Grinding wheat and pondering the staff of life

This is going to be a rambling sort of stream-of-consciousness post.

I've had a lot going on here the past few weeks. A lot of time spent pondering and trying to prioritize. A lot of time doing some pretty deep thinking. Nature of life sorta stuff.

I've also gotten involved in the local foods movement. It's a worthwhile use of my time and talents and I was even asked to be part of their speakers' bureau. I have to admit *that* was a huge stroke to my ego and made me feel like a grown-up again. Another gentleman who was there (actually representing a local foods group from another community) stopped by to chat with me after the meeting - actually *waited* to talk to me. He wanted to make sure I had his card. He thought, based upon my contributions to the discussions during the meeting, that I had a background in marketing and would be able to lend a hand with his fledgling group. Again, I have to admit I was mightily flattered. I let him know that I didn't really have any professional background in marketing and just let ideas flow and share my thoughts. I'd be happy to help him, but I'm certainly not a pro. :)

Which brings me back to wheat. We had fallen off the baking bandwagon over the summer months. It gets hot and I get busy playing outside and basking in the glow of growing veggies.

Then there's the laziness factor. And the tedium factor. Grinding wheat by hand is NOT fun. Sure, the big girl gets a kick out of it.



And there's nothing funnier than watching the baby girl try to move the handle.



The boy will pop in for an obligatory turn or two, but it's not the teen's fav activity.



I dream of an electric base, but the dough (pun intended) just isn't in the budget right now.

So I need to suck it up and grind away.

I did that both last week and this week and gave myself a huge ole' pat on the back for sticking with it.

But after a conversation with a gentleman at last night's meeting (back to the local foods group, here - try to follow the rambling) I realized that I really ought to try baking without my bread machine again. I used to do it LONG ago when I lived in Colorado and the boy was just a babe. It was warm there and my dough rose just fine. Unlike the frigid north where I live now. Our kitchen was built in the 1920s and has horribly drafty windows and doors and because I'm obsessed with natural sunlight and seeing outside I don't put plastic over the windows in the winter.

So...I'm trying to figure out how to bake bread here. I think I hit upon the solution. I'm going to heat up my crock pot and then turn it off and use the remaining radiant heat to allow the dough to rise. It'll take some experimentation and an oven thermometer because I need the temp low enough so it doesn't begin baking.

Anyone had any experience with using their crock pot this way?