A long time ago, year 2000, a church couple, Barb and Rex, invited us and other couples into their home to enjoy grilling hamburgers on a beautiful Saturday night.  We were enjoying our fellowship together and when it came time to meet together to eat, we were all drooling at the smell of the fresh baked buns!  I thought to myself, this woman has really got her stuff together.  She works as a teacher, has woman ministries, does volunteer work, and don’t forget job title of being mom! From what I knew of homemade bread, it took hours and  was labor intensive.  What the heck?  I just had to know how she does it?  (Was it polite for me to ask?) Surprise to me!  She utilized a bread machine!  I own one and my finished product was like a cube of holey bread.  You seasoned bakers know what I mean!  She was so kind to share her written  bread dough recipe with me and it has been my go to recipe ever since.  What a nice act of love!  Little did she know that  it would become a tradition with my boys to have homemade buns with BBQ or burgers.

As I learn more homesteading skills, bread making from scratch (with no bread machine) continues to be a challenge for me.  No two loafs are ever the same and it is true that bread making is an art!

I called upon my sista and mom to come for the weekend and that I am hosting a girls weekend of homestead skills.  One of activities was going to be bread making and who better to learn from that your momma?  We each had a workstation on at the island with plastic mats or the pampered chef pastry mat.  We worked through this Amish white bread recipe.  It was a good hand workout kneading the dough but the time together was precious!  I would encourage you to host a “workshop” in your kitchen with your moms, sisters, girlfriends, etc.  By the way, the finished bread was delicious and it was perfect in our eyes!

This is what I did to prepare for the in home workshop.

In Advance:

• have cute aprons ready for each girl (flour does get messy)
• have the  Amish white bread recipe printed out and each station for guest to go home with
• call each guest and have them bring their favorite bread pan to bake in

Day of:

•  place small bowls at each station (for yeast and water to proof)
•  place your plastic mats or pampered chef pastry mats (for kneading surface)
• provide each guest with glass or plastic bowl for mixing in
• provide each guest rubber spatulas or wooden spoons
• community share measuring cups or spoons or if you have enough for each guest, set out
• ingredients available

Have fun and don’t forget to take the pictures of your bread and your guests!