread that was made by the Hebrews of the Bible when they fled to Egypt. Bread is now a metaphor for basic necessities. "Bread" as an expression for money or "to earn one's bread" for earning livelihood. "To break bread" is to indicate the sharing of any kind of food, or in the remembrance of Jesus patterned after the last supper. Bread is basic. Essential. Symbolic. Natural.

Here is the simple whole wheat bread recipe that I used yesterday; perfect for starters and made with all natural ingredients. It really is like a ceremony...after all that hard work of making, the result is a feast! It tastes so much better knowing that you made it yourself. Thad walked in the house with a big smile because of the wonderful aroma. That is part of the ceremony too. :)

Simple Whole Wheat Bread -makes 2 loaves

-two packages of dry baking yeast

-lukewarm water

-1 Tbsp. sea salt

-1/4 c. pure safflower oil (or you could use melted butter)

-1/4 c. pure honey

-8 cups of stone-ground whole wheat flour

-1 egg

-a large mixing bowl, 2 bread pans, measuring cup and spoons, small bowl, and a towel.

1. Pour 2 packages of dry yeast into a small bowl, add 1 cup of lukewarm water. Stir and leave it for a few minutes to dissolve.

2. In large mixing bowl combine 2 1/2 cups of lukewarm water, 1 Tbsp. sea salt, 1/4 cup oil (or butter), 1/4 cup of honey, 8 cups of flour, and 1 egg.

3. Add yeast mixture and stir dough with wooden spoon until it is too hard to mix.

4.Kneading- sprinkle some flour on a large clean surface and on your hands. Flatten dough with palms enough so you can fold it in half. Press down hard on the folded dough a few times until flat and repeat. From time to time turn the dough around and flour your hands when necessary. Knead for 5-10 minutes until less sticky, firm, smooth and elastic.

5. Without washing the large bowl rub the inside with oil or butter. Form the dough into a ball and put in the bowl. Rub the top of the dough with a little oil so it does not form a hard crust. Cover the top of the bowl with a towel and set in a warm place (sunny window) until dough has risen about twice its size. This will probably take about 1 hour.

6. Punch it! That's right...make a fist and punch it! Maybe a couple times if you need to until it is punctured like a balloon. Knead dough for a few more minutes and divide into two equal parts.

7. Fold each part over a couple of times and form into the shape of a loaf. Slap it hard to break any big bubbles inside.

8. Put each loaf into a greased loaf pan and shape it until it looks how you want. For a softer crust brush oil over the top of the dough, and for a crunchy crust dip your fingers in cold water and rub over top of loaves.

9. Cover pans with a towel and let dough rise once more until doubled. About 30-40 minutes.

10. Heat oven to 350 degrees, put in bread and bake for 50 minutes.

11. Remove bread from pans immediately and let cool for a while.

12. When bread is cool you may wrap it and freeze if making multiple loaves or share with a friend.

Yummy! The aroma is amazing and stays in the house all day!...and then slicing it is a part of the ceremony as well. So is eating it! enjoy!

Little Avocado Man

Will loves avocado!...I am so glad. I tried giving it to him one other time but he seemed to have no interest, but last night he was all over it!...or should I say it was all over him. :) He has never been interested in baby food or even letting me feed him, so I cut them up into tiny little cubes and he fed himself. I don't think I even found any on the floor, he loved it! It is so cute watching his little hands pick it up and put it into his mouth...and of course he played in it a little too. :)

The Beauty of Community

I recently read an article by Peggy Omara on the Mothering website about the longing for community. I was so intrigued by her thoughts it made me think about this subject a little more. She said "as humans we perceive ourselves as part of a dyad before we perceive ourselves as individuals"... but yet we seem to think we need to do everything on our own. (I know I think that way sometimes.) We need community. We were created to live with people; we are not supposed to be alone.  Community= to be together in unity. There are so many communities to be a part of: our country, our state, our local town, our church, our family, our friends, online communities, and many other common interest communities.

So, we know community is important and that there are a ton of options, but how do we find it?I think of perfect community as finding that perfect friend that you share everything with including the exact same interests and morals. I have realized that I may be going in circles meeting new friends, touching the surface and moving on because I am not going to be exactly like one other person. We find it where we are. Finding community is going deeper with the people we are already with. Making a point to show up and see each other, really paying attention to what has heart and meaning, and always telling the truth with out judging. It does not matter what you have in common as long as you respect each other.

