Where was I? Oh yes, frugal stuff...

Here's one of my favorite tips.

Angie and I are foodies. We are bonafide food snobs. We like good food, and we are not ashamed to say it.

A while back we tried making some bread, for several reasons. First, it sounded fun. Second, it sounded tasty, and we like tasty. In fact, it turns out all of our taste buds are in our mouth, so we like to taste food. Happy coincidence. Third, it was some cheap fun. We also like cheap stuff.

We tried several recipes, and we tried my mother's bread machine. We also tried a recipe from another blog, that I tweaked to fit my own devious needs. We found that we really liked it. We also found that it's cheap. So for the past few months, we have not bought any bread, but have made all of our own. Plus it's easy.

Here's the recipe, and how to make it without inturpting your busy day of reading this blog. (C'mon, you know it's all you do all day.)

Brian's Big Bad Blissful Bread (Behold, Believe, Be eatin' it)

3 cups whole wheat flour
3 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup oil
2 tablespoons sugar or honey or brown sugar
2/3 tablespoon of salt
1 1/4 tablespoon of yeast

Put it in a big honkin' bowl and stir it up. Then add 2-4 cups of warm (not hot) water. You may need a little or a lot. It depends. I add two cups, and add more untill it makes a nice firm dough. Knead it mercilessly for five minutes or so. Just imagine it's an IRS agent's head and go to town. Plop it on your counter and wash out your big honkin' bowl. Spray with some no-stick spray or lube as otherwise appropriate. I've use more cooking oil. Re-plop dough back into bowl, cover with towel, and ignore for 3 hours, or untill it doubles. Then punch it down and shape it into a loaf. Put it in your favorite loaf pan, or a cake pan, or whatever oven safe containment vessel you have, it only affects shape. Ignore it for another hour. Catch up on my blog while you wait! Bake it at 375 for about 30 minutes, or, untill it sounds hollow when you thump on the bottom of the loaf.

Let it cool, because hot things burn your mouth.

Slice and enjoy.

Now, how to make it fit your busy schedule...

Get up five minutes earlier on Sunday morning. Make dough. Leave for church. Return home, punch dough. Eat lunch and clean up. Bake dough.

See how that fits so nicely into your Sunday? If you need more than one loaf per week, make as many as you need. The bread freezes very nicely.

You may now return to waiting breathlessly for my next post.