Some Like It HOT!

February 9, 2010

Have you ever noticed that when the house is filled with the aroma of fresh bread baking in the oven, the world just seems to be a better place.

Maybe that's why I like baking bread so much.

...Or maybe it's the fact that I'm switching our family over to a more "organic" way of life and I'm realizing that there is a lot of STUFF in the bread on the shelves at the grocery store.

(By the way: I didn't know the first thing about how to bake bread before we moved to the farm, you know.)

Either way, I decided to make a special batch since I never took any pictures of the bread I made on Super Bowl Sunday.

I think that qualifies as "unfinished business," don't you think?

So, Ella and I made a special batch of Lion House Dinner Rolls (with cheese kneaded into the dough) and decided to take a break for some fun pictures while it was rising and baking....

...Hayden and Word Girl had to problem helping us eat it.

Sprinkled with a little bit of Shredded Cheddar and grated Parmesan Cheese, these turned out pretty irresistable!

I pinched that one in the corner a little too hard...but how can you NOT pinch fresh bread?

(I'm a sucker for "squeezing the charmin" too.)



TIP: When the nearest grocery store is about an hour away, you develop the habit of being more organized with your meal-planning and conservative with trips to town. It's not uncommon (and pretty much a part of the lifestyle) to naturally have about a three-month supply of basic food and necessities on your shelves. These are the 6-gallon food storage buckets that sit in the corner of my kitchen:

Right now, I have buckets of Organic Millet, Rice, Pinto Beans, Flour, Sugar and Whole Wheat Macaroni.

(About a 6-12 month supply of these items-for us-if we ONLY ate out of these buckets.)

These buckets are especially useful and handy since they have screw-on Gamma lids:

TA-DA!

No peeling your fingernails trying to open your buckets in THIS house!

If you would like your OWN buckets, click HERE.

For the Gamma Lids (in a variety of colors), click HERE.

Good Intentions

Baking Sourdough bread, on a rainy Super Bowl Sunday.

(The Bosch was my mom's. I think of her every time it mixes my bread and cookie dough.)

Today is Super Bowl Sunday.

I decided that I was going to make a batch of my homemade Sourdough rolls, take a few pictures of the process, and then share the recipe on the blog.

I started by mixing up the ingredients in the Bosch.

Then, the Bosch kneaded the concoction for 10 full minutes.

And while the dough was rising, I greased the stone baking pans I would be using for the rolls.....

(I was off to a good start)

But then, something happened.

I became so wrapped up in the fun of the process that I forgot to keep taking pictures.

The bread rose.

The bread baked.

The bread cooled.

...and before I knew it, the bread was GONE!

And what do I have to say for myself?

Just that....

It was GOOD!

* * *

Hayden wanted to take some pictures of his own, so I gave him my camera and told him to walk around the house. "Don't just snap silly pictures," I explained. "Go around and take special pictures of things that are interesting to you." Then, I showed him how to auto-focus and just let him go.

Just in case you're wondering, this is what is interesting in our house (to a six-year old):

A tiger puppet laying on the floor...

The control panel for the washing machine...




A close-up on my drinking glass of water...





Me, making sure the dough was rising...



Our aprons and reusable grocery bags...
(I remembered to actually TAKE them to the grocery store with me this week, by the way...Hooray!)


* * *

I guess I could still pass that easy recipe along (even without the pictures)....


Sourdough Rolls

Ingredients:
1 Cup Sourdough Start
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 1/4 tsp (or one packet) Yeast (dissolved in 1/4 Cup of warm water)
1/4 Cup Oil
2 Cups Flour
1 tsp Salt
1 egg (room temperature)

Directions:
1. Mix all ingredients in mixer (dough will be sticky) and let rise for 1 hour
2. Add small amount of flour and start to knead on medium speed.
3. Add flour until bread starts to clean the sides of the bowl. Knead for 10 minutes.
4. Shape into rolls and rise until doubled in size.
5. Bake at 375 for 15 minutes
6. Reduce heat to 350 and bake until browned.

