Baking Bread

Today we went to our friend Betsy's house. She taught Danya to bake bread while Gloria and Betsy's daughters played. Danya got to do everything from scooping the ingredients to kneading the dough. She had a blast! Betsy explained to her that the yeast was alive and just like a little baby it needed milk and air. Danya really seemed to enjoy the concept of "baby yeast". She had fun rolling the dough and smacking it down. It took her a while to figure out how to use a rolling pin, but after a while she was practically a pro. It was so funny watching her get her fingers stuck in the dough when she was trying to separate it in half. Her hands would be too sticky and need more flour on them. Betsy offered to let me help too, but I was having way too much fun just watching Danya
enjoy the process. Besides, I much prefer to be the photographer than the baker! Gloria and the other girls came in every so often to take a peak at what Danya was doing, but mostly they ran around the house, pounding on the out of tune piano, dancing to the CD player, and generally wreaking havoc in the upstairs playroom. Little Megan was so cute when she would reach her tiny hands up to me so I'd pick her up and let her see what was happening inside the mixing bowl. Danya got to join in on the craziness 4 little girls can make during the intervals when we'd have to wait for the bread to rise or otherwise "do it's thing". She was very patient with the whole process and listened well to Betsy's instructions. We had pizza delivered for lunch, which was an hour and half late so we got it free. Free pizza always tastes better, doesn't it? Then it was back to the grindstone...or in this case, grinder machine. Betsy actually had a machine to grind wheat. So Danya got to scoop it full of real wheat grain and it made wheat flour. That was alot
of fun but it was also extremely noisy! Between the grinder, the mixer, and the kids there was quite a racket! The end results sure were tasty, though! We got to try some of the rolls when they were hot and fresh out of the oven. Danya made rolls and pita bread! She was so proud of her creation! Then Betsy surprised me by telling me that we got to take ALL the bread home because she had already made enough for her family previously! She didn't have to twist MY arm! lol. So tonight we had chicken and macaroni n' cheese with yummy wheat rolls. Mmmm!