"Bread is the warmest, kindest of all words. Write it always with a capital letter, like your own name."

I am contemplating a serious subject this beautiful Sunday afternoon. Very serious, indeed. The subject today is food. More specifically, Bread.


Many of you may wonder, why today? Why Bread?
Well, like my somewhat good friend Emily Dickinson here, I am contemplating making it.

"I am going to learn to make bread to-morrow. So you may imagine me with my sleeves rolled up, mixing flour, milk, saleratus, etc., with a deal of grace. I advise you if you don't know how to make the staff of life to learn with dispatch."
Emily Dickinson

*saleratus is baking soda, used to make the bread rise, fyi.

And also like Emily Dickinson, I advise you that if you don't know already how to make bread, learn immediately. Nothing will bless your home, family and mental health more than to learn how to make bread from scratch.

NO CHEATING.

Breadmachines=cheating.
People have made bread for THOUSANDS of years without some utterly non-essential machine making bread for them.

Find a recipe.
Mix it together.
WITH YOUR HANDS.

It is a sticky, messy, fantastically glorious exercise and you will become a better person, I guarantee it. If you don't believe me, listen to M.F.K Fisher.

"[Breadbaking is] one of those almost hypnotic businesses, like a dance from some ancient ceremony. It leaves you filled with one of the world's sweetest smells...there is no chiropractic treatment, no Yoga exercise, no hour of meditation in a music-throbbing chapel. that will leave you emptier of bad thoughts than this homely ceremony of making bread."
M. F. K. Fisher, 'The Art of Eating'

(I didn't know who M.F.K. Fisher was either, before I posted her quote, but in case you were wondering, she was a well-respected author who wrote a lot about food. Now I am interested in reading more about her. I think she's making a lot of sense here.)

You are certainly welcome to imagine me covered in flour from toe to tip, because that is usually what tends to happen. EVERY TIME. And yet, I continue to make it. Sometimes, I even make bread in black clothes, which you would think a normal person endowed with a even a little common sense would realize that white flour shows up really well on black clothes. And yet, I have yet to learn.

Why do I continue to do it? There are many reasons. Top of the list is that is just tastes so GOOD. Seriously, if you haven't had the pleasure of eating real, homemade bread, you haven't really lived. (Also, if you have not ever had homemade bread, please tell me so I can make you some. No one should ever live without real bread.) Other reasons include it's relaxing, fulfilling, and a great way to serve somebody. It's really lovely to go up to someone and hand them a warm loaf of bread. It's a great connection between you and them. You put a lot of time and effort into that bread. The recipient is going to spend not quite as much time eating it, but they will certainly be enjoying it as much as you enjoyed making it. At least, that is what I have noticed. Nothing smells quite like home, as fresh bread baking.

"The smell of good bread baking, like the sound of lightly flowing water, is indescribable in its evocation of innocence and delight."
M. F. K. Fisher

Anyways. I will leave you with these thoughts. Make bread. Be Happy. And remember, the best bread is the kind you make at home.

"Without wishing in the slightest degree to disparage the skill and labour of breadmakers by trade, truth compels us to assert our conviction of the superior wholesomeness of bread made in our own homes."
Eliza Acton, 'Modern Cookery for Private Families' (1845)

Also, it's rude to preach without offering some sort of redemption, so I'd thought I'd share some of my favorite bread recipes. Both are delicious and satisfying.

White Bread (approx. 2 loaves)
6 cups flour
2 Tablespoons sugar
(almost) 1 Tablespoon salt
1/2 cup powdered milk

yeast mixture: 1/3 cup warm water
1 teaspoon sugar
2 Tablespoons yeast

Directions: prepare yeast then combine dry ingredients together in breadpan. When yeast is ready put 2 cups water, yeast mixture, and 2 good sized globs of shortening into the dry ingredients. Mix bread until it does not need any more flour. Knead for 10-12 min more. Cover and let rise for 2 hrs. Punch down and divide into 2 loaves. Put loaves into pans and let rise for 40 min. Bake at 425 for 15 min, then turn down to 275 for 30 min. Remove read and butter immediately. Serve Hot!

