Bread and Honey

Half my life ago, I tried baking bread and it turned out delicious and beautiful.  But I was left thinking that homemade bread was a real pain to make.  For years afterward, I had these memories of dough stuck to the mixing bowl and my fingers and the table, and of having to use a butter knife to scrape the dough off the table into the trash can.  Not fun. 

Fast forward fifteen years.  I got inspired to try making bread again, so today, I gave it a try.  Surprisingly, it wasn't the mess that I thought it would be.  I mean, I had a little dough on my fingers, but it rinsed right off, and the bowl rinsed out easily; and all that was on the table was flour.  Cleanup was not a big deal at all.

I wasn't really sure what I was doing, and the loaf came out lumpy and funny looking, but the house smells really good, and the taste...WOW.  I forgot how good homemade bread is.  I sliced off big thick slices while it was still hot and spread it with butter and honey.  The boys and I ate up two thirds of the loaf in one sitting, and I would like to eat more, but I feel like I should save some for Jesh to try when he gets home.

It sliced up kind of ragged, because I didn't let it cool before slicing it, and because our cheapo bread knife is quite dull.  But it sure is delicious, at least for those of us who appreciate simple food done right.  (If you need to be inspired to appreciate simple foods like bread and cheese and honey, go re-read The Hobbit or Heidi.) 

p.s. Bread and Honey is also the name of an interesting food blog.  I won't link to it here because the author uses a lot of bad language.  But you can google it if you are interested.  Also, for breadmaking inspiration, check out www.thefreshloaf.com.