Bread and Butter

Baking has never been my thing, but G-D help me, I do love my carbs. My husband loves bread - toast with peanut butter, sandwiches, pizza, bread and cheese....so bread is often in the house. In Japan however, where "pan" (a.k.a. bread) is becoming increasingly more popular, thus making a wider variety of breads available, bread-making is still not a Japanese food specialty. This sometimes poses a huge food issue for us. While rice and noodles can take a you far, sometimes a piece of bread is the only thing that will do the trick. 

Bread making is one of those quintessential haus frau kitchen activities. Rolling pins, apron and all, the image brings feelings of work camps, perpetual flour clean-up and anal retentive steps. No fun to me. But with a bread-maker (the machine, not hired help) all is easy, fun, healthy and very barefoot in the kitchen. You can get super fancy with your bread machines. Mine is a standard more middle-of-the-road kind and it works splendidly. Bread making, unlike cooking does require following directions, but even a rebellious cook like myself can experiment with add-ins, measurements and flour combinations after getting the overall hang of it. Making your own bread is also an excellent way to bring whole grains and "real" food into your daily diet. Even the fresh bread from neighborhood bakeries can be loaded with partially hydrogenated fats, sugar and junk. If you have kids, they can help you measure everything out and the experience almost becomes like a science project. Bake and learn.