Dry Crust, with Thanksgiving

Better a dry crust with peace and quiet

than a house full of feasting, with strife.

Proverbs 17:1

This was the perfect description for our very peaceful and quiet Thanksgiving this year. We did not go down to Maryland and Virginia to visit with Mark's family this year. Instead, we decided to stay home and perhaps invite friends who were around to join us for Thanksgiving. As it turned out, all the people we invited could not come, so it was just us for the holiday.

I had planned to make a simple dinner with Asian style food, since Mark and I don't really mind staying away from the traditional food choices. To be a little more festive, I decided to bake a fresh pumpkin bread from scratch to add to the meal. My friend Elizabeth once made a very tasty pumpkin bread--the smell and the texture of the bread just stayed in my mind after I tried it! So, I decided to embark on an adventure on this holiday. I was so excited about it.

Mark scooped out the pulps and the seeds in the pumpkins we had with Fei Fei, who was so happy to be able to help. Since it was the first time I handled dry live yeast, I followed exactly the directions from the recipe. I mixed all the ingredients together and was excitedly waiting for the covered dough to rise near to the stove. Still, it didn't rise for another half hour.

Eventually I put the dough in the warm oven after I phoned my friend's house for help. By this time dinner was ready (Chicken soup with carrots, ginger, goji berries, and Chinese dry sweet plum; potstickers; stir fry veggies, and rice). We sat down to enjoy the meal, being so thankful for a peaceful and harmonious day together. Mark had extended time to play with the kids which was great. He has been so busy working on his studies every day. It was at this time that I thought of the verse from Proverbs 17:1, being thankful with the simple meal we had, while having no idea about the dry crust part.

After dinner I checked on the dough. Aha! It had finally risen double the size of the original dough!!! I took it out and exclaimed to everyone about that. Fei and I both loved touching the soft and warm dough, though it was sticky to our fingers! I then took out the dough and punched it down as the direction says, rolled it into a bread-like shape and divided it into two loaves. I put them back into the oven for another hour to wait for it to rise again.

Finally it was the moment to bake them, and by this time Fei Fei and Jun Jun were both ready for bed. They were sad that they didn't get to try the fresh bread. I promised for great pumpkin bread in the morning. As the bread was being baked, the house was filled with the most delightful aroma of pumpkin, and most of all, the feeling of something home-made. We had some light jazz music going on, candlelight lit in the simple center piece for the dinning table, and it was a wonderful ambience for the festival.

A table of simple joy

The sweetness of life

When the oven beeped, I took out the two most beautiful things--the dark brown, freshly baked pumpkin bread from scratch!!! I felt that I have already baked myself in them for the last 5 hours, with all the anticipation. They didn't rise as high as my friend Elizabeth's, but I thought that's just fine. I put my hands on them. They felt so warm and comfortable. And the way they were shaped looked like two honest old leather boots to me--keeping me warm in the winter. 

I couldn't wait to slice a piece to try, remembering the taste just like the one from Elizabeth's house. It didn't quite taste like that. The crust was a little dry, and it wasn't as sweet. Later Mark said that maybe it had something to do with being in an oven for 100F when the dough was rising, rather than being in a lower temperature. But, I don't quite care about that. I am so proud of these two beautiful things from my oven, and I have grown a lot of appreciation for home-baked bread. The effort putting in for the kneading, the creativity of rolling it into different shapes, and the joy of seeing something being made in front of my eyes are all marvelous experiences.  

As I put my hands on the fresh warm bread loaves, I thought about what Jesus said, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty." (John 6:35a) I wonder what it must have been like back then, when he was in a room full of people when he was talking about the True Bread of life.  Maybe he was even holding a loaf of bread just like this one (perhaps a little moister). It was a moment of worship for me, standing in the kitchen and touching these warm leather-boots-like wonderful things. 

The next morning, everyone enjoyed the long-awaited pumpkin bread from mom, with different kinds of spreads on top. I was so glad that my family is my faithful support for all sorts of food I experiment with. And this Thanksgiving will probably be one that we will always look back on and smile upon.