Bread! Glorious, Bread!

For our wedding, Grandma Furin was extremely generous and gave us a bread maker and wheat grinder.  We were so excited to experience the delightful loaves that would come from such gifts.  I had attempted to make bread prior to the bread maker entering our lives with some success, but it seemed Denver's altitude had too much influence on the outcome.  The bread maker proved to bring a great deal of improvement to my baked goods, showing much success on regular, white bread but when I would make wheat bread, each loaf came out different--some remarkably well and others...let's just put it this way, one brother in our Denver Ward had a taste of one of the loaves I made which didn't rise as much as past loaves had.  He lifted a piece and declared, "Why, this is pioneer bread!"  After Geoff and I asked what he meant he proudly explained, "This is the type of bread they would throw at the Indians!"  Ugh.  I was definitely wanting more consistency with my bread experiences.  So I begged a sister in our ward who was notorious for her amazing baked goods.  At first she brushed me off, but my persistent begging finally convinced her that I wanted to know how to bake bread in high altitude.  Finally, an appointment was set.  She gave me the list of ingredients to get, one of which was "Dough Enhancer".  I went from store to store looking for this product with no success.  Finally, I asked her where she finds hers.  "Utah," was her reply.  By this time I was 6 months pregnant and had no plans of traveling anywhere.  But luckily, Dean and Andrea did (Andrea's way more brave than I am to travel prego).  So they were kind enough to pick up some Dough Enhancer for me while they were visiting family.  We set another appointment which was postponed due to Hylie's birth.  Another appointment set, but the sweet sister got sick.  Then Geoff and I realized we were moving, so after all the efforts, I never learned how to make perfect bread in the Mile-High City.  But no worries, because now that we're in Chicago, we experience beautiful bread like this:

I cannot tell you how I squealed with delight when I opened up the machine after our first attempt of making wheat bread in Chicago.  I think I'm going to like living here.  :)