The Staff of Life

Yes, I'm talking about bread. This past Sunday at St. Tim's, the Communion hymn was "I Am The Bread Of Life,"--definitely one of my favourite (Western) hymns of all time. I think this is largely in part because we used to sing it often during my childhood in Port Elgin. But I also found myself wondering if my love of this hymn is subconsciously linked to my love of bread. As some of you know, I started dabbling in artisan bread making just before we left Toronto. The dabbling did anything but quench my curiosity; that obsession got packed along with the rest of our belongings and moved to Winston with us.
In my endeavours to tame the domestic wilderness, I did a great deal of research on what type of mixer would be best suited for bread making. Oh! Did you hear that? That was the sound of my husband clicking the "x" on his internet browser...he has heard enough on that topic, poor man.
Now, I'll try not to monopolize your whole day with my entire mixer dissertation, but suffice it to say:
1) higher wattage does not mean a more powerful mixer (I learned this the hard way)
2) even the big "pro" Kitchenaids might choke on your stiffest bagel dough.
I started out with a "highest wattage possible" mentality. After suffering severe disillusionment from an 800 watt mixer that overheated and seized in the middle of a batch of pita, and after subsequently trying to do without a mixer altogether (which resulted in crumbly buns and bagels), I finally bought a Bosch Compact. Friends, I'd like you to meet Jeeves:

At only 400 watts, I wasn't expecting much. Boy was I surprised. He made such light work of some of my stiffest bagel dough without even breaking a sweat. By the time he was finished, I said to him, "Jeeves, you are a wonder!" And that is how he acquired the name Jeeves. Here's one of the fruits of Jeeves's labour:

I didn't think we'd be eating Montreal bagels in Winston Salem, NC, but there it is! Coupled with scallion cream cheese (which I made by chopping scallions and stirring them into cream cheese), smoked salmon, and capers, you're looking at the peak of decadence.
It wasn't enough to master the bagel though. I could not rest until I made the perfect sourdough. Now, I'm not there yet, but I'm getting closer with every batch. It's been a long and arduous road that began with me trying to make my own sourdough starter from scratch with flour and pineapple juice. It got moldy, I got impatient, and it got tossed. Then I bought a dried starter that I tried to revive to no avail...but three's a charm: my third foray into the world of sourdough involved buying a live culture that has San Franciscan ancestry (the best strains of sourdough come from San Francisco). After only a couple of days of feeding, it was good and ready to go! Say hello to Winston:

Winston is breeding so vigorously that I have had to give several cultures away already. The first friend to take a Winston spawn informed me that she was naming hers "Salem." I was pleased. Another friend in queue for a Winston spawn will be naming hers "The Dash." Again, I am pleased. Here's my most recent loaf of sourdough:

 Of course, now that I am getting close to perfecting my sourdough, temperatures have jumped to the thirties here (which I believe translates to eighties in American speak). I'll have to make a whole lot of sourdough waffles instead!