Baking

I'm the family baker.  I used to bake in our bread machine every week, but lately I've been getting lazy.  I bake a wide variety of bread:  whole wheat, multigrain, rye (actually a mix of white, whole wheat and rye), raisin cheese and even plain white bread.  Without such variety baking gets boring suprisingly quick.

For whole wheat, multigrain and rye, I use molasses and honey instead of regular sugar.  The main challenge for me is getting the flour-water ration right, so the loaf won't be too small or too big. Of all the varieties, whole wheat has the best smell when baking!

I also bake gingerbread sometimes.  One trick I've learned is to put a little oil in the measuring cup before measuring out molasses, and move it about so it covers most of the inner surface.  That way when you pour the molasses out hardly any will be stuck to the measuring cup!

In one of the Little House books, the family came to a new town just before the land rush, and made some money boarding people in their house who hadn't found their own places.  Some of them liked the mother's baking so much that they asked for her recipes, but she didn't have any; she'd just learned from years of experience!

The Christie people used to have a big cookie factory near the lakeshore in Etobicoke.  I passed it once and there was a nice smell!