A Newfound Hope

I have a renewed excitement about my wheat mill. After my previous post about the challenges of making succulent baked goods from freshly ground flour, I had a friend call me and offer to help out. She's a seasoned grinder and baker and does an incredible job of providing her family of five with fresh bread and baked goods at all times. So this morning after I dropped Tommy off at his preschool group, I headed over to Kelly Cason's house to learn from the master. She didn't hear me knock because she was running both the mill (which is about as quiet as a jackhammer) and her mixer. That's a serious baker, my friends! We talked about dead yeast and lecithin, the woes of margarine, and why Dean won't eat leftovers or salad... or drink milk from a cup... or eat a sandwich for dinner. When all was said and done, I left with some delicioius muffins and mini loaves (way way way better than my pumpkin bricks that I made the other day), a pan of rising sandwich bread dough (which I baked and turned out absolutely amazing), and a new hope for my aspirations of bread baking. Thank you, Kelly, thank you!

Just thought I'd share a moment from our dinner of homemade Italian Wedding Soup and freshly baked bread. Notice the half-eaten piece in Tommy's hand.


Random side note: We're trying to teach Tommy about personal space issues. Yesterday at Chick Fil-A, I literally had to pull him off of a stranger's lap that he had begun talking to. He just climbed right up and kept on talking. That's my boy.