Friday, April 30, 2010

Day 30: Peanut Butter Bread


Busy days call for quick breads. Quick breads don't usually have yeast and therefore, don't usually need to rise. Because of that, I can shave 1 1/2 hours off of my bread making time! Woo Hoo!

Don't get me wrong, I have enjoyed making homemade bread. And I will probably continue the practice well after this 40 day project is over. It's difficult to go back to the store-bought stuff. But, in a busy life, convenience is key.

So, after perusing my 30 cookbooks for bread recipes (note to self: the first time you peruse, reference the cookbook, not just the recipe and page #), I found one that my boys were interested in. They love PB&J sandwiches, so how fun would it be to have the bread already peanut butter flavored? The recipe not only called for peanut butter, but also oatmeal. Seems healthy enough, so I quickly made the bread. I used natural peanut butter (because we don't eat the sugar laden stuff) and old fashioned oats. The bread was still sweet because it had 3/4 cup sugar in it. (I might cut back on that # and try it with honey next time). Anyway, the bread turned out not only beautiful (which was an aesthetic success) but also tasty.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Avoidance

 I had to get out of this house. I'm trying to avoid making bread for a few days. I hopped on the highway and followed a Franz Bread Truck. How funny. I'm trying to avoid bread, and then the truck happens.

"Franz. The Good Bread"

Monday, April 26, 2010

Day 29: I'm Lookin' Over a 4 Leaf Clover

Well, I'm not really looking over a 4 leaf clover. But I did make Cloverleaf Rolls.



It wasn't difficult at all. The only unfortunate thing that happened was I forgot to brush  melted butter on the tops before baking.
Sad.
 I think it would have been nice to have had shiny tops instead of the matte finish that they had. Oh well. They were still good. We ate them without butter. *GASP* And they make pretty good ham and mayo sandwiches the next day. On day 3, you should toast them with a little butter to accompany your coffee. Then, they ought to be all gone. If not, then you are on you own as to what to do with them if you have any on day 4.

You may not know this, but my little Charlie found a 4 leaf clover. Yep. I do not lie. It happened like this. We were hiking out near Silver Falls and we stopped for a snack break.


Charlie was bored and hyper. I, in an attempt to occupy him for what would be a hopefully quiet and contemplative 3 minutes, suggested he look for a 4 leaf clover. We were sitting near a HUGE patch of clover that covered some interesting terrain. I told him that I had heard that there is usually one 4 leaf clover within every 12 square inches. I have searched for a 4 leaf clover my whole life when opportunity has presented itself because it seems so simple to find one, however, I have never found one. Maybe he could.

I no sooner finished telling him this and he replies, "like that one there", as he points over by a tree about 3 feet away. I laugh. I say, "Charlie, there isn't one there. Well, I guess there could be". He says, "no, really, right there". He walks over with me following him and SURE ENOUGH, THERE'S A 4 LEAF CLOVER!!


Friday, April 23, 2010

Day 28: My Little Monkey

For those who may not know, Charlie (my son monkey) fell from a tree last week and injured himself. All was going well up until 5:30p.m. last Tuesday. Charlie thought he'd make a grappling hook. He took a hook that is typically used to hang a bicycle, tied a rope to it, had his brother attach it to the tree and try it out to see if it would hold. Of course it held for Autry (he's light and agile). Charlie, on the other hand...well...the bark gave way and the hook slipped off.

 DOWN
HE
WENT!
CRASH! 

Apparently, Autry was up in the tree (at the height of his second floor window) and yelling for us. Here's the tree:


We, did not hear the commotion because we are like the parents who listen to screams and sound effects all day and have learned to tune most of that crap noise out. Plus, we were getting ready to leave to go out for the evening to our small group meeting. Autry jumped after 2 minutes of yelling and "no-show-parents" (and no, he didn't hurt himself).  He came in to get us and when we arrived at the scene, there was my little monkey in a heap and crying. He couldn't move his right arm. I had to cut his favorite sweatshirt off of him.

This was his favorite sweatshirt!


 We put ice on his shoulder and gave him some ibuprofen. We hauled him to small group with us. A friend of ours, who is a doctor, checked him out and the next day, we made an appointment with the pediatrician. A week later, he had x-rays and we found out that Charlie's arm is broken. It's more like a stress fracture but it's "broken". He just needs to keep it immobilized (for the most part) and wait because, "time will have to heal this one". It's in an unusual spot, so there isn't any re-setting or casts. Take your right arm and reach behind your back to scratch between your left shoulder blade. Now imagine falling on your arm like that. That's how he landed. So the break was the bone (proper name escapes me) in front of the shoulder where the muscles all join. I'm sure you felt the stretch when you imagined falling on the arm.

