~A Whole Lotta Dough~

I'm not quite sure, but I probably should be embarrassed to admit the fact that I'm 32, and two weeks ago was the very first time I've ever made homemade bread. EVER.
While I'm in the confessing mood, I should also point out that I was never that "into" helping my mom in the kitchen. I didn't grow up with a love of cooking or any sort of natural inclination to just throw a little-of-this and a little-of-that and whip up something that could be called edible.
No, I was much more content to let my younger sister hone her cooking skills in the kitchen with my mom, while I fine-tuned my ability to spot an "off sides" or a "pass-interference" while plopped down in front of a football game with my dad. (Which reminds me of a pretty funny story from when Jeff and I were newlyweds which I will have to save for another day...)
Ahem.
Well, fast forward 7 years of marriage and two kids later and I FINALLY feel like I am starting to get my groove on in the kitchen! For about the last 3 weeks, I've been cooking up all new recipes that I've procured from other people's blogs and I am having a BLAST! Okay, maybe blast is a little too strong of a description, but suffice it to say that I'm enjoying my husband telling me I'm batting 1000 lately with my cooking! HA!
So, back to the bread. Having never made it before, I didn't realize that I could be saving alot of money by baking my own bread. Not only that, but when you make it yourself, it's way healthier and simply delicious!
I found my soon-to-be-first-ever-baked-bread recipe at an AWESOME cooking blog called Eat At Home Cooks. The author of this blog shares VERY simple, affordable, and delicious recipes in a way that novice/semi-novice cooks like me can really appreciate. In addition to showing a photo of the ingredients and the final product, her steps are easy to understand and she blogs about any embellishments made or what she would do differently the next time. I also love love LOVE that she has weekly, printable menu lists that I can take to the store and do all of my shopping for the week. This type of menu planning means that we are eating out less (thus saving $$) and also enjoying home-cooked meals every night! When I saw her recipe for this bread, I knew I had to give it a try! I also decided that making 6 loaves of bread for the first time wasn't enough for one afternoon and dove head-first into another dish that I had yet to try my hand at....Stuffed Shells. Both recipes turned out sooooo yummy and have now been added to my "staples."

Below are the pics of my afternoon. Enjoy!