It's a Miracle

I still can't believe that I pulled this off . . . Last week a friend gave me some Amish bread starter mix. Now my first thought was, "What kind of friend makes me bake?" I teased her and gave her Hell for this, but I was determined to make her proud. So I took my bag of batter home and diligently followed the instructions. I have to admit, there's not a whole lot to it. You mostly just have to 'mush' the bag every day. But on the 4th or 5th day it required you to add some ingredients to it. I paid attention to the directions and went to Big Y to get my supplies. I was all ready for that night's bread duty. Only I put all the groceries away and proceeded to completely forget about the bread. Good grief.

I fessed up to said friend that I already screwed up and she advised me to just push everything off by a day. OK, there's still time to come through with this project. So today was the big day that I was to finish the project. I put it off all morning until I got an email from her reminding me. That's it, I knew if I didn't spring from my chair that minute it wouldn't get done. Luckily another friend (Jill) was over at the time and assisted me.

Well, things got off shaky. I barely had enough flour and sugar and my baking sodas and powders were an expired nightmare. The powder (or is was that the soda?) was in solid form and I had to pick away at it with an ice pick. But I plugged on. Then it got down to the very last ingredient which was instant vanilla pudding, of which I had none. Now what? I'm not traveling an hour to get some. I decided to use pistachio pudding instead. I know it was odd, but I truly thought it would just be going to waste and I didn't want to waste Karlo's precious chocolate pudding mix.

The batter looked like split pea soup and it was, in my opinion, disgusting. Jill and I just had to laugh at this whole scene. I tried to force one of my starter bags on her, but she wouldn't bite. Unfortunately she went home before the loaves were baked. Hmmm, she might have planned it that way - to escape having to try it. But I'll be darned. Karlo and I just had some pieces and it was delicious. I still can't believe how yummy it was and how I made it - nearly from scratch. I'm so proud of myself!

I have 4 starter bags here. Who wants one? You gotta come over fast because they need to be tended to starting tomorrow. Come and get em.