Everything old

Is new again.  When my first marriage ended in 1980, I was on my own with two toddlers and no child support.  I thought making my own bread would save money, so I started.  But man, it was hard to learn how.  Proving the yeast?  What does that mean and how do you do that?  "Kneading"?  What was that?  How many times do you let it rise?  How do you shape the dough to get all the air out? 

Needless to say, I made quite a few unsuccessful batches.  One day, at a flea market, I spotted 'Robin Hood Prize Winning Recipes', a 1947 relic cookbook that solved all my problems and answered all my bread questions.  I grabbed it and suddenly, my bread turned out perfectly.  Back then, with a nanny to feed too, I made six loaves every week.  How I did that with a fulltime demanding job, I have no clue?  Making bread the way I did took four hours, by the time you let it rise three times and baked it.  Still does, but trust me, I will not use a bread maker; that's cheating.   

The other week, I had an urge to make bread.  So I dug out the old Robin Hood book after 35 years and refreshed my memory.  That batch was a bit of a bust, but I got at it again today and achieved the success I knew in my early thirties.  Here are the steps:
 

I needed all these pictures to get the hang of it.  Here is my effort of today:

 

Pretty proud of myself!