Turn on the oven! It’s cool outside (relatively speaking). Since we live in South Texas and it’s hot outside, why make the house hot inside? So now we have a “norther” blowing through and we can open the window to six good months of baking.

First up is Honey Pear Loaf as shown in Bake from Scratch – a lovely “pear-packed honeyed loaf with a decadent, fluffy yeast texture.” It didn’t turn out quite like the photo, but we closed our eyes and savored it nevertheless. My goal is to bake every recipe in the Sep/Oct issue of Bake from Scratch, front to back.

Baking is an everyday delight I relish when the first fall days arrive. I agree with author, poet, lecturer, and Benedictine Oblate Kathleen Norris as she writes in her precious little book, The Quotidian Mysteries: Laundry, Liturgy, and “Women’s Work” – “Is it not a good joke that when God gave us work to do as punishment for our disobedience in Eden, it was work that can never be finished, but only repeated, day in and day out, season upon season, year after year?” (26-27). For me, it’s not only quotidian work, but also a wobbly step into contemplation. For Norris, too. She writes: “The ordinary activities I find most compatible to contemplation are walking, baking bread and doing laundry.” (15)

The main ingredients in Dominic Garramone, OSB’s bread- making process, as I see it, are proofing, pacing, and praying. In Bake and Be Blessed, he presents bread- baking as a metaphor for spiritual growth. Our ‘daughter’ Amy gave me the book years ago; now in my retirement, I just might bake every recipe in that book, too, front to back. I love his prayer suggestions, like what to do while waiting for the dough to rise. For me, it is Stillness. Quiet. Contemplation. I’ll let you know how the “punch down” process goes.

Most bread recipes were created by many hands and tested by many tasters. During these at-home pandemic days, what ordinary things can we create or transform by prayerful attention? In what ways do we allow the grace of God to permeate every part of our lives? “Jesus also used this illustration: 'The Kingdom of Heaven is like the yeast a woman used in making bread. Even though she put only a little yeast in three measures of flour, it permeated every part of the dough.' Mt 13:33 NLT.

1.     To have experience of (synonym: Taste)

2.     To taste or smell with pleasure (synonym: Relish)

3.     To delight in (synonym: Enjoy)[1]

The other day, I savored the touch of a flannel shirt, on the first cool morning after a hot Texas summer. I savored a steaming cup of coffee, and the song of a bird.

In one of her poems,[2] Mary Lou Kownacki, OSB, savors

Thirty whole minutes

to do nothing

but stare out the large monastery window

and watch snow

fall.

Whatever blessings you may have, large or small – whether those blessings be friendships or abilities, possessions or a simple cup of coffee – take time to savor such gifts. Joy is not determined by how many blessings we have. Joy is determined by how much we savor the blessings we have.

And by the way, when Jan starts baking, I savor the results: I taste, I relish, I enjoy!

[1] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/savor

[2] “Thirty-Five,” in The Blue Heron and Thirty-Seven Other Miracles (Erie: Benetvision, 1996), p. 46.

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