Meatless Mondays and Bread baking

Meat-I've never loved it, except for hamburgers-in particular, Goldie's and Lot-A-Burger in Tulsa and Chris Madrid's in San Antonio-and I became a vegetarian in 1996. I buy and prepare meat for my family, but we do go meatless for an occasion meal.

Following the lead of my daughters (do we see a pattern here? :-), our Monday night meals this year will be meatless. I think it's beneficial health-wise, it will save money, and it will force me out of the rut of cooking the same ole, same ole recipes.

I've relied on soup and sides the past two weeks--Curried Lentil Soup and then White Bean and Spinach Soup. Both have been good and I've enjoyed them,but they are less than satisfying for my men (I often find them snacking later in the evening), so I'll try to make something more hearty next week. I'm thinking of vegetarian tamale pie or a meatless pasta of some sort. A green salad and some home-made bread.

Speaking of bread, I've had a Bosch kitchen machine and a Whisper Mill wheat grinder since 1990, and I've made all our sandwich bread for the past 20 years. Yummy, tender, flavorful, delicious. I made a batch of 5 loaves about a week ago, and they came out like bricks-ugh. I threw them all away-they were that bad. I think the yeast was old, or maybe the water was too hot and killed the yeast. Also, I was distracted as I had not planned my time well and was in a crunch to be somewhere by 2:00. So over the weekend I threw out the old yeast and made another round of bread-this time only 3 loaves. Being very careful of what I was doing and watching the time, I was sure these loaves would be perfect . . . but I accidentally let them rise too long; they rose up, up, up, and then drooped halfway down the sides of the pan. Bleah. My son, Jimmy, said they looked like mushrooms. :-) They're edible, but not what I was hoping for.

Always learning! And thankful for 2nd chances (and third chances and fourth chances and . . .), in breadmaking and in life.

. . . His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; . . . Lam. 3