Easy Homemade Bread

For a long time, I resisted baking my own bread at home. I consider myself to be a competent and good cook, but baking is not my thing. I tend to improvise a lot, and most baking requires that you be exact in your measurements. But seriously, nothing beats homemade bread. You don't know what real bread is until you make it yourself. It tastes like bread from a french bakery, only better because it just came out of the oven.

One of the gifts Steph's mom gave me for my birthday this year was this great book, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day. If you want to make bread, but are intimidated by the process, then this is the book for you. I know Andrew and Chad have a copy, which they love. Jess is now so addicted to my bread that I bought her a copy as well. Spread the word and the love of bread, people!

What makes this book so great is that it teaches you how to make bread WITHOUT kneading. It is such an easy process. You allow the gluten to rest, which allows you to skip the kneading. You can make a huge batch of dough and leave it in the fridge for up to two weeks. Just cut some off the "mother" and bake it! As the dough matures, the flavor changes and develops. Right now there is a 6 quart container in our fridge filled with dough. I'm going to bake off a couple of loaves tomorrow for our weekend camping trip.

This photo is one of the first loaves I made using the master recipe from the book. Taken with my iPhone.

MEEEEOWWWW

**Taken with my iPhone**

It's hard to get out of bed in the morning when I have this cutie curled up against me, looking at me with those big blue eyes. Also, he squees at me. He doesn't meow, but rather, squees. In case you're wondering what a "squee" is, it's like a squeak, only cuter and more pathetic. I feel like I'm breaking his heart when I get up and ruin his happy sleepy times.

The Precious

Well people, I was going to wait for the white iPhone 4 to come out before upgrading my iPhone, but Apple had to go and ruin my life by not once, but TWICE, delaying the availability of them. At this point I think they won't even come out until 2011. My iPhone 3G had cracks in both the front and the back and so I was sorely in need of an upgrade. I say that like I NEEDED the upgrade. I guess, in the interest of full disclosure, I should state that my old phone still worked just fine. It was really out of consumer greed and a lust for Apple products that I bought the new one. That and jealousy-- Andrew and Chad already had theirs and whenever I saw them using their new phones, a dirty dirty feeling would rise up in my chest.

I won't bore anyone with a review of the phone, but suffice it to say that is it incredible. I've experienced none of the dreaded antenna issues and think it is far superior to the 3G that I had.

I love the dual cameras on this model. The photos are worlds better than the 3G camera took, so be prepared for more photos from my iPhone to be posted to my blog. The photo pictured here is the first photo I took with the new iPhone.

Oops...

I've been neglecting my blog. Tsk tsk tsk. I did not realize until just now that it's been over a month since I posted. Well, time to put a stop to that silliness. Thank you, Julie, for bringing my attention to the matter.

Prepare for an onslaught of posts, people!

So, what's been going on in my life, you ask? Many social engagements and lots of cooking, to sum it all up.

We went to Erin's baby shower in late July. She is due to have a little girl in late September. She looks BEAUTIFUL! I love pregnant women. I think they are some of the most gorgeous women in the world.

Erin's mom, Kathy, put together the shower and it was so much fun! She decorated with Erin's old baby clothes and photos of Erin as a baby, which I thought was quite creative. As the shower was in Philadelphia, we also got the chance to spend some time with Andrew and Chad, which is always lovely, especially because it means a trip to the Korean Bakery
.

A few photos from the event...

The Majesty of Nature

When people ask where we live and I tell them Baltimore City, I don't think they generally understand what that means. There are lots of areas of the city that are not endless pavement and rowhouses. We have an abundance of wildlife in our neighborhood. I regularly see bunnies, raccoons, possums, foxes, and a vast variety of birds. Our neighborhood is heavily wooded and there is a stream nearby, so it makes for a good wildlife habitat.

This afternoon I was in the kitchen and spotted a red fox out the back door. He was basking in the sun, eyes closed, taking a nice afternoon nap. I RAN upstairs to get my camera. I took a few pictures through the glass of the backdoor. I opened the door and it woke him up, but I did manage to snap a few, slightly closer pictures of him before he scampered away.

Magical...as long as he doesn't eat any of the neighborhood bunnies or cats. :-)

Camping in Keuka Lake, NY

We went camping in Keuka Lake, NY for the long 4th of July holiday weekend. Keuka Lake is in the Finger Lakes region of Upstate New York. Andrew's parents' grew up in Penn Yan, a little town by Keuka Lake. Joining us on this expedition were Andrew, Chad, and Andrew's parents (Kathy & Rich).

Camping! Wine tastings! Alpacas! Shopping and gorging on delicious food at The Windmill! Swimming in the Lake! Camp fires! S'mores! Shirley Temples!

It was a great time. I can't wait to go back. The more we go camping, the more I enjoy it.

Here are a few photos from the trip. The rest of the photos I took can be viewed via my Flickr stream.

Post long holiday weekend playlist...

I love listening to WTMD because they play interesting, non Top 40 music, often by local or lesser known musicians. Also, they don't have commercials, so it is all music all the time, except for musician interviews and NPR news updates. Even if you aren't in the Baltimore area, you can go to their website and listening to live streaming audio from the station.


They have a feature show where they will showcase a playlist created by a listener. If I were to create a playlist for that show, this would be it.

I made this playlist this morning and have been listening to it on repeat all day while I tackle the mountain of post-camping laundry, bills, cooking, and cleaning.

Have a listen...