The monkey boy is bored. He's a real pest when he's bored. There isn't too much he can do  So, he's skipping out on chores. He gets to scale back on some school work (good thing we home school). He is driving me and his brother crazy! He did regress to playing with his toy soldiers. That lasted 30 minutes!


I made Charlie some Monkey Bread tonight. I didn't take the shortcut and use canned biscuits. I made a yeast dough and let it go through 2 risings and pinched off little 1 1/2 inch balls, rolled them in butter, sugar, brown sugar and cinnamon.


Which grew into:


 MMMMMM....monkey bread!

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Day 27: Sid's Country Cousins

I had to make sourdough bread today or throw out a one-cup scoop of the starter. I made two loaves of "Country Crust Sourdough" from the Southern Living Cookbook (1987). I have been stressed all week to get things done around the house. I haven't made bread in a few days and I had no more blog entries. Charlie has a broken arm. James is having a rough few weeks of work. The dog wants out. The dog wants in. Laundry might get finished today (relative term: finished. HA!). The house needs to get cleaned. I need to tailor some school work for Charlie. The dog wants out again! I need to get the steak marinating. And then, I need to make bread.
Bread. It's typically a 3 hour ritual. Not that I am consumed for 3 hours, but the process takes about 3 hours from start to finish. So, carving out time to fool with mixing, kneading, checking the rising dough and cleaning up the mess all with little breaks thrown in throughout the process is sometimes tricky to figure out. But I did it!
This is Sid (my sourdough stater who happens to be 42 days old today) and the beginning of the country cousins (two sourdough loaves).
I mixed everything and then I had to knead the dough for 12 minutes.
I stuck the country cousins in Bob to rise. About 45 minutes later, I peeked inside and saw this:




Once the country cousins finished singing baking and the house was infused with smell of sourdough bread, I introduced Sid to the cousins.
We all got along quite well.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Dressed Up Snarky

For those of you who have read or heard about Snarky Sourdough, you may be amused by the following photos. I was impressed with the some of the "activity" in Snarky's 35 years of life. If you missed the vacation photos, click here or click on Early Years for more photos. Hope you enjoy these.

.


Snarky at Prom Coronation 1992



Snarky at the Golden Globes in 20?? (can't remember details...too  much hooch)




Snarky at Halloween "dressed up" as pancake batter. How original!



Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Day 26: OOOOH, Honey!


Oatmeal Honey bread. It tastes like...like...

      There once was this little bee who lived near fields of wheat and oats. Of course, there were all sorts of wildflowers nearby as well. The little bee made bread with the resources of the land and created oatmeal honey bread.

The recipe I used to create the two loaves were from a friend of mine. And let me tell you, she's as busy as a bee and this bread recipe is amazing! It's very moist. It's honey and oat-full. I'm not sure which I like more about it, the honey or the oats. Or the fact that it makes 2 loaves. Hmmm...



I wasn't sure how it would turn out because I used Old Fashioned rolled oats instead of the Quick Oats. I also wasn't sure if both loaves would come out all right (I tend to not have success with more than one loaf). But, alas, I had two loaves that baked to yummy goodness. We ate one and the other is in the freezer.

Tomorrow, I make Cranky Bread. If you click on that link, you'll see what I'll be working with.
 I'm gearing up for it. I'll crank out a blog post for ya afterwards. Har, har!

Monday, April 19, 2010

Day 25: I Used an Alaskan

I used an Alaskan Amber bottle of beer to make bread. This is the EASIEST bread to make. EVER!
Fo Reelz, Sistah. I do not lie. The picture shows 3 ingredients and a loaf of bread. How easy is that? Anger management...well, that's where beer comes in handy. One bottle for the bread. One bottle for me. (and some Lynyrd Skynyrd in the background)

Actually, the day before, I attempted beer biscuits. They were epic fail. I used a different recipe today and made a loaf of bread.                              
                                                                 SUCCESS!


Recipe for Beer Bread:

cups of self-rising flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1 can/bottle of beer

Combine ingredients, mixing well. Let sit for 20 minutes. Dance around to the music. Pour into greased loaf pan and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or so (til golden). Dance around some more.

 Note: If using a darker beer, you may want to whip up some honey butter to serve with the bread to cut the strong beer flavor (recommended). Your bread won't taste like beer too much. It's the yeast in the beer that makes the bread rise and the more hoppy the beer, the more beer notes there will be. So, for some of you, you may just want to use good ol' American Budweiser and some others may want to use Guiness. If I were in Texas...ahhh...yes...I'd use a Shiner Bock.

Caution: your house will smell like a distillery, so don't invite any prudes over that day.

Friday, April 16, 2010

Cranky

A friend at church brought me his grandmother's breadmaker machine. His grandmother and mother have made bread in it. My turn is coming.  It's a metal bucket about the size of an old-fashioned ice cream maker bucket. It has a crank on the top that you have to assemble. It has a clamp that holds the bucket to the table/counter top. There's several pieces.


