Daily Bread

Our old Wood Stove

Today is a good day for making some homemade bread.  We awoke this morning to temperatures in the 30's here in sunny, warm (?) Florida.  It's mornings like these that I am missing the old wood stove in my VT kitchen !  We have a nice modern heating/cooling system here so we are thankful for that.  But I do find myself comparing it to the cozy old cookstove.  Once she is fired up and just oozing her warmth and comfort, she isn't noisy at all as she has no motor to run and no fan to blow.  She is just a little chatty as the logs crackle, sputter and sizzle a bit.

I got the urge this cool morning to mix up a batch of whole wheat, oatmeal bread.  There isn't much that can beat the aroma of fresh baking bread.  Only the eating of it!  Baking bread seems to satisfy body, soul and spirit.  The Bible often speaks of bread, right from the beginning.  In Genesis 3:19 when God told Adam and Eve that they would have to work for their bread outside the Garden of Eden. Again in Exodus 16:4 where the Lord told Moses He would rain bread from heaven for his people as they were in the wilderness.  In the Lord's prayer we are to ask God for our daily bread, Matthew 6:11.   And in John 6:33-35 Jesus tells us that He is the Bread Of Life.   SO I am writing about bread today as I wait for it to rise and bake.

How little work it is today to whip up and turn out a couple loaves of bread !  At home, I sometimes get some winter wheat berries at the local co-op and using my friend Cyndy's grain grinder, I grind these berries into nice whole wheat flour to use in my bread...but I didn't have to plant, water, harvest and thresh this wheat first !  How soft we have grown, huh?  And the flour is only ONE ingredient in our bread !   I used some milk in the bread today and I didn't even have to milk the cow or feed her!  So I will really be thankful tonight after thinking about all this, for my aromatic, tasty slice of bread with butter and some homemade spiced tomato jam!

Keep warm and well and ...  Bake some bread !