Reality Check (March 6th 2002)

Jan 31st 2010

Watching the sunset over the Dragoon Mountains

(...and me with NO make-up. awesome.)

* * *

Okay, with all these long-lost-friends we are finding on facebook, many are asking for more stories and clarification about Ben's notorious stroke. I'll finally do a better job of "spilling-it" on the blog now, as promised last year.

*NOTE: The following is part of an on-going series of "Stroke Posts".

For an introduction to "Stroke Posts" click HERE.

For relative stories, click HERE.

* * *

There was a time....

Before babies...

Before joint checking accounts...

Before the Honeymoon even BEGAN...

...When we were slapped in the face with a reality check.

I was a 24-year old Esthetics instructor,

Ben was a 28-year old Fire Science and Emergency Response student with one semester left until graduation.

We were married in January and decided to delay our Honeymoon until AFTER the Olympics were over, since our days back then were filled with work, Olympics, skating rehersals, more work, applying for work at various Fire Departments....aaaaand Olympics (did I already mention that?).

Ben enthusiastically asked me where I wanted to go for our first trip together.

I told him, "Surprise Me! No, really; Don't even tell me until we're getting on the plane."

That was the deal.

* * *

I called Ben during a break from my afternoon lecture on Langerhans Cells and the stratum spinosum layer of the epidermis.

It was two months after we were married in Vegas....

One week after the Olympics ended...

It was wednesday...

...and 2:15 in the afternoon.

During our chat, I heard a faint, "whoa" as Ben bent over to tie his shoes.

I almost changed the subject of the conversation.

I almost moved-on to telling him about my day,

but somehow a red flag sprang up in my thoughts and I had to pause.

"Are you okay?"

"Ya, I just bent over and I got a little dizzy. (pause) Hmm. My foot feels weird."

"What do you mean weird?"

"Oh, it's no big deal. I've been working out a lot lately and lifting quite a bit. I'm probably tired. I'm going to go walk out to the mailbox, so I'll talk to you later."

...and that was the end of it...

until about an hour later when there was another call for me....

"Do you know the name of a Chiropractor?"

"No. I've never been to one."

"Why don't you ask around for me? I think I have a pinched nerve. My foot isn't working very well now and it feels like I need to be adjusted or something."

"Sure, I'll ask around."

(But I never did.)

Ben tried to lay down on the livingroom floor of our little townhouse; hoping that the "pinched nerve" would find relief, but as he tried to sit up again, he couldn't. In fact, the entire left side of his body didn't work now. Pulling himself across the floor with his right arm, pushing with his right leg, and straining to lift himself up onto the couch he realized that he wasn't dealing with a pinched nerve.

First he called me.

It was 5pm and I was leaving work.

"Will you stop at Taco Bell on your way home and grab me a few tacos?"

...and of course, being the dutiful little wifey I did just that, eventhough there was a voice of concern in the back of my mind...

(I know better now.)

By the time I walked through the door, bag o' tacos in hand, I found Ben laying on the couch. He greeted me with a big smile, his (right) hand waving high in the air, and a cheerful, "Hi Sweetie!" I still remember the look on his face: He looked happy and calm for the most part, but there was a look. I'm not the clueless newlywed today that I was back then. NOW I know that he was scared.

I told him to call 9-1-1 (since he already had the phone) while I ran through the house, methodically packing a backpack for the hospital. You know, JUST IN CASE he had to spend the night.

I had no idea.

He ended up staying in the hospital for 4 months (including inpatient rehab).

About two weeks after the ambulance came and swept Ben away to the Emergency Room, I was sitting in the office and checking email one afternoon before traveling back to the hospital.

The phone rang.

"Hello, this is Michelle with Princess Cruises! I'm just calling to confirm your cruise to the Caribbean for April.....(blah, blah, blah)."

I don't remember what she said after that (because all I heard was "Caribbean" and "Cruise"). I thought about WALKING around sunny sandy beaches with my new husband. I thought about seeing the ocean from the deck of a gigantic gleaming white ship. I finally woke up again when there was a long moment of silence on the phone.

"I don't think we're going to be able to keep that reservation," I started. "Something has come up...."