Novel Eats

I love homemade crackers, and these are easy to make. Be sure to make the dip, too!

We rarely buy a loaf of bread. Sometimes we do, and we’ll buy variations of bread – like hot dog buns or bagels. But your standard loaf of bread is typically made at home. It’s cheaper, very easy, and tastes just as good if not better. It’s also nice to control and know exactly what is going into our bread.

But back to the easy part. We have a bread machine. That’s why we can get away with making it all the time. Sure, that no-knead bread is an easy substitute, but if you want to throw all of your ingredients in and press the start button, and then a few hours later discover that you have a loaf of bread – well, that’s the easiest type of homemade bread you can get.

This loaf of bread is somewhere in between the easier and easy.

Ever since I saw what this month’s challenge would be with the Daring Bakers, I kept trying to decide if I would do it or not. It wasn’t so much because it was challenging and time consuming. It was more about the fact that I’ve already gained a couple of pounds recently and it was clear this was going to be a calorie-filled pastry. Sure, I can share my creations with other people, but usually my husband and I willingly devour what we make.

I have always enjoyed dinner rolls. They are light, fluffy, and taste delicious – especially when warm and slathered with butter. I don’t have them very often, though. They are usually high in calories, and not terribly healthy if made solely with white flour. I indulged this Christmas, however, and tried a vegan recipe for dinner rolls that I found on VegWeb.

While I am not always sustainable in my actions, I do attempt being green in many areas of my life. I’m inspired by a few external sources – my community supported agriculture, my farmers, and the farmers markets I attend. Another source of inspiration is Mother Earth News, “the original guide to living wisely.” Whenever the magazine shows up in our mail I’m like a kid in the candy store – wanting to devour it whole, but wanting to savor every page and make it last until the next one arrives. So far I have been somewhere in between.

Each issue usually has a few recipes in it about what to do with your home-grown or locally grown crops. I keep swearing to myself that I will try one or two, but up until now I have not done it. The December 2007/January 2008 issue, however, offered up a bread recipe so easy and good looking that I had to try. They call it Easy, No Knead Crusty Bread – I call it Wow-I’ve-Actually-Made-Bread-That-Looks-Like-It-Came-From-A-Bakery Bread…okay, okay, I’m really calling it Homemade Artisan Bread.