Day 175 of 365 - Bagels, Buns and Bread
When I walk by a bakery, the yeasty smell of baking bread is intoxicating. It draws me like a magnet in it's direction. I enjoy admiring freshly baked loaves displayed on the shelves. I've decided the attraction must be in my cell memory.
I grew up on inexpensive white bread, the kind purchased in large quantities for a big family of hungry kids. It was served at every meal. Dinner rolls were for special meals like Christmas or Thanksgiving.
I honestly don't recall when I first tasted non-white bread, but it was certainly past childhood, maybe when multigrain bread began being marketed as more healthy. Since then I've enjoyed bread with more texture and flavor.
There was a period of time in my working years when I also had a fascination with bagels. I would take one with cheese almost every day for lunch and would by a bowl of soup at the cafeteria to go with it.
We also had an electric bread maker for awhile and would make homemade bread in that each week using a whole wheat or multigrain flour. That tasted really good too.
Oh, and cinnamon buns. My husband liked making bread dough by hand. He became the family baker of homemade cinnamon buns served for breakfast at Christmas and Easter, also very delicious. So the smell of something like that baking is still very appealing to me too, but, if I ate that combination of flour and sugar now, I would just feel unwell.
Most of the time these days, I am eating gluten free and generally limiting my intake of grains. I've discerned in the last several years of food experimentation, that I just feel better eating this way.
I do sometimes eat wheat based rolls or pasta, such as when it's provided when I'm a guest at a meal. I am not someone who has a drastic reaction to gluten.
For a period of more than a year, I was baking my own yeast free, gluten free bread at home, which I very much liked. It is a dense and satisfying bread. That has gone by the wayside in recent months due to some changes in routines and obligations. I'll probably get back to it at some point.
In the meantime, I've been buying gluten free bread at the health food store. Some of them are ridiculously expensive, but there is one brand which is more reasonable, called O'Dough's. It's pretty good, considering that it's mass produced and packaged.
The other day when I went to buy a loaf it was out of stock. I looked at several other brands but rejected them, either for their price or being too plain. I want bread that tastes like something! I stood in front of the freezer case where they store most of the gluten free breads. (That's because they don't contain the preservatives in regular breads.) I was willing my current favorite loaf to appear in a back corner, but had no such luck.
The same company, O'Dough's, does however, also sell bagels and buns. A friend told me recently that she really likes the bagels. So I bought a package of those and a package of buns. They will be my bread substitute for a couple weeks. Even with gluten free bread, I don't eat it every day, only 3 or 4 times a week with a breakfast meal. Quite a change from my childhood routine.
I can still very much enjoy the smell of baking wheat bagels, buns and bread without having to buy it or eat it. I'm just basking in pleasant memories and that is satisfying enough.
I grew up on inexpensive white bread, the kind purchased in large quantities for a big family of hungry kids. It was served at every meal. Dinner rolls were for special meals like Christmas or Thanksgiving.
I honestly don't recall when I first tasted non-white bread, but it was certainly past childhood, maybe when multigrain bread began being marketed as more healthy. Since then I've enjoyed bread with more texture and flavor.
There was a period of time in my working years when I also had a fascination with bagels. I would take one with cheese almost every day for lunch and would by a bowl of soup at the cafeteria to go with it.
We also had an electric bread maker for awhile and would make homemade bread in that each week using a whole wheat or multigrain flour. That tasted really good too.
Oh, and cinnamon buns. My husband liked making bread dough by hand. He became the family baker of homemade cinnamon buns served for breakfast at Christmas and Easter, also very delicious. So the smell of something like that baking is still very appealing to me too, but, if I ate that combination of flour and sugar now, I would just feel unwell.
Most of the time these days, I am eating gluten free and generally limiting my intake of grains. I've discerned in the last several years of food experimentation, that I just feel better eating this way.
I do sometimes eat wheat based rolls or pasta, such as when it's provided when I'm a guest at a meal. I am not someone who has a drastic reaction to gluten.
For a period of more than a year, I was baking my own yeast free, gluten free bread at home, which I very much liked. It is a dense and satisfying bread. That has gone by the wayside in recent months due to some changes in routines and obligations. I'll probably get back to it at some point.
In the meantime, I've been buying gluten free bread at the health food store. Some of them are ridiculously expensive, but there is one brand which is more reasonable, called O'Dough's. It's pretty good, considering that it's mass produced and packaged.
The other day when I went to buy a loaf it was out of stock. I looked at several other brands but rejected them, either for their price or being too plain. I want bread that tastes like something! I stood in front of the freezer case where they store most of the gluten free breads. (That's because they don't contain the preservatives in regular breads.) I was willing my current favorite loaf to appear in a back corner, but had no such luck.
The same company, O'Dough's, does however, also sell bagels and buns. A friend told me recently that she really likes the bagels. So I bought a package of those and a package of buns. They will be my bread substitute for a couple weeks. Even with gluten free bread, I don't eat it every day, only 3 or 4 times a week with a breakfast meal. Quite a change from my childhood routine.
I can still very much enjoy the smell of baking wheat bagels, buns and bread without having to buy it or eat it. I'm just basking in pleasant memories and that is satisfying enough.
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