aubreyaldrich

Ubi panis, ibi patria. Bread is a food that has been eaten in every culture in some way or form…pita bread, nan,tortilla,baguettes,roti,matzo,pan,mantou,blini,foccacia, etc.
I like Ezekiel bread which is sprouted, but I like to make my own because it is more personal. I make my bread as purely as possible.
That is, with just King Arthur’s Whole Wheat Flour and water.I form it in rounds and bake for twenty minutes.Sometimes I may use oat bran or cracked wheat when I am out of the wheat flour. I decorate with almonds, flax seeds, and goji berries on special occasions.My favorite topping is almond oil or Smart Balance, a vegan “butter”.
My bread is so simple to prepare and not only delicious but very nourishing. This is my usual breakfast, perhaps with the addition of berries and tea.
Bread is an integral part of many major religions. In the apocrypha, Adam learns how to make it from God. And, of course, there was always manna. Bread is part of my weekly Episcopal communion, with the bread symbolizing Christ’s body. In Celtic spirituality, Lugnasadh was the grain festival held on the first of August. In Christian traditional societies it was considered a sin to throw away the bread. Think about that next time you let something go stale, you over-consumers!

(The title is a Lithuanian folk saying, by the way.)

I hiked Mount Vesuvius when I was thirteen. Not exactly the most exciting thing…the crater was a giant dust bowl and my hair felt like straw afterward.
But Kilauea! When I went to Hawaii I went through a rainforest and hiked ACROSS the crater of dried black lava. I saw steam rise up from the center; I stayed away from that. There was a little crevice where a family that was camping was roasting marshmallows because it was super hot at that spot. I don’t know if that was the safest thing to do, but our guide didn’t bat an eyelash.