Yesterday it rained again. I cannot remember how many days in a row we have had steady rain. Not torrential this time, just continual, life-giving, refreshing rain. The garden is glowing and growing I look out the window and see all the plants pushing and shoving each other as they spread and muscle for space. The aggressive quick-growing types overpowering the dainty shy individuals. The lawn is lush and thick and needs mowing. The lawn mower man is finding it hard to keep up with his clients.
So what will I do today?
A friend and I have talked of making home-baked bread. Not in a machine, but from scratch, the old-fashioned way. The time has arrived.
Many, many years ago when I lived and worked on a farm in New Zealand I did all those domestic things. Preserved fruit and vegetables, made jams and chutney, baked cakes and biscuits, sewed and knitted the children’s clothes, had a large vegetable garden, milked cows and baked bread. I feel exhausted just writing all this down. I was a veritable domestic goddess, well not really… 🙂 . It was the expected norm back in the 1960’s.
June has been wanting to have a go at bread making so we gathered together our bowls, primed our muscles and mixed and kneaded with gusto and giggles. How long did it say to knead? Ten minutes, oh boy, we watched the minutes tick by. Finally it was ready to put in a warm place to rise. But where is a warm place? Houses in Queensland are not designed to have warm places, no airing cupboard, no sun shining through the window today. Finally we decided to put the heater on in the small back room and shut all the doors and leave our bowls of dough to multiply.
Time to recover with a cuppa and a sit down…
45 minutes later we peep under the tea towel, the dough is doubled in size and plump and shiny. Another light kneading then shaped and onto the baking trays. Back to the warm room, another 30 minutes. Bread making is an all morning marathon. Finally they are ready to go into the oven at 200c for 30 minutes.
The moment has arrived, our bread is born and appears golden and crusty from the oven.
Now comes the best part. Our men turn up, Jack with camera in hand, Rex with the electric bread saw, to sample the fruits of our laboured muscles and sweating brow (I exaggerate a bit!). The salad is made, the prawn omelette waits as Jack takes the photos. Then we sit around to enjoy the meal and raise a glass to the breaking of the bread and sharing good times with friends.
Today the sun is shining so I am going to go into the garden and have a talk to my plants.
Hope you are all having a good day 🙂
Fantastic!! The bread looks delicious, and I’m sure it smelled wonderful. When I was a teenager, my dad and I would bake loaves of bread every weekend in the winter. Your tale of kneading, rising, rising again … it’s all so familiar. I miss baking bread and should give it a go again. So nice to break bread with friends, and your food pictures are making me drool! 🙂
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Yes it is much more fun to do things with friends. I’m sure you will always remember those bread baking sessions with your dad
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Boy that looks good, had week on Sunshine Coast, they have more rain than us, so ready for it, walked, then wet, dryer, then walked again, wet, dryer and so on for the week, same here now, good to be home though.
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Must get for a visit to the Sunshine Coast, but will wait till the weather clears…
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Yum! That would go down a real treat up here, where it’s cold & sometimes rainy! Sounds wonderful & looks even better!
Congrats to you & your mates for baking bread in summer!
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The weather is quite strange this year, no were near as hot and humid as is normal, and all the rain is driving us crazy. I’m guessing when it stops the next thing will be a drought. Australia is such a land of extremes.
So it was a good way to take our minds off the weather…
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Wow, it looks amazing, I’ll bet the house smelled great too! I know what you mean about the kneading though, 10 minutes feels like a very long time when you’re pummeling bread!
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Especially at our age…
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I am pants at most things culinary but your bread looked lush
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It sure tasted good
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I think you’re getting our monsoon season! 🙂
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Summer is our wet season but don’t usually get continuous rain.
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I love the rain and I love baking bread, and the smells of each, so I am all over this post…besides the bread looks wonderful. Happy eating!
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Thanks Cindy I agree the smell of bread baking is one of those divine aromas
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What a delicious meal you prepared…bread and all!! reminds me of Ina Garten on ‘The Barefoot Contessa’ cooking show….don’t know if you have that in Australia? I used to have a lovely garden & miss it living in a tiny condo now………it’s so nice to see & hear about yours.
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Wow thanks Deanna, the Barefoot Contessa, i’m flattered, at least the barefoot part is right. 🙂
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🙂
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Nice one Pauline. But you were loafing I was fruitful.
Would you like do one on my melon carving?
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Very cryptic Jack. Yes I think we should showcase that melon carving soon
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