How To Make Homemade Bread...My First Tutorial!

So, I really have to give some credit to all the ladies who post tutorials on their blogs.  I never realized just how time consuming it is to pause in the middle of doing something in order to take a picture.  At any rate, it's finished, and I think in the future I may employ a child to help with the photography...then again, I may never get that shot I need.

Let's Get Started!

Today I made King Arthur's Classic Sandwich Bread, which I believe is my favorite bread recipe I've tried. You will need:

3 cups flour (I use 2 cups All Purpose, 1 cup Whole Wheat)
1/2 cup milk
1/2-2/3 cup hot water
4 tablespoons melted butter
2 tablespoons sugar (I normally use honey, but tried today's bread with brown sugar)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 packet active dry yeast, dissolved in 1 tablespoon warm water

Alright, I make my bread in my Kitchen Aid mixer with the dough hook attachment.  I realize not everybody has the luxury of owning one of these marvelous machines, but it doesn't matter because you don't HAVE to have one.  They just make life a lot easier.  My pictures were taken in my mixer bowl, but you CAN use and sturdy spoon and regular old mixing bowl and get the same results!

So, first I dissolve my yeast in the tablespoon of warm water.  According to the instructions on the King Arthur website you just dump everything in, but I've been baking for too long and always do all the wet ingredients first, followed by the dry ingredients ;-)

Next, I add my 2 tablespoons of brown sugar.  This is what feeds your yeast!

Then I turn my mixer on for a minute while I measure my milk and water. I like to use HOT water and then add cold milk so I get a nice lukewarm mixture and don't kill my yeast.  Imagine my surprise when I read on this recipe that you are actually supposed to do that!

And now my yeast and sugar are fairly combined...

So it's time to pour in my lukewarm milk/water mixture.  Then I add my melted butter (I can't find the picture...I don't know what happened!) and mix just until it all comes together nicely, then I add my first cup of flour which is the Whole Wheat flour along with my salt.  I started using one cup of whole wheat because it seems to hold my bread together a little better.

And after that's mixed in it looks something like....

I want to point out the little bubbles on the surface...those are from gases that yeast releases as it's munching away on that sugar we put in there. Next I add one of the cups of All Purpose flour.

I know, it doesn't look appetizing, and at this point it smells sort of like beer!  Chin up, it's going to be GREAT! Time for that last cup of flour! 

See how sticky that looks?  No Bueno! So I add 2 tablespoons of flour in and when I turn the mixer back on I hear "thud, th-thud, thud, th-thud" which means it's ready to be dumped onto a well floured surface for you to knead.  I didn't get a picture before I dumped it because my husband called and...yeah, just blame it on him!

And please make sure your hands are floured...bread dough is IMPOSSIBLE to get off of your hands if they are the tiniest bit moist!

Now start to knead.  How do you knead?  Well, if you are fairly calm you can pretend you are a cat and the dough is your master's lap...or if you're mad you can beat the ever-loving life out of the dough.  I've found that kneading bread can work miracles on your body if you're stressed :-)

Nice and smooth bread dough! Now, LIGHTLY oil another bowl, or wash the one you were using and LIGHTLY oil it (I used 2 drops of olive oil in my bowl)

And place your bread in there.  Put it in a nice warm area to rise...when I say warm I mean a place that isn't drafty or in your refrigerator and definitely not in your oven. 

I usually set mine on the stove, because it seems like a good place and it's out of the way. Mind you the stove is not ON! Then cover it with a towel and let it rise for an hour.  YES I said an hour, I didn't say homemade bread was built in a day! Er, baked in an hour :-D

After an hour is should be significantly larger than it was when you set it to rise.

So, NOW, you are going to dump it back onto that floured surface and knead again.  Try to get it oblong and shape it sort of like a loaf.

Then tuck the ends under (I don't know WHY, it's just how I do it!)

Then it goes into a lightly oiled loaf pan...Unless you have Oneida Commerical Bakeware...then you never have to oil it because it's AMAZING! 

And you guessed it! Cover it up with a towel and let it rise for another hour.  Then you will get this...

I think this will be the last time I use sugar...with the honey it usually rises up OVER the top of the pan.  This will do though! Next, we bake at 350 for 30 minutes.  You know it's done when you thump the tops and it sounds hollow inside (even though it's not).  And you have DONE it! You've make HOMEMADE BREAD! 

Turn it out of the pan as soon as possible after you remove it from the oven so it doesn't keep cooking.  Let it cool COMPLETELY before you slice it.  

