Sunday, December 7, 2008

Be Prepared

Fact: I am no Boy Scout. I've got some serious issues with being prepared and I'm working on them. It isn't that I don't want to be, it's just that being prepared requires forethought, of which I have little. The worst of the worst for me is Sunday dinner. Every Sunday we are totally scrounging because I never have the forethought to get to the store the night before and get what I need, as was the case this morning. I went through a new cookbook that I got this weekend and realized that I had pretty much everything that I needed to make bar-b-que beef sandwiches, other than the hamburger buns. I thought that I didn't have buns, but I DID have what I needed to make them and so I decided that even though I've only made one or two previous attempts and making bread (wherein we ended up with something that resembled a rock more closely than an loaf of bread) I would give it a try. Jane and I did it together and we had a lot of fun! We made everything completely by hand including the mixing and the kneading and everything. I would have used my KitchenAid, had I been able to find my bread hook. I decided that I must never have had one until Brent reminded me that yes I did have one and don't I remember how he used to use it all the time to pretend like he was Captain Hook. No, Brent, I did NOT remember that. I must have managed to block it out. Anyway, we made one loaf of french bread and the rest into rolls. We ate the rolls, but I made Brent photograph Jane and me and our triumph over the cursed rock bread...



Sorry about Jane's face, the other photo was really blurry... focus on the bread. Doesn't it look pretty? Truth be told, it tasted quite a bit like flour which may have had something to do with the fact that Jane was in charge of measuring the flour, but it was a good try. I intend to keep working at it until I get it right. I figure that making bread by hand has got to be a good skill to develop as it will enable me to be more prepared, right?

9 comments:

Kathy said...

Making bread is a good skill. My ward has a be prepared club. I have learned a lot so if you have any questions just ask. I also have a bread recipe that takes 90 minutes.

Barbara said...

Good job!!! You bread looks beautiful, and isn't bread kind of supposed to taste like flour?

Grammyzanne said...

Homemade bread sounds really good. Yours makes my mouth water. Maybe I should make rather than buy our next loaf of bread. (I know where my dough hook is - I gave up the hand-knead-and-mix when we got our Kitchen Aid. Kitchen Aid meant more homemade bread.)

Sheri said...

Another thing we have in common! My bread is always a brick too. One time I decided to take someone homemade bread so I took it over hot out of the oven...knowing that if I waited any longer it would be totally inedible. Good for you for continuing try and perfect this hard skill.

Emily Call said...

Way to go. It looks delicious.

MaryAnn said...

Very impressive!

Janet said...

It does look beautiful and delicious. Congratulations on your culinary triumph.

Sandy Brunson said...

Nice. I have began making bread recently with a recipe that Shannon gave me. I haven't had a bad batch yet. But yours looks lovely. And I made the Minestrone yesterday. It IS delicious. So thanks for sharing the recipe.

Jenny R said...

Congrats! funny how something that seems like it should be simple is so hard isn't it? It took me YEARS to be able to make rolls without Mom looking over my shoulder!!! Literally, years of trying!