Friday, March 12, 2010

5-Minute Artisan Bread

My family is in Week 1 of a 4-week food challenge. During this time period, we're only going to eat foods that have 10 or fewer ingredients, and we understand exactly what those ingredients are, and how they made it into our food. So far, I'm loving it! It's taken a little extra time (especially at the beginning), but we're getting into the rhythm of it all. I have to say, I have never felt more overall satisfaction with what I'm eating as I have this past week.

One of our bigger challenges was what to do about bread. I haven't found a single store-bought bread that fits the requirements. I'm sure I could find some at a bakery or farmers market. Or I could just make my own. We have a bread machine, and while I like it, the results are fairly inconsistent, and the bread doesn't make me swoon with its goodness. I had heard about this 5-Minute artisan bread, as seen here... http://www.globalgourmet.com/food/cookbook/2009/artisan-bread/boule.html ...from one of the message boards I visit. While it certainly takes more than five minutes (you do have to bake it), the prep time is about as minimal as you can get! (well, not as fast as beer bread, but that's a different kind of loaf. This is more like a sourdough). One of the things I love the most is you mix up the dough ahead of time, and then just pull some out of your fridge when you're ready to make a loaf.




Definitely worth a try! It's fabulous!
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Monday, March 8, 2010

Cropped


One thing about doing so many self-portraits is not being able to control framing very well. I'm lucky if I'm in frame at all, nevermind whether it's a flattering angle or an interesting photo. I played with some cropping today though and had some fun with it. Before the crop, this one looked pretty much like 90% of my other photos on this blog. At least now it's a little more interesting.
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Sunday, March 7, 2010

A Day at the Farm

We spent a great (but cold!) day at our friend's farm yesterday. We got to see Emo Cows...


ride snowmobiles...(that's Mazzy and Dax). We all got a chance to ride, but I think Dax enjoyed it most of all.


I have a torn ACL so I couldn't do much other than sit and watch.


The horses watched too. They look happy about it though. :)

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Saturday, March 6, 2010

That is ALMOST one beautiful pie!

Well, I know there's no new picture of me, but who needs THAT when you have pie? Overall, I was sooo happy with how this turned out! (aside from the edges of the crust getting messed up by the foil....the same foil that took out one of the points on one of my stars.) We're going to a friend's farm today, and I'm bringing this pie and a dark chocolate cream pie. So that's how I spent my Friday night...in pie heaven! And I loved every minute of it. I love love love baking pies!

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Thursday, March 4, 2010

Happy

It's a good week. I feel good. I feel happy. I'm not getting a darn thing done, but I'm enjoying my days.

Tuesday on the way to chess club...



Wednesday, killing time before book club....

Getting out of the house really does wonders. I should do it more often.
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Saturday, February 27, 2010

Smoky

Dax has been wanting me to learn how to do a "smoky eye" for a long time now. I gave it my best shot tonight, and while I do not think it's a look suited to me, it did make for some fun black and whites!



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Friday, February 26, 2010

Hair

Messy, ratty, curly, straight. Sometimes I want it to take over the world. :)
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