Mindless Weekend Edition

 Im moving to Canada. Must have more Wunderbars. Got some in the mail today and somehow I cant seem to find anymore. They were yummy. Maybe a good thing I've wont be able to find them in any stores here.

Truley

So what is a girl to do when she is tired and has a headache? Well she makes bread.  I have a huge amount of dough currently raising in my oven. Enough to make 4 or 5 loaves. I decided to give in to my "homemade toasted bread with butter and fresh blackberry jam" craving. The heck with carbs, sugar and starches, I WANT IT, so therefore I shall have it. I will share it though with my neighbors, because nothing tastes better than homemade bread.

That's funny! Just this morning the baby was yelling, "SUPPORT CARBOHYDRATES!" So I had to go buy some dinner rolls from the grocery store's bakery.

Will you be my neighbor?

Haha I love that "support carbs" comment. And Heather that is so cool!

Bread!

2 loaves:

1 3/4 cups warm liquid*

1/2 cup warm water

2 pkg dry active yeast

3 tbs sugar

1 tbs salt

2 tbs shortening

7 to 7 1/4 cups sifted flour

* warm liquid to use is water, potato water or milk. I use milk and just warm it a bit on the stove.

Put the 2 pkg of yeast in the 1/2 cup of warm water and set aside for 5 min.

Place milk, sugar, salt and shortening in a bowl, mix. Add yeast water.

Add half the flour and mix. add remaining flour. I use 7 cups.

Turn dough onto a floured surface and kneed until elastic and non sticky, should look semi smooth. Place in a greased bowl, turn it once to bring the greased side up. Place it covered in warm location for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours, I put mine in the oven that has not been used for the day it keeps it out of drafts and lets it rise nic. I cover mine with wax paper that has one side greased. It is ready when you can stick your finger in and the indent stays.

Punch down in the center and bring in sides to center. Grease 2 bread pans. Equally split the dough and shaped to fit, cover and let rise a second time, about 30 to 45 min (I usually put it back in the oven). When risen bake at 425 for 25 to 35 min. Depending on your oven, play with times and temp.

If you don't have bread pans use what ever can go in the oven. I use casserole bowls, crocks, 9x9 pans, mixing bowls etc, there is an endless amount of things you can use.

if you want to make 4 loaves increase everything by 2 except the milk and yeast part. The yeast and water stay the same. The milk goes to 4 cups.

Have your butter and jam ready. I like this bread because unlike other homemade recipes I have used the outside gets soft when it cools.

ETA:  2 things. First this is a recipe from a 1950's Betty Crocker book and apparently can withstand the test of time. Second you can let it rise a second time before shaping and baking. After punching it down you can turn it and let it rise again to almost double a second time, then punch down again and then shape, rise and bake. What you see on my stove is only 2 risings instead of 3, I found that to time consuming. And the bread tastes just fine.

Dear God, you are CRUEL--homemade bread?, says the person who isn't supposed to have many carbs?  Homemade jam?  OK, the drool is falling faster than Oregon rain!

The proposal pic is great!

Today was the kind of picture perfect day that makes everyone  want to live in Oregon: crisp with a bright blue sky and wildly beautiful leaves. Yes, we were out walking a LOT. I managed to tucker both dogs out.  Radar is sitting UP in my lap ASLEEP and Gypsy is crashed in her (open) crate.

 Oh I know about cats, I have 2!

I went to bed at 5am because I am a fool. Yes, I was up for 22 hours. I can only blame 2 things. The soda I consumed late, which is something I do not have alot of on a regular basis anymore and Farmtown!

Jewels, did you get an answer on the Milk Thistle? I am currently giving it to Kord because he is on pred and it's working like a dream. Thank doG for Callie.