It apparently was a Gold Medal winner at the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904. It says so on the front of the bucket.


It has a bread hook that you crank by hand.


The instructions assume a girl knows how to make bread because on the lid it says," Put in all liquids first and then add flour..."

I'm going to make bread with this machine. I'm going to use a recipe I've used before, but I think I'll have to double the recipe in order to actually fill the bottom of the bucket in order for the bread hook/mixer to do it's job.

I'll keep ya posted.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Day 24: Beer Biscuits

I didn't take pictures and I don't want to talk about it. I just want it to count towards my 40 days.
Keep movin'. There's nothing to see here. Just another failed attempt.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Day 23: Cinnamon Loaf

Cinn-ahhh-MAHN (the last part should be sung with full vibrato).

Well, sort of like that.

Here is how my day went down on the day I made cinnamon loaf. I woke up late. I let the dog out. I caught my sweater (that James claims will be my 80-year-old-lady-sweater. Yes, it's my favorite around the house sweater and it's better than a robe because I don't get tangled up in it when I sit down. Don't ask. It's 15 years old and nobody has to see it except me and my guys.) on FIRE. I got my laundry started (finished would be 2 days later and even the term "finished" when applied to laundry is vague). I made the dough and put in Bob for it's first rising. I fed the dog.  I showered. I let the dog out. I chased the dog down. I ate breakfast. I took my vitamins. I made my first attempt to get on-line. I brushed my teeth. I checked on the dough. WHAT!?? IT'S BEEN AN HOUR AND THE DOUGH HAS NOT DOUBLED IN BULK! I re-boil the water and crank up Bob to a cozy 170 degrees. I go check on the internet attempt. NOPE, not cooperating. I make attempt #2. I switch laundry out. I get the boys started on their school work. I tidy up the living room. I remember the oven and go turn it off and put the pot of water in again. I check on the computer. I check bank acct., email, FB, Google, and a few news articles. Thirty minutes later, I go check on the dough. It's beginning to rise a little more and at a faster pace. My friend calls and is ready to pick me up (I'm helping her today at her house with a project of hers). I get dressed. I grab my stuff to finish the bread with. I go to friend's house and do the second half of the instructions for my cinnamon loaf. I help friend. I answer phone calls from my kids who have questions. My friend's house begins to smell of yummy, yeasty, cinnamon goodness. I come home and make the glaze for the loaf and drizzle it on. I lose control and slice into the loaf (uhmm, for pictures' sake). I sample. I hear angels in the architecture! I walk away from the kitchen to go write about it (for distraction). But, now, it's all coming back to me.
The End.
 Enjoy the photos.























Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Day 22: ...bagels

Bagels.


I made them. I have thumbed past the recipe several times in the past few weeks. I had looked over the recipe and decided "too complicated". Well, this week has been quite a week for me emotionally and so I was in need of a challenge. So, I made bagels. If pictures are worth a thousand words, then here's a picture of me and the enthusiasm I felt at the thought of making bagels.
Hey! It took me 2 weeks to muster up this amount of enthusiasm!

Here are the un-glamorous steps/photos/commentary:
1) make the dough
       NO PHOTO
2) knead the dough (10 minutes) I had to have what they called a "heavily floured surface" to knead this dough on. Well, let me show you what a heavily floured surface turns into when I knead bread for 10 minutes (this photo was taken after just 1 minute of kneading, so you can imagine x9 more minutes). 
 I was kneading in a billowing cloud of flour *ACHOO* I and my kitchen became a heavily floured surface.


3) let dough rise  Hello, Bob!


4) make 12 equal portions of dough balls










5) punch hole in center with thumb and pull dough out from center of bagel near the hole to create a 1" hole










6) BROIL (2 minutes) 
Note the discoloration on the bagel on the right. The outer layer of dough becomes freckled and hardened (much like sun damage).











7) BOIL










8)Embellish with salt, cinnamon/sugar, sesame seeds, etc.











9) BAKE










10) eat sample

and here's a picture of me after I cleaned up and ate my homemade bagel

Monday, April 12, 2010

Day 21: Tortilla Cocina

Fridays have been "Fry-days". I make fried bread.

This time, I made tortillas. They are cooked on a hot griddle, so it's sort of like frying, but not quite. Not sure what to call it.

Alas, homemade tortillas are easy and so yummy! You don't even need fillings for tacos, burritos or fajitas. You can eat one as soon as you pull it off the stove. You can dip it in queso (cheese sauce), salsa or melted butter. You can wrap them in foil and save them for later. Whatever you do, you can't go wrong with homemade tortillas.

