Holiday Feast!

   For many people the Holidays are some of the most joyous days of the year!  Each and every holiday that is celebrated in the winter is celebrated in a different and unique way!  One thing that all of these holidays have in common is that they all involve some kind of huge meal.  

  Presents during Christmas have not always been around, but now days they seem like the most important thing to people!   Christmas has always been about religion, but in some ways I don't think it is anymore.  People are trying to overdo themselves from the years past!  This could be from decorations on the tree to the presents under the tree to even what they make for their Christmas meal. 

  Probably the most common holiday is Christmas.  During Christmas people celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.  Even though many people don't think about the meaning of Christmas all the time they still enjoy the holiday every year.  Meals during Christmas time often involve some type of meat.  Often this meat is turkey or ham, but people are coming up with new ideas for recipes  during the Christmas and many of the other holidays every year.  One of my favorite things to make during Christmas are Christmas Cookies!  I love rolling them out and cutting them out into different shapes.  Although I enjoy doing that the thing I love the most about making Christmas cookies is decorating them!  There are so many endless possibilities when it comes to decoration! 

  

   Other Holidays during the winter season are very important to other religions!  Food is also important to those Holidays!  It seems that the food that is made during those holidays are more traditional and stay more to how they were made many years ago. 

   Food is so important to all parts of the world!  Depending on where you live or what you eat, the culture of those people is also different.  Not knowing much about other cultures, I do know that each and every culture is distinctively different!

  Food is a part of almost everything we do and say! It is a part of the person who we are!  It makes us who we are!

 

   

   

Life without having food

Wouldn't life be so much simpler without food? Well I think so.

If no one had to eat there would be a large job decrease.  Just think about it!  If people didn't have to eat there would be no restaurants and without restaurants there would be no cooks, no waiters.  Also no one would own or run the restaurant either.  If animals did not have to eat either there would be no farmers because there would be no need to grow crops.  There wouldn't be any feed meals or elevators either.

Without food many factories would not exist.  Without food many other products would not be able to be made such as ethanol which is used to power farm equipment and some vehicles.

The way people think would be different as well.  No one would be thinking about eating or making food. Food would be nothing it would mean nothing.

Even If we had food there would be nothing to do with it except make things out of it.  Would people really know what to do?

If there were no plants, there would be no paper, and if paper never existed then people wouldn't be able to do homework or write down their thoughts.

Life would be very different if no one had to eat.

If there was no food would we even exist?  Would the word even exist?  Would there be anything but darkness?

What would the world truly be like without food? Would there even be life, or would it be a world of nothingness?

These are some things I have been thinking lately.  They are things I think everyone should think about.  Living inside a box is not a good thing for anyone! :P

The (lost) Art of Bread Making

  This morning I was sitting in the kitchen watching TV, flipping through channels, and looking for something good to watch.  As you probably have already assumed, from reading my blog, I love pretty much anything that involves baking.  So what did I find, you ask?  Why, "Baking with Julia" of course!  As always she had a moderately famous baker on her show,  this time from France.  He was making bread, something that everyone can picture in their head, but is it the same picture that it use to be?

  Isn't bread just something you can pick up from the grocery store? Well that's what many people think, but of course this is not true, is it?

  Bread is one of the oldest foods known to man, it was invented over 8,000 years ago.  It has been a staple food for over 5,000 years because it was simple to make and the ingredients didn't cost a lot of money.  Most people don't care about any of this, because they don't think about or understand how their food is made, or what it meant to people so many years ago. We live in such a fast-paced society that people don't have the time to think about these things, and why would they feel the need to anyway?

  There truly is a reason for people to think deeper about what they eat and how it is made.  Bread is made in such large quantities that it often spoils before it can be used.  To prevent this factories put all kinds of "preservatives", or chemicals that many people would not consider eatable, into their dough.  Do you really want to eat chemicals?  I know I don't!

 I think we can solve this problem by looking back in time, to the early 1900's.  This was a time when there were no big chain grocery stores.  Everything was one and only!  There were grocery stores, but they weren't chains.  They sold flour and yeast for people to go home and make their own bread!   Most people just rely on large grocery stores to have everything they need, but that isn't always the case.  If people made their own food more, they wouldn't have to worry about what goes into their food!

  Remember that making food from scratch is not weird or different.  It's smart, and a lot cheaper! ;)

Here is a recipe from scratch and one for a bread machine:

White Bread (from scratch)


Ingredients-


Flour- 5 1/2- 6 cups 
Sugar- 3 tbsp.
Yeast -1 pkg.
Water -1 1/2 cups
Milk-1/2 cup
Oleo (stick margarine) -3 tbsp.

Directions-                                                                       Bread Picture

- in a large bowl thoroughly mix 2 cups of flour, the sugar, salt, and undissolved yeast.
- combine water and oleo in sauce pan.
-heat on low until liquids are warm
- gradually add dry in ingredients and beat for 2 minutes at medium speed of an electric mixer, scraping the bowl
- Add 3/4 cup flour or more (add enough to make a soft dough)
- Put dough on a floured board
- knead until smooth (about 8-10 minutes)
- Place in creased bowl and grease top of dough
- cover and raise until dough doubles in size (for about 1 hour)
- shape into 2 loaves
- let raise again
- bake at 400 degrees for 30-40 minutes


(Bread Machine)Large Bread  Loaf  (much faster)


Ingredients-

Water- 1 1/8 cup
Bread Flour- 3 cups
Salt- 1 1/2 tsp.
Sugar- 3 tbsp.
Dry Milk- 1 1/2 tbsp.
Butter- 1 1/2 tbsp.
Dry Yeast- 2-2 1/4 tsp. (1 pkg.)


Directions-
- put all ingredients in bread machine
- set for a standard loaf of bread
- let the bread machine do it's thing
- in a few hours you will have a beautiful loaf of bread :)

My passion..

Cooking and baking have been a part of my life since I was about eight years old.  First my dad taught me how to make scrambled eggs.  I loved cooking so much I wanted to learn more about the art of it all.  I can remember when I was about nine or ten, my mom teaching me how to bake cookies, not the kind you just cut out of a tube of cookie dough, but from scratch.  I believe everything is better made from scratch, and if it is made with as many organic and real ingredients as possible.  Patience is the key to making something as good as it can be, and you have to love what you're doing in order to make everything come together.  

One thing that I truly hate about today's society is the fact that not many people really know how to cook.  Since almost everyone has a nine to five job, it is nearly impossible for them to cook a meal for their family.  If they do, it is usually something out of the freezer section in the grocery store.   Cooking and baking are  lost art forms.  In my opinion, it is quite sad.  

To me, baking is a passion, not a job.  This passion is something that will stay with me, for my whole life.  What you do with your life should be a passion, not something that you will regret doing everyday. Love what you do, because what you do is who you are.  It's what makes you who you are.   Remember that you can do what ever you want to, because you're original, and know one can replace you.