Often I wake up in the morning and have my day mostly planned out in my head, or at least what I know I need to get done around the house. If these things are not accomplished I feel like I have failed, my mind is cluttered, and sometimes my disappointment shows when my husband gets home...it's not much fun for him. I am realizing that life is short. It is not all about accomplishing  as much as possible, it is about being together and supporting each other. Fellowship. Community.

I read a spectacular article about finding community as a mother. I don't know why but I was almost in tears...I guess because I have never thought of community as such a beautiful thing. "Finding Your Tribe: Feed Your Soul While Feeding Your Kids" by Teresa Pitman. If you have not read this article you must! Here is a small part of the article so you can get an idea.

"Vicki and I are cleaning out her fridge. The vegetable bins have somehow warped and have to be jiggled out, revealing a slimy green pepper and a distinctly brown head of iceberg lettuce. Laughing at the disgusting items, Vicki holds open the lid of the compost bucket, and I dump in the veggie remains. A minute later my toddler wanders into the kitchen and tugs at my shirt. While I sit cross-legged on the floor and nurse her, Vicki washes out the bins and hands out crackers to her two children and my three year old. Then, with everyone fed and content for a few more minutes, we start on the next shelf of the fridge. By the end of the day, when our husbands arrive, we'll have cleaned the bathrooms, vacuumed all the floors, finished a couple of loads of laundry, and prepared a meal for both families to enjoy. And tomorrow we'll do it all over again at my house."

 Working together, being there for each other, watching the children grow, and satisfying the need for adult friendship while taking care of the children. They cried together, laughed together, and grew together as a little community.

Wow! What a beautiful thing!...This article has pushed me to get out of my box. I am not shy...but very independent, maybe a bit controlling, and definitely feel like I need to do everything myself. While realizing this lately I have appreciated my time so much with my friends, asked more questions about them, engage in their life to show them I care. I want to be there to help and not be selfish of my time. My house has been more of a mess...yes I still make it a priority to pick up, but if it is not spotless I am ok with inviting a friend over. Everyone knows that we actually live here. I have been super blessed with such a great small group of friends from church, cherish the time I have with my LLL mamas and their wise advice, and have really engaged in conversation on the Mothering forums. I have always been one to read in the forums, but this week I realized how much alike I am to many other moms and when we talk and share life I learn so much. The due date clubs were a great community that satisfied my need to know what other pregnant women were going through at the same time I was. If you are expecting I would definitely check those out.

The love of our neighbor in all its fullness simply means being able to say, "What are you going through?"

Simone Weil

Hope you all have a fantastic day!

Simple Woman's Daybook

So, I have come across 4-5 bloggers lately that I noticed have participated in and have links back to the Simple Woman's Daybook. It is so inspiring to hear the simple moments in their day...so I figured it would help ease my mind; to just clear it for a moment, and recognise and enjoy the simple things. (since I have a million things filling up on my list in my head.) 

Outside my window...

A sunny monday morning with the sound of a lawn mower and the smell of freshly cut grass.

I am thinking...

about everything I need to clean up from the weekend.

I am thankful for...

sunny, cool morning walks.

From the kitchen...

I made homemade Kansas City BBQ sauce for our grilled chicken tonight.

I am wearing...

black Nike shorts and a UNI t-shirt

I am creating...

humm...well I am always creating a million things at one time, but for the moment being I have a quilt in progress laying on the dining room table.

I am going...

to the post-office after Will wakes up to mail the invitations to my sisters baby shower.

I am reading...

"The No-Cry Sleep Solution" by Elizabeth Pantley

I am hoping...

That Will does okay with the babysitter on Saturday (only his second time)

I am hearing...

...well, the lawn mower stopped, so now I just hear the fan through the baby monitor and every once in a while a squeak or a snore. :)

Around the house...

There is way too much to do around the house right now, but to keep it simple and more pleasant- it is nice to turn the air off  and open the windows for a few days.

One of my favorite things...

watching Will explore and play with his toys.

A few plans for this week...

At some point we all need adjustments, so I will be calling the chiro today...to the post-office and the park today, the rest of the week is pretty open for spontaneity, and this weekend is the half-way formal with Thad's class...also Bix Fest yay!

