Lunchbox Liz

When I ceased to be a commuter I felt like I got a large part of life back. For nearly six years I’ve been lucky enough to live a mile from where I work. Riding a bike to work is a real luxury. After I got my first car, I can remember complaining to a friend that I felt like to got to places too fast. It seems trite to talk about the joy of watching a shopkeeper close up for the day or kids playing in the playground or watching the seasonal flowers bloom or the same man walking the streets muttering to himself. I can’t get enough of it. Now that we have decided not to move and continue to make our life in our little farmhouse next to the five hundred houses and the super Wal-Mart I look forward to another season of watching the slow evolution of life along my five-minute journey each day

Today’s Lunch
Fresh baked bread with butter and honey

Although at one time I baked bread for a living I rarely do the whole process by hand anymore. For our wedding my Aunt and Uncle gave us a bread maker. I either let the bread maker do all the work or I set it for the dough cycle and do the shaping myself. Here is the list of ingredients that I plunked in my bread maker before I headed out for a long Sunday morning roller blade. When I returned I had a fresh loaf of bread waiting for me.

2 2/3 cup whole-wheat flour
1 cup mixed whole grains
2 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp sucanat
1 1/4 tbsp salt
3 tbsp regular active dry yeast

Even though the bread maker does not require that you do so I like to proof my yeast. Add room lukewarm water to removal bread pan. Test the temperature just as you would a baby bottle by dribbling the water across your wrist. If it feels neither hot nor cold it is the right temperature. Add sugar and yeast. Wait until the yeast foams to the surface and add the rest of the ingredient.

Note: A friend provided me with a batch of her stone ground whole wheat flour that she makes with her flour mill. She gets the grains she gets from Wheat Montana. She also threw in a side of the mixed whole grains.