Day in the Kitchen

I did, as I suggested to myself, try my hand at baking some more bread and an apple pie. I needed to make something!
So I found a recipe for Italian bread. I had no dry milk (or regular milk for that matter) sooo I just omitted it. I had to get it set in the morning, since I had made a starter for it and it had already fermented moore than long enough. Anyway, I forgot to omit part of the liquid since there was now less dry material so it was really really sticky, wet dough. Soo I didn't really know if it would work-out....but it seemed to! Although I haven't cut the one to the left to see how it is yet...they both have a fairly thin crust, so that is good! My earlier breads all had a really think crust. Soo I think this is more on the right track. I will see if I can make it a teeensie bit drier, since the extra liquid made it spread out and stuck aaaall to my hands, but also in a way made it easier to handle/shape. at least not over-handle. Nevermind that it rose beautifully (also thanks to a little sugar to feed the yeast). Anyway, here are the loaves. The one spread out and got reeeally fat. I think it's hilarious looking!


and here is the Apple Pie! I called my mom and she quickly gave me her recipe. Followed it exactly, and it came out pretty damn good! I am most happy with the crust, which seems to be a little frail but good. That could also be because I made a mistake with the baking temp, and brought it down to 315 instead of 350! I figured it out and turned it back up, gave it another 15 minutes ha ha. But I am quite happy that it turned out so well, and wish the friends Mana invited over would get here to help devour it.

My whole day was dough to supermarket to dough to pie crust and apples to cooking dinner!
And picking up a 6 pack of Magic Hat's summer seasonal, Wacko. Mmmm.....

Good Saturday.

Soda Bread with Raisins. Mmm!

I've had a bit of a boring weekend. Which is fine, since I have my share of crazy ones too, and I am a person who likes to sort-through her life semi regularly. Last night, ending up with no plans, I went to the market and got items to make a soup (out of failed french bread from Wednesday. Tried to make it for a movie night. Having to work and putting the dough in the fridge=no extra rising, really dense loaves. But good for tomato and bread soup!) and a soda bread, along with extras for the week. No big grocery trips for me this week! I also splurged on two bottles of wine, so I had a nice late dinner of tomato and bread soup, Merlot, and a couple slices of this soda bread with raisins:


I'm really enjoying my ability to bake! This made a fabulous breakfast with a couple egg whites and coffee this morning!

Birthday Cake

I baked a cake for my birthday. It is uber rich chocolate cake with peanut butter filling. Baked it Friday night...then I had to wait a whole day to eat it!


I had to try it by myself Saturday afternoon! Later on, after 11, I had friends over to help me eat it. But there is still a huge chunk I brought to work to be devoured by co workers!



I also got to go to The Little Mermaid on Saturday night. Let me tell you, I was 6 all over again. Fun show, not the greatest, but not bad. And they used heelies to simulate floating through water...kiiind of ingenious!

Baking Baguettes

This weekend I finally had success baking french bread!! I've tried a few times, with minimal success at quicker recipes and utter failure at my first long-term attempt. So it was quite exciting to finally do it right. To celebrate (and help devour three baguettes), I had a couple guy friends over for a bread, cheese and wine night. I also made a bead dip. Coupled with some oil and vinegar-not to mention a couple movies- how could it not be a successful get together?? I need to repeat this baking performance. The boys showed JUST as it was done baking...and the baguettes even sang! Delicious.

The successful loaves, and the nice crumb!



The food spread, as it looked on my living room table.

Hope to repeat this soon!