Easy and not easy: baking bread

This morning I had homemade Irish soda bread and strawberry jam for breakfast. I'd show you a picture, but I already ate it up.

My daughter decided a couple of months ago to bake a fresh loaf of bread once a week, and she's been keeping up the habit. Each week she picks a different recipe to try, and some varieties we've enjoyed are onion buns, Russian black bread, focaccia, braided challah, and this week, a quick Irish soda bread.

She's gone from someone who wants to bake bread to someone who does bake bread. Each week she tells me she learned something new, either about ingredients, techniques, storage, or how to handle our less-than-perfect oven. She told me, "Mom, it's so easy!"

Yes, it's easy and it's also not easy. There are plenty of reasons why a bread-baking habit is difficult in modern big-city life, but she made the habit easy on herself when she decided to try one loaf a week, and she made it easy on herself by creating an enjoyable environment.

I doubt she purposely said, "I'm going to create an atmosphere for success," but that's what her actions did. She picks her recipe in advance and shops for any missing items. On baking day, she wakes up early to have the kitchen to herself (we have a tiny kitchen), she plays music she enjoys, and she wears an adorable apron (a key to success in the kitchen is a cute apron, of course!)

She didn't try to keep the family in a constant supply of freshly baked bread, though her family would certainly enjoy that, but sticks to one loaf a week that she looks forward to baking. Slow and steady, she has become a bread baker who knows what she's doing and who wants to learn  more.

Hmmm...slow habit development, encouraging atmophere, sound familiar to Charlotte Mason fans? Of course, you don't need to read and follow Charlotte Mason to bake bread once a week, but it does seem me that a CM lifestyle had some influence here.