Bringing Home the Dough

Baking and bringing home the dough

The earliest bread is from Egypt 800 B.C.E. Today, bread, and its symbolism, are at the heart of every culture. Think about it:

• As a staple of cuisines around the globe: focaccia, naan, baguette, baozi, injera, arepa, bagel, biscuit.

• As religious metaphors: Islam: knowledge, Christianity: life, Judaism: blessings, Hinduism: offering to the gods.

• As societal metaphors: “Earn your bread.” “Make some dough.” “She’s making serious cake.” “He’s got a fat roll.”

Bread-baking became a ritual in my house during the pandemic, as it did for many. The 2-ton stand-mixer. The slap, slap of flour stubbornly incorporating water. The science experiment called yeast. The torture of letting fresh-baked bread rest 45 mins before slicing. Cleaning goopy flour off of every surface for days.

Now that we live at altitude, we’ve starting bread-baking from scratch (see what I did there). It’s like we’re novices again. As I join each Zoom at 8000 feet, I’m reminded of the lessons baking bread taught me at sea-level:

—Use select, premium ingredients. (Don’t overcomplicate your messages.)

--It's ok to get a little messy sometimes. (Let others help you iterate a half-baked idea.)

--Be patient. (Sometimes people need to let your idea proof before making a decision.)

—True connection is inexpensive. (The average loaf costs 80 cents to bake—including electricity for the oven—and the benefits are huge. Similarly, reaching out to your network is basically free, and the benefits are undeniable.)

--Find ways to eat more butter. (This has nothing to do with work. It’s just a life tip.)

Com + panis is ‘bread together’ in Latin. I hope you have ‘companionship’ today. It’s National Bread Day.