Make-it-from-scratch Monday: Winter soup and bread

For this week's MIFS Monday, I spent a nice cold winter's day making lentil soup and honey-wheat bread. I got the lentil soup recipe from Aunt Martha, and borrowed a wonderful bread recipe from 50sgal over at the Apron Revolution http://my50syear.blogspot.com/2010/02/12-february-1956-lucys-connecticut.html . You might have heard of her; she's living her life completely as if it were 1957.

Anyway, both of these were firsts for me. I've never made lentil soup before, and believe it or not, this is the first time I've ever baked my own bread.

I've always been quite interested in self-sufficiency, and since I'm home a lot now, I have been wanting to make my own bread. And do more cooking with stable pantry staples like dried beans. Add that to my canning and our garden, hunting and fishing trips, and we're trying to eat more like our grandparents' did in the Depression and WWII eras, rather than the industrial farmed/overly processed food of my generation.

I won't copy the recipes here, and I didn't take any photos of the process (don't know what I was thinking) but I will show you the finished product, with a jar of my homemade marmalade:

I took 50s gal's honey/oatmeal bread recipe and made it with 2 1/2 c. whole wheat flour and 2 c. white. After the first rise I rolled it out and sprinkled it with cinnamon sugar and craisins, then let it rise again and baked it. It was definitely a success- tasty and really quite easy. The craisins really make it good, and the honey adds a bit of sweetness, without using white sugar. I encourage any of you at home on a cold winter's afternoon to try both of these recipes!