He Loves to Cook! Plus We're Doing Bread at Home....

Wow! That was one long blogging break! That's due to 2 very good reasons.

1) I've got projects going off in all directions.

2) Our darn MIO was downed again!!! Grrr.....( it's been changed like 4 or 5 times already.)

sigh sigh sigh....

Anyway.

In this post, I want to brag! Humbly. Whahahaha....

I'm sooo delighted, my eldest, 9 yrs old, shows an interest in cooking. :O)

Here he is displaying his skills at a wonderful hot plate dinner prepared for us by our dear former pastor's wife. It was a distracting dinner, as hot plate dinners are. But no. 1 had so much fun cooking the stuff. Burned himself a little, but that's all part of the learning process. :P

This was this morning's offering! I'm so proud of his scrambled egg! He likes to put some milk into his scrambled egg. I simply left him in the kitchen with a bowl of 6 eggs and he did all this by himself. It's a wonderful start to his culinary career. :)

Bread Bread Bread~

Another recent food related blessing is this bread machine I inherited from (the same) former pastor's wife! It's been heavenly, being able to bake our own bread, with the greatest of ease... and nothing beats waking up to the smell of freshly baked bread!!!

What a blessing of modern inventions. Just throw all the ingredients into the bread pan, set the timer and close the lid. Three hours later, or the next morning (which ever you decide), hey presto! A yummy loaf of homemade bread. The place smells like a regular bakery. 

The best part is, it's so easy, the kids can get in on the action too. I'm in the process of training no. 1 and no. 2 to learn how to throw in the ingredients. They are so excited too! They can bake some bread! :)

This was the white bread I did. Not as white as the commercial breads that we buy because it's all natural ingredients and no preservatives and colouring.

I made some chicken curry to go along with it for dinner one night. Yum!

 

A friend of mine asked me if baking a loaf is cheaper or more expensive than buying a loaf.

Well... to weigh the pros and cons (and my list is by no means exhaustive. Just off the top of my head right now...)

1) It's kinda hard to place a cost on one tbsp of olive oil or half a tsp of salt. So let's go with the "biggest mover" ingredient for bread? - Bread Flour. 

A bag of 1 kg bread flour is roughly $3.20. Averagely, that would last you 2 - 3 loves of bread, depending on the recipe. For an average family of 2 adults, 2 children, you eat maybe one loaf in 2 days? (Homemade bread doesn't keep very well more than two days without freezing.) 

My family on average can polish off one loaf of commercial bread in a day. That's roughly $2 a loaf for commercial bread. 

Plus, I can bake gourmet bread at home, like herb bread (Mmmmmm...) and grains or other flavoured breads (haven't tried yet, but definitely soon! Chocolate bread? Mmmmmm....) Those would probably cost more than $2 in the bakery?

2) Baking at home, you know exactly what ingredients are going into your bread. So you can cut out some of the more undesirable stuff that makes commercial bread taste so yummy but is not exactly good for our bodies. Yikes... take a read of this: Modern Bread, The Broken Staff of Life by Elmer M. Cranton, M.D.

3) On the other hand, it could get to become a chore, rather than just pay some money and get the finished product...no fuss of all that measuring and then at the end, washing out the pan...but then, over here, we can spread out the workload.

Go ahead and add on to this list. I've only been using the bread machine for 1 week (and LOVING IT!!!) I'm definite that folks out there who do their own bread have more insight on this matter.

_______________________________________________

I sure thought about the action of yeast more when I was baking bread!

Matthew 13:33  Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.

Indeed! 1 and a half tsp of yeast can make the whole thing rise and more than double in size! :)

Comments

[Gerlynn]

The bread looks really yummy! :) Now I'm hungry...at 1am.

[Suwei]

Are you a bread-y person, Gerlynn? Will bring some for you on Sunday. :)

[Annie]

Agree about the pros and cons. Before deciding some day to get a bread machine (or hope to receive one), I guess I will try out some traditional bread making. Entice the home audience too. What a delight to have a cooking son! L always wants to, though I think he's not ready to handle real cooking. Always doing pretending cooking. Gets really excited about every of my baking adventures. He helps stir, measure, pour things or cut cookies but wants to do the harder stuff.

[Suwei]

Hi Annie,

Yah, as I mentioned in the email, all the best with making from scratch! find a warm spot in the kitchen! ;)

I agree that L is probably too small/ young/ short for cooking yet. But if my younger ones are eager to help, I tell them to "help by watching". I tell them that they are learning by watching and when they are big enough, they'll do the job, no problem at all. :)

So the 5 yr old will ask, mama, can i help by watching?

Yes, just sit or stand somewhere safe. :)

Oh yes! And isn't it great that they are learning maths at the same time while doing all these measurements? So natural.

[Gerlynn]

YAY! That's so sweet of you :)

[azlina]

I can just smell the aroma! What brand is your bread maker? Mine is in the repair shop waiting for spare part that doesn't seem to be coming. Am thinking of getting a new machine. Thanks!

[Suwei]

Hi Azlina! So sorry I've neglected replying your question!!! thousand apologies...

I inherited this bread machine. It's Princess brand. Apparently this model is no more in production. I really don't know enough about these appliances to recommend. :)

Another reader said "Carrefour housebrand Bluesky - costs only $69.90 or so and works wonders. Mine broke down within 1 yr and I got a free replacement. Cheap and good!!"

Maybe you can check out?