Bread, beautiful bread!

Most families anything like ours will get through a fair bit of bread. If you buy what I've always considered 'decent' bread, then it can also be costly.  I got to thinking recently after reading 'What to Eat' by Joanna Blythman (in my opinion everyone should read this book!)  She doubts that few people eat sliced wrapped bread because they love it, but because it's what happens to be around. Do you agree? I certainly would have put myself in that category until recently.  If convenience is key then yes, this type of bread is great even if the taste isn't.  We have 3/4 packed lunches to make daily and I love convenience, BUT.... I do not like the list of unrecognisable ingredients on the back of the wrapper.  I want to feed my family 'real' food, not chemically, mechanically produced food.  This is ultimately the reason I decided to make my own bread.

I needed bread making to be convenient and fit in with my routine, and it just so happened that Paul Hollywood started his Bread TV show around this time.  His bloomer is simple to make and tastes great, even the kids complemented me on how nice it was.  At around 90p a loaf with organic flour it's a winner.

I'm very passionate about bread making and will be showing other delights I have made from this book later.   I'll leave you with a photo of the said bloomer I made today, along with some milk rolls I made for our barbecue tonight.

This is me...

It's 3.30pm on Sunday afternoon and I am sat in my garden with an earl grey (yes people I am a convert to tea in recent months as I wanted a Cath Kidston teapot!).  The chicken is in the oven, there is homemade chocolate beetroot cake for dessert, and I am surveying my vege plot after erecting my runner bean wigwam.  Sounds like I have it sorted domestically doesn't it?  I have however failed to complete a million other domestic tasks that probably rank higher in importance like cleaning, washing and tidying.

My aim in writing to you all out there in cyberspace, is the hope that I might be more motivated to improve domestically, to be more accountable if you like.  If I can inspire any of you with my ramblings, well that would be great too.

I'm hoping I won't need motivation to post but having structure is always good domestically so I'm going to try it here too.  Different days for different domestic ramblings as follows,

Monday - Baking/cooking
Wednesday - Menu planning
Thursday - Gardening
Friday/Saturday - Shopping
Sunday - Housework

This is general guide, I'm sure some of these may turn into general domestic ramblings.  I plan to cover bread making, organic gardening and eating, shopping local, budgeting, child rearing, crafts and more.

I'll leave you with a couple of photos of today's achievements.