It’s a cool 89 around these parts today and a nice breeze can be felt upon stepping outside.  In my mind this is the best I am going to get for bread baking these days.  Turning the oven on is somewhat torture when you are too cheap to turn your air conditioning past 84.  But, I don’t let that stop me.  I have a new years resolution to keep up with!

After a gorgeous walk at the wildlife refuge again, I decided to go with the old faithful.  White bread.  But first, I have to include some sad news.  Today on our walk, not one, not two, but three large gators swam right up to us while were looking out at all there is to see.  And when I say large I mean in excess of eight feet.  This was of course intimidating, exciting, and all together breath-taking.  But, the truth is in my seven months since living here, with an average of 2 visits per week, this has NEVER happened to us.  Which of course led me to believe some fool has been feeding them.  There are signs.  It is quite obvious.  If I had cuaght them in action this is what I would have said,

“Do not, under any circumstance feed the ginormous dinosaur like beasts at the wildlife refuge (or anywhere!).  It is beyond dangerous for you and everyone else who visits the park now.  You are essentially sacrificing that alligator for its destiny is now surely to be destroyed.”

I did the right thing, and I informed the people at the visitors center of my suspicions (which they confirmed sounded accurate).  They were equally disappointed.  It was a sad occasion.

Who are you that is this ignorant and selfish?

So thats that.

Onto the bread.

almost white bread (by, ME! yeah!)

Dissolve 1 tbs. yeast, I tbs. organic sugar, and about a half cup of warm water in a large bowl.  Once its all frothy mix in 2 cups of brown rice flour.  Mix and mix. And mix some more.  Then add in about 4 cups of all-purpose unbleached white flour and a tablespoon of sea salt.  Start kneading.  You will surely earn yourself a slice or two because you should knead it for at least 10 minutes.  You will be sweating.  I like to give Miles a little chunk to keep himself occupied during this time.  I also set the timer otherwise what I think is ten minutes is usually more like two.  Turn into a buttered or oiled bowl and cover with oiled plastic (I have been using a piggly wiggly bag!) for two hours or until doubled in size.

Cut in half.

Roll each chunk out into a rectangle.

Fold into thirds and seal it up.

Place each one into a greased bread pan and let them rise until about two inches above the edge of the pan. Then bake at 375 for 40 minutes.  For the last few you can take them out of the pan to crisp up the edges.  Take them out and cover them with a plastic bag and a towel so that the crust is not quite so hard.  Slice it up and lather with some butter!  We actually made some today to use up a little heavy cream I had leftover.  I falsely thought Miles and Rowan would love to shake the jar.  I envisioned them dancing around having a good old time in great anticipation for the completed product.  But alas, it lasted a mere 4.5 shakes.  Approximately.  Either way, it tasted wonderful.  I won’t bother you with the instructions, there are about a million on the web already.  But try it.  It’s fun and tastes awesome.  It is creamy and salty and perfect on this good for toasting bread.

And for your weekend enjoyment… our headphones came in the mail for long flight up north yesterday.  

This is a look of pure disbelief. 

Have a great weekend!  Be joyful!