My dad doesn't seem like the kind of guy who would bake（烤） great bread，but he is and he does. Every Saturday he produces homemade bread. When he's done, the whole house smells delicious.
The rest of the week, Dad fixes cars at work. The shop where Dad works doesn't have enough work, so he's under a lot of stress（压力）. I think Dad began baking bread to help him relax.
I've been feeling kind of stressed out myself since I found out I didn't make the school swim team. Now I'll have to wait a whole year to try out again. Plus, I'm taking some difficult classes this year.
I think Dad knew I was feeling bad. Last Saturday he asked me how things were going. I said OK, even though I didn't feel OK at all. He looked at me for a moment, and then he said it wastime for me to help. Then he headed to the kitchen.
I followed right behind him. Once we were there, Dad took out his big mixing bowl, handed me a large wooden spoon, and told me to mix while he added the ingredients（烹饪原料）. Dad isn't big on measuring, but he knows how much of each ingredient to use, and the bread always turns out great.
When I finished stirring, Dad showed me how to knead the dough（揉面团）. Next came the most difficult part-doing nothing. We put the dough back into the bowl and then we waited for more than an hour for the dough to slowly rise and double in size. Next, we divided it into two and waited for it to rise again. Afterward, we put the dough into pans and waited another hour for the dough to rise and double.
Dad said the waiting is always the hardest part. "It's hard to resist（抵制）putting the dough directly into the oven（烤箱），but if you do，the bread wil1 be hard. The most important lesson of all is learning to be. " Dad taught me more than how to bake bread.
