Staff Of Life -Bread

 If you do nothing else for your kids, grandkids included, teach them how to bake bread. One of my favorite tools in the kitchen is an old bread maker that I use only for mixing dough. Today's bread at my house is hot dog buns. My recipe book is You Tube and I found a recipe for hot dog buns that look, taste and feel like store-bought ones. This kind of bun is perfect for all kinds of purposes besides housing wieners. They also make, if sliced across, perfect little bases for your canapes or for hearty appetites, hamburger and chili holders. Or chicken/ turkey/ham/beef sliced delights along with sprouts or lettuce and tomatoes and onions. They  make a meal in a bun, and heated with mayo and cheese, a melt: tuna, salmon, prawns. You and the children can be creative, maybe even let the young ones build their own from a library of goodies you put on the counter, before them. Your bread maker is your best friend. I have never used mine to bake bread owning to the disastrous results, but it does take away the boring effort of kneading. Some people love to knead and if you need to do that, you can take the dough out of the machine after mixing and for fun, DIY. Having the aging joy of arthritis, I no longer find kneading fun but I do adore how many different kinds of breads I can make using my mixer. You can add fruit and a bit more sugar for sweet breads. Don't forget onion/cheese bread or garlic/parmesan or all-grain breads when  you toss in, now and then during the mix, some oats and other grains you enjoy. Herb bread is delicious and don't forget the exotic lavender and ginger varieties as well. You can convert any bread recipe that is not one done in a mixer, by first adding the hot water, sugar and yeast into the bottom of the mixer pan and letting it proof, next dumping in your egg, oil and/or butter before turning on the mixer to make dough after adding the flour. Peek and poke at the dough now and again to see if it needs for a nice soft, pliable dough, perhaps a bit more flour or water or oil. A good baker knows the importance of feeling the dough. You will learn the best texture with experience. This is where you and the kids can discuss the art of breading. When you teach your offspring how to make bread, you are doing them a huge favour. They will never starve at college or while living alone if they have a bread mixer and an air fryer besides the college room microwave oven for perfect popcorn and hopefully in the kitchen down the hall, an oven for baking. Carbs are satisfying and keep one from dangerous all-fat diets that usually end up adding more fat than before but on you, not on the plate. There is no harm in a slice of bread or two a day with lots of good things on top. Kids love to toss in the ingredients for bread making because the mixer does the hard work and when that dough comes out, a little kneading and shaping can feel, for them, very grown-up artistically satisfying. The smell of baking dough is a joy and an invitation to make friends over a slice of warm, buttery bread, fresh out of  your oven.