Florida Chick Makes Bread

I've realized that I'm more fallible than I'd originally thought - and writing about something new every single day just might not work out so well...but I'm still aiming for at least once a week - that seems reasonable enough - 52 new things in a year, I can do that - of course, I'm already at 32 so what's another 20? It's slightly draining to constantly be working on new things to write about, so thankfully this week my friend Travis stepped in...he's one of my biggest blog fans, and I suppose he was frightened that I might run out of ideas...so in a moment of brilliance, he sent me my next challenge, make Amish friendship bread.

I don't know how many of you are familiar with Amish friendship bread, but a friend (hence the name) starts a batch of batter, splits it up, and gives you a starter of your own - it's like a chain letter in a ziploc bag. My starter kit arrived in the mail from Michigan this past Tuesday - a ziploc bag of mushy goo and a list of directions. The directions are as follows:

Day one (the day listed on the bag) - mush the bag
Day two - mush the bag
Day three - mush the bag
Day four - mush the bag
Day five - mush the bag
Day six - add 1c. flour, 1c. sugar, 1c. milk - mush the bag
Day seven - mush the bag
Day eight - mush the bag
Day nine - mush the bag
Day ten - Pour the entire contents of the bag into a non-metal bowl. Add 1 1/2c. flour, 1 1/2c. sugar, and 1 1/2c. milk - Measure out four 1c. portions into gallon size Ziploc bags. Keep one for yourself and pass alont the other three to friends.

So in theory, this is a pretty simple task...it generally consists of mushing a bag of gooey bread batter for a week and sharing it with others. In reality, however, it didn't go quite so smoothly. First off, I recieved the bag of batter on Tuesday - which turned out to be day 7 of the cycle. I'm not usually one to stick all that close to recipes, so I figured even though I missed the "add-in" date, I'd go ahead and move forward...so I added the sugar and the flour - however, I didn't have any milk (and thanks to the stinkin grocery game - I only go shopping on Sundays now) so I added a cup of water instead.

I went ahead and mushed for the next three days...but when I got to day ten, I realized that not only did I still not have any milk, I was also out of sugar (I don't bake...what on earth do I need sugar for?). Fortunately it was Saturday so I ran to the grocery store a day early...but by the time I got home, I had completely forgotten the sugar (I never use that aisle) but I had a whole weeks worth of groceries including a a buy one get one free bonus pack of deodorant - and a gallon of milk.

Anyway, by the time Saturday night came around, my bag of mushy bread batter was beginning to smell rancid and it was leaking onto my counter through the not very strong zipper top of the ziploc. I still didn't have any sugar and I didn't have any ziploc bags to pour it into (we don't use plastic bags in our house - it's bad for the environment) and unfortunately, my Amish friendship bread, after a long week and 3000 miles of travel, ended up in the garbage...I just hope this is more a reflection of my ability (or inability) to bake, than my ability at friendship - So with apologies to Travis, I'm ready to try something new - let me know what you think I should try, I'm up for another challenge...as long as it doesn't involve baking.