In the kitchen

I've still been doing the BYOB(bake your own bread) 2009 and have done really well for the most part. I didn't buy a single loaf of bread all year until late August just before we went to the beach. I wasn't able to figure out how to bake the bread and get us ready to go. Then we bought bread the week we were at the beach, of course. I had actually intended to bake bread to take with us, but that didn't happen. ;c) We realized we are so spoiled! We just love the homemade bread so much better than what we get from the store. Before I started baking all our bread, we would buy the store brand whole wheat bread for $1.00 a loaf when it was on sale. We liked it pretty well... until I started BYOB 2009. Now it just doesn't taste very good to us. When we have had to buy bread, we've had to buy the more expensive breads or else no one wants to eat them. The answer is I just need to keep baking our bread. :c)

The year of baking our own bread will end in just under 2 months, but we're going to continue on. I'm going to be starting a new challenge mid-January. Perhaps you are familiar with the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day book that came out in November 2007. The "sequel" to that book just came out at the end of October, Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day. It's the same ideas as the first book, but uses whole grains. I joined a group that will be baking our way through the book beginning January 15th. It can't wait! It's going to be so yummy! I've already made the master recipe, which was delicious and have the Pumpkin Pie Brioche dough rising right now. I'm going to make some croissants and a loaf or two of bread, maybe muffins. There is an entire chapter with gluten-free recipes for those that would love to have delicious breads(even cinnamon buns!) but can't have the gluten.