I’m looking out the kitchen window and there is a cat on the birdfeeder eating yeast rolls. The yeast rolls are my latest adventure in cooking. So why is the cat eating them you ask?

I have longed for years to be able to bake bread. I have never been successful. So this past Saturday while dear Don was at work I went to a great website where you type in ingredients you have on hand and recipes pop up using those same ingredients.

I typed in oil, flour, yeast and hoped to get a good recipe for yeast rolls. Well, I got a recipe. However it didn’t turn out very well. The rolls were lumpy, coarse and h-e-a -v-y like tractor tires.

They smelled like yeast rolls and dear Don, being the polite diplomat, declared them delicious.

The rolls were not delicious; they weren’t even good.

So I decided to crumble them onto the birdfeeder out back in hopes of feeding hungry birds and squirrels.

I kept a watchful eye on the feeder for movement but alas, only the cat would partake. He didn’t even eat his fill, I’m afraid.

I went back to the recipe website to see if I missed something. I had. Many comments from cooks who had already tried the recipe and proclaimed it worthy of one star out of a possible five. I would give it one star as well….the cat would perhaps give them two.

But all is not lost because Santa delivered an early Christmas gift to me yesterday. I had with Don’s approval and encouragement ordered a deep red, seven-quart enameled cast iron stock- pot. I have longed for this pot for years. Let’s hope better equipment makes a better cook. Can you imagine cooking in a pot that big for two folks?

There is another thing I long to do besides bake bread and that is wear a hat.

I have tried for years to don one. Wearing a hat of any kind eludes me. I look ridiculous.

I think my hat-wearing obsession began years ago when Mary Tyler Moore had her own TV show and in the beginning credits she would throw her beret high into the Minnesota sky.

Is it my head shape, my hairstyle or my forehead? Maybe it’s my big ‘ol long lobed ears.

I’ve tried many styles and many colors and nothing works. I’m just not a bread-baking hat wearing kinda girl I suppose.

But I have at this point in my life acquiesced and put the hat behind me. But I’m not giving up on the bread baking. Somewhere out there is a recipe that’s just for me, easy, quick and fail-safe.

If any of you know of such a recipe please email me and I will give it a shot and let you know the results next week. One caveat though, I only want to use staple baking items nothing organic or outrageous.  Thanks in advance.

And for all you lucky hat-wearing gals out there, throw one up into the Mississippi winter sky for me will ya?

You get the picture.

 (Contact Sherry at swhcsc@wildblue.net)