Bread?

I have a friend who likes to cook. She cooks dinner every night and is really into trying new recipes, etc. It makes me feel like a huge loser. LOL. I don't mind cooking when I'm not under pressure about it. Kids hanging on you, whining they are hungry and I'm starving them qualifies as pressure. Unfortunately I usually don't think about dinner until the demands to be fed start.

I have tried to make bread before and it has never worked. I make it in the bread machine, but that is sort of cheating. I've tried kneading it in the machine and then cooking it in the oven with no luck. Kneading by hand was worse. Kneading with the stand mixer was only slightly better than kneading by hand. Somewhere between putting the ingredients into a bowl and putting it in the oven magic elves come over and make a brick where I had put my dough.

So I've read, read and read some more about baking bread. Then I tried it (again). I'm not a fan of being told what I can and can not do. I'm even less of a fan of failing at something. This bread problem has gone on for YEARS so It was war.

I must have done something to please the gods of bread because this is what happened

And it tasted wonderful. I hid half the loaf. It was perfect with butter and honey. Now I'm thinking I'm going to have to do some more baking tomorrow.

Heather