Bread and Cheese, Please

In the bleak midwinter, when skin is crying for Vitamin D, kids are down with colds, and the early morning sound floating in the air is the steady scrape of shovel on concrete, as Manly Husband enters another winter refusing to use a snow blower, I sit in my morning spot and ponder the first 23 days of January. 

My Three Words of 2012 are hovering around me, like suspended snowflakes.  How can I nurture and decrease with a spirit of thrift?  I discovered one thing this week:  homemade bread!  Many sing its praises for nutritional value and frugality, but I've always had a fear of yeast.  I know...weird.  But I can proudly say that yeast is my friend and listens to me when I tell it to rise. 

When I started considering making my own bread, I thought I was going to have to make a mighty investment in a Kitchen Aid mixer and a grain mill.  That didn't sound very thrifty.  I found, shockingly, that kneading the bread was half the fun, and my girls were delighted to help.  My friend reminded me that we have a mutual friend with a mill that we could use.  Yay, thrift!  We enjoyed 3 loaves of bread this week:  one white and two honey wheat.  The smell in itself was healing and nurturing. 

How did having homemade bread at my fingertips contribute to "decrease" you may be wondering?  Well, two slices of that honey wheat sustained me through 5 hours of worship team practice, worship leading in two services, and many conversations after church.  No donuts for me! 

Dave was inspired by my Amish-ness, and decided to make some homemade cheese with a kit he had ordered.  He and Grace spent Saturday afternoon stirring a big kettle of milk and cream and enzymes, which produces some squeaky and delicious cheese curds.  Next up...cheddar! 

Don't be too impressed.  Last night, the kids warmed up chicken nuggets, thoroughly processed.  At least I tried one new thing and hope to make it a staple.