Daily Bread...

Mmmmm, a friend was over last week and showed me how to bake bread... with whole wheat so freshly ground, it was still warm. (She brought her grinder over.) Mmmmm. We weren't sure exactly how much dough to make for my loaf pan. But too much rise is better than not enough, right?


And unlike the last time I tried making whole wheat bread (more than two years ago), this loaf actually had some springy elasticity to it.


Still a bit more crumbly than store-bought, but way better than last time, where I ended up with an unappetizingly heavy hunk of big crumbs! It was warm fresh bread -- slathered with butter -- for the whole family. Yummmm!


I didn't think it could taste any better, but then remembered what's up in my cupboard, next to the peanut butter... (Same place, by the way, that you find it in the grocery store. If you've never tried nutella, you absolutely must! We love to dip pretzel sticks in it too.)


In case you're not sick of "Germany last year" pictures yet, here's one that I love: Sophie eating her breakfast. (Germans eat nutella on stuff like we eat peanut butter. And sometimes, the crusts on the breakfast rolls are a little too crunchy for 2-and-a-bit-year-olds to bite through so the whole thing flips up unexpectedly!)

Found some more fun memories in that day's folder. I loved the short little drive I took every day to bring the girls to and from their kindergarten. On this day, I decided to stop and take pictures of some of the houses that I always passed along the way, with their clay tile shingles, stucco siding, "balconies" instead of "decks", etc. So different than what I see in my neighborhood here...

I thought the one, below left, was interesting too since you could see the construction process -- big orange bricks instead of wood framing...


The house, below right, was not "on the way" -- it's the house my grandpa built. He and my Oma lived in the first floor and rented out the second floor. I guess you'd call it a duplex? : )


These ones below weren't on the way either; rather they were in the same town as the church (mentioned at the end of this post). The grey slate tiles on the walls are really common in this area too.


And here is that church. I love the entrance...


P.S. Don't even bother asking me for the bread recipe. I made another loaf the next day; it didn't turn out nearly as nice as when my "teacher" was looking over my shoulder. More like my lumpy one from two years ago... -sigh- Will have to practice some more...