No Knead Bread for Dealing with Anxiety and Children

I taught a Relief Society class this week on No Knead Bread at our house. We had close to forty sisters there.  The RS president scheduled a "Children and "Anxiety" lecture without telling the Enrichment counselor but we, the counselor and committee already had the bread class scheduled. I knew from experience that the sisters don't come is there a just a lecture. (Last time we had a lecture we only had eighteen or so sisters there). We get taught on Sundays and need to visit and interact during the week. And usually the sisters who need to hear the lecture don't come. But the RS Presidency felt like it was a needed topic and we had a sister in the ward who is a family counselor who they wanted to involve. So I suggested we do both. Draw the sisters in with the bread class and then let them hear  the information offered while they were there. We had the family counselor and a school counselor talk about ways to manage anxiety in children and teens and it was surprisingly informative and well done: applicable to parents, grandparents and teachers. I was pleased so many were there to hear it.

I made 7 loaves of bread for the class. A plain loaf cooked in an enamel coated Dutch oven, a cheese loaf cooked in my Bread Dome and a sourdough loaf cooked in our cast iron Dutch oven. I wanted to show that you didn't have to have specialized equipment to make the bread. I made four loaves for demonstration purposes. One to smell coming in the house, one to show how it was mixed, one to show what the risen dough looked like and how to shape it, and one to demonstrate how to make a filled loaf like cheese or cinnamon raisin. The sisters ate every slice I put out plus some yummy Valentine treats. It was a good evening and will probably be the last class I teach before being released. I have served for 5 years on the committee and it is time.