I promise you will feel more accomplished, your house will smell better AND you will save money.  I'm about to be saving a LOT more money since I just discovered yesterday that I can get 25 lbs of Flour from Sam's for $8 and 2 lbs of Yeast for $6....I can't even tell you how many loaves of bread THAT will make.

This is my first tutorial and ALL feedback is GREATLY appreciated. 

Until Next Time, 

Fossykins OUT

Homemade Bread

Let me go all domestic on you today.  Currently, my whole house smells like homemade bread.  If you don't know what homemade bread smells like then you are truly missing out!  My reasoning for making bread?  1)It's cheaper than buying bread (coming from the lady who buys it at Aldi for $0.89/loaf) and 2) Have you ever looked at the list of ingredients on a bread bag? My bread has a mere 7 ingredients, and tastes 10 times better than the store bought stuff.  I know this because it has passed the kiddo approval test ;-)

If you think you can't make bread at home you are WRONG! I plan on making another delicious loaf tomorrow morning at which point I will take pictures and attempt to post a tutorial.  In the meantime, you should check out King Arthur's website and look at the plethora of bread recipes.  I can't vouch for all, but the Classic Sandwich Bread is absolutely divine.

In the event you plan on coming back for my tutorial in the morning, here are the ingredients you will need on hand to make the bread I will demonstrate: Yeast, Flour, Sugar (I sub honey), Salt, Water, Milk and Butter. Yep, that's all! And the best part?  There's absolutely NO High Fructose Corn Syrup, Preservatives, or Trans Fats...provided you shop wisely.  I suppose that's for another post....

Until Then,
Fossykins OUT

Homemade Christmas

I know it isn't evening Thanksgiving, yet, but I can't help that my mind keeps wandering to thoughts of homemade Christmas gifts.  It just seems like there's something infinitely better about a homemade gift than one that anybody could go out and buy.

I've seen millions of ideas on Pinterest, and as much as I'd like to make EVERY single one I come across I just don't think I will have enough time.  I could make the usual fudge, cookies and candy but I'm not a big fan of the sickening sweets the pop up this time of year.  I've also considered making homemade vanilla, not just for Christmas, but for myself to use throughout the year (if it's homemade it has to be better than store bought, right?)

What do you guys think I should make?  It needs to be inexpensive but nice enough that I can gift it to my closest family and friends.  ANY ideas are greatly appreciated....I love when you all leave comments :-)

Until next time,
Fossykins OUT

I Guess It's Just the Time of Year

Man, oh man have I been busy these past few days!  The boys were out of school Monday for Fall Break and they are out today for All Saints Day.  It seems like I've been going non-stop the past week! The youngest's birthday was Friday, the boys' soccer tournament was Saturday, Monday was just an off day because my husband worked and the boys were home all day and I really didn't get much accomplished.

And then, around 9:30 Monday evening, I remembered my youngest was supposed to take cupcakes to school Tuesday...*sigh*  So, I made cupcakes! I was extremely tired and didn't have the energy to frost them so I put that off until Tuesday. I ended up going to bed around 1:15A.M. Only to wake up at 6:00A.M. (there was some confusion about where clean underwear was located and shouting was involved...I came out of bed ready to fight LOL) and take the boys to school and then come home and get to work.  Between the hours of 8:15A.M. and 2:00P.M. I accomplished the following:

~*~ Washed ALL of the dishes ~*~

~*~ Made peanut butter swiss meringue buttercream (YES it was as delicious as it sounds!) ~*~

~*~ Piped frosting onto 22 cupcakes ~*~

~*~Created a one-of-a-kind pattern for pirate costumes ~*~

~*~ Successfully finished making one pair of pirate pants ~*~

~*~Did 3 loads of laundry ~*~

~*~Washed more dishes ~*~

And then picked up the boys from school, came home and worked on pirate costumes the rest of the night. Which brings me to Wednesday, or Halloween...have I mentioned next year if we don't have costumes figured out at least a week in advance we can forget Trick 'r Treating?  ALL MORNING Wednesday I worked on pirate costumes.  I love to sew, but by gosh it would have been nice to have at least 2 more days to work on these.  I think they turned out alright though.  I've always said that homemade costumes are better (and WAYYYYY cheaper) than store bought!

And today the boys didn't have school again, so I've been doing dishes and laundry allllllll day!  And searching for my sweet kitty Gray.  I haven't seen him since Sunday night and I'm really starting to worry because he never leaves home for more than a day.  

