The Non- Competitive Cook: January 2014

"The wife is like the fire, or to put things in their proper proportion, the fire is like the wife.
Like the fire, the woman is expected to cook: not to excel in cooking, but to cook,

.... be a cook, but not a competitive cook,

a school mistress, but not a competitive schoolmistress; a house-decorator but not a competitive house-decorator, etc...
She should have not one trade but twenty hobbies; she... may develop all her second bests.

Women were not kept at home in order to keep them narrow;
on the contrary, they were kept at home in order to keep them broad."

G.K. Chesterton, What's Wrong with the World?

January 22, 2014

Peasant Bread

This is my family's new favorite bread at dinner.

It is this recipe and once you make it, you'll want to make it again and again. It is light and feathery inside, and buttery crisp on the outside, and soooo easy to make. No kneading necessary. Just two rises and you bake them in small glass Pyrex bowls.

I made these loaves using half white (unbleached) flour and half whole wheat pastry flour, so mine didn't get as much loft as the ones on the recipe page, but they were still light and airy.