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.

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"

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!!

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!

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.

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.

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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!

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!