A single dad's survival tips

If this is your house after a weekend with your children, you need some of these basic tips to keep them busy, out of mischief and to teach you -- and them --some basic skills.

This is the first in a series to help single parents - dad or mum - navigate some of life's hurdles thrown up by raising children on your own.

This new site is specifically aimed at single dads or moms who are, like me, grappling with the challenges thrown up during lockdown and the Covid-19 pandemic. You will see a weekly light-hearted column on things to do and how to do them, discovered through trial and error on my part.
This is not a definitive guide to parenting or pop-psychology in dealing with children.
It's more basic than that. It will cover fun, educational things you can do with your children and lower the running costs of having one or more of the little ones.
The columns will range from making bread, to haircuts for both boys and girls -- you'll save a fortune right here -- to wiring a lamp or cleaning the oven.
I'll even punt the Scouting and Cubs movement as a great way for getting your children away from television and into a fantastic organisation. Hell, you might even want to join and share the fun. I know how much my son and daughter and I enjoy it.
Please give me feedback on what's working and what's isn't (@allanseccombe). That way all of us can learn from each other.
While you'll see plenty of dad jokes, that comes with the territory and who knows, maybe they make your children laugh. Isn't that what it's all about?

In the first part of this 12 part series, I'll show you the world's easiest bread recipe.

Making healthy bread is a great way to make sure everyone at home is not eating the nonsense that passes for shop bread from the big-name bakeries.

This is a fun thing to do either for your self or with your children. As a single dad, it's an easy project to do with one or more of your children. For a single guy, this is a great thing to put on the table with a simple homemade soup when you've invited someone home and you want to impress them.

So, why make your bread at home?

1 - It's healthy and you know precisely what is going into it. There are no mysteries around flour, water, yeast and salt -- and maybe a bit of dirt off your child's hand, but who cares after germs have been incinerated in a 250 C oven. A quick look at a low-gi, whole wheat brown bread from one of the big industrial bakers contains at least 18 ingredients including mystery items like no-name "flavour enhancer" and calcium propionate, flour improver - yes, what is that? - and anonymous enzymes. In this society of mass-produced food and strange things going into processed food, here is one staple foodstuff you can reclaim and keep honest.

2. White bread isn't the best thing for you. True. So use the wholewheat bread flour that you can buy at most supermarkets. I find mine at Spar and Checkers. If you want more goodness and nutritional value you can experiment with added chopped up nuts and dried fruit. Shredded, pitless dates are a fantastic combination in the bread. You can try olives, sundried tomatoes and herbs. Even garlic.

3. It's very easy to make and leaves no mess. Unless your children are making it, in which case you'll need to wipe up flour from the kitchen counter, floor and them. You can make the dough within 10 minutes and have it rising in a nice toasty corner of the house for a few hours.

4. Making this bread can be made a very basic educational tool. What is yeast? Why does it make a soggy ball of dough rise and become a warm, smooth, living thing? Why when you are mixing the dough does it undergo a transformation and what role does the gluten play as you work the dough? What keeps the yeast alive? Is it true that their little farts and burps and breaths are putting air bubbles into the dough that make the bread smell and look so good after it's baked?

5. The recipe I'm giving you doesn't need any contact with your hands. I used a chopstick to stir it all together and whip up the gluten and make it lovely. But if you or your children want to get your hands in and mix and knead the bread, go right ahead. Enjoy it. You'll feel the change as the water-logged gloop turns into a bread dough, with an elastic skin. You can't hurt it by using your hands. Using this manual method also allows you to shape your dough into a ball for the rising process. I just poured mine straight from the mixing bowl into another baking paper-lined bowl and let the dough do its own thing.

6. This bread will go stale quite quickly, within a couple of days. It doesn't come with preservatives, you see. But don't throw it out. It makes the most delicious toast. For an added treat for the family, make French Toast by slicing the bread, dipping it into whipped eggs, soaking it thoroughly, and then frying it until golden brown on both sides in olive oil or butter.

7. You can keep risen bread dough in the fridge for a couple of days, so if you need fresh bread it will take as long as heating the oven good and hot with the Dutch Oven (basically a cast iron pot with a lid on it) in it, and then another 45 minutes of baking time. Just take the dough out of the fridge while the oven is warming.

Be careful when putting the bread into the oven and taking it out. The oven is at 250 C or more. Keep children well back. If you accidentally touch the pot or part of the oven you could drop the pot. This is a personal experience. It's not something you do twice, same as absentmindedly picking up the lid with a bare hand after it's been in the oven.

There's a real sense of pride and achievement when you've made your bread and you've got it out to cool. The bread may not be a conventional shape but the taste is great. In a world where we seem so out of control of events around us, this is something you can do, and easily.

The reading part is all done. Keep going for the recipe. It's done nice and big and each step is on a single page so you can prop up your iPad or laptop in the kitchen and go through step by step.

And then there are three little videos. This was one of my better loaves. See if you can match or make a better loaf. Don't despair if your first loaf is a brick. By two or three you'll have the hang of it.