"15 min" French Bread & Goulash

The bread recipe is from my friend Bec, who I believe found it on another site. I do not know the official source to give credit, but it is an incredibly easy and delicious bread recipe. So easy, I feel ridiculous buying french bread or garlic bread from the store because it is much simpler to just throw a batch together. There is no kneading involved.

Here is the easy "15 min" french bread recipe:
2 1/2C. warm water
2T (yes tablespoons) active dry yeast
2T sugar
2tsp salt
5 1/2 C flour

1. Mix all into a large bowl, let rise for 15 min
2. Make into 2 long loaves, put 6 slits in each, let rise 15 min
3. Bake @450 for 15 min.

My own suggestions are to mix sugar and yeast in warm water first and then measure out flour and salt in separate bowl. Add dry to wet and mix throughly. This dough is very moist and when it rises the second time, is prone (in my experience) to spread. I roll up some little towels with flour on them to try and give them a little shape and keep the 2 loaves from squishing together. The bread is not crusty like a baguette, but soft and delicious.



Goulash

Goulash to me is probably not traditional in any way except it is traditional for my family. Its more of a ragtag of veggies, never really being the same except for the mainstays of beef, tomato and noodles.

1lb of ground beef or venison
1 can of tomatoes (i prefer stewed but diced works)
1 cup of noodles (elbow is great)
veggies....in the past I've used a mirepoix (celery, onion, carrot) or tomatoes that are going soft, mushrooms, frozen peas, green beans, frozen mix veggies etc)

Brown the beef, toss salt and pepper on, celery salt if not using celery, toss in chopped veggies and cooked noodles, worcestershire sauce, couple squirts of ketchup and shakes of italian seasoning. Serve.

"You are not defined by what you do"

Although I have heard it many times in the form of various sayings it never really hit home until I read the book "Will I Ever Be Good Enough" by Karyl McBride.

It is curious that it has to be the right situation for something to truly sink in and make a difference in your perception. I had known outwardly that, for instance, enjoying singing and being good at it are mutually exclusive. You do not have to be a good singer to enjoy it. Does that mean you shouldn't sing if you are bad? That would be ridiculous. But I am not a born singer and so this parallel doesn't effect me as much.

But when I think about motherhood. It hits deep. Being a mother is something you DO and not something you ARE. I mother. It is further proved by the fact that motherhood is often categorized by being either good at it or bad, because it is something you do, a verb. You are being a mother. You are mothering. But in the end, being bad at mothering doesn't make you a failure. It just means you failed at some aspect of mothering. Mothering doesn't define you. You can be kind and gentle and lovely but terrible at what you set as your mothering ideal. But you are still all those wonderful attributes even if something you did wasn't done well. You can enjoy mothering without being good at it. You can enjoy singing but be terrible at it and it doesn't make you a terrible person.

We wrap ourselves within these confines of labels that really don't say who we really are, merely what we do or are doing. I am many things. But I am not a mother or a wife or a singer or a writer. Those are things I do and I enjoy. So when I make a mistake or do it badly, I am still whole underneath. It cannot crack me and break me and change the very core of my goodness and strength.