Best Discovery Ever - Easy Bread

Through the recommendation of a Facebook friend, I recently stumbled across this book:

Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day

 

 

After reading through the intro chapter and watching the demo video on Amazon.com, I was able to try out the master recipe and I was hooked. My next step was to pick up the full book at the library. I will likely buy it eventually.

 

This book is amazing! You need a bread machine no longer. The recipe takes some time to work through the first 1 or 2 times, but after you figure it out, it's a breeze, and the bread REALLY is a fast make. No long, drawn out yeast bread procedures.

 

 Basically the concept is that you mix up a large batch of dough that is good for up to 2 weeks. Then when you want bread, you pull off a hunk of dough, let it rise for 20 minutes, pop it in the oven, and poof! You have fresh, homemade bread that tastes great!

 

The first time I made it I modified alot. I used table salt instead of Kosher salt (but adjusted for the difference in volume that comes from using fine salt vs. coarse), I also used a round metal pizza pan instead of a stone, and I used normal, bleached, all-purpose flour. It still turned out fabulous!

 

The book includes recipies for all kinds of variations to a standard loaf, some with extra herbs and flavors, some different styles of loafs, as well as info on how to partially bake and freeze loaves so that they are ready to bake for dinner when you want them.

 

As you can see from the authors' website, there are a variety of resources and helps if you want to really get elaborate in your bread making.  So... check it out! You can find alot on line as far as the basic instructions, but go ahead and get the full book from your library. If you renew it once or twice you'll have plenty of time to try out a few things to see if it's something you want to stick with. Then, if you find you like it.... great item for the Christmas list this year. :)

 

Enjoy!

Fall Treat

On my to do list this fall....

Crock Pot Applesauce! As explained here:

http://womenlivingwell.org/2012/09/homemade-crock-pot-applesauce/

Simple and supposed to be yummy! One thing the post doesn't really bring out, that I read a few other places, is that it is best to mix the kinds of apples that you use in each batch.

I'll try to let you know how it turns out, but it has solid reviews so far! :)

In other news:
Professor NO has found a more professor-like job! Hooray! :)


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Update!

I tried the recipe and it worked great. It seems pretty foolproof.

I actually left it in more like 5 hours, but that might've been necessary because of my compulsion to take the lid off and stir throughout the 4 hour cook time. I used 5 Red Delicious, 3 Gala, and 3 MacIntosh. Don't know if the variety made a difference or not, but I like the result!

Summer Recipe - Pudding pie

Ok, in the summertime, I get a craving for cool desserts, but I've never been a big ice cream addict. Don't get me wrong, take me to Cold Stone Creamery (a place with good ice cream and lots of yummy add-ins) and I will have no shortage of tempting orders to decide between. But when I think dessert, I've always been more of the cookie/brownie type. However, the warm days of summer make cool desserts a little more tempting, and I've discovered the fabulous land of pudding pie. I love it for all of the following reasons:

1.) Cheap
2.) Quick
3.) Delicious
4.) Easy to make interesting, with minimal work. (See point#2)

Now you could follow the directions on a box of instant pudding and make a pie. Or you could add just a tiny spark of creativity, and make a layered dessert! My favorite method is explained below.

Use an Oreo Pie Crust two boxes of pudding (one Cream Cheese or vanilla and one Chocolate), one container of cool whip, and milk.

Step One - Mix the cream cheese pudding first. (Simple: add required milk to mix according to box instructions, beat, then pour into crust). Add it into the pie crust, but hold out maybe half a cup of pudding. Otherwise you'll fill up the crust before you get to all of your layers! Pop unfinished pie into fridge to set a little while working on your second step.

Step Two - Repeat step one, but with the chocolate pudding. Pour it gently on top of the cream cheese pudding, holding out a portion. (if you allow the pudding to pour too forcefully, you will pour a "hole" into the previous pudding layer and lose the smooth evenness of your bottom layer.) Layering in this order allows you to use the same bowl b/c having traces of the vanilla pudding mixed into the choc won't change anything. If you do it in reverse, however, the traces of chocolate will discolor the lighter pudding, even though it will taste the same. :)

Step Three - Dollop softened cool whip onto the top of the chocolate pudding and spread evenly to cover pie. You should use around half of a tub of cool whip.

