Sunday, March 18, 2007

Bread Is Good

Few culinary experiences are more compelling than eating a thick slice of fresh-baked, warm bread that's been slathered with a slab of butter.

No, that's not right: no culinary experiences are more compelling than that.

That's why I've been exploiting its power for a couple of months now, and it's working.

My three children are all in their teens, and, as you might have heard, it's often hard for parents to stay in touch with teenagers.

Verbal communication with them is frequently problematic. They tend to take every question as a challenge and every assertion as dispositive evidence of their parents'

(a) cluelessness
(b) judgemental nature
(c) hypocrisy
(d) all of the above.

But they just can't argue with fresh-baked bread. It's just too good. It's all good. It's completely good. It's mmmm good. It makes them happy. In fact, it makes them love you. They can't help it. It's just too good.

So I've been baking it on Sunday afternoons. Eight loaves, which last us through the week (it freezes well). They give me looks of gratitude on Sunday and are the envy of their classmates when they unpack their thick-sliced sandwiches at lunch the rest of the week.

Who'd a thought that sharing a little bread could be such a powerful experience?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Are you using a breadmaker or an oven? Just white bread (like the picture?)? And you freeze the already baked bread or the dough?

David Wharton said...

Oven. I use a KitchenAid mixmaster to do most of the kneading.

The kids have a thing against whole wheat, but I sneak some white whole wheat flour in occasionally and they don't notice.

I freeze the baked loaves in re-used store-bought bread bags, and they hold up very well.

I suppose it saves us about $30 a month, too -- but it's really all about the loave -- oops! -- love.

Anonymous said...

all about the loave -- oops! -- love.

Omg. You might be as corny as my dad.

David Wharton said...

It's something I aspire to.