So I made my first loaf of bread last week. I figure that since I hardly earn much bread these days, I had better learn to make bread.

The first load turned out great though short and dense. The mile high altitude makes things a little trickier until you figure out the correct compensation.

I got pretty confident and made the second loaf fancier...using oats, honey, and several spices. This load is really dense. 1.5 pounds came in at about 3.5" tall.

Here the curiosity. I had one slice with breakfast and am still not hungry over 12 hours later.

I made magic bread.

Magic bread should be priceless.

No?

Whole wheat is very, very dense and extremely filling. My mom used to make whole wheat pancakes and if you ate more than one, you were going to wish you didn't. They were so heavy, you wouldn't want more food until at least dinner time.

I'm proud that you are trying new things, especially with adding the oats and stuff. Try pumpkin bread, zucchini, or lemon-poppy seed...all are fantastic and extremely easy and filling.

But I do think you should call that second recipe you figured out "magic bread" from now on.

I agree, lefty. Only, PT, you are hereby requested to post the recipe for your Magic Bread in the TVNL COOKBOOK forum.

My last loaf was a catastrophe. I'm going backwards.

I had to wait since I made two loaves in a row that looked like Mons*nto frankenfood before the marketers gave it a makeover.

Since then I have made several beautiful loaves using a simple, slightly modified, recipe for 1.5 pounds:

8.5 ounces water 80-90 degrees (1 cup and 1 tbsp) *I just use the water that first comes out of the tap, that is likely about 70 degrees
3 cups bread flour
2 tbsp dry milk
2 tbsp sugar
1.5 teaspoons salt
3 tbsp butter
2 teaspoons dry yeast
4 tbsp oatmeal...I just sprinkle some in...seems that is about the amount

My "magic bread" had honey which I suspect kept it from rising.

I'll try to post in the cookbook section when I concoct a noteable recipe that creates beautiful, delicious, and magical bread.


***I wonder how long homemade bread keeps in the fridge or the freezer as it has no preservatives to speak of. I may be better with a freezer full of bread than bags of flour...if the insect kingdom somehow 'hatches any ideas.' I hear that flour and corn meal is prone to insect predation.

That's a good idea to make the bread instead of letting the flour go bad. Can you freeze flour? Not sure, but you can freeze coffee and corn meal to keep it for longer periods of time.

Just a thought, but sometimes yeast will be out of date and the bread won't rise because of it.

There are several excellent oatmeal bread recipes that call for honey at th

We have nobody here with substantive knowledge of food survivalism.

The thing I would seriously, seriously consider is that we may not always have access to a freezer or electricity for that matter. Flat breads last for a really, really long time without refrigeration. Also try making crackers.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipes/Bread/Fla ... /Main.aspx

In Colorado, you could make a great root cellar, PT. And store a lot of stuff in there that would last a long time.

I have a book entitled "Living Off the Land." I've got to dig it out from under all the other books and see what it says about the things we've been talking about here...I'll let you all know what I find out.

When I was born in Pueblo Colorado, I was the third generation to be born there. The home I came to was a farmhouse where both my mother and grandmother had been born. There was no basement but rather the entire space under the house was given over to a root cellar (and sometime tornado refuge). It was never warmer than about 40 degrees down there. All types of fresh and canned foods were kept there and used throughout the year. A separate building functioned as a summer kitchen that had an honest to God wood burning stove. Visits later was where I witnessed a wringer washer, a bread toaster where you manually had to turn the bread, and bread making in an outdoor adobe wood burning bread oven.

My grandparents farm had a cellar full of canned goods. It was pretty cool...literally.

I live a couple houses from the towns mayor. So I get red tagged for sneezing without permission. Don't see any more construction in these parts.

I can remember my mother doing the family's washing with a wringer washing machine. Mom always made sure my sister and I didn't get too close to it as she was afraid we might our hands caught in the wringer. I can also remember her using a washboard for small items that weren't too dirty, such as Dad's handkerchiefs, the few fancy napkins she had, and some of our "church" socks.

The root cellar was where we kept the winter supply of potatoes and onions, so it wasn't too big. We could access it from the outdoors. Mom canned our other foods and displayed those cans proudly in her "can closet," a small room just off the back porch. I can remember seeing Dad's long lengths of "leather britches" hanging in there.

I don't know about your town's codes, but I don't see why a root cellar would need any permission. Do you have a basement? I was also reading about just digging a hole big enough for a large plastic barrel and placing that in the ground. It won't hold a ton of stuff, but you could save a good amount of veggies in one or two of them.