Step Four - use pudding that has been held out to make one or two individual little pudding dishes. Layer them to mimic the pie, or keep the flavors separate! I usually prefer to repeat the steps of the pie.

Step Five - (may be best to withhold this step until right before serving pie) Drizzle chocolate or caramel ice cream topping across top of pie. Or decorate with sprinkles, crumbled cookies... be creative!

When you finish, you have a pie that has pretty layers alternating dark and light from crust to topping. Whole making/combining process takes maybe 15 minutes and you're done! Total price, maybe $5. If you shop coupons and sales - much cheaper!

Variation: A vanilla cookie crust also works nice. You lose some of your layered contrast, but the taste is still yummy! I do prefer either cookie crust over a graham cracker crust for this particular dessert.

Stretching and Changing

I haven't written in awhile, it's plain to see. It isn't that I haven't wanted to. I've thought about it quite a bit. But never long enough to compose a post in my mind that is worth putting up. I even started this draft a month ago. Why so busy?? Well.... (drumroll...) I have ventured out of my safe haven home and into part-time work. I'll back up and explain briefly.

After taking several months to get settled in to a routine with married life, and to try to work out the major kinks in getting adjusted to living with another person, we decided it would be wise for me to find some part-time work. After spending some time searching, I found a perfect fit with a job nannying for a little girl. I started in February just before her first birthday.

I only go in a few days a week, and my hours aren't very long and the job pays a good wage. She's a sweet girl and just getting to know all of the world and learning so many new skills and slowly learning words as well. She can almost say my name now, and this week she said "Drink please" all together, without prompting, for the first time! It was a great day. :) We have a good time together, but she still naps so I get a break or two most days. The job works great because it doesn't drain me as much as my previous jobs have, which means I still have some energy left to give when I get back home. It also leaves me with enough days, most of the time, to take care of all the household responsibilities and occasionally volunteer for other things. My employers are also flexible and often able to adjust my days  if I request it.

While the decreased time at home has been challenging, it has also been good at forcing me to learn to take my settled routines and now make them more efficient. I'm learning how to plan ahead better, amongst other things. I also try to cook 3 days in a row when I'm at home, and usually those leftovers carry us through the other days of the week, so that simplifies the kitchen routine quite a bit by reducing the prep work AND by reducing the guesswork -as I can spend alot of indecisive time figuring out a meal every night. :-P After working out that routine, our habits were upset again when the Professor's job transferred him to a different location that is open longer hours, including nights and weekends. His schedule now varies every week, sometimes opening at 5 am, sometimes closing at midnight, and most weeks the schedule is not steady. Meaning he will do both of these schedules within th same week.Trying to figure out how to adapt to THIS routine has been more challenging and is still one I'm working on. But it's stretching me, and that's always a good thing, right?

Overall, the job has been a blessing as we have been using it primarily to build up our savings, and secondarily to add a little extra "fun money" into our budget (once we offset the expenses in gas and occasionally some 'convenience expenses' that have been added by taking on a job). I still feel like my house is always undone and needing more attention than I can give it, but part of that will be a neverending battle as long as we live here because we don't have enough room to store stuff properly. I just try to remind myself that I'm practicing for the day when I have my own children filling much of my days and I won't have the opportunity to spend my "full time" on maintaining my household. :) 

Building a Marriage

I recently finished reading a book on marriage that I recieved... um... a little over a year ago. Don't judge me! It was a busy year involving things like wedding planning. Granted, you could consider a marriage book PART of wedding planning, but I read some other ones that I recieved first.

Anyway, I finally got to this one and thoroughly enjoyed it. Part of being a housewife includes building the relationships within the home, including the one with my spouse. This book was a great tool in that regard. It was thought provoking and very helpful. In fact, it's been the best marriage book I've read so far. I highly recommend it to anyone. Sooo... the link is included below. Check the book out for yourself!


