ekeeping routine I make bread, albeit in far smaller quantities than before. More than two decades ago when our sons were still at home and shared meals with friends was standard operating procedure, I'd mix and knead by hand. Ten loaves at a time.
Bread making is much less adventurous these days, however. The "boys" are now married and fathers of their own children, Hubby and I are racking up years faster than I could ever have imagined and experimentation with a lot of recipes has come to a screeching halt. Whole wheat, it is; sugar and spice, it isn't.
Here's the routine: measuring ingredients into a bread making machine, I set the thing on Dough and let it chug for ninety minutes. When the cycle is finished I bundle the dough carefully into one of those original ten bread pans and set it to rise. Once baked, who could ever tell I took the easy route?
Yesterday I discovered a new recipe. While it sounded great, I made the mistake of assuming the equivalent of one package of yeast was equal to one teaspoon of the packaged product. Those barely puffed-up offerings tasted fine but any "rising to the occasion" was missing. After getting my Fleishmann conversion numbers right, today's batch is all it should be. Working silently but powerfully, yeast joins a blend of common ingredients, incorporates its life throughout the mixture and lifts the product to new heights.
"He told them still another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough." Matthew 13:33 (NIV)
Be encouraged in remembering that Christ in us permeates each common day with the power of His love, lifting the soul to new heights.
