Lately I rejigged an old recipe I had for oatmeal bread. It always made gorgeous loaves, but I found them too salty. I thought I'd try it again and cut down on the salt, and now they are perfect -- perfect, I tell you!

So what you see there is part of my usual Wednesday effort, minus the pizza crusts I also made with the dough.

You are looking at loaves made with 100% whole wheat flour here. NO white flour. It's easy to make a well-risen loaf of bread when the dough has white flour in it. With all whole wheat flour, organic and without additives or preservatives, it's a bit more tricky. The secrets are a longer kneading time, some lemon juice to condition the flour, and using water instead of flour on your hands and table when shaping the loaves. Simple enough, right?

Everett was out sliding off a snowpile with Rebecca from next door, Emil was laying down with a hot water bottle to his ear (one of the specialist's recommendations for treating the "plugged ears" feeling Emil's had since September) and Scott was still at work in town when I sat down last night for supper. Warm buttered bread with what I call Mexican Soup.

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