What Did You Expect?

A Political Housewife?

Should politics be a big deal to the average housewife? After all, husbands and children have so many needs that fill up a wife’s time, and so do her responsibilities in outside organizations.
Does this sound like your life?

“Ok, so there are minor elections being held today…but I have 3 loads of laundry, company coming over tomorrow, a house to clean, grocery shopping to get done, and I promised Jimmy I would take him to the park after school. Of course, I still have to get supper on the table as usual and make sure everyone’s lunches are ready to go for tomorrow as well. I don’t have time to find out who is running for what office and go over to vote. It’s not a big deal. It’s not like this is the Presidential election or something. “

 If that sounds like you, then this post is for you! One of the things that makes the United States of America so unique is our free system of self government. While the politicians haven’t been making most American’s proud lately, we’re still better off than the vast majority of our counterparts around the world. (hmmm yeah, are you dying to move to that bulwark of freedom known as communist China? You probably would have to stop reading my blog. Facebook doesn’t go over too well either. Oh, and did you want more than one child? So sorry. And how about that flourishing economic giant called Greece? Yep, their stability isn’t exactly anything to bank on.)  So let’s stop and consider the process for a minute. People in cities, towns, and counties all across America run for office and get elected. It’s not to any major position… they get on the city council, become a county registrar, or sit on the local school board. Nothing big. But they get involved and they make choices that impact the regulations surrounding your local, daily life. Then after a few years they get ambitious, and run for an office that’s a little bit bigger. Then eventually they run for a state level representative office. After a term or two there, they might go ahead and shoot for a Governorship, or perhaps a Federal Representative or even a Senator. Next thing you know, over the course of 10 or 20 years, that person you didn’t bother to vote for (or against) is pursuing some of the highest offices in the land and is impacting BIG decisions that affect everyone.
 
So what is the application here?
 

Take the time to get involved at every level. Examine the issues, read about the candidates. Find ones locally that believe what you believe and support what you support. Then vote for them. Do your part to help move them along in the political process. If you want to have good men and women working for you in Washington, you have to start supporting them when they live in your town and work for you there.

 
Oh, you want to know why? Why should you delay those things you need to do, risk a messy house for company, or have a less then perfect meal prepared? Because, dear housewife, those men in Washington are voting on legislation that will build or destroy your country and your way of life. If you want your husband to keep his stable job and provide a nice home for your family, he and his company need to stay in business which is hard to do in a shrinking economy. He needs to be able to save his income for emergencies and your children’s college fund, not have a quarter of it taken away in taxes. You need to have freedom of choice as to how you educate your children, where it happens, and what they are taught. You need the ability as a family to decide what medical care is best, what doctor will work with you when you are expecting your next little baby, and to have the choice to allow it to live, even when medical science predicts that he or she cannot. You should have the freedom to attend a church that preaches exactly what the Bible teaches without the pastor being censored because the government thinks differently than Scripture.  
 

There are many many many people out there who believe the government knows better than the individual. They think that the government needs to take care of the individual, regardless of what that individual thinks, because they are smarter. YOU, my friend, may well be that individual one day. If you are a freedom loving American, don’t wait until you have no freedom left to get involved. (which means you need to get active ASAP, we’re losing many of our freedoms rapidly.) As we look at a minor election such as the upcoming Presidential primary… DON’T decide that it is a done deal, the outcome can’t change, and your vote doesn’t matter. Your vote does! Already the Iowa primary had only an 8 vote difference between first and second place. Don’t ever give up your privilege to vote. Strive to always be able to say, regardless of the outcome, that you did your smallest part to fight for what was right by voting for those who supported your point of view. If you can find ways to get involved in their campaigns, even better! But at least take a stand. There are millions of people in America who think and feel the way you do. If they all went and voted, what a difference their voice might make!

 

Will your voice be silent? Or will it be heard?