Bread Day

Sundays and Wednesdays are my bread making days. I have a tried and true recipe that works great for us, it's a Honey Wheat Bread. It uses two cups of whole wheat flour, and three cups of white flour. My family absolutely loves this recipe. I used to use my bread machine for all my bread making, but this one is super easy, and there is no better taste than fresh bread that you've kneaded yourself:) I find it's very therapeutic! I've tweaked the recipe to our tasting, and I also find that lard makes the bread taste better than shortening, but you can certainly use the shortening. I have also done half and half with the flour, and it was just as good.

Honey Wheat Bread
1 (.25 ounce) pkg rapid rise yeast
1 tsp. white sugar
½ cup warm water (110 degrees F)
1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk
¼ cup water
¼ cup melted lard (can use shortening)
¼ cup honey- I actually use a little less than 1/4 c
2 tsp. salt
2 cups whole wheat flour
3 cups bread flour
2 TBL. Butter
Directions
Dissolve yeast and sugar in ½ cup warm water.
Combine milk, ¼ cup water, shortening, honey, salt and wheat flour in bowl. Mix in yeast mixture, and let rest for 15 minutes. Add white flour, and mix until dough forms a ball. Knead dough by hand for 10 minutes. Place dough in a buttered bowl, and turn to coat. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rise for about 45 minutes, or until almost doubled in size. (I usually let it rise for an hour)
Punch dough down, and divide in half. Roll out each half, and form into loaves. Place in buttered bread pans. Butter the tops of the dough, cover loosely with plastic wrap. Let rise in warm area until doubled, around 30 minutes or so.
Place a small pan of water on the bottom shelf of the oven. Preheat 375 degrees. Bake for 25-35 minutes, or until tops are golden brown.

Mmmm, cinnamon rolls

I decided Saturday night to find a yummy overnight recipe for cinnamon rolls. This would be the third recipe I've tried, and this one is definately the best! I made the dough in my bread machine, and then filled them, rolled them up, and put them in the fridge overnight. This morning I put them in a slightly warm oven and let them rise for about an hour. They didn't rise as well as I thought they would, but they were DIVINE!! The frosting was a cream cheese frosting. I will definately be making these again, I know the girls will eat them up!!

Enjoy The Sound

If you stop and listen, you can hear a wonderful sound. Hear it? No? Neither can I, that's the sound of SILENCE! Yes, no sound at all, except some classical music playing in the background, and the hum of my dryer. My mom called yesterday to see if they could take the girls (yes all three) to the lake for the weekend. Umm, let me think, YES!! They came around 11:00 this morning, and will bring them back tomorrow afternoon. The girls were soooooo excited to go, they were up at 6:30 this morning. Anyway, the house is so unusually quiet, but I feel so relaxed! Brad and I have to go into town later and get some groceries, and then tonight we are going to cook some steaks on the grill, and maybe watch a movie later. I have "There Will Be Blood" recorded from PPV.

It's just such a strange thing to be in your home for over 24 hours with just you and your husband! No one to wake us up at 7:00, no one whining for their "nuni". It's pure bliss. Don't get me wrong, I love my children dearly, and I can guarantee you by tonight I will be sorely missing them. It's just that you tend to forget what it's like to be married, and not just a mom, ya know??!!

Baking Day!

Today Rachel, Emma and I decided to make some chocolate chip cookies. We usually make these at least once a month, and the girls have gotten quite good at making them. They measure all the ingredients, and yes, I even let them crack the eggs. (And I only had to remove two shells!!)

The humorous part of the baking excursion was when Rachel was putting the cup of flour into the mixer, and accidently hit the mixing bar, the whole cup of flour flew! The were both full of flour, and I mean full! But all in all, we had a blast making cookies, and unfortunately they won't last long in this house!!

Fast week

This week is flying by, and that's ok! The girls have had swimming lessons Monday-Thursday from 5:30-6:00. Needless to say the suppers have not been my usual meals! Tonight since it's their last night, we are going to take them to Dairy Queen, and then to the park. Rachel is a dare devil, so swimming has been a balst for her. Emma is waaay more cautious, but she has done so well!! She even jumped off the diving board last night!!

It's also nice that today and tomorrow I only have one daycare child, so it's like having off! Next Friday I am off also, and then the whole next week. We are going to the lake for the week, sun, fun and relaxation!!

Here we go.....

So I have decided to take the plunge and start my own blog. Big woop you say? Well, I'm kind of excited about my new endeavor. I am an obsessed food blogger reader, and have always wanted to do one of my own, but seriously, who has the time? Well, I am going to make the time. I'm excited to share some new recipes, our weekly meal plans, and some tips and tricks I've learned along the way. So, fasten your seatbelts, it's time to begin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So here's a little background on me. I'm 33 years young, and have been blessed with a wonderful husband for almost 10 years, and three adorable, busy girls! Cooking good food, from scratch is a big thing for me. I am always finding better ways of making our favorite foods, like getting away from canned soups, making my own sauces, etc.

When Brad and I got married, I had NO CLUE how to cook. None. Zipp-O. What got me started was getting one of those recipe card club things in the mail. I signed up for them, and just started cooking from there. I felt so bad for Brad, because he came from a house where his mother cooked three full meals everyday plus dessert. Are you KIDDING me??!!! I could barely fry a flippin egg. So, 10 years later, I like to think of myself as a pretty darn good cook. I love to read cookbooks, in fact right now at the Library, I have "Joy of Cooking", and "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day" on order. I'll let you know what I think of them. Getting my Taste of Home magazine in the mail is the highlight of my day!! I try to use new recipes at least once or twice a week. Sunday afternoons I usually sit down and make my menu for the week. This also includes breakfast and lunches, as I do daycare in my home.

So, for my first day of blogging, I am excited to share with you a very gourmet'y recipe that my family loves. Ready? It's a long one, so make sure you have a large peice of paper. Ok, here is is: Bubble Pizza. That's right. Good old fashioned tube biscuits with hamburger and pizza sauce. Extremely nutritious and easy:) Ok, so it's not one of my fave recipes, but in all honesty the kids love it. However, I did add pureed squash to the pizza sauce to get some nutrition in there. That's not quite so bad, right?!!

I promise that I do have some good recipes to share, but bear with me, I have 10 kids here during the day, I'm doing my best!!