Wifey Wednesday

When I tell my friends that "I need to feed the yeast," I get some strange reactions.

Truth be told, I can't blame them.

However, thankfully, I am talking about bread. Sourdough bread to be precise. And these lovely loaves come from over 50 years of TLC and a special bread starter that was most graciously passed along to me last Fall, as part of a third-generation effort to keep this strand alive.

When people find out that I make my own sandwich bread, they probably associate me with the prairie people who refuse to shop at stores:



Call it what you will, this is simply not the case. I am most assuredly a fan of the common grocery store. In fact, I make the bread almost weekly out of pure love of its sweet, cake-like deliciousness. AND also because Hubby's not really crazy about sandwich lunches.

Making this bread is one small wifey effort I can make to woo him into eating a lunch from home, instead of being tempted into restaurants of despair on a daily basis. (Obviously we love restaurants, but sometimes enough is enough! And I'm lately feeling really obligated to keep an eye on our health...or something. Mom gene kicking in prematurely?). So we brainstormed and collaborated, and I have now created this as one of our many new sandwich varieties:


You'll notice a lack of dressing, but that is because you can't taste this bread with your eyes. It is very sweet, slightly salty, and just perfect by itself.

Let's get down to business. It all starts with this:



It gets better.

Weekly, I feed the "starter" (above) with a little mix of sugar, instant potato flakes and water. After that sits together for a day or so, I add some flour to make a dough. The starter is a yeast strand that must be kept alive. It would not be completely inaccurate to say that this is our first child.




Let that rise for a day or so, and ta-da:



Bread.

Don't knock it 'till you've tried it! Making tasty lunches at home is a good way to make sure you and your loved ones eat nutritious and tasty meals. And, I do enjoy turning our home into a small bread factory every weekend :)

This is one small trick, but I know there are lots more out there. Anyone have another healthy and delicious lunch idea to share?