My bread baking training session

I have a theory that wives get to a certain point, and they have cooked as much as their minds and bodies can handle.  I can understand how this situation can happen. We men generally expect there to be food on the table at regular intervals over many years.   For most of our wives' lives, including their childhoods, eating out hasn't been much of an option and food preparation has been a huge and often thankless chore.   Now with all the restaurant choices and the kids gone, eating out must seem like a great idea, and cooking doesn't look like a lot of fun.

I think the ladies can become jaded enough with cooking that a piece of toast becomes an acceptable meal.  Well I'm not ready to accept just toast for dinner yet, so I have been encouraging Glenda to teach me new things in the kitchen.  I'm already adept at cooking breakfast, grilling, making sandwiches, and even doing creamed potatoes.  Today I was ready for a challenge so I asked to learn how to make bread.  I wasn't serious enough that I wanted to start kneading the dough  Using our faithful bread maker seemed to be a good compromise.  If nothing else, when dinner becomes toast, I'll have homemade bread for the toast.

The recipe was simple.  With an expert actually showing me what to do in a fashion similar to how I provide computer help, the ingredients were dumped into the magic bread pan, the yeast was loaded in the special compartment and the timer was set.  Around three hours later, the alarm went off, and I extricated the first loaf of Oatmeal bread that I can take even the slightest credit for baking.

Next time I'll try it completely on my own.  Maybe fresh bread will help keep those good home cooked meals coming.

I will say making bread with a bread maker is not much more complicated than making coffee with a coffee maker.