21 months: Baking Bread!

From time to time I like to do things with you that I think you'd be doing at your former uber expensive but uber progressive and lovely preschool -- things like picking organic berries or milking dairy cows (yes, they really do both).

Sometimes I read the blog of your former school to find out what the kiddies there are up to and to look for ideas about things we can do together (sometimes I get scared that you won't be prepared for kindergarten because the hours and hours of tv you watch every week playgroups and storytimes we're going to are not stimulating your cute sweet mind enough)...here's what was posted on the blog the other day:

Studying Silkworms

The preschoolers were enthralled by a visit today from an entomologist named Faith, who specializes in the study of silkworms. During her visit, Faith introduced herself as a scientist who studies insects, put on her field vest and then pulled out her magnifying glass, her collecting box (as recognized by Ruby), a notebook where she records the weather and other pertinent information, as well as a field guide about caterpillars. Faith noted that silkworms are a kind of caterpillar that is no longer found in the wild. Sam mentioned that he had seen a wild, woolly bear caterpillar, which he took care of for about a half hour, and then released on a pumpkin. . .

[about 5 more paragraphs detailing visit removed]

. . .Faith kindly left the preschoolers two, living silkworms in a small container, with some mulberry mush, along with a basket full of cocoons, two silkworm-moth remains and an informative book about silkworms. Recently, one of the silkworms began spinning a cocoon inside a cardboard paper roll, and the children are watching it with great excitement. And then Faith returned to the preschool once again to generously give us a box of baby silkworms which will molt as they grow, so we’ll be able to observe another miraculous metamorphosis!

The children have been closely studying the silkworms and representing them in many languages – in drawing, paintings, clay and storytelling. We have collected many of these words and images in a binder in the classroom. Please take a look!

?!?!?!?!?!
I don't have any silkworms and I'm not even sure where we would get silkworms and the former vegetarian in me feels for these little creatures anyway so I decided we would do the next best thing...bake bread!

You love helping me when I cook and bake and I always encourage you to do so in hopes that you'll be cooking all of the family meals by the time you're 5 years old. We'll see how that pans out. So far you're pretty good at making white rice. Anyhoo, we made a very yummie white bread, recipe is below.



After we washed our hands, I propped you up in one of our dining chairs and we proofed the yeast together.



Mixing the oil and salt with the yeast



You really liked this part...you were very serious about the whole thing



I would like to be able to say that that's flour all over your jammies but it's really yogurt from breakfast (you like to "feed" yourself these days)



All the flour is mixed! Time to knead



I couldn't see you in those yogurt covered pjs anymore and it was past noon so we got dressed and then returned to the bread and started kneading! You were very good at kneading...you probably thought it was play-doh or something





All kneaded...time for it to rise



All of our dish towels were dirty (we'll have to talk to our laundry person (Daddy) about that) so we used one of your hospital blankets...we have a billion of these. Did I tell you how I ransacked your hospital room after you were born and took EVERYTHING like the little bowls and nose aspirators and petroleum jelly and even those post-birth undies things. Yea, I did because I figured that they would just throw them all out but I was still sneaky about it and then when we went to get discharged the nurse said oh, feel free to take anything that is in the bassinet and mwahaha little did she know that everything was in our duffel bag already. Anyhoo, I love free stuff...speaking of which...we're getting free donuts tomorrow!



Back to the bread making...after about an hour we checked on it again and it was huge so we punched it down and kneaded a bit more



Look at those little baby handprints all over the bread...love it!



Then I shaped the loaf and put it in the pan and let it rise a little bit more before popping it in the oven.



About 25 minutes later we had this little beauty



So scrumptious!



Daddy approves!



Here's Daddy eating a piece...yummie!

Amish White Bread
makes 2 - 9 inch loaves

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 2/3 cup white sugar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons active dry yeast
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 6 cups bread flour

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large bowl, dissolve the sugar in warm water, and then stir in yeast. Allow to proof until yeast resembles a creamy foam.
2. Mix salt and oil into the yeast. Mix in flour one cup at a time. Knead dough on a lightly floured surface until smooth. Place in a well oiled bowl, and turn dough to coat. Cover with a damp cloth. Allow to rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.
3. Punch dough down. Knead for a few minutes, and divide in half. Shape into loaves, and place into two well oiled 9x5 inch loaf pans. Allow to rise for 30 minutes, or until dough has risen 1 inch above pans.
4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 30 minutes.