Veggievangelist: Back to School, Back to Bread

Boy 1 and Boy 2 are off to school, "Day 5." It wasn't pretty this morning. My five and a half year old isn't into getting up and out. He never was. He's not one of those pleasant sleepyheads who is aware that they're groggy and not ready, but otherwise good natured (maybe that's just a figment of my imagination from seeing too many stupid coffee commercials). No, he's a bear. And I've got to come up with a way to get him excited to be up and out. So, I'm baking Oatmeal bread, so that I can do cinnamon toast in the mornings. I found the recipe here: http://orangette.blogspot.com/2010/08/it-is-called-toast.html. It's brilliant. It's easy to put together, and it's what I'd call a low-effort recipe. It mostly sits around, waiting. You need a stand mixer with a bread hook, but this recipe otherwise calls for nothing special.

Sitting, waiting. Such patient loaves.

I have friends who have told me that you can buy bread at the store. (Ha, Ha.) Yeah, I get that. But this is so much better, and really not any more effort than going to the store. I like to know what's in the food I'm eating. With this, I know. And, it's a little bit of mental gymnastics for me in the morning to get the day going.

Waiting a little longer, different venue.

Today, I'm going to let the loaves rise a little longer than I would normally on the second rise, because I have a meeting at school. When I get back, they'll go into a 400 degree oven for 40 minutes. As a result of the longer rise, the "grain" of the bread will be a little higher or airier than it would be. But that's okay. It makes for some mighty fine toast.