About Home And Family

Don't you just hate it when you follow a recipe to the letter and when the bread baking is finished the bread not only looks nothing like the recipe book's picture, but tastes terrible as well?

There is no denying that bread baking as with baking anything is a delicate process.

Bread baking involves so many things that first time bakers are often discouraged after a few failed attempts to turn out professional looking and tasting loaves.

Little do they realize that if they only possessed the professional Baker's secrets bread baking would be so easy that the bread would practically make itself!

For instance: How many amateur bakers know the secret to keeping bread from sticking to the pan every time?

None! So when they try their hand at bread baking for the first time their bread sticks to the bread pan, and ends up a crumbled mess if they try to force it out.

Then they cry and give up thinking that the problem lies with them.

The shocking truth is that it doesn't!

The problem lies with their lack of knowledge of THE baker's bread baking secret.

The secret professional chefs and bakers won't tell you, the secret they guard so jealously.

My father happened to learn this bread baking secret in his younger baking days (which is no surprise since his great great grandfather was a chef for the White House and owned his own bakery) and has passed it on to his children ever since.

Okay, okay, I know you're probably screaming at me by now "Beth, get on with it! Tell us the bread baking secret already!"

So here it is; You will need only one tool besides for the oil and bread pan you already have, and that is quite simply cornmeal (you shouldn't need more than 1/4 to 1/2 cup for two loaves of bread).

"Cornmeal?" you ask doubtfully. "YES, cornmeal!"

No, you do not add the cornmeal to the bread ingredients! That is not the bread baking secret.

What you do is you oil your pan as usual, and you lightly sprinkle cornmeal on all of the sides and bottom inside of the bread pan.

Now you can safely place your bread dough into the pans without fear of it sticking to them.

While your bread is baking, instead of sticking to the pan, your bread will stick to the cornmeal and slide easily out of the pan when done baking.

You may need to use a butter knife and slide it in between the pan and the bread before turning the pan over and allowing your bread to pop out.

A lot of the time this will be unnecessary however and your bread will pop out just by your turning the bread pan upside down.

You will probably also want to use the butter knife to scrape the excess cornmeal off the bottom and sides of the bread as you may not care for the taste of cornmeal.

This bread baking secret will work whether you're baking a batter bread or a rising bread (also called yeast bread). I personally use it for both.

Here is another treasured bread baking secret, this one only for batter breads:

On the last ten minutes of its baking time cover the bread pan containing the batter bread with another bread pan (a steel bread pan works best), and leave it on until the bread is finished baking.

This will keep the batter bread from burning or becoming too hard on top. You may vary the time you leave the steel bread pan on according to how your batter bread usually looks when it is finished.

If it is a very dark brown on top and difficult to slice because the top is so hard, then 20 minutes will work best. But if it is just a little too hard on top and a little too brown the 10 minutes should suffice.

Do not cover the bread at all if it usually comes out golden and soft on top after the baking is completed.

You may also glaze a batter bread on top with a tablespoon of melted butter mixed with a tablespoon of honey, and sprinkle some flaked coconut or sliced nuts on top of that.

To glaze you start by taking the bread out of the oven five minutes before the required baking time is finished, then spread the butter/honey mixture on top of the bread, sprinkle on your coconut or chopped nuts and bake for the remaining 5 minutes.

Here is another useful bread baking tip for rising breads:

If your bread loaves over rise (say because you were busy and forgot about them), then you can use a pair of scissors to cut off the excess sides, being careful not to cut any dough from off of the top.

You may then use this excess dough to make rolls. You simply oil a pizza or cookie sheet and form the dough into several small balls.

Rise them for another half hour and then bake on 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Do yourself a favor and put these tried and tested bread baking secrets immediately to use in your kitchen, and your family will rave over the results.

Planning a baby shower for the expectant mother in your life is incredibly exciting and lots of fun. However, planning a baby shower can also be time consuming, and it can be hard to get everything done in the time allotted.

One of the most important things that must be attended to is choosing the best invites to let everyone know of the upcoming celebration of life.

==The Baby Shower Invitations Are The Key ==

After all, in a way the invitations to the party are the key to everything else involved in the shower. After all, if no one knows about the party, no one will be able to attend.

Luckily, there are so many kinds of invitations for baby showers that it should be fairly easy to find one that is right for you.

==Picking Appropriate Baby Shower Invitations ==

Invitations to a baby shower can be as simple or as fancy as you want to make them. It is important to choose a invites that is appropriate to the style of the mother to be.

==The Internet ==

One place to start the search for the best invitations to any baby shower is on the internet. The internet is a great way to search for hundreds of different invitations in a very short period of time.

There are a number of web sites that are dedicated to planning, and they often have some excellent resources for invitations to your baby shower. In addition, there are a number of online printers with their own web sites, and they often have a number of excellent sample invites for you to choose from.

== Your Local Print Shop And Office Supply Store ==

If you would rather choose the local flavor for your invites, chances are your local print shop or office supply store has a good selection of invitations that would be perfect for any baby shower.

== Print Your Own Invitations ==

Another great option is to print your own invitations to the party. There are a number of kits, available at both local office supply and software stores and on the internet, which allow you to create beautiful invitations using only your home computer and your deskjet printer.

Just be sure to buy plenty of ink for your printer. Printing your own invitations gives you a great amount of freedom and allows you to be extremely creative when creating and printing those invitations.

When you first saw the pink plus sign on your pregnancy stick, what were your expectations of motherhood?

Did you expect that being a mom would instantly be a natural, bonding experience?

Did you expect to be constantly overjoyed and completely fulfilled being a full-time stay- at-home-mom?

