Rising to the occasion . . .

When I got married, I had a basic understanding of baking bread and could produce an average loaf of it. My husband, however, had a hobby of breadmaking and shared all his discoveries with me. Over the years, he has been more occupied with the maintenance of the house and yard so most all the bread baking is now done by me.

When his parents were still able to travel, they often spent a week with us here and there during the year. At lunch, one day, my father-in-law complimented me on the sandwich and asked where we purchased our bread rolls. My husband proudly pointed to me and said I was the baker. Later in the week, my father-in-law watched me put some yeast dough together and was hooked. He went home and started baking bread. He would call for advice ever so often but mostly just enjoyed discovering things on his own.

About six months into his new-found hobby, his daughter decided to surprise him with a bread baking machine. I think he used it two or three times and stopped. He never really baked bread, again.

I'm sure his daughter just figured the novelty had gone out of the hobby. From a couple of phone calls regarding the outcome of the machine loaves of bread, I think that by taking away the process, the joy was removed, too. People who don't bake just don't understand that it is not so much the results but the action of working with the simple ingredients of flour, water, yeast, and salt that make the work so worthwhile. It is taking next-to-nothing items and seeing the 'creation' rise up and be counted among the foodstuffs of the world.

You don't always need a more efficient, faster way to do things. The bread machine took away that time with the bread dough and the thoughts that might go through one's mind as they knead and think. Ten minutes to toss ingredients into a machine and then come back to the finished product isn't an accomplishment.

I know my sister-in-law probably thought the latest and greatest item for bread baking would be a great gift. I think a super book on making bread by hand would have been a more creative present. The easy way isn't always the happiest way. Taking away the process doesn't alway make the end result as satisfying.