On Childish Delight + Brown Soda Bread

Or: How to bake fresh bread and laugh daily.

A couple weeks ago, CJ Finley posed a question on Twitter: If experiencing laughter — being around people, places and experiences that make you laugh — is so incredibly beneficial, why doesn’t it get talked about more in the “mental health world?”

It’s a great question. Laughing is scientifically proven to increase dopamine, release endorphins, and lower cortisol levels. Hearty laughing increases heart and respiratory rates similar to moderate exercise and leads to a following state of relaxation. You could make the case that laughter truly is the best medicine.

One of the best things about being a dad is being able to vicariously experience pure, unadulterated¹ joy and delight in everything through Kiddo CWD². Being able to see each new sunrise as sublime beauty, noticing how some leaves are prickly, others smooth, cracking up uncontrollably at falling down — this is the truest gift of childhood, the best gifts our kids can give us³. I love nothing more than getting down on KCWD’s level — both physically and intellectually⁴ — and experiencing the world through her eyes. Whereas to us, things like airplanes overhead, “big trucks!,” and dogs⁵ might escape notice, to KCWD, these merit exuberation — and a cry for “more!” To get such great joy from the seemingly mundane is a medicine we should all be taking⁶.

In order to take your dose of this medicine, however, you need to actually notice the delight. With a child, this is easy — watch them, really watch them, observe them, notice them noticing — then, you’ll pick up on that delight, that good.

I suggested as much to CJ, who is expecting his first soon⁷. He asked a great follow up question: how can an adult, who might not be around children all the time, be able to experience delight without having to rely on kids?

Based only on my observations of KCWD over the last two years, here’s how I think you can maximize your opportunities to experience delight:

1. Wonder more. Ask yourself, “what’s that?” What does this do? Why does it go there? Can it go there? What happens if I do this? By asking yourself these questions, and acting on them, you can open yourself up to the wonder of the world.

2. Dance more. When is the last time you danced by yourself? You should sing more too, making up the words when you don’t know them. KCWD does both all the time, with and without music — and cracks herself up during it every time.

3. Fall more. And get up after, and fall again. As I’ve gotten older, I less and less often find myself doing things I’m not sure I can do. Watching KWCD jump off rocks, run through snow, go down slides — all without knowing if she’ll stick the landing — has inspired me to try the same. Try to jump on a picnic table, skip a few stairs, see if you can balance on a post. Laugh if you succeed and laugh if you don’t⁸.

4. Look up. When you’re not staring at your phone, you can notice the wonder of an airplane, of a caterpillar, of a squirrel, of a school bus. Try to see things through a new lens, new each time you see them. You can’t help but laugh at the novelty of things.

5. Play more. Things don’t need to be so serious all the time — embrace play! When you’re running, swinging, shouting, and building, you can’t help but have fun. All the better if you’re doing it outside.

That list is certainly not all encompassing, but just doing those couple things should increase the amount of laughter in your life exponentially. If you have any suggestions for other delight inducing practices, please feel free to chime in.

Something that may not induce laughter, but will certainly induce joy, is fresh baked bread. Since baking Uncle Steady’s sourdough is a serious⁹ endeavor, let’s have some fun with some Irish soda bread. This recipe is mostly based on “Mummy’s Brown Soda Bread” from The Forgotten Skills of Cooking, which I alluded to last week, and couldn’t be simpler to make. KCWD has been know to mix this together on Saturday mornings, mostly just so she can eat the raw dough.

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Pre-heat your oven to 450(F). In a large mixing bowl, combine 1¾ cup whole wheat flour with 1¾ cup regular flour. Add 1tsp baking soda and another of salt. Mix well to combine, preferably with your hands. Push the dry ingredients to the side of the bowl to make a “well,” and slowly pour in about 2 cups of buttermilk¹⁰ while stirring with your other hand.

The dough should start to come together fairly quickly. Continue to mix with your hands until fully incorporated, and then pick it up and start forming into a ball, adding flour as needed¹¹. Once the dough is no longer sticky and holds its shape, use a sharp knife to slice a cross into the bread — “blessing the bread” — and then poke a hole in each quarter to “let the fairies out.¹²”

Place the doughy loaf in an oven safe pan and place it in the oven. After 15 minutes, drop the heat to 400(F), and then after 15 more minutes, flip the loaf and cook for 5-10¹³ more until the bread sounds hollow when tapped. Let cool on a wire rack and serve warm with plenty of butter.

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There you go — Irish soda bread. If this doesn’t bring you back to your childhood in Donaghadee¹⁴, I don’t know what will!

What I like about this bread is that it comes together very quickly, especially compared to something more involved like sourdough. You can, as you get more comfortable making it, play around with the ratios and types of flour until you settle on something you really like. More whole wheat is a denser bread, more white is a little airier. Recently, I’ve been using Einkorn flour, which is an heirloom wheat variety that lends a really nice flavor.

With that, I’ll leave you to your weekends. Get outside, channel your inner child, laugh, play, and maybe even find yourself an occasion to laugh. Spring is almost here — act like it!

1. Unadulterated is such an interesting word, here especially. Adulterate comes from the Latin, adulterare — meaning to falsify or corrupt. The English definition from the 1500s is to “debase by mixing with foreign or inferior material, make corrupt.” (Literally, ad-, “to, toward,” and -alter, “to change or make different.”

So, unadulterated is the opposite of that: Not corrupt, not falsified — pure.

Kinda makes you wonder if becoming an “adult” is actually a good thing?

(And yes, I know that the entomology of adult is different from adulter, but let’s not let that get in the way of a good lesson.)

2. And, slowly but surely, Baby CWD (who is just starting to smile and coo with any regularity).

3. Of course, as I’m relearning from Baby CWD, there’s a flip side to this with an infant. The inconsolable crying, the unprompted wails. It can be equally overwhelming at times. But, you really do need to experience the lows if you want to cherish the highs.

4. Which Mrs. CWD might say is not that hard…

5. To be honest, I never miss noticing a dog.

6. Just yesterday morning, KCWD noticed a cardinal out in the yard. “A red bird!” and “another red bird!” when another appeared. “It’s hiding in a hole!” “They’re playing a game!”

We spent a couple minutes watching, laughing. Those are memories you can’t put a price on.

7. Congrats!

8. If you don’t, anyone watching certainly will!

9. Pun!

10. I actually normally use kefir, since we always have that on hand.

11. I typically add another quarter to half cup of flour as the dough comes together. This is less of a science and more of what “feels” right — it will depend highly on the temperature in your house, the humidity, what type of flour you use, what type of buttermilk, the alignment of Saturn, etc.

12. Both “blessing the bread” and “letting the fairies out” actually serve a purpose to help the bread bake fully through, but using such nomenclature keeps the whimsy and delight in making this.

13. The bread in the pictures went for 5 more minutes at the end (35 minutes total), but I think it could have gone for a few more to get a little more crusty on top.

14. Weather is looking quite nice this week, Salty!