Sweet Roll Dough
3/4 cup scalded milk
3/4 cup warm water
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons yeast
2-3 large eggs
3/4 cup shortening or butter
5-6 cups flour
2 teaspoons salt

Directions:
Dissolve yeast in warm water (add a little sugar to help the yeast to grow). Stir in milk (after you scalded it), sugar, salt, eggs, shortening, and 2 1/2 cups flour. Mix together, then add the rest of the flour. Knead and let rise for 1 1/2 hrs. Shape in whatever kind of rolls you like best. (I always make Parker House style which involves rolling out the dough, cutting it out with a large cup like sugar cookies, then folding them in half and baking them, also this is the same recipe I use for making cinnamon rolls, so you could make them too.) Let rise 30 min. Bake at 375 for about 10 min or until golden brown.

"Long Goodbye"

("Long Goodbye" by The Nadas)

This is the best song in my universe right now.

I am not kidding.
When I am not playing it over and over again on my ipod, I am watching it on youtube.
I am fairly certain that a big portion of the views have come from me, but I feel very strongly that it needs to be watched a lot more by more people.
So watch it people!

I love their sound.
I love the mixture of strings and guitars and drums.
It's so delicious.
And soothing.

And if you are interested, Amazon mp3 has the "Long Goodbye" for free as well as all of their other songs for a price.

Enjoy!

And the award goes to....

Utah gets kudos for the sunsets.
Seriously, I haven't been able to stop looking at the sky the past couple of days. Doing so makes walking kind of difficult.
But it is so pretty!!!
Brilliant colors, fantastic shapes, constantly changing.
It puts me in raptures, I tell ya.
Clouds. Who knew?!

“Faith is the daring of the soul to go farther than it can see”

have you ever wanted something so bad, everything hurts with that want?

your soul,
your heart,
your head?

Right now, I am not going to pretend everything is ok and life is good but I do know that it will be soon.

I guess the point of this post is to keep the faith.

In the end, it is all that matters.

LlamaFest

Are you excited?!
This is a sneak peek of what I am doing today!
Llamas.
Come on, say it with me. It's so fun to say.
"Llamas"
Anyways,
real pictures are forthcoming...
enjoy your weekend!

"Who Dances in Glass Shoes?!"

It's funny how fairy tales make you believe the impossible.
I am all about fabulous footwear and making a statement....
But seriously?

Glass Shoes?
On what planet has that ever been a good idea?
Ok, so I watched "Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella" with Brandy as Cinderella.
And that is why I was thinking about glass shoes.
Also, I would really like to have Whitney's hair. It's a fro and it has gold sparkly ringlets in it. Who wouldn't want to rock that?
Back to fairytales.
It is amazing to me that the same stories are found the world over. Every society has a version of the Cinderella story, which obviously means:
~girls over all the world have waited for their prince charmings
~seeing as there are still plenty of people on this planet, they must have found them and had lots of children to prove it.
~if thousands of other girls found prince charming and happily ever afters, then it can't be THAT hard.
But we are NOT talking about boys or dating or marriage or other such nonsense because I have things to do and people to see.
Right?
;)

Sentimentality

I have been meaning to blog about this for some time. It has been playing on my mind for a couple of weeks.

Usually I only wax poetic when I have been reading too much. Specifically when I read Anne of Green Gables too much.

Ah, but it does my soul so much good.

My roommate, Shannon, had never seen the 1985 TV movie series and I considered this a great sin so we sought to remedy that fact by watching them. I do so love the movies, but my family never watched them with me. I'll admit, it takes a certain amount of patience to enjoy them. It is a little easier when you love the books.

So naturally, after we watched the movie, I had to re-read the series, just to remember all of the differences between the two formats. (The books are SO much better, BTW.)

