Good stuff

Simple foods are so nourishing to the core on a cool fall day. I love the way our house smells right now, full of baking bread and smoky bean soup scent. I adore the feel of bread being kneaded, cool and smooth beneath my hands, pressing good thoughts into every turn of the dough. I cherish sitting with my family as sun spills onto the table and we chat about how delicious everything tastes and what our plans will be this evening.

Good things in life often center around soup and bread.

On the recently assembled Imagination Tribe recipe book I have a quote: "As the days grow short, some faces grow long. But not mine. Every autumn, when the wind turns cold and darkness comes early, I am suddenly happy. It's time to start making soup again." ~Leslie Newman

And I love this one too:

"Breadbaking is one of those almost hypnotic businesses, like a dance from some ancient ceremony. It leaves you filled with one of the world's sweetest smells...there is no chiropractic treatment, no Yoga exercise, no hour of meditation in a music-throbbing chapel that will leave you emptier of bad thoughts than this homely ceremony of making bread."
M. F. K. Fisher, The Art of Eating

So today, I putzed on the computer and made bread and soup. The kids? They were busy turning the living room into a gargantuan fort, bringing every blanket and pillow in the house out to assist in the project. There are remnants of their play, some leftover bits of blankets that haven't been hauled back to bedrooms yet. We have crumbs on the counter and dirty dishes but we feel so content, all full of soup, bread, writing and play.