Reading Rainbow

When I was a child, I lived for mornings. I woke up early, scrambled off my bed with my trusty blanket, and tip-toed into the kitchen. A bowl of Cheerios and a glass of orange juice later and I was nestled in front of our TV eagerly awaiting my two favorite shows – Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood and, my ultimate favorite, Reading Rainbow.

I can still hear the theme song in my head, “Take a look. It’s in a book. A reading rainbow. Reading rainbooooowwwww!” This show is where my love of storytelling and books began. My favorite episode was Bread is for Eating. The show begins with LeVar Burton holding a giant boule of crusty bread. You could practically smell that fresh loaf through the television and, oh, the crisp sound it made when he tore it in half!

I was fascinated with the episode and with the story, songs, and examples of how people of all nationalities made bread. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gji6QHZ5xvQ)

After the episode concluded, I threw off my blanket and trotted to the kitchen, my waist-length black hair billowing out in my mad dash to grab a loaf of bread. My parents were more into sliced bread than artisan, so I grabbed a loaf of Sunbeam out of the breadbox before raiding our fridge in search of something to slather onto one of those fluffy slices.

The first thing that caught my eye was a jar of French’s mustard. I liked mustard a little more than the average kid so one jar, a butter knife, and a chair stolen from the dinette set later, and I was at the counter gleefully slathering up a couple of slices and singing, “You are my sunshine, my only sunshiiiiine,” just like the boy in the commercial. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dH-XdJrdcws)

Right about that time my father, who I thought was asleep, and his best friend opened the kitchen door. Still caterwauling like a cat with its tail in a rocker, I didn’t hear them until they started to laugh. Things went downhill from there. I went one way, the chair another, and the mustard ended up in my hair. Despite the calamity and the scrubbing, washing, drying, and combing of tangles that followed, I have no regrets and I can still say that bread makes me as happy today as it did all those years ago…and, yes, I still sing the sunshine song when I’m putting mustard on it though I have learned not to stand on chairs with butter knives.

Bread is the cornerstone of baking. People across the world have their own recipes and traditions for baking it. If you want to learn more about this culinary staple, The Spruce Eats (https://www.thespruceeats.com/flatbread-varieties-1328776) has a wonderful article on varieties of flatbreads such as Chapati (South Asia), Matzah (Jewish flatbread), Naan (India), and many more. Pinterest is also a great resource for bread recipes, as is Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2UZt6xyWmg). Even a Google search will yield enough recipes to keep even the most experienced cook busy for a long time and, if all else fails, “Take a look; it’s in a book.”