"With bread and wine you can walk your road." -Spanish Proverb

Ever since I was small, I loved baking. My grandmother and I would make slices and biscuits, my mother and I would make cakes. As a teenager I was in the kitchen whenever I was unhappy or restless, taking adolescent angst and turning it into something tasty. I've never ventured into bread making, though, for all my love of the infinite variations of flour, butter, and sugar. An occasional damper was as far as I got - I've been cautious of relying on the activity of tiny, wonderful creatures. The simple chemistry of measuring, mixing, and heating was more to my liking.

But this is a new year (ok, it has been for a while now), and this is a new blog. Today I ordered a simple bread maker off the internet - hopefully it'll arrive in a few days. I can't wait to try it out. I've already looked through cook books at the amazing array of breads that can be made quite simply with the right tool. I have a camera, internet (obviously), and a new blog to help keep my enthusiasm levels high. I suspect, though, that the approach of winter will be all the motivation I need to make fresh warm bread to go with a stew.

This blog won't be entirely about bread, though. As the title suggests, I'm also venturing into wine making! I want to start with mead, a honey wine, simply because I have a few friends who brew it wonderfully. More than that, though, I really want to make beer, and possibly cider (for those odd friends of mine who don't like beer). This blog might have been more aptly titled "Laura's Adventures with Yeast", but it doesn't have quite the same ring to it (as well as being a good deal less appetising).

This should, with luck, be one of very few text-only posts. The goal is to try at least 2 new bread recipes a week, and to start a new brew every month. I still need to gather brewing supplies, so there'll be a staggered start, but I'm optimistic. I think this'll be fun, and I look forward to sharing my experiments with you all!

-Laura