About Bread

Going WAY back to almost three weeks ago: the second loaf was better!  It was more like an artisan bread.  The recipe was from America's Test Kitchen/Cooks Illustrated. I didn't manage to take a pic, but I DID measure it and it was about an inch taller than the first one.

All of this talk about bread inspired my mom to send me a copy of a poem my dad wrote a few years ago, about his memories of his mother's baking. For those of you who don't know my dad, he was the 6th of eleven children, born on a farm in Wisconsin in 1934.  The man knows bread!  (and life, beauty, and love...)

Anyway, here is his beautiful poem, written about my grandmother, Lulamae.

     "I  Heard My Mother’s Voice "

I heard my mother’s voice when Aunt Laura                                           
sang America The Beautiful at the annual family picnic.   

Spacious skies and purple mountains were in
my mother’s thought and heart, 
but waving grain and fruited plains took up her
hours and days.

My mother dreamed of travel to far places and
days of wandering.  But her time was spent
in the kitchen and  the dining room.   

The breads and rolls, the cakes, cookies and pies;
pancakes and doughnuts that flowed out from her
rising dough and from under her rolling pin
fed us all.

Her husband, her children, relatives, the neighbor
kids, and new found hungry friends brought home
by hungry children.

She would sing while she worked in her kitchen
and her gifts nourished her children and sent them
to big cities, high mountains and far away places.

A pat of fresh churned butter on a big slice
of oven-warn homemade bread should be
sung about in America, The Beautiful, too.
   
                                                    Evan Bell
                                                    Bakersfield, CA.  2006

Comments

[Miranda]

This is lovely - thank you for sharing!
I never got the email - you sent with the recipe - odd - maybe you sent to my hotmail and not gmail? Anyhoo - thanks for posting the link here.
Also I read what you wrote on Andrea's blog comments and it really resonated with me - thank you for sharing that!

[Miranda]

oh and love the new header! lots of thanks above and here's another - thanks for referring Jodee!

[crookedmoonmama]

What a sweet poem!
xoxo

[marjorie bell]

A lovely poem and artistic pic of Brian and the kids taking a breather from work! Why don't you come here for your b-day? We can babysit and you and Brian can go out for a date night (maybe a movie).

[Andrea Howe]

"She would sing while she worked in her kitchen
and her gifts nourished her children and sent them
to big cities, high mountains and far away places."
WOW, that line almost brought me to tears :) the impact a mother can have on her children is truly remarkable. thanks for sharing.

[meredith]

That was a nice sentiment for starting this Monday morning. I loved it.