Sigh

I love turn of the century novels. There seems to be an inherent goodness about them, an innate sense of optimism. Bad things may happen, but spring always comes, nature is always renewing and all stories end happily ever after. Old-fashioned goodness seems to flow off the page and it makes me want to slow down and savor life more.

Anne made me want to find romance again. Not the kind of romance that is BYU happy-valley edition: too fast paced, like love is race against graduation and old-maid-hood. But the golden, soft, pure romance that makes life sweet and rich.

It seemed a beautiful twist of fate that I stumbled across an old essay from my high school creative writing class. It is entitled "Romance" and it was given as a commencement speech in 1983. It helped me get started finding romance again, for as the author, Robert James Waller says "Romance is hard to get, hard to keep, and fairly easy to drive away." (pg 46) Waller also says that you can't examine it because like most things "too much analysis of certain things removes the romance from them" and kills the magic. Mostly he encourages those who would like to see romance dancing back in their lives to read poetry every day. Actually make something with your own two hands. Collect things, purely for the sentimental value. TRAVEL. Play a musical instrument. Listen to good, soft music. Keep a record of your life, remember where you have been, who you have met, what you have seen. There will come a time in your life when you will need those memories to uphold you in times of loneliness, sadness or even in times of joy. Memories you make now will bless your life and enrich it a hundred times more. They don't need to be epic, dramatic exploits because while there is a certain level of "romance" attached to epic dramas, the best kind of romance is your own brand. Things that are special to you and moments that take your breath away."Romance [does] not come into one's life with pomp and blare; perhaps it crept to one's side like an old friend through quiet ways." (pg 366)

I tried to describe my sentimental feelings to a co-worker. And while he tried to understand, I don't think he fully did. I like Anne of Green Gables because I feel like I identify with her. It seems silly to love a character so much and like horoscopes, I tend to see similarities where there are none. Maybe there are and maybe there aren't any.

BUT:

I can be imaginative and dramatic, whimsical and silly at times.

I can be loud when I want and quiet when I choose.

I love my friends with the depths of my soul and always rejoice when I find new ones in unexpected places.

"If we have friends we should look only for the best in them and give them the best that is in us, don't you think? Then friendship would be the most beautiful thing in the world." (pg 171)

I have this inexplicable need for anyone and everyone to love me.

As Anne said "I want everybody to love me and it hurts me so when anybody doesn't." Not many people understand this, but it's an undeniable fact about me.

I want to change the world and leave it a better place, but I don't know where to start.

I want to teach and inspire, but even more so, I want children to be good.

"Perhaps she had not succeeded in 'inspiring' any wonderful ambitions in her pupils, but she had taught them, more by her own sweet personality than by all her careful precepts, that it was good and necessary in the years that were before them to live their lives finely and graciously, holding fast to truth and courtesy and kindness, keeping aloof from all that savoured of falsehood and meanness and vulgarity."

I sincerely appreciate superficial aesthetics. I love things to be pretty and charming and I love it even more when pretty things are accompanied by beautiful souls.

Anyways, this is what has been playing on repeat for the past week or so on my mind. Maybe not many people would cite Anne of Green Gables as "great literature", and maybe rightly so, but for me, it makes me want to be a better person and to look for the best in other people. Which, in the end, I think is the purpose of great literature, to make mankind better, kinder, more humane than before.

Some more delicious quotes from Anne:

"What I want to get out of my college course is some knowledge of the best way of living life and doing the most and best with it." (pg 359)

"That's a lovely idea...living so that you beautify your name, even if it wasn't beautiful to begin with...making it stand in people's thoughts for something so lovely and pleasant that they never thing of it by itself." (pg. 253)

*It has been a secret desire of mine to have one of my friends name a child after me. Because I was such a good person. This is not as vain as it sounds, because a. it makes me try to be a good person so someone will notice and b. ok, so it is mostly vain. But Kiera IS a good name. I just have to live in such a way to make it better so that everyone will have lovely and pleasant thoughts whenever they hear it. :)

Anyways, have a beautiful, romantic, blissfully happy day!