My husband replaced the shocks on the car yesterday. I have been driving it all summer with a thump coming from the rear drivers side when I hit a bump, which got worse over the summer to the point that I thought we had a broken spring.  Rattle all the time. When DH was in the hospital my BIL crawled under and told me it was the shock. So he takes off the tire and boy howdy was it bad. Leaking oil and the part where the smaller tube goes into the larger tube had banged around so much it had split and flanged out the larger opening! The car now rides nice and about 4 inches higher in the back.

OK, going to find coffee!

I am going to make Dawn's bread today.  I am out of yeast, so it's off to the store I go!

I'm so glad you posted that recipe Dawn.  It's one I've used before, but of course all my cook books are still in MI so I've been at the mercy of online stuff......

So, I ran out to the store yesterday to pick up rasins so I could make DH some fresh rasin bread.  Finally remembered to grab Wed's powerball ticket to have checked.  So the gal checks the ticket, has a bit of a funny look on her face and I said, "another looser hey?"  She says....what I HEARD as "you won 2.95", and I'm standing there thinking, well, that's an odd amount...it's always an even dollar amount.....so, she made change for the raisins and then I see on the register $295.00 to be paid out.  I was about to open my mouth to tell her she'd rung it in wrong when she started pulling out fifties and it dawned on me that I'd actually won close to three hundred bucks!!!  Wahooooo!  The timing could NOT have been better!  My knees were literally week.  I wanted a chair!  And quite honestly had my jeans not been fresh out of the dryer and a bit snug, I probably would have sat right down on the floor!  She did sort of have to convince me that yeah, I actually won that much and she did get to hear "holy sh*t" but just laughed at that, and laughed when I apologized.

I bought myself some new basil and the rest is going in the moving account.  I want my furniture!

Jen seems to be having a reaction to her antibiotic, so they may have to postpone surgery until they can get her stabilized on a new one.  I have never had an ingrown toenail in my life and I am sooooo thankful for that.

Glenda!  That's so cool that you won.  I never buy tickets, so I guess that won't happen to me. lol   Sending good vibes for Jen. 

It's sort of cloudy today but nice.  We need to do a little yard work and then it's play time for me and the dogs and football for DH.  I also see a nap in my future at some point.  :)  What good is a Sunday afternoon if you don't get a nap? lol

What's even cooler is I would have won 59 bucks if I hadn't spent the extra buck for the multiplier thing!

 Glenda, that's terrific! Congratulations!!

 Today is my and BF's 6 year dating anniversary :) To celebrate, I made him heart-shaped banana/chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast.

Congrats Glenda!!!

Courtney, congrats on the anniversary!  I hope that you have a great day.

The bread is in the oven now.  I'm anxiously waiting for it to finish baking!

GRATS GLENDA!

Courtney I also hope you have a great day.

Amanda.......I too am waiting on that bread.

ETA: I found a fantastic international Market very close to home today. I got fresh ground pork for .69 a pound. Fresh head and tail on Mackeral?! I paid $2 for 2 pieces.

They have talapia, live, in the store for you to select and buy.

I found alligator and goat meat. Not to mention some other odd stuff.

I think I will spending more time looking around there.

BEVOLASVEGAS

Moron #1 came over to us to tell me that his uncle used to have dobes, & that he hated the breed.  I told him that we were even because I hated stupid people, & he was, obviously, stupid.  After that, he didn't want to talk to me any more.  Not sure why...

LOL - I really needed to read that this morning.

We're pretty much all packed and the house that was spotless yesterday is now getting dirty again, so tomorrow can't get here soon enough. It's gorgeous here today but is supposed to get cool and rainy on Tuesday and most of the rest of the week, so we picked a good time to be gone.

I went to bed late and then didn't sleep very well so I think I'm going to need a nap soon.

Oh Dawn.....

It really wasn't over cooked, even though it looks dark in the pic.

It was absolutey great!  We had it with butter & strawberry jelly.  Next time, I will make 4 loaves instead of 2.  Sometimes, I forget that living with a house full of boys means that there are rarely leftovers...