Recipe:

4 cups flour
2 teaspoons salt (or less)
6 Tablespoons shortening
1 - 1 1/4 cup lukewarm water

Sift flour and salt. Work in shortening and stir in a cup of water then form a dough ball. If you need to, use more water until bowl is clear of all dough. Knead dough on lightly floured surface ( about 1 minute). Make into ping pong ball size balls (that sounds funny when said out loud). Roll out until size of saucer or salad plate. Cook on hot ungreased griddle or skillet for 1-2 minutes on either side. They'll puff up in places, but that's ok, once they're removed from pan, they settle down.

Now eat 'em all up! That's what happened and there are no photos. We've eliminated the evidence.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Week 4: Dear Bread Diary

Well, I'm halfway through this little self-appointed-anger-management-bread-making project. I'm sure this is  the point where I am supposed to tell you "Thank you, bread. You have worked wonders for me. I am healed". Or maybe it's the point where insurance sends me a letter stating that I have now exceeded my 20 visits, the maximum in any one year, and that from here on out it's coming right out of my own pocket and by the way, thank you for being such a valued sucker client and also to please note that because of my diagnosis, my premium will now be increased and reflected on the next billing statement.

Oh wait. This wasn't covered by insurance. Of course. Silly me. It was considered alternative medicine.
Maybe I need to release the whole I'm-bitter-about-insurance thing. (?)

I can say that I am getting much better at making bread. Some bread recipes are getting easier for me as I have now made them several times (even though I didn't tell you I did). I have a deeper appreciation of the simplicity of walking into the grocery store and just picking up a bag of bread to take home. Nice. But, note, I am not at all impressed with the flavor however aesthetically pleasing to the eye it may seem. And I am curious as to how this store-bought stuff sits around for days and days without growing moldy or hardening. My bread can mold over and harden within 4-5 days! Actually, I don't want to know the reason for this. It will make me angry about what "they" are putting in my food supply that has wreaked so much havoc on my thyroid and metabolism. And that will just lead me to pre-existing conditions and insurance.

Having to focus on bread-making has been a good thing. I have to think about recipes, ingredients, preparation & scheduling rather than my poor, pitiful, self.  I have taken more walks because I'm trying to keep the weight gain to a minimum,so I guess you can say I have added more exercise into my life. I have also started sharing my bread, which forces me to be more social.

All in all, I suppose I'm on the up and up.

Sincerely,
Dough Girl

Friday, April 9, 2010

Day 20: Plays Well With Others (refrigerator rolls; attempt #2)

WOOOOOHOOOOO!!
BOOM BEBE!
THESE ROLLS ARE DOPE, DAWG!
THEY ARE DA BOMB!
THESE ARE STAND UP AND SLAP YOUR MAMMA ROLLS!
Remember that scene in "When Harry Met Sally"? Yeah, that one. (If you haven't seen it, go stream, download, rent, borrow it and you'll know the scene when you get to it.) You know the one. Well, these rolls can cause quite a commotion, I'll just say that. If you want the recipe, you'll have to contact me. Here are the pictures and if I could give you scratch and sniff computing, I would. Just know they smell heavenly. If I could have bath oils or candles or shampoo or body wash that smelled like these rolls, I would...I would... well, I don't know what I would.

Anyway, ya'll have read about Sid (not to be confused with Snarky), the sourdough starter that has taken up residence in my fridge.  Sid now has a fridge-mate. Sally moved in. Sally is the refrigerator roll dough and she changes every week. Refrigerator roll dough  is dough that gets to hang out in your fridge in an air tight bowl until you need it. And baby, I need it! The dough will keep for 4-5 days and then it will need a purpose.

"When Sid Met Sally"









Oh yeah, pictures of the rolls... here they are.
Those were the first attempt. FAIL!

HERE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!


All 24 little balls in 1 pan. Trust me. They like to cozy up together and play.
See. Told ya so!
Careful, as they say on the ranch, these will cause your skirt to fly up!
...And try to show restraint when sampling them warm from the oven.

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Day 19: Death & Taxes Bread

The saying about there being two certain things in life: Death and Taxes, comes to mind today. I, Michelle, can also count on screwing up bread loaves. I can count 7 days worth of "good" bread and obviously 12 days of "bad" bread. (Yes, I judge by aesthetics. I'm working on changing how I judge things.)

Good bread: beignets, doughnuts, BLT bread, sourdough rolls, hamburger buns, hot cross buns and bread sticks and something else.

We won't talk about the failed attempts. Pictures are worth a thousand words.

These were ill-fated attempts at culinary scrumptousness.
                                    
Here are my Death and Taxes Bread. Two loaves of inevitable......
Where's the nice dome top? Where did this floury top come from? Where's the golden color?
Bread making could be the death of me. I owe taxes. I need knead dough.