Baking Bread for the First Time

I probably should have taken a photo of the whole loaf before I cut one end off of it but I was too impatient to see what the inside of the loaf looked like (and of course what it tasted like).  The bread I made was jalapeno-cheddar bread.  I have been someone who enjoys cooking for almost as long as I can remember.  I learned how to cook from my mom, who learned from her grandmother.  I love to cook for people.  It's one of the ways I show people I care about them.  I make some really good food if I don't say so myself.  But I have never been one who enjoys baking.  The only time I ever bake is at Christmas when I bake Christmas cookies with my sister and other friends and family.  I think it's because baking is more precise, involves a little more math and science and I don't always pay close enough attention to the details of the recipe.

I have been cooking more often since the school building has closed and I am teaching from home.  I have made soups, meatloaf, roasted vegetables, sloppy joes, Easter ham and other things here and there.  But I have had an idea to try making some bread on my own for the last few weeks.  I've seen lots of other people try their hand at it and thought, well, maybe I should give it a try.  It looks so easy in the TASTY videos.

It was pretty easy in the end.  However, during the process I was stressed out, because I don't like to screw things up and, as I said before,  baking recipes are more precise than cooking regular food.  So, it wasn't quite the therapeutic experience I was hoping for.  I was definitely not feeling one with the process.  I made a mistake that I haven't made in a long time when following an online recipe.  I DIDN'T READ THE COMMENTS before I used the recipe.  The comments, aside from the trolls, are helpful because you can read about some of the problems people who already made the recipe encountered and learn from their mistakes.

In the end, the bread turned out pretty good.  I learned through my mistakes some things I can do differently next time.  The bread has a little heat from the jalapenos and a crusty top from the cheese, but it didn't rise as I high as I thought it would. Maybe it will next time when I tweak the recipe and correct my errors.   I think I'm going to try again tomorrow.  I'm grateful for the opportunity to try again.