the story of the ~LITTLE RED HEN~

There once was a little red hen.

One day, the 1st of June, she asked her children,
"Who will help me grind the wheat?"

The eldest didn't exactly say, "Not I", but rather, "I'm not feeling well." She soon disappeared up the stairs.

The eldest son perked right up and smiled at the Little Red Hen, "I will help you grind the wheat. I am the dog. Hannah is the cat. Max is the bear." (not sure where the bear came from... but at least he sort of knew the story) ... Mostly I just liked this photo. He was saying something very emphatically, I imagine.

 

Soon the "Bear" came to look in on the fun. He brought his prized can of Cream of Chicken which he had been rearranging in the pantry.

 

Soon the eldest child emerged. She realized she had missed oodles of fun grinding wheat and popcorn kernels. She decided she felt much better and got to work with the little red hen.  We made a big mistake and tried to mill oatmeal - quick style. Yah - it doesn't work with that kind of oats. But the little red hen didn't fret and quickly moved on.

 

...onto the making of the bread, that is!
"Who will help me make the bread?"
The boys disappeared... they had their fun. So - the girls made the bread.  Believe me - it's better that way.  Three kids huddled in the corner trying to dump things in the kitchenaid doesn't exactly work..

 

"Who will help me shape the bread?"
The little red hen and helper aren't the best at shaping loaves, but oh how they tried. Hannah was mighty proud of her 2 little loaves.

The fruits of our labors. The rather look more like stones with this photo filter... but we've got to stick with the color theme here.

"Who will help me eat the bread?"
"I will. I will. I will..." the little Red Hen heard. And they all enjoyed it thoroughly.

The Little Red Hen was glad to have happy little helpers.

The end!

p.s. I know - I know... you're wondering if Max ever wears a shirt. He really does. I promise! He was slurping up tomato soup at dinner and spilled it all over his shirt. But boy did he like that soup!


p.p.s. I know someday I'll look back at 2010 and roll my eyes at all the photo filters I used. But oh they are fun to play with. Thank you Pioneer Woman for Heartland!


p.p.p.s. sidenote about the bread: Over the years I've tried to find a bread recipe that works with me and my baking awkwardness. I may have found it. It only takes 1 hour start to finish (well... except my house was cold so i let it rise longer than 25 min). We made half the recipe using 3 1/2 cups freshly ground wheat and 1 1/2 cups bread flour. It's not that I think it's the most gloriously perfect bread of all ... but it tasted really good for mostly whole wheat and because it's so quick, it's well worth it to me. Plus, honestly I've never had wheat bread turn out half as good as this. I've made the all-white flour version for calzones, pizza dough, and breadsticks.  I'm excited to learn more about making multi-grain bread using this recipe.  Fun!