Comfort Food

Stuffed bread (sandwiches for the cutting)

Cheese bread hot out of the oven

My cutie and her little loaf with her soup

When I'm sick I want soup. It's hot, nourishing, and not too heavy. It feels healing somehow. So we've had a lot of soup in the last two months, let me tell you! Yesterday I thought it would be fun for baby girl to help make some bread before I coaxed her to join me for a nap, but I wasn't happy with the recipes I have at hand. I've tried some from the Joy of Cooking but they're kind of blah. I've tried some online that were stodgy. So with my sweetie on my lap we started poking around online for a recommended, well-loved bread recipe.

We found one from a mum in Alberta who not only makes bread every week for her family, but lovely homemade soaps. So I read through Trish's recent posting of her family favourite bread recipe and felt it was made to order for us and our slow-cooking beef, barley, lentil, and every vegetable-at-hand soup. She offered up her wholesome recipe along with photos of each step along the way, which was great to follow. Nothing like no-brainer directions when you feel under the weather.

I didn't have any spelt flour at hand and hardly any whole wheat flour left so I had to do some substituting. I wanted that whole grain taste and texture, but what to do? I crumbled two Wheetabix cereal bars into my dough. It worked up a charm, rose beautifully, and was a hit with the family. I baked one of the four loaves plain, one with cheese, one with cheese'n onion'n herbs, and one with sandwich stuffings of shredded chicken, mayo, cheese, and onion. We enjoyed the cheese breads with our soup and they were devoured. I sliced up the sandwich loaf for lunches today and there's one plain loaf to be enjoyed today.