Bread Making Adventure

While waiting for grandchild number two to arrive, we were treated this weekend to a visit from grandchild number one (oh yeah, and his parents). Henry and I spent some quality time playing with the "Field of Dreams" farm set that Great Aunt Paula made for us some months ago. (If you need a refresher on that story, go back to my July, 2006 archive.) We also practiced hitting a baseball, enjoyed a breakfast outing with Rob and Carrie, and watched Toy Story.

One other highlight of Henry's visit, which took place while Betsy and Pete went on a movie date, was a bread making adventure. OK, I'm not accomplished enough to do everything by hand, mixing and kneading dough. I could probably do that, but some years ago, Kathie bought me a great bread-making machine, and it does a very good job. Besides, it is a lot more fun to watch the technology at work.

So, I put Henry in charge of depositing the ingredients into the machine as I rounded up each one. He did a very good job of this, naturally, and then, with his refined high-tech button pushing skills, I guided him through programming the machine for the raisin bread we were making. Then it was time to press Start and await the results. Of course, both Henry and I found it difficult not to peek inside the machine to see what was happening along the way. There are lots of fascinating shifts in speed as the dough is mixed and then kneaded, and there is a point, when a beeper goes off, that extra ingredients (raisins and cinnamon) must be added--another opportunity for Henry. Here we are checking things out.



Because the total time required is about three and a half hours, Henry and I were off to bed while the baking finished up and filled the house with good aromas. It was exciting for the two of us to go look at the finished loaf first thing this morning. Better yet was the wonderful toast we had with our breakfast. Here is Henry showing off the remainder of the loaf.


P.S. Although I can't find the photograph right now, this experience with Henry reminds me of a time that my mother involved Will and Rob in making butter in a churn. There is a photograph showing Rob turning the crank, while Mom and Will look on. For me, there are lots of parallels between these two stories.