MOM'S BREAD

January 27, 2003

My Darling Wife is with me while I make the bread,
For in each step of baking, I recall just what she said:
Three cups nice warm water in a large mixing pan,
Blend one half cup sugar until clear if you can,
One tablespoon of yeast, sprinkled on the water,
Then cover up the pan to keep the water hotter.

Sift four cups of flour, and have it there all ready
To spread it on the fresh bloomed yeast, an stir in soft and steady
Until the sponge is smooth as cream, then cover with a cloth,
Slide it in the slight warmed oven, and turn the oven off.
Thirty minutes in that oven will help the sponge to rise,
Then when you take it out, a fluffy sponge meets your eyes.

Have seven cups of sifted flour in a pan standing by;
A quarter cup of oil, and four teaspoons of salt also nigh.
Mix with salted oil one cup water, nice and warm,
Stir into batter with a mixer, for that will save your arm.
Then with a large wooden spoon, stir the flour in,
Until the sponge is good and stiff, then knead it there and then.

Continue with your kneading until the sponge seems right,
And if it starts to feeling sticky, sprinkle flour, just a mite.
When the sponge feels soft and spongy, no longer clinging to your fingers,
Back into the oven, where it for thirty minutes lingers;
Repeat this process one more time, before you cut the sponge in loaves,
Knowing when the bread is done, you'll have the proudest of all stoves.

Coffee cans with bacon grease, heated nice and hot,
Make a better baking pan than any store has got.
Be sure to roll the grease around, greasing all the sides,
Thus greasing sponge upside and down, as rising loaf abides.
Back into the oven for an hour, or more,
And while the bread is rising, wash the dishes, sweep the floor!

When the sponge then tops the can, looking soft and white,
Set the pans upon the counter; for baking, it is right.
Turn the oven to 450, and when the light is gone,
Set the loaves all back in, and turn the timer on.
Ten minutes at 450 makes the loaves nice and brown;
Set the time for 24 and turn the oven down.

Three twenty five is what Mom said, and she was always right;
Those loaves come out smelling good, and what a glorious sight!
Slip the loaves out of the cans and on the cooling trays;
I'll guarantee you'll count this day among our better days!
This bread Mom taught me how to make keeps my body whole,
But bread like this, which she still sends, is healing for my soul.

I DONE GOT THERE!

January 18, 2003

Mary, do you remember Dad's old poem...

"Be the task great or small,
Do it well or not at all."

Well here is my line:

Be the task great or small;
When we daily trip and fall;
When cows butt us into their stall.
We're too old to do it all;

Then we'd best to step aside,
Before we lose too much hide!
There to rest, write, reside
And enjoy life's changing tide.

I done got there!