Baby Steps

January's not even over yet, so who knows how the rest of the year will go, but I'm pretty proud of the fact that I've only purchased one loaf of bread this month! So far, pretty good on my goal to stop buying pre-packaged sandwich bread.

We've been going through about 2 loaves a week (we don't go through that much store-bought bread, but maybe it's a sign that we should lay off the carbs a bit??), so I've made about 6 loaves so far this month.  I've been using the White Sandwich Bread recipe from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day (I know, white bread, but baby steps...), and it's working out so well.  I find that the recipe makes 2 good-sized loaves (as opposed to the three loaves the recipe claims), so it only takes me a little time each week to make our bread. 

As a little incentive (though, really the homemade bread is incentive enough!), I made myself a bread bag.

It took 5 minutes to make the bag, and those hedgehogs? Too cute! I simply folded a dishtowel in half the long way and sewed up the open bottom and side. So simple, and it holds two loaves. Perfection.

Now, if only I'd given my husband a present for our anniversary, I'd be sittin' pretty.