This week is officially my 26th giveaway week.  For those counting, that is 6 months or half a year of weekly bread gifting.  Woohoo!  A bit of a milestone if you will.

I guess it is sort of perfect then that my halfway to a year a giveaway was 36 small loaves of zucchini bread for a family reunion on my dad’s side.  It seems fitting that a passion project meant to define who I am and who I want to be hits its first milestone giveaway with a look back at where I came from, or at least half of the story.  I think it makes sense that to know where you are going you should understand where you have been.  In other words,  I am looking forward to a long weekend of “do you remember when?” Or, “remember that one time…”  It is always fun to reminisce with people who remember your childhood moments and to hear the stories of your family–the famous ones you have heard before, and the ones that you discover new.  I love hearing the pride when I talk to my Aunt and Uncle about their grandchildren and great-grandchildren.  Or the excitement I hear in their voices when I talk to my other Aunt and Uncle about a new and brave adventure that they are going to undertake.  There is a calm reassurance when talking to them.  It is like picking up a conversation from many years ago right where we left off.  It always reminds me that no matter how scattered we are, we have a shared history and there are people out there that will always be pulling for you, as you are for them.

For this week’s giveaway, I also had a partner.  My sister and I spent several hours preparing, baking and getting the loaves just so.  We did it mid-week, which is always a bit of a challenge with kids, and jobs, and practice, and games/matches (water polo is super serious!) but we managed it without having to burn the midnight oil too much.  Cooking with my sister is a joy.  I haven’t really spoken too much about that–honestly, it is enough to fill a book, but she is my kitchen other half.  We have been working together in the kitchen for years preparing birthdays, holidays, everydays, and it just works.  She is brilliant.  So it was decidedly lovely to get to work on this week’s rather large giveaway together and it felt appropriate given this week’s theme of family.

So in honor of family (who has to listen to your pontificating) and me hitting a half a year milestone, I thought I would put together a list of things I have learned from my project.

1. Baking is my supreme joy and is meant to be shared with other people.  It is a creative outlet for me that I doubt will ever be satiated.  This is something that I believe God placed in my heart and is part of my very DNA…somewhere in there is a spoon and a serving platter, I swear.
2. Finding and testing new recipes is a lot of fun and can be a good challenge.  Occasionally the middle part can get a little testy (pun definitely intended) when I can’t get them right for a while–I am looking at your English muffins.  But the joy when getting a breakthrough is awesome.
3. Sometimes it is amazingly easy to come up with new people to gift to, and sometimes I stare at the wall and have no idea.
4. Flour can be purchased in 25 and 50-pound bags.
5. You should not eat, nor let your family eat all the bread you make for trial loaves.  For real.
6. Sometimes the hardest part of the giveaway is working up the courage to approach someone and then finding the right words.  When in a hard situation, I tend toward the shotgun approach of using all the words and hoping somewhere in them is the right one.  This could use more work.
7. An unexpected pleasure is wrapping the loaf.  There is a finality and a thoughtfulness involved that I love and get a secret thrill out of.
8. Photography is probably not my God-given talent, but I think I am getting better.
9. Natural light is your best friend for food photography.  As is a nice camera.  Tips are welcome.
10. My project is far from over, and there are many more things to learn, more bread to bake, and people to meet.

Happy Weekend All!