Did you expect you'd be able to figure out how to balance your work life and home life without any struggles?

Did you expect that you'd actually know what you were doing?

In most cases, if a mom is unhappy somewhere in motherhood, her expectations are way too high. Think about all the roles you play; mom, wife, daughter, friend, cook, caregiver, chauffeur, housekeeper, employee, just to name a few.

Moms today are expected to do it all and they think they should love every minute of it. If it doesn't always turn out that way, they feel let down, guilty or unhappy. Cut yourself some slack, moms! It's hard to make the transition to motherhood. Most modern moms had a career before they became a mom. They spent money on education, time on building a career and then either put it on hold or gave it up completely when the kids were born. While you love being a mom, for some, it's hard to let all of that go. You had an identity back then and a strong sense of who you were.

There's also a tremendous amount of pressure moms put on themselves. They try to be perfect while living up to the expectations that have been put on them. This almost always leads to disappointment because you can't reach the unattainable. Perfect doesn't exist. Especially when it comes to motherhood.

The key to surviving motherhood is to get realistic. Here are 6 ways you can start.

1) Embrace your imperfections and allow yourself to be human. Give yourself a break! Learn from your mistakes and find ways to improve the things that don't come naturally to you. Focus on what you're really good at and rediscover your sense of humor. Remember, if things don't work out the way you planned, it's usually a funny story.

2) Redefine motherhood. Create your own realistic definition of what motherhood means to you. Take out the stuff that doesn't fit in your world and introduce new ways of doing things that jive with your personality and values.

3) Nurture all the roles you play. Be a mom, a wife, a career woman and whoever else you want to be. But don't define yourself in one role or give all your energy to just one area. You'll burn out and neglect the other wonderful parts of who you are and all you have to offer.

4) Stop trying to be Supermom. She doesn't exist! The sooner moms stop comparing, judging and envying each other, the sooner we'll all embrace who we are as individuals. No one is perfect even when it looks like it on the outside. If you still feel inferior to that mom who always looks so put together, I guarantee she hates having to get her roots done every 3 weeks.

5) Be who you are regardless of what others may think. Be strong, courageous and dare to be different. Be honest and do what feels right for you and your family. If others have a problem with it, realize it's their problem and they are just jealous that they don't have the strength to go against the grain.

6) Accept that you won't please everyone. If you're working and you can't be at every field trip your child has, be OK with that. It will mean more when you can attend. Make a commitment to let go of guilt and learn to say no.

Action Challenge:

It's time to alter your expectations and get real. Make a list of every expectation you have of yourself.

Now take a look at your list and ask yourself:

· If I could get rid of one stressful thing in my day what would it be?
· If I had one more hour in my day, what would I do with that time?
· Which of my expectations are optional and which ones have to stay?

Prioritize your list and mark off the expectations that have the lowest value to you. For example, making a healthy meal may be a high priority, but cleaning the kitchen right away can wait so you can spend time with your kids.

Revisit the things on your list that you think you can't change. For example, is it really impossible to hire help a few days a week? You may not think you have the money for it but the extra time it allows you will be invaluable.

Ease into this new life of realistic expectations. Try it for one week and see how you feel. It's time to motherhood the incredible experience you always expected it to be.

Carly Cooper is a life coach, speaker and author of Balance the Mother Load: R.E.I.N.V.E.N.T. Your Life in Just 8 Weeks! She served as the National Mom Ambassador for Living Well, a Johnson and Johnson initiative, is a workshop and seminar facilitator for Shepell fgi and has been interviewed in various magazine publications and TV and radio shows

"A mother is she who can take the place of all others, but whose place no one else can take."

- Cardinal Mermillod

The crux of feminist theory is the concept of the family. The family is the building block of the society and social scientists over the ages have designated the role of holding this unit together on women. This has not gone down well with the fighters of women's rights. They have objected strongly to this as derogatory to the independence of the woman. They have also stressed on the necessary of economic independence for the woman to raise her voice against male oppression. In the modern age, women have been able to throw off the shackles to a large extent. However, if a woman herself chooses to stay at home and raise a family?

Female students have a general tendency to work after they complete their education. If someone chooses a family life within the confines of a home, her peers may take it to be a rather timid and obsolete choice. I feel it's the choice of the individual that matters. If she chooses to be a wife and mother at home, we cannot jeer at her decision. Nor must we feel that she lacks in ability to go out there and rub shoulders with the competitive, inconsiderate world.

A mother staying at home has to take stock of a lot of things. She makes sure that the family wheel stays well lubricated. She helps her husband and children go out for work or education. She keeps them well fed. She takes care of their things and makes sure they are there at hand when needed. She takes care of the bills and other expenditures. She takes care of the finances and plans her savings according to the income of the household. So she does everything that an office manager would be doing. The difference is tat she is doing it on a microcosmic scale, but that does not talk lowly of her efficiency.

There lies another difference too. She does it out of love. The problem arises if her family does not appreciate that love and caring. That is where feminists who are against women staying at home have a problem. The lack of economic independence does compromise her position. Mothers have it particularly difficult if the father is not responsible to the children. Many mothers stay put at home in a loveless marriage for the sake of their children just because they do not have the means to step out of the threshold of stability and security. She has to bear the consequences of not earning a living.

It is very difficult to conclude which path is the best for a mother. It depends on individual calling. Homemakers need not be totally devoid of earnings today. They can do a lot of free lancing work from home which will take care of their expenditures, even if their first priority is the family. What we can do is to empathize with our mothers who are homemakers as they deserve all the appreciation that you can possibly assimilate. What we can also do is respect the sacrifice of love that they have undergone to make us have a better life.