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A long time ago, so long ago that I have no idea when it was, I used to bake bread at home. I became quite good at it. Then came our decision to be lo-carb. One of the first things to go out of the window was bread. Except on special occasions, we stopped our daily consumption of it. I figured I’d have lost any knack I had gained over the years.
Then we received an email from Nicoline with the assigned Crayfish Party Jobs. Mine was to provide the bread for the toast.
Sure, I guess I could just go to the ICA and buy a loaf on the day but that seemed not very Gary-like to me. I figured it would be easy enough to make a plain white loaf, the kind for perfect toast.
So, this morning, while shopping, I bought the necessaries and, back at home, after making Mirinda’s soup for today, I started on the bread. (I had to make the soup first so that it would be cold enough for lunch.)
I had forgotten the joy of kneading but rediscovered it as I pummelled the dough. I had also forgotten the delicious smells of yeast as it does its thing, proving the dough. I had not forgotten the smell of bread baking though, having walked by many a bakery.
Actually, this brought back a very old memory of when I worked at the Mater Hospital on the late shift. I used to finish at 8am and would walk past a bakery on my way home. The smells were so strong they always dragged me into the shop to buy super fresh rolls for breakfast.
I suggested to Mirinda, over dinner, how handy it is being able to make your own bread. It would save me a trip to the shops if I just felt like some bread. She smiled and said that was all fine but it would take me a lot longer to make it than to go to the ICA and buy, even given my slowness of pace. I conceded she had a point.
For dinner, I planned to make one of the meals that, during which, we always complain that we haven’t any bread to mop up the juices. It’s a Spanish chicken and red pepper stew dish which produces a lot of moppable liquid.
Anyway, to cut to the chase, the bread was a success and worked perfectly well at completing dinner. Tomorrow morning, when it is sufficiently toast-ready, I shall test-toast it.
And to think, it only took about three hours to make.
