Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Best Thing BEFORE Sliced Bread


Today I'd like introduce a guest blogger, my partner Brianna.

Hundreds of years of baking genes from both sides of the family came together last night in homemade bread. My grandmother's recipe, scribbled on a scrap of paper a few years ago from a phone call to her. Her amounts are approximate ("about a third"), the instructions by feel ("not hot enough to burn your hand") and the time frame about 3 hours from start to my mouth. But it's well-worth the time and energy. My great-grandmother's bread spoon hung above me on the wall, worn at an angle from the generations of use, blessing my bread as I kneaded away. Just as she made it - no breadmaker, no special mix or flour, just my wooden bread spoon, a bowl, my grandmother's loaf pans, and my hands. Grad school doesn't usually
give me the luxury of such time, but I had it last night, and now I have the beautiful loaves to show that not everything that tastes good needs a fancy gadget or exotic ingredients. Sometimes tried and true works just as well.

1 comment:

Louisa said...

Yay! Thanks for posting Brianna! I could never make a recipe that vague. But if I ever decide to give it a try I will be calling you...