Baking bread

I’ve done it scores of time. It has always baked just fine. I even went from the store bought pre-mix where someone else thought of everything, to making it from scratch here at home. It has been a rewarding experience, smells great when cooking, tastes good since it I make it to my flavor preferences, and it makes me feel good teaching it to a child. For the child, it is mostly teaching self-confidence about trying to cook that makes me feel fine.

Then suddenly the last batch failed. For bread making I follow the formula (recipe) to the tee, though in most other cooking I free play it. By to the tee, I mean temperatures and proportions. Yet the bread did not rise, and yes I used yeast; it was unleavened in the result. I could have used it as a brick to hit somebody. Having been in the Marines, I recognized the food value was the same, and ate it as small brick-like nuggets. Thank goodness for soft margarine to lessen the impact.

To reflect my age, I did not think about the starving children in China. I was hungry enough in Tennessee.

And I did not tell any of my relatives.