Wow! Bread that tastes like..... Bread?

As the month nears to an end, the Prime Geek and I have been discussing what should be our first step into a more self-sufficient lifestyle (okay, okay. We're going slow due to the six weeks of bronchial hell we've been wading through. I'm pretty much on the up and up... PG has sworn to call the doctor at last as he is tired of trying to locate his lungs after he hacks them out in the corner).

Yogurt making? It's on hold until I have determined the perfect maker to purchase. Solar panels? On hold until the tax return hits the accounts. Bread baking?

Score! Now, as a responsible nerdling, I did what I do best. Research. Yes, its sad how excited I get over the thought of pouring over dusty tomes (well... I searched a lot of internet sites, anyway.) but we've established the simple fact that I AM a nerd. Bread is a big deal our family. Located just a few miles from our nest is a bread factory that keeps the carb-crazed folks of our state sated. I'll cop to the fact the Prime Geek and myself will, at times, plan our driving around the factory's baking schedules. Even in the depths of the coldest winter, windows will roll down in every car – heads leaning out of the vehicles - sucking in deep lungfulls of the toasty air. Memories of grandma pulling fresh loaves out of the family stove swirl around in your mind (even if the closest your granny ever came was burning toast on a Saturday... the smell of fresh bread will cause your imagination to invent the pleasures of the past every time.).

Sadly, while the smell is heavenly... the bread itself has all the charm of a moldering sweat sock left forgotten in the bottom of your gym bag. A spongy white mass, suitable only for making bread balls. Frankly, this nasty stuff is the reason the PG and myself don't really keep bread in the house. Once in a while we will splurge at the local Panera (their three cheese bread has never made it into the house, disappearing in a cloud of crumbs during the short drive home), but I can rarely justify a $4 loaf of bread. Instead, we have been surviving on a mostly bread free existence. Cornmeal muffins, the odd tube of crescent rolls, and packages of tortillas for sandwich rollups tossed into the Prime Geeks lunches have become the norm.

But we have hungered for the staff of life, missing the thrill of a chewy bite used to sop up the last bits of a stew or the crackle of a hard crust that gives away to jam soaked goodness. What recipe to try first? Where to turn?

Where I found it would shock me.

But... that AND pictures of the heavenly stuff will have to wait until tomorrow. I hear the oven timer and have to go give dinner a poke.

Until tomorrow!