Alice snoozing in the sun, she is just sooooooooooo cute! I can't believe I love this cat, but I do.
Sunday, October 28, 2012
And now for your viewing enjoyment...
Alice snoozing in the sun, she is just sooooooooooo cute! I can't believe I love this cat, but I do.
Saturday, October 27, 2012
It's a rainy/snowy Saturday and I'm baking bread.
I think that title says it all...
I used this recipe Fresh Yeast Bread and it's in the final stages of raising. It started well, I didn't kill the yeast in the first stage. It rose as it should in the second and third stages. Now it's formed into six loaves and it's (hopefully) raising for the last time, then I will bake it, slice it and freeze the extra loaves so I don't have to do this again for a really long time.
I sort of like to cook, but I hate to clean up the mess and it seems silly to me to bake something I could just as easily buy. However, it is impossible to buy bread that is worth eating unless I go to the big city. I hate going to the big city. There are many reasons, but the main one is the "big city" is Butte Montana. It's a dump. It's dirty. The air stinks.
Evel Knievel (I'm pretty sure he thought he looked great in this picture) is the local hero (even though he is dead) and every summer people gather for Evel Knievel days, I just don't get it. I could go on, but for now, I won't. I'll just say it's sad, really, because back in the day Butte MT was the largest city west of the Mississippi. It's true, you wouldn't know it, looking at it today, but when the copper kings were, well, kings Butte was THE place. Not so much any more and it's really is very, very sad.
However, back to the bread. There is a little bakery in Butte, MT that makes fantastic bread, I mean it's awesome and BT LOVES it. But he hates Butte, MT more than me and he won't go there either. So the only thing left for me to do is bake (gasp!) and I don't like it. However, since it really is about reading directions, and following said directions, I'm pretty good at it.
Oh, and one other thing, I'm 45 years old and I don't own a single bread pan. Nope, not one. I do, however, have a jelly roll pan, which on any given day also doubles as a cookie pan, a pizza pan and a put it under the lasagna so it's doesn't make a mess in the oven pan and I have a broiler pan (which came with the stove). I'm woefully unprepared. So, if I'm baking bread, why not buy some bread pans? That would necessitate a trip to the "big city" and if I were willing to go there, I'd just stop at that bakery and buy bread, but I won't so I can't. But here's my bread in it's final raising stage.
Now, I'm just wondering if I can bake all of this at one time. We'll see...
So, you CAN bake six loaves at the same time. Half the time pan a was on the top shelf, pan b was on the bottom shelf. Twenty minutes in I switched them. It worked...YAY!
And, the best part of all, this is the BEST bread I have ever made. It has great flavor and perfect texture. This is very exciting because living at a high altitude usually makes for baking disasters. So, all in all, a very successful day. :)
I used this recipe Fresh Yeast Bread and it's in the final stages of raising. It started well, I didn't kill the yeast in the first stage. It rose as it should in the second and third stages. Now it's formed into six loaves and it's (hopefully) raising for the last time, then I will bake it, slice it and freeze the extra loaves so I don't have to do this again for a really long time.
I sort of like to cook, but I hate to clean up the mess and it seems silly to me to bake something I could just as easily buy. However, it is impossible to buy bread that is worth eating unless I go to the big city. I hate going to the big city. There are many reasons, but the main one is the "big city" is Butte Montana. It's a dump. It's dirty. The air stinks.
However, back to the bread. There is a little bakery in Butte, MT that makes fantastic bread, I mean it's awesome and BT LOVES it. But he hates Butte, MT more than me and he won't go there either. So the only thing left for me to do is bake (gasp!) and I don't like it. However, since it really is about reading directions, and following said directions, I'm pretty good at it.
Oh, and one other thing, I'm 45 years old and I don't own a single bread pan. Nope, not one. I do, however, have a jelly roll pan, which on any given day also doubles as a cookie pan, a pizza pan and a put it under the lasagna so it's doesn't make a mess in the oven pan and I have a broiler pan (which came with the stove). I'm woefully unprepared. So, if I'm baking bread, why not buy some bread pans? That would necessitate a trip to the "big city" and if I were willing to go there, I'd just stop at that bakery and buy bread, but I won't so I can't. But here's my bread in it's final raising stage.
So, you CAN bake six loaves at the same time. Half the time pan a was on the top shelf, pan b was on the bottom shelf. Twenty minutes in I switched them. It worked...YAY!
Sunday, October 14, 2012
A little story about a potato chip.
I'm not a big chip eater. I don't really like chips or soda. I suppose I should thank my parents for that. We almost never had soda when I was a kid and chips...well I ate so many bbq potato chips (my perfect sister's favorite) one day, that I puked and never liked chips again. So chips... no, soda...no I just don't like it. I'm glad, soda is full of all kinds of crap that will kill you and chips, a small bag of Lays Regular Potato chips is like 300 calories and 19 yes 19 grams of fat, seriously, I'd rather have bacon. Anyway one day many, many years ago my cousin has a birthday party. She was my age, we were friends, I was invited. I remember only one thing about her party. Pringles potato chips.
