Monday Message

Get a recipe for versatile homemade bread HERE!

"I wish to urge again the importance of self-reliance on the part of every individual Church member and family. None of us knows when a catastrophe might strike. Sickness, injury, unemployment may affect any of us. We have a great welfare program with facilities for such things as grain storage in various areas. It is important that we do this. But the best place to have some food set aside is within our homes, together with a little money in savings. The best welfare program is our own welfare program. Five or six cans of wheat in the home are better than a bushel in the welfare granary." (President Gordon B. Hinckley)

I want to encourage you to continue your storage and if you haven’t yet started to get started. Everyone starts somewhere.

It's just as important to learn basic skills. I think if you know how to make bread it is one of the biggest helps. It takes a little learning but in our times we can learn so easily on the computer by just typing in how to make bread. YouTube videos shows you how to make so many breads.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tj7Sfu3IuYs - bread secrets

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NS2clOSZJ7o - amish white bread, makes two loaves. Get white bread down first then move to grains.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJDBqoDqXRo - amish sweet white bread

My favorite tip….one tsp of vital wheat gluten to one cup of flour  equals one cup of bread flour.

My tip….I let my bread cool for an hour then I use an electric knife and slice the whole loaf. This is just what I do. I could use a bread knife if no electricity but I like the look of using the electric knife. I pick them up at yard sales. I bag and freeze my sliced bread if I make more than one loaf.

I know you might be saying you already know how. That is great! Are you making it to get your family use to homemade bread? You might be saying, "someday I will." I am here to say someday things seldom come. We need to push ourselves to learn the things we want to learn. The same thing can be said of "I have no time." We need to find the time. Think through what you are doing. Sometimes we are too busy but we are not meant to be that busy all the time. Our bodies and minds need to rest to learn as well.

When we were first married my mother-in-law made bread. My best friend Shirley’s mom made bread. I was going to make bread. So I got a recipe for bread from my mother-in-law as there were no computers back then. I gathered everything I would need. I was working at the time so I needed to pick a day I wasn’t working. 

The day was finally there and I had everything. So I set out in the morning to make two loaves of bread. I set it to raise. After the time allotted I divided the dough in two loaves. Of course, had I known that my bread was supposed to have risen I would have known there was a problem. So in the pans went the dough. It did not rise, not even by two hours or three, no different at four hours. I thought perhaps I should put both into one pan and bake so I did. By supper I pulled it out…..it was so heavy. I went to slice it to have with supper and couldn't even cut it. I had baked a brick. So we laughed and buried it out in the backyard. I later learned I had the water too hot and killed the yeast.  

I kept trying and that is what it takes. But now you all have mini classes any time you want on your computer. A blessing for sure. Learn all you can and never stop learning! 

Years later I was talking to a doctor and she said that if more people made bread we would have less mental disease, that was back in the seventies….something to think about.

I can make bread by hand just as well as any machine in my kitchen.

That was my goal. As time goes on I have gotten fibro then I discovered the machines I have can do it just as good as I can by hand. I learned using bread machines to do everything except baking was just as good and helped me. So when money permitted I got a mixer that could do many loaves at one time.

So what I am trying to say is don’t turn your nose up at machines that can help. You look at thrift stores and you can find them for such a savings but remember that if you cannot get any of the machines you have the skill to make by hand…so no matter where you are you can learn this skill. 

Now I just picked bread making as one of the skills that would be good to know. If you are gluten free it is just as important to learn how to make bread using what you can for that and to store the ingredients because one thing is for sure - we all eat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ih1XIyg3-f4 - this is fantastic whether or not you are gluten-free. She gives you both recipes this is so handy to have on hand.

There are other skills that help us as well so think what skills you want to learn. Let us know what skill you are working on and how you plan to learn, if it's on the computer or using the library or from a friend, let us know.

If you have a request on a skill, let me know :)