The weather this morning was such that we were all tempted to just pull up the covers and go back to sleep.  It was 19 degrees outside when we got up, the sky was spitting snow and the day was generally dreary.  But it was Tuesday, and Tuesday is breadmaking day around here, so I had to get up and at it.  Now I am at that point in my life where the nest is emptying, so why am I buying wheat in bulk and why did I spring for the machines to make bread in bulk?  Sometimes I wonder, but when I get to the end of the process, I know why.  One morning of bread making gives me all the bread our family needs for the week, plus it gives me a meal for the freezer if I make stuffed rolls or stromboli, and more bread, usually in the form of sticky buns, to share at work and with others. 

Kitty gave me a sourdough starter and I was anxious to try it.  The process went something like this:

montana-red-wheat.jpg  I started with good Montana hard wheat which I ground in a grinder   wheat-grinder.jpg   

Then I mixed the flour, sourdough   sourdough.jpg      and other ingredients in a heavy duty mixer

 heavy-duty-mixer.jpg    

While it was rising and baking we enjoyed the wonderful aroma.  Then, when I took it out of the oven, we all enjoyed the wonderful taste! a-days-work.jpg

Yes, there was dough in between the steps–I just forgot to take pictures of the dough rising and sitting in the pans to rise a second time!