What on Earth?

Some times it really is true that a picture is worth a thousand words, so I'm trying my hand at a post that's told mostly in pictures.  For a writer, that's a challenge.  I want to explain everything you're about to see but I do believe most of the pictures are self-explanatory, so I'll restrain myself.  Can you guess what's about to happen in my kitchen in this shot?

It looks like we're about to begin a serious construction project, doesn't it?  Well, sort of ... but not quite.  Here's your next clue as to what we might be "building."

Okay, so now you know it involves flour ...

Ah, the plot thickens ... as does the sweet bread dough!  Taking a leaf out of my late father-in-law's book, the "squire" and I have developed our own method for baking bread on a large scale here on our country mile.  The custom-welded beater attached to the industrial-sized drill is the same set-up that my father-in-law created for his wife to do the huge regular weekly baking that she undertook for many years when the squire was growing up.  We inherited the whole apparatus when, after my father-in-law's passing many years ago, my mother-in-law moved to an apartment.  It's great for a woman  like me, whose physical limitations make much standing and rigorous kneading of large quantities of dough difficult.

With his help, the whole process is much quicker and easier.  The way to get your husband to help with the Christmas baking?  Make it about power tools!

Starting to look more like bread dough...

Then a little rising time...

Ah, that's exactly what I need.  Now comes the fun part...

It's actually very easy, if you know how to braid... and who doesn't?

And then just shape each braid into a circle, pinch the ends underneath, and voila!  With very little effort, I've created the first Christmas wreath bread.

After they rose once more, I brushed the breads with egg-white and decorated some of them with sliced almonds.

Ta Da!  A fair amount of time and very little effort produced enough wreath breads for my family in the holiday season and for gift-giving.

And what, you may wonder, were Coco and Baxter up to while we were busy baking?  Well, the sun room was so cozy and warm and there were those comfy couches...

Coco looks like she's plotting a big shock for unsuspecting Baxter, doesn't she, but they were actually very well-behaved all afternoon.  And, yes, of course, they do get a little nibble of the bread occasionally.