Too Much of a Good Thing?

Maybe I've gone too far.

I enjoy baking and it's always been a pleasure for me to prepare goodies for my wife and son. I want my son to grow up with memories of having home made pies and biscuits and muffins and such coming from our kitchen on a regular basis.

I think it's especially nice to do this around the Thanksgiving and Christmas Holidays. (Although muffins and biscuits are subject to be baked on any given day all through out the year).

This morning, however, I see that I may have created a Frankenstein's monster of sorts. J.P., our four year old, has just asked me to make bread.

"What sort of bread ?", I asked.

"This kind", he said as he pointed to a regular loaf of bread purchased at the grocery.

It's nice that he thinks that there is no cooking or baking chore beyond my talents, but as much as I enjoy baking, I dread the idea of having to produce loaves of bread on a regular basis. It's one thing to throw together a batch of biscuits 3 or 4 days a week or even yeast rolls for special occasions, but the thought that I might have to bake bread as often as I now bake biscuits is the stuff horror movies (or I love Lucy episodes) are made of.

For the time being, I can put him off; I don't have enough loaf pans. Every bread recipe I've found produces multiple loaves. I won't attempt to halve a bread recipe. Bread making is not unlike chemistry; you have to have the correct proportion of flour versus salt, versus sugar versus yeast and/or baking soda and baking powder. The wrong mixture can be disastrous.

I know it's just a matter of time, however. I know that, soon, I'll go to Walmart and purchase enough loaf pans to accommodate any bread recipe the Internet throws at me. With the right number of pans, I'll have doughs in the freezer, ever ready to thaw and bake.

If there's any consolation it's the idea that, years from now, when J.P. is my age and I'm no longer around, he'll be in the kitchen doing the same thing for his kids (or grand-kids) and continue the tradition. Unless, of course, he marries a woman who enjoys baking......which isn't very likely, all things considered.