Bread and butter

I've always had a thing for making things by hand. For years this translated into costuming and corsetry, and a fairly sizable wardrobe for the Renaissance Festival. But then I got pregnant and suddenly I wanted to make ... bed skirts. And curtains. And baby pajamas. Not to mention baby food ...

But I've never had a desire to cook. Well, that's not entirely true - I've occasionally thought it would be nice if I enjoyed cooking, but I don't. I make brownies from a box, and I have a special talent for burning things in the slow cooker. This past holiday season I was bitten by the cookie bug for the first time in years, and I blame the desire on the fact that I suddenly had a toddler that could help me gobble them up.

And then, out of nowhere, I was blindsided by an alien desire. I wanted to bake bread. Not banana bread or muffins, but regular yeast-and-kneading bread. Making something for my children has always given me a special kind of joy, and recently I started thinking about food in a whole new way.

Yesterday I took the plunge, and the experiment was a success. I used this white bread recipe from AllRecipes.com, and it came out beautifully. My loaves weren't as picturesque as those included with the original recipe, but the process was relaxing and the end result was very tasty.

The original recipe suggests letting the bread rise for thirty minutes in the bread pans before baking, but I ended up letting them sit for fifty minutes before I was satisfied that they would actually bake into loaves. I baked one loaf in a stone pan and one in a metal pan, and they both seemed to bake evenly (although I have yet to cut into the metal loaf.

This satisfying experience has inspired me to take another look at cooking. Next week I'm going to try to make homemade butter to go with more homemade bread, and I have grand plans for homemade pasta, salsa, sweets, and field trips to farmers' markets. Come on spring, my mommy gears are kicking in!