Easy-peasy Stir-‘n’-Pour Bread made by Princess Anee and me

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We are still on the delightful errand of The Baby Watch here in Ohio. We. Are. Not. Impatient. We resolve to stick this thing out until this precious new babe is safely ushered into the world andintoAmma’sarms! and into the capable and loving arms of his/her parents, Andrew and Sonia.

Meanwhile. As we wait, everybody asks me: what are you guys doing with your time? Well. Here’s the scoop. We are playing games, and trekking up to the royal bed chamber of Princess Anee whenever she hearkens us to do so, and putting together puzzles and playing with her doll house, and drawing pictures of fanciful princesses, reading copious numbers of books, and doing the alphabet-magnet board thingy, and counting the quarters in her purse (there are five of them).

When we aren’t doing those things, we brought books to read and we are coloring together and catching up with visiting and knitting and taking pictures and playing with balloons and taking out the trash and watching the birds in the backyard, and going shopping and reciting poetry to each other and, well. We are staying busy.

No moss, as it were, is growing underneath our seats, no sirree bob.

Also, we are cooking. My co-grandma Jamie, whom I am happy to report is also here on Baby Watch, is a famous cook–and though I would rather just sit back and let her do what she does so well . . .that would be a tad rude and besides, I like to stay busy, too, so I offered to make bread to accompany her soup. As I was dragging out the ingredients, and studying a recipe that Sonia had written down on a post-it note, Anya came in, pulled up a chair to the counter, and offered to help.

Anya, aka Princess Anee, when she lived close by, used to come often to our house to spend time with us. It was delicious heaven, folks, to have her so close, and of course you already know this if you have littles or even bigs with littles of their own, who happen to live . . . close by.

One thing that Anya loved to do at our house was “mix, Amma!” while I was working in the kitchen. I would give her a big bowl and a wooden spoon, and as I prepared lunch or dinner or whatever, I’d dump little bits of this and small handfuls of that into her big bowl, and let her mix them. This kept both of us happy for a very long time. I tried to vary the colors and textures and so forth, so of course it would be more interesting for her, and she would stay longer. So to a cup of flour–went a grind of pepper, then a clump of brown sugar, then perhaps some peanuts, then some powdered sugar, then a handful of cheerios, a handful of peppercorns, some dried herbs, and then some cinnamon—you get the picture. I would add something whenever she made a peep. She would stir happily.

This never got old, for Anee or me. Eventually I’d have dinner made, and Anya would have a big, well-mixed bowl of . . . something that we’d later throw to the chickens.

*sigh*

So. Yesterday when the Princess asked to “help mix” I slid the big bowl that I was going to mix bread up in over to her, and handed her a wooden spoon. And I gave her a kiss and a hug that nearly knocked her off her chair. Bless her. She’s barely four, folks, and this bread recipe of Sonia’s is so easy that she nearly made it by herself.

Sonia originally got this recipe from a friend of hers who writes this amazing blog, and then she changed it up a bit, of course, as is her wont. And then I changed it up a bit, of course, as is mine. It turned out lovely. So if you need a super-simple bread to make with your evening soup or salad, or just really want some hot bread but feel a bit intimidated by homemade bread-making and kneading and rising and whatnot, try this recipe.

This is how the bread dough looks when it’s properly mixed.

And you can even change it up a bit, of course, if that’s your wont. 🙂

This recipe makes two nice-sized loaves. 🙂

Which, as it happens, it probably is.

Yum! Does anybody want some hot bread with butter??

Here’s the recipe:

See how easy?

Even more fun if you make it with somebody you love.

Yum. Yum. Yum.

and *hugs*

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