Beer Bread

I have made a decision. I'm going to post a recipe. I don't think it's a coincidence that my subtitle is a Russian saying about food. Before I lived here, I used dried garlic and onions. I cooked with things like canned chicken stock and frozen vegetables. I'm not saying that it wasn't okay. It's just different now.

The other day we went to church in -10 and sat through a 2.5 hour service. When we came home, I fell asleep in front of the fireplace and lost my whole afternoon. When I woke up at 5pm, I panicked because, of course, the small people still need to eat on Sundays. In some ways, I despise weekends because everybody in this family gets to kick back, do something fun, and relax. I suppose this is what working moms feel like. I revel in the joy of being so involved with my family, but sometimes I just want to punch out.

So I ran to the kitchen to get started. Usually in the evening when I'm cooking dinner, I wind down with a beer and some good music. Why should this day be any different? I popped the top of my favorite Czech beer and took a sip before analyzing the situation. Since it's pay-day this week, the fixins were pretty scarce. I looked it over and whipped up a savory beef and cheese soup with plenty of fresh cut vegetables. As I stirred the colorful mixture, I knew it needed something else.

Eureka! Beer bread. I grabbed another Staropramen and magic happened. Here's the recipe:

12 oz beer
3 c. flour
3 3/4 tsp. baking powder
3 TBSP. white sugar

Here's the tough part. Mix the dry stuff, add the beer, mix with a spoon, then your hands. Put it in a greased loaf pan in a 350 oven for 50 minutes. I was just kidding about tough. This bread smells amazing and tastes even better. The first time I cooked it I used 1664, a famous French beer, thinking that French bread is so good, of course French beer bread would be good. It was, but the kids didn't love it. This time, they asked for seconds.

I like cooking now. In fact, it's also part of my winding down. We still have our hot-dog and chip nights, but I've noticed they're fewer and farther between. Nothing brings a family meal together like some fresh bread. Try it, you'll be surprised.