My daily bread

Becoming a lady of leisure has taken a mild interest in baking and elevated it to a full in frenzy. One of my new resolutions is to never buy another loaf of sandwich bread (someday, I might even be able to stop buying any bread, but baguettes are beyond me right now). Regardless, I have a good white and a good wheat loaf under my belt, and because every bread-baking effort results in two loaves, we've essentially been well supplied with bread for the last three and a half weeks...enough for sandwiches and a near-daily toast breakfast for me. Mmmm. Maybe the best thing is that making bread makes me feel connected to every person who has ever baked a loaf to feed a family. It's wonderful to measure flour and oil a bowl knowing that for hundreds of years people have been making bread the same way and it still works and still tastes good. Like magic! Finally, a way for me to relive those Little House on the Prairie fantasies.

When I'm not up to my elbows in flour kneading some delightful loaves, I am making granola (a habit I picked up law school). Do you know how expensive granola is when you buy it? Do you know how cheap it is when you make it? And how much more delicious it is? If you don't, I urge you to try for yourself.

I have caught a serious case of the homemades. Never heard of this disease? It is a terrible affliction that makes you want to cook everything from scratch. Like...chicken stock, chicken soup, breadcrumbs, marinated red peppers, pie crust, and pizza, in addition to the aforementioned bread and granola.

Phew! The oven may be working overtime, but at least we're eating well.