Bread of Life
Somehow almost an entire month has passed since my last post. Oops.
There's been a lot going on around here, but just couldn't think of much to say about it. It's mostly just everyday life happenings that take up all my time and attention.
However, something out of the ordinary happened this weekend that I deem an excellent use of time and attention. One of my oldest friends and her husband came to stay with us and it was a ton of fun sharing embarrassing middle school stories which we can now laugh about and watching our husbands' faces contort in disbelief. Yes, be glad you did not know the twelve year old Emily.
Anyway, she came down because we attended a grain-milling and bread-making class at the Bread Beckers in Woodstock, GA pretty much all day Saturday. You heard correctly, the girl who does not bake, only steams vegetables in the bag, and rarely uses anything other than the microwave or crockpot to do her cooking went to a class to learn to grind her own grain and bake her own bread with it. The verdict? It was fascinating!
I was aware of the decline in quality of our readily available food over recent decades but hadn't really jumped on the 'boycott proccessed' train. I had no idea just how deeply we're in this thing. Even our salt and our olive oil might not be what they seem. Needless to say, I learned (and ate) a whole lot and really wouldn't mind milling my own grain and making my own bread for the health benefits alone, not to mention the phenomenal (in my very humble opinion) difference in taste. If someone would only be so generous as to provide me with the thousand dollars worth of equipment she used I'd be set (this is not a requirement, just the only surefire way to get me fully on board). In all seriousness though, girl has nine babies and nine grandbabies and has been running this whole operation for the past twenty some years. It's not like she just had some free time on her hands and thought making her own bread would be fun. She must have cranked out at least a dozen good recipes in the four hours we were there, and they were delicious. We began with waffles and grits (not just bread), hard wheat bread, soft wheat bread, Ezekiel bread, muffins, tortillas, brownies, cookies, garlic rolls, Reubens, breakfast rolls (with sausage and eggs), the list goes on.
Another kicker? It's all biblically based! My friend and I walked in and found our seats, along with the other fifty 'students' and their morning coffee, to have this cheerful woman come out and begin to share her faith and encouragement with us. She said she'd woken up early to pray for each one of our travels (we'd come about 45 minutes but several had come much further) and our overall wellbeing. She started her company on the principle of feeding the body well and one of the first things she made for us was Ezekiel bread, the recipe for which God shared with him in Ezekial 4:9. It is kind of sweet and actually has a lot of protein.
It was sort of like being in an infomercial, but where you'd expect to be duped into buying unnecessary equipment and ingredients and then obscenely overcharged, I found that my questions were answered very honestly and I was not encouraged to buy a single thing needlessly. She said the products in her shop were the ones she had found to be top of the line, but if we already owned something at home that worked for us that's obviously just fine to continue with. Also, I bought several items and the cookbook, each individually priced under $8. Plus she gives out free CDs with the information on it if you'd like to listen again or share. Of course I grabbed one (not because I hadn't heard enough in one Saturday to last me a lifetime, but they were free!). As further proof that this could actually be a worthwhile endeavor, I (the documented worst baker of all time, ever) came home and made two one pound loaves of her basic bread dough and Michael (a relatively picky bread lover) deemed it "delicious." Thank you very much. Also, if you thought (as I did) that this would be all healthy and grain-y, she made brownies and cookies and muffins that were the best I have ever put into my mouth. I kid you not. I am not a sugar fan but I would have eaten all of them if there weren't so many other strangers in the room.
So, in conclusion, what we put into our bodies is pretty important. I think it's kind of a responsibility we have in caring for this temple God gave us for the time being to not just feed it, but probably to feed it well. In case you were wondering, I will not be buying my own mill and making everything from scratch, but I would like to be more intentional about the ingredients we use and the foods we buy. I'll definitely see what I can do about finding healthier options in flour and wheat, and baking my own bread is definitely a task I can handle every now and then.
There's been a lot going on around here, but just couldn't think of much to say about it. It's mostly just everyday life happenings that take up all my time and attention.
However, something out of the ordinary happened this weekend that I deem an excellent use of time and attention. One of my oldest friends and her husband came to stay with us and it was a ton of fun sharing embarrassing middle school stories which we can now laugh about and watching our husbands' faces contort in disbelief. Yes, be glad you did not know the twelve year old Emily.
Anyway, she came down because we attended a grain-milling and bread-making class at the Bread Beckers in Woodstock, GA pretty much all day Saturday. You heard correctly, the girl who does not bake, only steams vegetables in the bag, and rarely uses anything other than the microwave or crockpot to do her cooking went to a class to learn to grind her own grain and bake her own bread with it. The verdict? It was fascinating!
I was aware of the decline in quality of our readily available food over recent decades but hadn't really jumped on the 'boycott proccessed' train. I had no idea just how deeply we're in this thing. Even our salt and our olive oil might not be what they seem. Needless to say, I learned (and ate) a whole lot and really wouldn't mind milling my own grain and making my own bread for the health benefits alone, not to mention the phenomenal (in my very humble opinion) difference in taste. If someone would only be so generous as to provide me with the thousand dollars worth of equipment she used I'd be set (this is not a requirement, just the only surefire way to get me fully on board). In all seriousness though, girl has nine babies and nine grandbabies and has been running this whole operation for the past twenty some years. It's not like she just had some free time on her hands and thought making her own bread would be fun. She must have cranked out at least a dozen good recipes in the four hours we were there, and they were delicious. We began with waffles and grits (not just bread), hard wheat bread, soft wheat bread, Ezekiel bread, muffins, tortillas, brownies, cookies, garlic rolls, Reubens, breakfast rolls (with sausage and eggs), the list goes on.
Another kicker? It's all biblically based! My friend and I walked in and found our seats, along with the other fifty 'students' and their morning coffee, to have this cheerful woman come out and begin to share her faith and encouragement with us. She said she'd woken up early to pray for each one of our travels (we'd come about 45 minutes but several had come much further) and our overall wellbeing. She started her company on the principle of feeding the body well and one of the first things she made for us was Ezekiel bread, the recipe for which God shared with him in Ezekial 4:9. It is kind of sweet and actually has a lot of protein.
It was sort of like being in an infomercial, but where you'd expect to be duped into buying unnecessary equipment and ingredients and then obscenely overcharged, I found that my questions were answered very honestly and I was not encouraged to buy a single thing needlessly. She said the products in her shop were the ones she had found to be top of the line, but if we already owned something at home that worked for us that's obviously just fine to continue with. Also, I bought several items and the cookbook, each individually priced under $8. Plus she gives out free CDs with the information on it if you'd like to listen again or share. Of course I grabbed one (not because I hadn't heard enough in one Saturday to last me a lifetime, but they were free!). As further proof that this could actually be a worthwhile endeavor, I (the documented worst baker of all time, ever) came home and made two one pound loaves of her basic bread dough and Michael (a relatively picky bread lover) deemed it "delicious." Thank you very much. Also, if you thought (as I did) that this would be all healthy and grain-y, she made brownies and cookies and muffins that were the best I have ever put into my mouth. I kid you not. I am not a sugar fan but I would have eaten all of them if there weren't so many other strangers in the room.
So, in conclusion, what we put into our bodies is pretty important. I think it's kind of a responsibility we have in caring for this temple God gave us for the time being to not just feed it, but probably to feed it well. In case you were wondering, I will not be buying my own mill and making everything from scratch, but I would like to be more intentional about the ingredients we use and the foods we buy. I'll definitely see what I can do about finding healthier options in flour and wheat, and baking my own bread is definitely a task I can handle every now and then.
Because they're so darn cute.
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