Time As An Ingredient

The ingredients for making bread are simple: flour, water, salt and yeast. What is missing from the list, of course, is the correct proportions. In life we strive for the right proportions of work and life, diet and exercise, family and friends and even rest and excitement. The list goes on. While we may never achieve a perfect balance with most things in life, achieving a satisfactory one is often better. A perfect balance is upset too easily. However, one that is satisfactory can sustain changes and fluctuations.

Just like with different recipes and types of breads, different times in our lives often require different proportions of things and priorities. Sometimes family requires more than we can give, so other things in life must shift and give, pull, stretch and even break, much like a pizza dough being forced to conform to the pan. We patch up the tear and move on. A loving family will stretch and move with you, sensing when you are stretched too thin.

A good friend of mine recently asked others on Facebook what their favorite Christmas gifts were. Time and again the answers tended to be simple, thoughtful gifts, often ones that included the giving of someone's time more than anything.

In the book called Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast: The Fundamentals of Artisan Bread and Pizza by Ken Forkish, the author states that the most important ingredient in making bread is time. David, my husband, has been dabbling in dough recently and having read this, commented on the perfect simplicity of this adage. I took it and like a child with a new toy tore through life fitting it to everything else imaginable. The ways in which time is a critical ingredient are infinite. From good cooking to exercise and losing weight, to developing careers and nurturing hobbies, to making and keeping friends, to enjoying art and even learning a language.

Unfortunately, some of these things often come hard to me. When I cook, I tend to rush things. In my mind, instead of the slow sautéing of onions on low heat I mistakenly think high heat will deliver quicker results. This only causes the poor onions to burn or dry out too quickly.

Losing weight and exercise require a devotion of time. Careers are never made over night. Not taking time to listen and understand a good friend is a missed opportunity, one we may never get back. Most important, though, is family. We don't get to choose our family, but like the ingredients in bread, they are what they are, tried and true. While brothers and sisters, mothers and daughters and fathers and sons are as different as there are types and varieties of bread, they are all still family. Family members need our love, support, honesty and humor. Without each of these in the right proportions, we are merely mixing dry ingredients together which will never bond, ferment or rise.

Bread making gets kinda messy and so can family life. Sometimes we need to be brutally honest and sometimes we need our siblings to help us laugh, even at ourselves. There are times when the dough in making bread is fragile and must be treated gently. But then, once it is baked, the loaves are hearty, crusty and full of flavor. Even with bread making, you can't always control all the variables. Temperatures get hot.

Just remember. Time is the most important ingredient. The other good thing about family, as with making bread, is that you don't just get one chance to make it right. Tomorrow is always another day.

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