baking bread

i usually write my blog posts at night.  but with my new schedule of 1-9 that is not working out so well.  by the time i get home and settle and stuff i have zero motivation to write anything.  so i think i'm gonna try writing in the mornings before work instead.  we'll see how it goes.  not that you care at all what time i write these posts...

anyways, so this morning before work i made a loaf of bread.  i made bread all the time last year but hadn't done it since i've been in seattle.  so today was the day.  it came out really good with the crust all crunchy and the middle soft.  and it has a great flavor.  i forgot how much i like fresh, homemade bread.  mmm, so good.  and so easy.  it took 2.5 hours MAX including waiting for it to rise.  also i ordered a sourdough starter and i'm excited to mess around with that when it gets here.  bread making is such a wonderful thing.  i dunno why, but it is just really satisfying.  way more so then like making a cake or muffins or something.  weird.  there is just something about baking bread.

making bread always reminds me of my great grandmother.  actually not the baking of the bread, just the rising of the dough.  when we used to make it with her she used to put this big, ugly, heavy, coat over the dough to keep it warm and rise better.  it was like her special little trick.  once she died, my mom and i made bread a few times and continued to use that coat.  those memories of grandma are starting to slip away.  they seem more like a story someone told me about my childhood then an actual memory.  but that coat i will always remember.

she was an amazing woman.  stubborn as anything, but amazing.  we would play cards for HOURS in her apartment.  and sit on her couch and watch the price is right.  i loved it when she laughed.  she drilled square roots into my head before i had any understanding of what a square root was.  i had those numbers memorized for sure.  and, oh, the ironing.  she would sit in the dining room and just iron for hours.  she loved to iron.  it's those idiosyncrasies that really make a person interesting that you remember the most.  i miss her a lot still.  she always just made you laugh.  her absence from the family is really felt in a big way.

maybe that's why i like baking bread so much.  it brings me back to some good memories from my childhood.  good memories of a great person.  maybe that is why it is so satisfying for me.  to knead the dough, to wait for it to rise, to anticipate the great taste out of the oven.  all the while remembering grandma.  and it's not like i'm remembering specific occasions of making bread.  i am remembering a feeling.  i am remembering a person.  i am remembering a feeling i had when that great person was in my presence.


(mom and nan, sorry i made you cry...)