Adventures in Wife-y-land

So I guess either I have this regressive Mormon wife gene hidden deep within me that has recently presented itself or I really do enjoy being all domestic. Maybe it's because it's a place of my own, maybe it's because I have time now because when Deg and I spend time together, it's okay for us to be doing two different things. I really have always liked being domestic. It's just that now it's kind of attacking me.

Now, if you know me, you'll know that I can only get attacked domestically in certain ways. I don't do the dishes - that's Deg's job, and he does such a good job of it. I will clean the house and do laundry, but I certainly am not singing "Oh, What a Beautiful Morning" as I do it. My domestic hobby of the month: baking.

I've made all sorts of casseroles, pies, vegetable and meat dishes, cakes, muffins, so on and so forth. But my favorite thing to make (I've always loved making it) is bread.

I love baking bread.

I have baked 6 full sized loaves of bread in the last 24 hours. Keep in mind, I have a full time teaching job, which means I come home with homework. So baking bread, which takes several hours of sitting and waiting for things to grow, is a random love to fall into. But I do. I love it. I love measuring, mixing, using my brand new Bosch mixer (which, by the way is amazing). *Sigh* I'm getting all warm and gooey inside just thinking about it!

Yesterday afternoon, I cranked out two loaves of white bread, and they were pretty dang good. I used a recipe I'd never tried before, and I have to say, I'd use it again. So today, I wanted to try half and half bread. You see, white bread tastes amazingly good but isn't amazingly good for you. Wheat bread, on the other hand, is amazingly good for you but doesn't taste amazingly good (it turns out very heavy if it's homemade). So, what do I do? I compromise. I go half and half. As

I'm perusing my favorite online recipe places, I find one that has with it, a review, which included the statement that the reviewer had eaten the bread with homemade butter and it had all been amazing. WHAT! You can actually make butter? That's so, like, two centuries ago! So, of course, I have to try it. I went and got me some heavy whipping cream, threw it in the Bosch (not at the same time I was trying to make bread in there, mind you), and let it whip away for a good ten minutes. And what do you know? There, in the mixing bowl, is butter. Real butter. Like, tastes amazing, incredibly fresh butter. And surrounding that butter is the leftover liquid, also known as buttermilk. Yes! Today I, Wife Extrordinaire, made homemade butter and homemade buttermilk.

The butter is now being used on the loaves of both white and half and half bread, most of which I'll end up giving away. There's no way Deg and I can eat that much bread, plus I really do like baking and giving it away. What a cool thing to give someone, though. "Hey, I made you this bread. AND this butter. Yeah, I'm the shiz."

Tomorrow, I'm making peach freezer jam. Yes, to go with the bread. I've basically created my own meal here. Hmm... maybe peanut butter is next... I did see a recipe for that!

Picture 1: This is a mug, which overfloweth with homemade butter. Yes, that's butter, and you CAN believe it's REAL butter! (Yeah, I just went there.)

Picture 2: Deg demolished a good half of this loaf, but that's one of the loaves of white bread.

Picture 3: Look how domestic I am! I even made a display of my creations! You are looking at my pretty leaf platter which contains a loaf of half and half on a platter with a small cup of real homemade butter next to it.