B2G1 (Bake Two, Give One)

Baking bread is important to me. I have a couple of techniques that I'll write about when I have the time, but this topic is something I can get to now.

For much of the last  year our family has been living through a set of circumstances that makes some things difficult. No need to go into details here, suffice it to say that it's expensive and challenging and elicits sympathy from a lot of folks, and many people have been remarkably generous with us.

I find this particularly humbling. In many aspects of our lives we have been exceptionally blessed over the years. Good jobs with good benefits, a nice living situation, and the opportunity to work with  a wonderful cadre of people both professionally and in community theatre.  

Practicing random acts of kindness and senseless beauty has always seemed like a good idea to me. I've paid the toll of the car behind me a few times, and when I was learning to cook there were several friends who were the recipients of baked goods that were crafted with varying degrees of success.

Of late, however, I have achieved a degree of proficiency that I'm moderately comfortable with, and have developed a habit of sharing whenever I bake. My oven fits two baking vessels, so I usually bake two loaves at a time. If you visit us on a baking day or the day after, chances are that you'll leave with a loaf (or a half a loaf, if we're already into it). If nobody comes to visit we tend to pop the second loaf into a bag the next time we leave the house and bring it along to give away. That's just how we do things. It comes from a family tradition:  anybody in the house when my grandmother was preparing a meal was welcome to share. There was alway plenty, even when things were lean. 

I guess the soundtrack for this post is Jon Svetkey's song "A Way of Praying."