Finding Neverland

Sometimes we're thrown curveballs that we think will devastate our existence. Maybe it's losing someone we love. Maybe we are losing the love itself. And sometimes it is something smaller and more superficial - but just as maddening and disheartening. Recently I lost wheat. And right along with it I lost the local pizza joint, fresh baguettes, a good sandwich on crunchy coated chewy bread. There were lost opportunities in social aspects. The loss of Cheez-Its. Where does the madness end and the new beginning start?

Now.

I introduce to you the best bread I've had in almost 5 months.

Maybe, a little backstory.
Since I am a vegetarian and now avoiding wheat due to severe migraines, my Dad was wondering just what the hell I was going to eat for Thanksgiving this year. No turkey, no stuffing, no fresh baked bisquits and even no green bean casserole (the onion topping stuff)!
Enough to make one crazy mad right? And to be honest with you all. I didn't care. I kind of had given up. In fact just nights before Thanksgiving, I had decided to try homemade GF pasta dough in a Roasted Butternut & Shallot Ravioli recipe I found. it didn't go so well. Let me just conclude that story and move on with one sentence that sums it up. After working for about 1.5 hours on the prep and dough - I fast-pitched it into the floor and punched a cutting board. (I am not really prone to violent anger - but this was just too much). No fresh pasta, no fresh bread, no convenience foods. I felt like I was destined to a life of mediocrity in food. And food is my passion. MY PASSION PEOPLE!

Anyways my Dad is a pretty swell guy and decided on what he could do to make Thanksgiving special for me. He went to the store, found a bread mix and read up on making it in his breadmaker. Fast forward... I show up and see a very mischievious and happy Dad who urges me to go unwrap the towel in the kitchen. I do. In it, is the most fantastic tall loaf of bread. But I'm hardened to the game of deceiving appearances. I grab a serrated knife, slice off a piece. Slather it with butter and bite. And bite. And bite. Oh my GOD! It most definitely is not artisan bread, in fact it's not even like wheat bread. What it's most like is Wonderbread. Now, I have to be honest here. I haven't eaten white bread for over half of my life. But I am in lurv with this bread. And here's why... GF bread is tough. It's smaller than a real loaf of bread. I've had about a zillion varieties, from the GF bakery in town, to the frozen varieties...it's either a dense brick, or so crumbly it doesn't hold together, or gummy. But this, this bread was good crumbly. It was tall. It smelled like bread. Real bread. So I guess you could say I've come full circle on bread. And isn't that where it all begins? With bread?

So, Brian, being the most loving and wonderful man I know secretly ordered one along with an Allergy Cookbook. He's so good to me. Upon reading the manual we discovered the reason the bread comes out so good is because the Breadmand TR2500BC Ultimate has a Gluten Free program. So it cooks the loaf of bread differently. Wonderfully. And it comes with a handful of recipes for GF bread. Yay! Brian made the first bread - Pumpernickle. And it tasted like sweet, earthy goodness!! Love love love it.

I'm making the Onion Dill Bread now. I'll let you know how it goes.