Baking Bread

i got interested in baking bread about 15 years ago when a friend of mine got a brand new breadmaker. she let me borrow it while they were on vacation and i fell in love. easy, fast, and yummy! what could be better? soon after i bought my own bread maker. at first i baked all the time, then i drifted off into other activities, but the last 5 years or so have revived my interest in getting the most out of my bread machine. i do 2 things regularly in my breadmaker. bake our weekly whole wheat bread, and make pizza dough.



isn't that a good looking loaf of bread? and it smells just heavenly when its done. that warm, yeast-y, ooo-ooo-ooo good smell that brings back good memories of eating bread warm with butter, maybe honey butter from mom?? well, you know what i mean ...



one of the other reasons i started making bread is i wanted to eliminate some of the additives, preservatives and excess sugars they put in store bought bread as well as save some money. i try to use organic whole wheat flour for half of the called for flour, but i haven't been sucessful finding oragnic white flour yet. i have tried making 100% whole wheat bread, but without good results.

the recipe i do use is one i found on the internet several years ago and i no longer know the source. if you know where this comes from give me a shout out in the comments and i'll definitely give the person credit. its a great recipe and so easy too.

Rich Buttermilk Bread

1 1/2 cups warm water
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup oil (i use olive oil)
4 1/4 cups flour (i divide this between the wheat and white flour)
6 Tbsp buttermild powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp yeast

Add all the ingredients in order provided, use the whole wheat setting and presto! in a few hours you have homemade, delicious bread.

do you bake bread? do you use a breadmachine? chime in and let me know what you like to bake with or without a breadmachine!

You Gotta Look at This!

Hayley over at Happy Hawkeye Homeschool House has a cute fall decoration. i just love her interpretation of what she saw at her local scrapbooking store. i'm never one to pass up an opportunity to copy someone else's great idea! why reinvent the wheel, when someone else has done all the hard work? LOL

i also love that she used photos. i have lots and lots of photos and i'm always looking for ways to display pics of my fav people and places. go visit hayley and tell her you heard about her from handmade blessings! then come back and see what else i have here.

Cards I've Made

these are some cards i have made in the past year. sorry about the less than stellar photo quality. i'm still learning how to photograph cards so they show well. i enjoy the creative process of making cards with paper, ribbons, rubber stamps, bows, buttons and more. i tend to give them away or use them to send a note to my family back in WA state. getting something nice in the mail is still special for most people.

so what about you? do you make cards? what have you crafted with paper and ribbons and buttons and all?

Pancakes or French Toast?

our son loves pancakes, and he loves french toast, actually, i think he just loves syrup!

last sat the hubster was at the computer lab when #1 son and i finally rolled out of bed. usually dad is in the kitchen and ready to make pancakes for the #1 son, but this day he wasn't. so i did. make the pancakes. when the hubster got home i could tell that this might turn into a regular sat morning occurence.

now, pancakes are fine once in awhile, but i like a little variety in my meals. so i found this recipe from All Recipes. i think this might be a very good substitute for pancakes.

Make Ahead French Toast

INGREDIENTS
5 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups milk
1 cup half-and-half cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 (1 pound) loaf French bread, cut diagonally in 1 inch slices

1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup light brown sugar
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 cup chopped pecans



DIRECTIONS
In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, cream and vanilla. Dip bread slices into egg mixture and place in a lightly greased 9x13 inch baking pan. Refrigerate overnight.
The next morning: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
In a small bowl, combine butter, sugar, maple syrup and pecans. Spoon mixture over bread.
Bake in preheated oven until golden, about 40 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

"We have made this French Toast for Christmas brunch for twenty four years! It originally came from the East Coast. If you like your French toast firmer, then cut back on the milk."

so what about you? what do you make on sat mornings? and what do your kids beg for for b'fast?

ooooey--goooey mexican chicken

i found this recipe several months ago at thrifty florida mama's blog. i tried it awhile later and it lived up to its name. yummy!

mondays are a weird day for us cuz hubby has a 4:40 class adn then goes straight to a 6pm class. whereas #1 son doesn't get home til 6pm. so i try to make something that can be eaten at 4pm for hubby and then again at 6pm for joe and myself. i'm thinking i'm going to make this for tonite and see how it does. we love mexican food. a nice green salad will go nicely and complete the meal.

how 'bout you? do you have any weird schedule days? and what do you fix to make it work for the whole family? i'd love to hear.

4 frozen chicken breasts (boneless works best but use whatever you have)
1 can of cream of chicken soup
1 can of cream of mushroom soup
1 can of black beans drained and rinsed
1 cup of salsa
up to 1 Tb. cumin
up to 1 Tb. chili powder
dash of cayenne pepper
1-2 cups of monterey jack cheese
Put all of the ingredients, except the cheese, into the crockpot. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. Shred chicken and add grated cheese. Let the cheese melt and then serve however you wish.

We like it over yellow rice, rolled up in tortillas, or even as a dip with corn chips.

Blogs of Interest

have you seen stephanie's blog A Year of Crockpotting??? she is an amazing woman who decided to give herself a challenge. for all of 2008 she wanted to use her crockpot every day! now i love my crockpot and i use it about 1x a week, but i'm not sure i could use mine every day of a whole year! i'm impressed that stephanie would set out to use her crockpot daily and has been doing it!

i haven't followed her religiously, but ramble over there every once in awhile. the thing i like about stephanie's blog is that she includes pictures (a must in my mind), she gives directions, and she gives a review of how it turned out. i like that she does main dishes, but she doesn't stop there. she cooks b'fast in her crockpot, desserts, side dishes and more. she has even done craft projects in her crockpot!

if you haven't stumbled upon stephanie's blog go over now! but then come back here of course. and tell me what kitchen appliance could you use every day of the year? me? i could probably use my bread machine, tho that would be disastrous to my waistline!!!

Welcome to My New Crafty-Food Blog

if you found me, welcome! if i'm talking to myself, well that's nothing new.

i decided that my main blog challenges and adventures has too many fires in the iron, and i need to bring its focus into a narrower field of vision. so i thot i'd make a 2nd blog for my craft projects, ideas and failures and my food recipes, successes and indulgences. with pics, of course!

a little background for all my groupies: i have been crafting since grade school. i dabble in a bit of everything. i remember painting a project for school at home. i must have been 3rd or 4th grade. we had to draw lines and then i painted in between the lines blue and orange. my lines were small and the paper was huge! it took me hours. finally at the end i was so impatient to be done that i erased a bunch of lines and just painted it! that's kind of how i am with crafts too. don't give me too much work, if i can do it in an afternoon thats my style. tho i have been known to take several afternoons to finish something. i've also been known to throw something in the trash half way thru as well!

right now my favs are knitting, bead work (mainly bracelets and earrings), sewing (tho i'm still not very good at it) and paper crafts.

my favorite things to cook/bake are desserts. tho having just started a weight loss regime that's a bit of a dilemna for me ... i also like to entertain and cook for a large crowd. i enjoy trying new recipes and perfecting old ones.

i also love to cruise around the internet and find wonderful links for y'all. (no i'm not from the south, tho i did live in OK for 3 months. does that count?) so check in and see who i've found on the internet who is making a splash on the net.

i'm still in the process of setting it up, but come on in. look around a bit, and then come back later. there will more by that time, i'm sure.

til then ... happy crafting and cooking, gail