Things have been crazy and stressful and Casa Winder for more than a few reasons... number one being that my nanny family decided to end their summer vacation early and relieve me of duties. So, IF anyone is still reading this, and IF anyone is aware of any odd-job work opportunities, my schedule is totally open until I start school (!) on August 25th.

In the mean time, I'm planning on spending a lot of time with my new favorite thing:

This is the AWESOMEST cookbook ever and let me tell you, it is changing my life. We are huge fans of bread (the only that trumps good bread for me MIGHT be popcorn-- that is serious, people) and I have been trying to perfect my breadmaking skills for some time now. I stumbled on a couple of reviews for this baby and decided it fit into few goals I have going right now:

1. Eat better (better as it is defined by my taste buds)
2. Eat healthier (as in, if I make it myself it has no nasty perservatives to slowly cook our insides into something no longer resembling a human being)
3. Eat cheaper (I will spare you the lecture on rising food costs)
   
4. Save time (because I don't have very much of that right now, and even less when school starts (!) on August 25th).
5. Perfect my culinary abilities in an effort to win friends, influence people, and maximize opportunities for Isaac to brag about my mad cooking skillz.

I elected to get this book from the library because eat cheaper, which is not good english, is part of larger goal to stay out of as much debt as humanly possible while pursuing my bachelors degree and trendy new cookbooks have not been effectively worked into the budget.

There were so! many! recipes to try but they all start with one a few basic bread doughs that are fast, easy, and stay in the fridge for as long as TWO WEEKS (not that it has ever lasted that long in our house). For the Boule, which I make most often, you literally dump in the four ingredients, let it rise for a while, and stick it in the fridge till you're ready to bake. I've been getting about three loaves from each batch-- so, I make some dough on a Sunday afternoon (um, I mix when we get home from church while my lunch is heating up, and refrigerate whenever it is I get up from my Mandatory Sunday Nap) and we have fresh, hot bread with three dinners that week. If we can restrain ourselves from eating it all in one sitting, we have pretty fresh bread for all the other dinners, too. It's a chewy, moist peasant bread (that's what they call it) with a yummy crispy crust-- and that's just the first recipe. I'm also trying out Italian corn bread, Boule with my very own home-grown rosemary and thyme (my favorite), sandwich bread (which is taking some fine tuning, I'll admit), and I think there are at least 25 post-it notes marking things I want to try next. In summary: check into this book if you're interested in cheaper, healthier, yummier bread without slaving away in the kitchen all day.

The best part of this story is that my Uncle Keith, who has apparently set the goal become Candalyn's favorite uncle ever heard about my totally awesome bread and ordered me my very own copy. (He heard about my totally awesome bread from my gramme, who was bragging about it to him. My gramme is my hero, and the best cook ever, and hearing her tell someone about my cooking skills was one of the most fulfilling moments of my life).