The simple pleasure of bread and your chance to win some!

Life has the most inconvenient way, sometimes, of getting in the way of enjoying life itself.

I say, dear Responsibilities, wouldn’t you like to take a holiday from giving me guilt when I neglect you? This co-dependent relationship can’t be doing either of us any good here. And Obligations, surely you’d like to take a day off and just take it easy in a hammock whilst sipping a colourful drink adorned with a paper umbrella?

Unfortunately life doesn’t wait nor necessarily slow down when we want it to, unlike the recent approach I’ve taken with this blog. The blog has taken a backseat whilst other areas of life have been demanding my attention and keeping me busy, inciting frustration and annoyance along with way. Hopefully the cobwebs have yet to set in as this blog will be on the quiet side for a little longer still.

When life zaps most of the energy and sunbeams out of me, I lose the inspiration and motivation to cook. We’re not talking about attempting some magnificent feast here – oh, no – just the usual simple stir-fry with a bit of rice, and even then it seems to take exponential amounts of effort compared to usual. Comfort eating can only occur when you have the resources to do so.

And so I have been thankful for quick staples such as dried pasta, canned soup, frozen dumplings, dried Chinese noodles and bread. Yes, bread – one of the simple pleasures of life which is a meal in itself with some butter, olive oil or any manner of spreads or toppings. Take soft Turkish bread which can effortlessly be sliced into fingers and eaten with some dip and olives…

…ciabatta which can be hollowed out as a vessel for (a failed) cheese fondue with nubbins of corn. Or for a cob of comforting soup with the “lid” cut into fingers for dipping.

And a sexy French baguette which I attempted to fashion into two types of picnic-style stuffed rolls which didn’t quite turn out the way I had envisaged. Well, much like life itself.

Luckily there was this somewhat redeeming rendition of “pizza”, where the leftover Turkish bread was split into top and bottom halves to act as bases for basil pesto, sausage pieces, marinated artichoke hearts, pine nuts and, on one of them, sundried tomato pesto and egg.

Seasoned, topped with cheese and shoved in a 220°C oven for the sausage pieces to cook and for the cheese to bubble and brown, these made for a perfectly easy lunch to remind me that life indeed can have its simple, peaceful, pleasurable moments.

Now, for your chance to win some bread, Bakers Delight are kindly giving away vouchers worth $5 each to five readers of Spoon, Fork & Chopsticks. All you have to do is leave a comment below telling me what simple pleasure you enjoy in life and why. Entries close Friday 26 November 2010 at 11pm Australian Eastern Standard time and are open to Australian residents only. Winning entrants will be chosen by Monsieur Poisson (AKA the Husband, AKA the one who doesn’t cook) based on originality and will be published here in a future post, so make sure you stay tuned! Any rude/profane/offensive entries will be deleted and excluded from the competition.

Mademoiselle Délicieuse received the above selection of bread courtesy of Rebecca Stalker from Keep Left Public Relations and Baker’s Delight.

happy cooking!