 Charles and Clarice wrote this-- Clarice and I are looking for a second wife. We live in Wisconsin and we have a huge new home. Charles is an engineer and Clarice works from home. Charles is mormon fundamentalist independent and Clarice is a Catholic. We have 5 children here. We are open to more.
Write us at mannednet@yahoo.com for information or questions. We have a good life and would like to expand the family more.
Clarice and CharlesWe'll be adding this to our Situations Wanted page.
 [What does bread have to do with polygamy? Nothing special. Consider this an interlude, if you like.] Can you make bread more cheaply at home than you can buy at the supermarket? I decided to find out. Now before you say, “it’s not about the cost”, I admit there’s something deeply satisfying about baking bread-- if you have the six hours or so to hang around the kitchen. There’s nothing like the aroma and taste of freshly baked bread. But how much ”bread” does it cost to make bread?
Consider a loaf of “basic bread”. By this, I mean the traditional four ingredient bread—flour, yeast, sugar, and salt. The prototypical ingredient list for basic bread looks something like this:
· 3 cups of flour
· 1 package of yeast
· Some sugar and salt and water
Flour is a commodity which, like crude oil, changes price from week to week. Last week, a 50 pound bag of ConAgra flour from CostCo cost $22. This week, a 10 pound bag of all purpose flour from a local supermarket cost $5. That’s about 50 cents a pound, whether you buy it in bulk or in smaller quantities.
A cup of flour weighs 4.5 ounces, so one loaf of basic bread uses ((3 x 4.5)/16) x .50 = 43 cents worth of flour. That doesn’t sound very expensive, does it?
Would it surprise you to know that the most costly ingredient in basic bread is the yeast? One loaf of bread requires one packet of yeast. One packet of Fleischmann’s yeast costs about 90 cents, or you can buy Red Star yeast for about 70 cents a packet. The yeast in a loaf of bread costs twice as much as the flour! It’s like those costly little ink cartridges you buy for your inexpensive printer.
Ok, so you can make a loaf of basic bread for about $1.20. How does that compare to what you find in a supermarket?
You won’t find anything labeled “basic bread” on the shelves. The closest you’ll get to basic bread is probably a flute of French bread. One pound of flour makes one "standard" loaf of bread or two flutes of French bread. Our supermarket sells a one pound flute of French bread for $2 (feeds eight). You could make it at home for about $1.50.
Is this typical? Today’s Seattle Times gives a national average price for a loaf of bread as $1.89.
No matter how you slice it, you really can’t save money by baking bread yourself. Did I mention brushing the top of the bread with a pat of butter (10 cents) or making white bread with a cup of milk (25 cents)? But you might be able to beat the price of specialty bread, especially if you can find something to compare with, say, grandma’s anchovy coconut bread surprise.
Well, what about that heavenly aroma? You can freshen a loaf of store-bought (or frozen) bread by wrapping it in aluminum foil (or putting it in a pot with a lid) and sticking it in a warming oven for ten minutes or so. This approximates the “freshly baked” experience, if you have a good imagination, and are very hungry.
If you really want to make cheap bread, you’ll have to deal with the cost of yeast. Here’re some suggestions—
· Try a soda bread, quickbread, or other unleavened bread (no yeast).
· Create or borrow a sourdough starter (grow the yeast) and make sourdough bread.
A side benefit of having a good sourdough starter is that you can Xerox a good sourdough recipe and share both the recipe and the ever- replenished starter with friends. Like a pregnant cat, it’s a gift that keeps on giving.
As the trial gets underway, the judge has asked for DNA tests of all the children. This will answer definitively whether any of the children gave birth at an early age. If a fifteen year old girl is shown to be the mother of a two-year old child, then someone is guilty of an underage marriage or worse. While I fervently hope these questions and others will be handled in short order, the Texas trial could take a while. I would suggest readers keep posted through comments to this and the preceding blog entry, Raid at Yearning for Zion, and by reading the column The Polygamy Files in the Salt Lake Tribune. In the meantime, I'll be returning to my own humdrum life, starting with an entry on bread. I'll interrupt this blog for breaking news on polygamy, provided it's significantly newsworthy. This doesn't mean I'm not following or interested in YFZ, just that I'm confident there are other frequent comment contribitors who are following the story.
 Brandy and Ronnie are looking for a sister-wife. Here's what they say-- Hi! We are Ronnie & Brandy from Austin, TX! We are new to the Austin area, having originated from West Texas, but we are loving it here! He is 35, I am 30. We have three beautiful children two in grade school and a sweet baby. He is in sales, I am a homemaker by choice. We are a close couple, and very good friends. We want our new sisterwife to find that same closeness and friendship!We have a very broad range of interests within our family. Here are a few: fishing, camping, hiking, board games, video games, learning guitar, learning piano, poker, psychology, studying other religions, survivalist, home remodeling, gardening, lounging around, reading, visiting amusement parks, soccer, scrapbooking, photography, arts & crafts with kids, comedy. Music & movies are also a big part of our lives. We are still a bit addicted to entertainment! :-)Recently, after much prayer, we decided that polygyny was for us! I know many are curious, so I will say that it was me (Brandy) who first thought of the idea. I saw all the practical benefits as well as the fact that it is in line with our Christian beliefs. Although both of us are Christians, we are not specifically pursuing polygamy for religious purposes. Both of us believe that we believers should strive to the highest Christian ideal, but that at the same time recognize that we often miss the mark and that is where grace comes in!!We both believe strongly in commitment, respect and loyalty and that marriage is a sacred covenant before God that should be honored "Til death do us part." (Isn't it sad that phrase sounds so old-fashioned nowdays??) :-) Basically, we want polygamy for the same reason that many people get married - because they want someone else to share their life - for better or worse!! Ronnie & Brandy can be contacted at: moonj69@yahoo.comOr visit our MySpace at www.myspace.com/polyloveatxThanks & God Bless!
 On April 7th, in a moment strongly reminiscent of the infamous Short Creek Raid, Texas authorities descended on the Yearning for Zion ranch, a stronghold of the FLDS. More than 400 children were forcibly removed from the ranch, following an unidentified allegation of child abuse. Many mothers accompanied their children, who will be temporarily placed in foster homes. Their fathers were not allowed to leave the ranch. I don't condone child abuse, but have yet to hear any evidence of a widespread pattern of child abuse at the ranch. I hope the matter will be sorted out quickly, and that the families will be reunited. I suspect that the child protection service overreacted. Descending on an entire town on the basis of one allegation seems excessive to me. I notice that no one was arrested for practicing polygamy, and hope the government continues its trend of moving out of our bedrooms, our homes, and our families.
|