I was in love!!! I was only 5 or 6 or something like that, I don't remember the year, I only remember the chips. They were like nothing I had ever had before. I LOVED them. Granted, the best things I had ever eaten as a child were provided by my Aunt Bertina (yes, her name was really Bertina. ????? I liked her.) As a child I enjoyed the following because of my Aunt Bertina: circus peanuts, cowboy cookies and of course, PRINGLES! My parents were the anti- well everything yummy, the only chips we ever had were those crappy BBQ kind that my perfect sister loved, I soon accepted that we would never have Pringles at our house and swore off chips. My mom made gross wheat bread, churned her own butter and ground her own wheat, dried fruit and our garden, it was HUGE, I hated it!!! I was a very culinary deprived child, except when I visited my Aunt Bertina. She was married to my Dad's older brother. We went of several vacations as families and I loved sneaking over to their trailer for a snack here and there, but that's a story for another day.
Back to the Pringles. Beth had a birthday party, her mother (previously mentioned Aunt Bertina) served Pringles. I have NEVER, EVER forgotten them. I LOVED them. Fast forward to this week. BT and I had to run into Butte for a quick event and happened to pass a little bakery. I said, stop, let's get a donut. So, we stopped and I ran in...not only did they have some yummy donuts, they had BREAD! Freshly baked, delightful bread. Well, with great bread, BT wants a yummy sandwich...(me no so much...refer to my culinary famine childhood.) Anyway, good sandwich must have thinly sliced deli meats, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes and chips. This is for BT remember, not me, I don't eat sandwiches....ick. So, back to last night. I ate leftovers, BT, a perfect sandwich with chips. I made the sandwich, it really was a thing of beauty and I served Lays Stax chips. BT loved the sandwich, but it was huge and could only eat half. The chips, well, he hated the chips. I said, they can't be that bad. He said try one, so I did....OMG it was a Pringle!!! Well, I ate up the rest of his sandwich and ate his chips. Oh, it was such a nostalgic moment. I was transported back to that party and my first taste of Pringles. By the way, that sandwich was so good, I'm thinking of re-thinking my stand on sandwiches.
I was in love!!! I was only 5 or 6 or something like that, I don't remember the year, I only remember the chips. They were like nothing I had ever had before. I LOVED them. Granted, the best things I had ever eaten as a child were provided by my Aunt Bertina (yes, her name was really Bertina. ????? I liked her.) As a child I enjoyed the following because of my Aunt Bertina: circus peanuts, cowboy cookies and of course, PRINGLES! My parents were the anti- well everything yummy, the only chips we ever had were those crappy BBQ kind that my perfect sister loved, I soon accepted that we would never have Pringles at our house and swore off chips. My mom made gross wheat bread, churned her own butter and ground her own wheat, dried fruit and our garden, it was HUGE, I hated it!!! I was a very culinary deprived child, except when I visited my Aunt Bertina. She was married to my Dad's older brother. We went of several vacations as families and I loved sneaking over to their trailer for a snack here and there, but that's a story for another day.
Back to the Pringles. Beth had a birthday party, her mother (previously mentioned Aunt Bertina) served Pringles. I have NEVER, EVER forgotten them. I LOVED them. Fast forward to this week. BT and I had to run into Butte for a quick event and happened to pass a little bakery. I said, stop, let's get a donut. So, we stopped and I ran in...not only did they have some yummy donuts, they had BREAD! Freshly baked, delightful bread. Well, with great bread, BT wants a yummy sandwich...(me no so much...refer to my culinary famine childhood.) Anyway, good sandwich must have thinly sliced deli meats, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes and chips. This is for BT remember, not me, I don't eat sandwiches....ick. So, back to last night. I ate leftovers, BT, a perfect sandwich with chips. I made the sandwich, it really was a thing of beauty and I served Lays Stax chips. BT loved the sandwich, but it was huge and could only eat half. The chips, well, he hated the chips. I said, they can't be that bad. He said try one, so I did....OMG it was a Pringle!!! Well, I ate up the rest of his sandwich and ate his chips. Oh, it was such a nostalgic moment. I was transported back to that party and my first taste of Pringles. By the way, that sandwich was so good, I'm thinking of re-thinking my stand on sandwiches.
Saturday, October 06, 2012
Fall 2012
This year has just flown by and it's hard to believe its October already! I took these pictures a few weeks ago, and while we don't have a lot of great fall color, what we have is pretty. Unfortunately, I took these on a rather smokey day. So now we've has some snow, the smoke is gone, but so are the leaves, glad I took these when I did. It was so cold this morning I thought my fingers would fall off...winter is on it's way.
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