Anyway, as my title entails, it's just that time of the year.  There is so much going on and I don't anticipate getting much sleep until well after New Year's.  I would like to take a weekend though and just sleep through it.  I know, I know, you can't catch up on sleep.  But, sometimes I think I was meant to hibernate ;-)

Until next time, 

Fossykins OUT

Menu Planning

Right now I am SUPPOSED to be making a grocery list.  As you can see, I am not! LOL I just wanted to share the joy of menu planning with you guys...and I know you have all probably seen or heard of the idea and think "That's just a little too much work for me!" but it's really SOOOO easy!

I tried setting aside a weekend and cooking for the WHOLE month and let me tell you, that is a pain in the neck!  By the time I was finished I was EXHAUSTED and to be honest, all those entrees I prepared just didn't taste as good after being frozen and thawed.  BUT then I decided I would just plan out a menu and STICK to it.  This eliminates eating out which in turn, saves us $$money$$!!!!!!!!!!!

So, before I go grocery shopping I sit down and look at all my different recipes I like to use.  I used a subscription to eMeals when I first started this little adventure.  It was around $12 for 3 months worth of grocery lists and Menu Plans....totally worth it!  But I've since started making my own grocery lists and plans.

Alright, I suppose it's time to go back to menu planning...just thought I would share that little tidbit of information with everyone!

For now,
Fossykins OUT

A Less Modern Apothecary

World Without End is sooooo good!  Laura, I know you are a devoted reader and I'm charging you with the task of finding this book so I may read it!!!

I've already touched on my distaste for medical doctors in one of my previous blogs.  I feel now is the time to add that I don't dislike ALL doctors.  I have been to some very wonderful doctors in my time.  The good doctors are quickly becoming a minority though.  They are being replaced by doctors who don't have the time or courage to care for their patients.  Just like my experience the other day, I was in and out of the examination room in 5 minutes with an antibiotic that I don't believe I need.

A combination of that experience and World Without End is what led me to write this post.  One of the main characters, Caris, makes "potions" to heal people.  Of course she is accused of being a witch, and I came close to crying when they burned her herb garden.  :-(  But, it prompted me to do some research.

Many of you already know that I prefer "natural" cures. Modern medicine just doesn't impress me that much.  Antibiotics are over-prescribed, new drugs are released onto the market that have side effects that will most generally outweigh the benefits.  And while I'm positive there are patients who DO need these drugs, and that the benefits will outweigh the risks for those patients...well, let's say I've seen a few too many lawsuits pop up in the past several years concerning the dangerous side effects of drugs.  At this point there are a portion of my readers saying, "Wait a second, herbs have side effects, too!" and they do!  I just don't understand why people choose to put chemicals into their bodies when there are plants and herbs they can grow in their gardens (for pennies) that will do the same job, and most of the time, have less risky side effects.

You smell...good.

Ah, the joys of children.  These two boys can sure give me a run for my money sometimes!  My voice is still pretty much shot, and the husband had a trouble call almost 2 hours away from the house last night which left me with the kiddos to get ready for bed.  No big deal, right?  Normally, it's not...but doing so without a voice proved to be difficult.

I had asked several times (rather quietly) for them to get ready for bed.  After hearing, "Yes ma'am." about 20 times I decided a different approach.  I knew they weren't doing what they were supposed to, but JUST to make sure I hadn't jumped the gun I stood next to the stairs and listened for about 10 minutes.  All of my suspicions were confirmed. I mean, last I checked the 8 year old's eye exercises he does nightly didn't include Indiana Jones OR missiles.  *pew...pewpew pewwww*

I sent an iMessage to their iDevice and told them they needed to get ready for bed.  I get a reply stating that the oldest was TRYING to get the iDevice from his brother to use the timer on it to brush his teeth...then I told him that I had been standing next to the stairs listening to them and everything upstairs got REALLY quiet. I was waiting for another excuse (I was a kid once, I remember how it feels when you get caught) but instead I get 3 Smiley Faces and a, "You smell...good." LOL

I guess just to make sure I wasn't mad (come on, how could I be?  They suck up as good as their daddy!) when I came up to tuck them in, the oldest gave me a great big hug and told me I was BEAUTIFUL! Mind you, I was about to hop in the shower because I truly looked like a greasy rat by 9:00 last night...

I just wanted to share that little tidbit of information with you all!  I am currently watching World Without End Part II and yes, there WILL be a blog on it later ;-)

For now,
Fossykins OUT