Here is a picture thought to share...

I have been watching a community garden grow and noticed that a mama duck had layed her eggs right in the middle of the lettuce...

...Will and I went back to visit a week later, and saw these little cuties!!! :)

Have a fabulous monday!

Will and his Carrot

Will and his Carrot.....feels so good on his teeth coming in.

...and he poses for a picture. (he actually smiles when I tell him too)

...and of course he has to ham it up a little bit. :)

...such a curious boy trying to grab the camera.

I love you Willie!

Wordless Wednesday "My First Tooth!"

Local Freshness!

My favorite part of the weekend is the farmers market. Look at these pictures!...so much color! They really look this good in person...and even better, they taste as good as they look! :)

There is just something about cooking/preparing food that you either grew yourself or know who grew it. Over the past 4 years or so I have developed a huge love for buying food locally. When putting something in my body it is a big deal where the food came from and how it was treated when grown. When I buy from the market I am able to talk to the actual person who grew this produce. It's kinda neat when you think about it.

Over at Heather Jane's blog she is doing a Go Local 2009 challenge: preparing at least one meal a week with fully local ingredients. You can check out the details here. Below is my lunch; just your basic strawberry salad with a couple different kinds of lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, sunflower seeds, and strawberries. You can see how red and juicy those strawberries are in the center as opposed to your store bought berries that have a little white. Oh boy, I sure am going to miss it when berry season is over, they are my absolute favorite! Ask any of my friends from growing up...they sometimes would buy me a package of strawberries for my birthday. :)

...and we are back!

Well, we have been back for a few days now, but we have been getting settled and ran into some fridge problems...yes, when we got home our kitchen smelled like EWW! Our fridge broke when we were gone for a week and all our food was rotten when we got home!! EWW! So unfortunately we had to throw all our food away and thanks to our landlord we got a new one! It looks pretty much the same as the old one, but its always fun to get a new appliance, and then I got to organize all our new food in our new fridge! yay! yes... I am kind of a dork, but I love doing stuff like that. :)...anyways, besides our fridge troubles we had a wonderful vacation!

We started our trip in Des Moines spending some time with each family. We got to see some old friends, and I also had a booth at the art market downtown. There was so much going on downtown that weekend, so we thought that could be either be good or bad for the art market and unfortunately it was not very busy. In fact there were times when no one was there at all! But the good thing was that the people that came were buying stuff, so I was able to make a little money, but not as much if it were busy. I met lots of local artist and exchanged cards with them. My mom came out and helped and it was a good time. Here is a picture of what my booth looked like...I might be doing the art market again in august and september so stay posted for info on that in the next couple of months.

After spending 6 wonderful days in Des Moines we headed down to Kansas City to visit my grandparents who have been looking forward to seeing us ever since we said we were coming; planning our meals (that's what italians do best.) My sister and her husband Josh met us down there, so it was so nice to see them as well. She has the cutest little pregnant belly! I miss you sis! We ate lots of good food and had good conversation...and Will actually started eating whole cheerios! The first time he got excited to eat any sort of food!...one after another he kept wanting more. It was so cute to watch. :)...but he wants nothing to do with any other foods. We are just taking it slow.

For the 3rd and 4th of July Thad, Will, and I headed over to St. Louis on our way home back up the river. They are hosting the All-Star baseball game next weekend so there was so much going on downtown St. Louis. We had a blast walking around and just watching all the people. We went to a free Counting Crows concert under the Gateway Arch, shopped at "the loop" and had fresh root beer at Fitz's on the 3rd. The next morning (4th) we took Will swimming for the first time in our hotel pool. It was freezing!!!...so I don't think he really liked it very much. We will take him sometime this next week again. Then we visited the St. Louis Zoo and toured the Anheuser-Busch Brewery. We had lots of fun but we were super tired on the way home that night. We missed the fireworks, but we saw lots of small town fireworks on our drive back to the Quad Cities. So all in all we had a great trip!...but it is always nice to get home. Click here to see our pictures from St. Louis...and yes I got excited with almost all the animals we saw at the zoo and took too many pictures so i only included a few. They do not look as neat in the pictures. Hope you all had a wonderful forth of July as well. :)