As some of you know (or maybe none of you (as you can see I don't know who even reads this)), food/cooking/baking is and was a big part of my life. Like most little tots I started with the basics, Campbell's soup and mac and cheese (In fact there is a story floating somewhere around our family tree about a furious four year old me (or maybe it was my sister...) that called parental units on a babysitter because she was trying to convince either me (or my sister) that you didn't need to add water to Campbell's soup) and from there, inched my way slowly into the world or real food one parent supervised vegetable chopping, pot stirring, ingredient pouring session at a time. Eventually we came to a point where, and I believe it was around the sophomore year, I began to plan and cook many of the meals that graced our family table. Now mind you, this little diatribe isn't relevant to the topic, ok maybe the food part, but the rest of it is really just what I think is interesting background that really none of you (if YOU even exist) would ever want or care to know. Anywho, this little background story provides the beginnings of a very important conclusion that I came to yesterday.
While munching on a slice of french baguette left over from the staff luncheon I came to the beautiful, and somewhat obvious realization, that bread is possibly the most whole, beautiful, and completely satisfying food ever to grace the human palette. Now, I can hear some of you anti-carb, gluten-free, superhero diet, raw foodists gasp and splutter over the lack of nutritional value, stomach clogging, blah, blah, blah... *snore*...I don't care. If those of us really took time to think about the bread we have eaten, good, bad, sweet, sourdough, or wonder, and try and remember what it tasted like, how we felt when we ate it, and what it meant to us at the time I think we could remember how multifaceted and satisfying a piece of bread is.
I mean, just the components of bread itself are simply beautiful. The rich, soft flours, the fragrant yeast, and all the glorious and unending accouterments that can be added to it. Bread it of the earth, simple and delicious, and in many ways bread is like people. And no, I am not going all Soilent Green on you trying to say that bread is people, or made from people, because that is, well its just gross, and creepy, and lets face it Soilent Green is not longer very relevant in terms of it's social commentary.
Sorry.
Back on track...
Bread is inherently like people. Flour is our heart and body, yeast is our blood, etc, etc. My real point is that this bread is creative and unending in its differences and constant in its similarities, just like human kind. There are sweet breads, savory breads, plain breads, breads with seeds, breads with nuts, bread with berries and fruit, bread with vegetables, the list goes on and on. I believe that the infinite combinations of ingredients you could make a different type of bread to individually represent each single person that lives on this earth (you could probably throw some animals in there too, but we don't want to push it).
I don't know why it was important to me, or why this conclusion decided to remain with me through my commute home, making dinner, working-out, sleeping, waking up....Oh. What were we talking about?
Oh right.
Bread.
It's delicious, it's easy, it's filling, it's versatile, it's nutritious, and you can't really ever go wrong with bread. Bread is awesome.
I think we should all go by a baguette and stop fighting.
That is it. Bread is the key to happiness. Bread is the key to world peace. Bread is the key to ending hunger and poverty. Bread is life.
Bread is the answer to all life's problems.
I am a genius and I think I should call the bank about a possible small business loan.
Or maybe I could just shut up and have a slice of bread.
Next time you are having a bad day, or a mediocre day, or heck, even a good day. Have a slice of bread and just see how it makes you feel.
Awesome, right?
yeah....I knew it.
