Time for the Important Things

One thing being happily unemployed has done for me is give me plenty of time to do all the things I never had time to do while being employed outside the home. Mostly it's given me plenty of time to make lists of the things that I want to do with that time. On the top of the list was to master making a good loaf of sourdough bread. Since the last few loaves of sourdough bread we purchased were around five dollars, I had plenty of incentive for this project. Little did I know I would be dedicating a full week of my life to this first loaf of bread. Consulting my favorite bread book I learned that the first step in this process was to make a starter. Since there are dozens of types of starters, this step was daunting. I finally settled on trying two types of starters, one with honey and one with yogurt. I also decided I wanted to make a whole wheat sourdough bread to make this bread as healthy as I could. The yogurt starter was created with no drama, the honey starter was a different story. The directions said to use a two quart jar as a container for the starter. Obviously, the bread book needs some editing because the starter erupted like a volcano and ran all over, creating a huge mess. With the mess cleaned up, all that was left to do was give the starter time to do its job. I stirred the starter once a day and finally on the seventh day I was excited to actually get started making the bread. Much to my chagrine, after consulting my bread book for the next step, I learned there was yet another step to take before I could actually make bread. The next step is to make a sponge out of the starter and give the sponge twenty four hours to work its magic. Finally, yesterday I got to make the first two loaves of bread. The culmination of all this work was not the most beautiful loaf of bread ever made, but it certainly tasted wonderful buttered with the satisfaction that it was made with a week of my work and time. Just like any work in progress, with time and experience I have a feeling I may be on the road to something great.