Kitchen-crazy

Even if Christ said that "man cannot live on bread alone"...Ryan thinks that it would be a good idea to try.

Now that Ryan and I are married (and have loads of cool and very nice kitchen tools), a significant amount of time is being spent in our very small-ultra-tiny kitchen. By the way thanks to all of you out there who bought us these cool kitchen tools or gave us gift cards to buy cool kitchen tools!

Ryan has become a kitchen-crazy one-man cooking show. Seriously - it's almost a problem. Well, mostly for our waistlines. In all other regards, it's really great! For starters, he is an expert crepe maker (thanks Paul and JoAnna for getting us started). This past weekend he even experimented with making a chocolate crepe , which made going back to "regular" crepes VERY difficult. Sorry, no pictures of the chocolate crepes....just the boring regular crepes:

Here is Ryan carefully placing the finishing touches (melted butter) on the first loaves of "Real bread" he baked a few weeks ago. We thought Ryan had the baking bug, and then we realized he really had a baking disease when he saw a rolling pin (and I admit this pin is truly gorgeous) and wanted to bake enough bread to "earn" the rolling pin. In order for Ryan to earn this heavenly rolling pin we'd seen at the store, HE SAID needed to bake bread.

You should also know that prior to seeing the rolling pin, Ryan made several loaves of banana & pumpkin bread (see my definition of "Quick Bread" below), and even went so far as to make some very yummy maple-something-or-other bread. We ate it so quickly I can't remember the name.

He was dismayed however, when I shared with him a secret as delicate as Santa Claus. You see, it was time for Ryan to understand what constitutes "baking bread."

First, loaves of "real" bread, should not be confused with "quick bread". Quick bread is for baby bakers....it requires mixing, then greasing the pan and baking. It tastes incredible, but it's for the newbies and it is not bread even though the title would lead you to believe so.

REAL bread takes time...LOTS of time. How much? Oh about 5 hours to yield two loaves. Real bread takes measuring, kneading, rising, punching, rising, greasing, baking, cooling. See? 5 hours of stuff.

With this new rolling pin in mind, Ryan was briefly dismayed at having learned that any old "bread" is not bread - only REAL bread was bread. But since he has never balked at a challenge, he simply took the "rules" in stride.

I know what you're thinking... I'm rather strict. But, Ryan married a strong-willed purist and he knew it beforehand. So think of this as "building character" in the baking world. (I got that phrase from my Dad, so you can give him a call if you still think I'm too harsh)

Like I said, he doesn't balk at a challenge....Ryan has began baking up a storm (see post dated Nov 4th where I show you pictures of the storm...the bad weather was all his fault). He's done so much baking now that I'm even learning new stuff. Pretty soon his "wise bread master" will probably have to retire and take a few lessons from him. Grrrr.

But, let us now celebrate the many baking accomplishments of my Love! View the splendors of his baking!
Northern Maine Honey Wholewheat bread
Asiago Cheese Bread:
What's next??? Sour dough of course!

Ryan just prepared the "starter" last night. For those of you who don't know, the sour dough starter ferments for 2-4 days before you actually bake the bread.

We'll let you know how it tastes on Saturday. More pictures to follow.....and probably that new rolling pin as well. He absolutely deserves it!