#2 bread from scratch

there is a lot of waiting to rise in bread making. i know this now, because i am a bread maker. well. i made bread. does that make me a bread maker? since i doodled, am i an artist? yeah, i didn't really think so.

so i did laundry, went to a talent show, and saw jeff for a while yesterday, and in the midst of it all i made bread. all together, it took approximately ten hours to make said bread. i started around 1, mixing all the ingredients save for half of the flour. the directions told me to "wait for the sponge to double." i had to look that up. was i really supposed to just know what a sponge was, in bread making terms? honestly, i'm still not entirely sure what it was since no one has bothered to make a bread sponge article on wikipedia, but it seems to be the beginnings of the dough. i let the sponge rise for a few episodes of friends and a washer to dryer switch, then i added the rest of the flour and kneaded my little heart out. there is something about squishing sticky dough between my fingers that is simultaneously delightful and icky; honestly, i can't settle on which. i liked playing with it. i did not like that it got underneath my fingernails and that i briefly felt like i would be carrying a smattering of dough with me for eternity.

after all the kneading, i rolled my dough into a neat ball and went to put it in the bread pan, which is when i realized that i do not own a bread pan. 

then more rising happened, but i let it get a bit out of control (read: i totally forgot about it). by the time the word 'bread!' popped into my head -- exclamation point and all -- we had just ten minutes before we had to leave the house for dinner. i decided that my bread was already going to be sad and misshapen due to the lack of bread pan, so i just left it and decided to bake it later.

we then attended what was supposed to be a two hour talent show, which lasted three hours.

next we went to an art show.

then we went to wendy's.

then wendy's took a long time, because apparently cooking nuggets is not something that should be rushed.

finally we went home. i picked the wet towel off of the bread. then i kind of scraped more towel off because it stuck. then i started feeling sorry for the bread, so i put it in the oven to put it out of its misery.

41 minutes later, at about 11 pm, jeff and two of our friends and i were munching on slightly squishy but entirely delicious fresh from the oven bread. success!

i am not a bread maker. but i could be a bread maker if i wanted. good to know.

tomorrow i will try for solid hour to teach buster how to play dead. this is not something i've done before. wish me luck.