Going back to bread

We’ve just rounded the corner on Labor Day, which means…it’s bread season again! Time to make soup and swab the bowl with torn and crusty slices.  Time to slice sandwich breads for school lunches.   Time to rise early and smell the claylike aroma of the yeast.  Soon, there will be a sweet spot near the wood stove that’s perfect for rising dough.

Problem is, I’ve gotten seriously out of the habit of making bread over the summer. The kids mostly ate summer rolls, at first, and I just ate leftovers and fillings. I was hellbent on losing a few pounds, and it just got so much easier when I laid off the bread.

 “Why don’t you ever buy bread any more?” mourned my husband, a great lover of sandwiches.  When the tomatoes finally came into season, I relented and bought some pitas, because what’s a fresh tomato without some kind of bready canvas to show it off?

It’s one thing to buy bread, though, and quite another to commit to making it again.  But the books are starting to come in, and they look so terribly tempting.  Even the gluten-free are making bread now.  (Even gluten-free vegan bakers, though I have to say that some yeasts I have seen are all but sentient and probably ought to be off-limits…)

For now, the jury’s out.  It’s tempting to try going without making bread for at least another month, while the weather’s still warmish.  I’m pretty sure, though, I won’t last past November, when our hens should start laying.  When there’s eggs, there’s no passing up egg salad.  And when there’s egg salad, there’s no passing up warm wheat toast…