Making Bread

The other day at an estate sale I picked up this very simple bread tray. Antique reproduction if you will. It is pewter colored and has an engraving on the base of some men in a wheat field and it says "Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread." I don't know why I liked it - but I did. So, when one has a bread tray one should make bread!

(I do believe this is the first picture of me on this blog - hello everyone!)

Here's my preferred recipe for when I have a couple of hours to enjoy the kneading, punching, rising, kneading, baking, smelling, cooling process of making bread. It's great as a breakfast bread lightly toasted with some fruit or jelly on top.

I don't do the bread machine thing. If I'm going to go to the trouble to make brad - I want to really experience it! Besides, there is no where in this small apartment kitchen to store yet another kitchen appliance anyway.

Amish White Bread

2 cups warm water
2/3 cup white sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons active dry yeast (2 packets typically)
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
6 cups bread flour

1. In a large bowl, dissolve the sugar in warm water, and then stir in yeast. Allow to proof until yeast resembles a creamy foam.
2. Mix salt and oil into the yeast. Mix in flour one cup at a time. Knead dough on a lightly floured surface until smooth. Place in a well oiled bowl, and turn dough to coat. Cover with a damp cloth. Allow to rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.
3. Punch dough down. Knead for a few minutes, and divide in half. Shape into loaves, and place into two well oiled 9x5 inch loaf pans. Allow to rise for 30 minutes, or until dough has risen 1 inch above pans. (make sure you wait for the full rise - not just 30 minutes! I got impatient and my bread was a little flat :( )
4. Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes.

Enjoy!

I just fell in love with a rug

Right now my living room is two colors. Brown and Blue (see picture). I've been wanting to add more color to the room but haven't yet seen anything that says "That's It!"

Until now.

I stumbled across these Kathy Ireland rugs on Apartment Therapy's website that deals with designs in kids rooms - but I think they're beautiful, not childish.

We have the Garden Girl Milk Chocolate rug and the Butterfly Fantasy Ocean rug. I think the butterfly one is beautiful - but probably too green. So, the Garden Girl one is going on my wish list. (Hey, Mom! Christmas present? *smile*)

It's a lot of color - but will be under the coffee table (might need to get rid of that table runner you see in the picture and get something else) and I think it'll give the room some variety. I could get throw pillows the colors of the fabrics. Right now the throw pillows are just the same material as the couch. (Fancy looking, but boring.) The Garden Girl also comes with a "sand" colored background rather than the "chocolate" - but I think that would blend in too much with my current carpet.

So, maybe they'll carry them long enough for me to save $200 to spend on a rug.

The Kitchen Junk Drawer. Or, I Forgot I Had A Garlic Press!

I picked up Green Housekeeping by Ellen Sandbeck at the bookstore the other day. I've been reading/skimming through it. I appreciate her thrifty approach to being green. It's less Martha Stewart and more "I'm busy but I still want my home neat and clean without using chemicals!"

The first part of the book is on organization and she suggested using cardboard from old food boxes (cereal, crackers, etc) to create your own custom drawer organizers. Recycling AND organization that doesn't cost me more than the cost of the tape I already have. I'm in.

So, I present to you my newly reclaimed kitchen drawer. The things I use the most I put up front. I rediscovered that I own such things as a garlic press, a biscuit cutter, and a cheese slicer. What treasures! And, now I don't have to go digging around the entire drawer for my 1/8 tsp measuring spoon - I just have to dig around the first little cubby hole on the right! Amazing. Really.

Materials

Before

After

The beaters for the electric mixer have always been a problem in this drawer as if they do not have their own "floor" space they do not fit - they can't be on top of anything else. I used to just shove stuff around until I got some empty space. Hopefully this will work better. I've got the little "grease catcher" for the George Foreman Grill on top of some corn on the cob holders (which will come in handy when I once again get my corn and worms this Wednesday *shudder*). I was looking for those corn things last week and couldn't find them in the drawer! Stuff that I rarely use (cake decorating supplies, the turkey baster) are way in the back.

Now go see what stuff you can take out of boxes in your cabinets so you can organize your junk drawer too! ,

For When You Need Chocolate Cake NOW

A friend showed me a link to a 5-minute chocolate cake you bake in the microwave. (No. Really) So, of course I had to try this out.

You can find the recipe here: http://www.dizzy-dee.com/recipe/chocolate-cake-in-5-minutes

I whipped up a quick peanut butter frosting recipe to spread on top:

2 Tbs softened butter (room temp)

1/4 cup cream peanut butter

1/2 c powdered sugar

beat together

beat in 2-3 tsp of milk (room temp) gradually until you reach desired consistency.

Not counting the "let the cold stuff get to room temp" time - it probably took me 20 minutes to get the ingredients together, make it, wait for the cake to set, frost, and clean-up.

I thought this a very good cake for the chocolate craving you may get - I wouldn't bake 20 of them to take as your pot-luck contribution - but it was very good! I enjoyed it warm with the peanut butter slightly melting into the cake the most. And, of course, I recommend a nice cold glass or organic milk to go with this tasty treat!

Worms: 2; Nicole: 2

I guess I should update you on the corn situation. I did eventually find a nice web page that explained the whole "worm" situation to me. So, I bravely went in to husk (shuck? which is it?) the corn.


Ear One: No worm! Nicole happily peeled away the layers of husk setting them aside in dreams of tamales or corn husk dolls.

Ear Two: Confidently pulling away the husks -- when near the actual corn I see... a worm. A fuzzy green worm munching on MY corn. I was husking over the trashcan so I shake the worm off - do my best to NOT throw away the corn while repeating an "organic is good. organic is good" mantra over and over. Dutifully cut off the portion of the corn the worm had munched on (plus quite a few more rows . . .)

At this point I pushed the other two ears to the side and said I'd deal with them and their inhabitants later. (I also threw the husks into the trash as I couldn't remember which were the worm husks and which weren't - so don't expect a "how to make a corn husk doll" post anytime in the near future.)

I roasted up the corn. Sprinkled some butter and spices and such on it and popped it in the oven wrapped in tin foil. Cooked for about 30 minutes. I don't do well actually eating the corn off the cob - so I just cut the kernels off into a bowl, chopped up a tomato (organic of course), mix, salt, enjoy!


I finally braved up enough to face the remaining two ears the next day. The first one had the evidence of the worm (munched ends) but the last one was worm free. So, half and half. I feel as though I've accomplished some brave step in organic food! ;-)