Beautiful Summer Morning

 To me, bread is the soul of all food. There is something elemental in the ingredients, and methods of making bread. The simple mixing of a few ingredients, yeast, flour and water transforms these humble staples into mouth-watering loaves that have sustained man though some of his toughest hours. Even in the worst of jails, there is still bread and water after all.

 I can still remember vividly my first conscious encounter with real home baked bread. I couldn’t have been more than six years old, and newly arrived in our new home in Canada. My father was a dairyman and had been sponsored to a farm near Galt Ontario. As we settled into our new life a French Canadian family , also working on the farm befriended us. They where our first friends in a new and wonderful country.

 Those where the days when woods stoves in the kitchen were still the common source of heat in the house. By some quirk, my family and the Deroches lived on the upper floor of large farmhouses. Since they where near by, visits back and forth became a habit.

 Soon after we’d meet the Deroaches’ I remember going up to Alice Deroache’s warm kitchen. Sitting on her table were four of the loveliest loaves of bread I had ever seen in my short life. The smell wafted through out the house. The loaves where an even golden brown , perfectly shaped and perfectly risen.

 From that day on my love affair with bread and with cooking specifically began. Those perfect loaves of Alice Deroache became my holy grail. I would not rest until I had duplicated that perfection by my own hand.

 Unlike the Knight’s of the Round Table, however, I did eventual find my holy grail, which then lead me onto even greater bread adventures.

The only thing I have not done is to duplicate Alice Deroaches loaves of bread in a wood burning fire, and someday I plan to do just that.

 In the meantime, those perfect loaves sitting in their rectangular bread pans are no longer de rigueur. I now chase after the French and Italian ideals in bread. These recipes are more basic , more rustic and more flavourful.

 Along the way I’ve learn a few tips about bread baking by listen to others who have encounter one difficulty or another in their bread making activities. They are very simple things you can do to improve your results in bread baking.

 Before I go any further, I must confess that I am a purist. That is I do not own a bread maker and never will. Taking away the kneading aspect of bread making is like taking color away from an artist. The feel of the bread is everything. In addition, if you are going to get the benefits of bread making, the soul satisfying tasks of bread making, you must do the kneading with your own hands.

 The common cry when I tell people that I do not buy store made bread, and very rarely Bakeshop bread, is where do you find the time. This has always puzzled me, since with a little organization bread making does not take up very much time.

 I lead a busy life. I have a pretty high stress level job, I am a fanatical gardener, I love to read and go though four to five full length books a month not including a large number of magazine articles. I cook all the meals in the household because I am passionate about good food, plus a whole lot more, and still, I have no problem finding time to bake bread. If I can do this, so can you.

 Organize Your Time and Enjoy the Day

 Finding time to bake bread is simply a matter of organization. Pick a day that you are off from work. Start in the morning, by getting the basic ingredients together, mixing them up, and do the kneading. This takes about 20 minutes. While the bread rises, you are free to do other tasks. You have time to walk the dog, go grocery shopping, sit out in the garden, paint, read, what ever you like to do. In about 1-½ hours you return to punch down the dough, form the loaves, and place them in their pans. You now have between ½ hours to an hour to enjoy. Finally, you throw the bread in a preheated oven to bake, while you continue with other tasks or hobbies. That’s it!

 Your house smells wonderful, you have loaves of fresh bread, and all is right with the world.

 Here is a no fail bread recipe that makes four loaves. It comes from a package of Rogers Flour www.rogersfoods.com. You can make almost any variation from this recipe but perfect the basic white first.

The Big Secret

 The biggest secret of bread making is preparing the yeast. Most people idea of lukewarm water is about 75-90º. You need to work with your hottest tap water at almost scalding temperature. Remember the water is going to cool rapidly as you pour it from your measuring cup into the bowl and cool more while you add your sugar and yeast and stir.

 Now for the recipe.

 What You Need

 ½ cup of hot water

1 tsp of honey

2 tbsp of active dry yeast (not fast rise please)

3 ½ cups of hot water

¼ cup of honey

½ cup of vegetable oil

2 tbsp lemon juice

4 tsp sea salt

9 ½ to 10 ½ cup of all purpose unbleached flour.

 How to Throw It Together

YIELD: 4 loaves.

“A nickel will get you on the subway, but garlic will get you a seat.”
–old New York Yiddish saying



The old Yiddish saying above sums up the ying and yang (to mix-up religious references) of garlic. Garlic breath battles garlic health. Does chewing on a parsley leaf really cure garlic breath? A chicken recipe with forty clove of garlic, oh my goodness!

Despite the obvious drawbacks, garlic predominates on lists of healthy things to eat. The listed benefits derived from garlic are lengthy, including the ability to make demons disappear, protect one from plague, and improve ones love life. How can you go wrong with an herb that can do all that?

In the Mediterranean Diet, garlic holds up one of the pillars upon which most recipes are constructed. When you think of Mediterranean Foods, garlic comes immediately to mind, up there with olives, olive oil, pasta, tomatoes, wine, and cheese. The use of garlic may contribute to report after report on the benefits of following a Mediterranean Diet.

Recent research has shown that garlic aids in the reduction of heart disease by: