Good Friends, True Love, and Great Bread

When Jeremy first told me that he had found us a place to rent on a ranch south of Houston, my immediate thought was, "Please, God, let him be kidding!". Much to my surprise, he wasn't. He was serious, and he was excited, and he even had pictures! So, with an open mind, I agreed, and Jeremy's wishes soon became our reality.

Adjusting to life in the country hasn't been too terribly tough for me. It's actually been somewhat of an adventure! Between what my Mama Betty had taught me when I was young, the things I have learned on my own, and the advice that Maw Maw and Jeremy's Granny have to offer, I am pretty confident that not only will i be able to survive in Rural America, I will continue to love, respect, and appreciate it.

I have also come to love, respect, appreciate, and admire Ms. Cathy. For the past month, I have had the privilege of spending time with her and her family and getting to know all of them. I look forward to every minute I get to spend with Ms. Cathy, as she has taught me so many wonderful things about life, people, the land, and myself.

The idea for the family cookbook is not my own. Ms. Cathy has created one for her family, and I thought is was the coolest thing, so I have decided to create one of my own to share with my friends and family. I chose to start with the bread recipe because it has been the one thing I have successfully made with my brand new Kitchen Aid stand mixer.

Jeremy and I have looked at the stand mixers before, but they are just so expensive, so I never dreamed I would own one. Jeremy, however, knew I would have one! He and his friends found a way to surprise me for Christmas. I can't even begin to describe how excited I was ripping off the wrapping paper. I wanted to make something!!! LOL!

I started with banana nut bread and pumpkin pie, both turned out just "okay", so I decided to try my hand at white bread. The recipe was in the instruction manual for the mixer, and i followed it exactly. It was an absolute disaster!! No, really... it was horrible! The outside was so hard that I probably could have broken the window had I thrown it, and the middle was so tough it was like chewing a piece of jerky. Okay, maybe I am exaggerating just a bit, but you get the idea, right?

After a few more failed attempts, and some pretty major changes to this recipe, I was finally able to make a decent loaf of bread. *happy dance in the kitchen*

Basic White Bread

I got this recipe originally from the instruction booklet for my Kitchen Aid stand mixer that Jeremy bought me for Christmas in 2009. When I followed the recipe exactly, the bread turned out TERRIBLE! A few changes (and a few bad loaves) later, I managed to turn the disaster into a delicious loaf of bread.

1 ½ tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup milk

1 ½ tablespoons butter

1 package active dry yeast

¾ cup warm water (105° to 115°)

About 2 ½ - 3 cups all-purpose flour

(you will need a candy thermometer)

• In a small pan, heat the milk, butter, salt, and sugar just until the butter melts and the sugar and salt dissolve. Cool it till it’s about 110° or so.

• Warm your mixer bowl (either by running hot water over it, or placing it in the oven for a min).

• Put the water in your mixer bowl and make sure (with a candy thermometer) that the water is no warmer than 115° and no cooler than 105°. (if the water is too warm, you will kill the yeast… if it isn’t warm enough, the yeast will not activate.)

• Once your water is the right temperature, add the yeast.

• Mix in the milk mixture.

• Add 2 cups of flour and mix well with the dough kneading attachment.

• Add ½ cup more of flour ¼ cup at a time. (the dough is going to be very sticky)

• Grease, spray, oil, or butter a pretty big bowl (I usually use the spray because it is easier) and place the dough in the bowl. Then oil the top of the dough and cover the bowl with cling wrap. Wrap the bowl with a towel and place it in a pretty warm dark spot. (you wanna try to keep it about 80° or 85°. I keep it in the oven.)

• Let the dough rise for a few hours (I’d say about 2-3 depending on what kind of time frame you are on. But it needs to be more than an hour), then punch the dough down.

• Cover it back up and let it rise a couple more hours.

• When the dough has doubled in size again, punch it down and put it on a very lightly floured surface.

• Roll out the dough into a 9 x 14 rectangle. (it doesn’t have to be perfect, and you want to try to avoid handling the dough too much, so just try to get it close)

• Starting with one of the short sides, roll the dough into a cylinder shape.

• Place the dough in a well greased bread pan seam side down.

• Spray the top, cover with cling wrap and towel, place back in warm spot, and let it rise for another couple of hours. (until you get a sort of muffin top)

• In the last half hour or so of letting the dough rise, preheat the oven to 400°. (if you have your dough in the oven, don't forget to take it out... I've totally done this... LOL!)

• Once the dough has risen, bake it in the oven about 20 min. (or until it’s a light golden brown)