My adventures in cooking part 1

Ok, our Stake Presidency issued a 90 day challenge to become more self sufficient. To do so, they sent a letter laying out some goals for families to work towards. Some of those goals were to bake bread and make meals completely from scratch at least once a week.

The meals from scratch wasn't really that much of a problem for us b/c Sam and I have been slowly moving away from using mixes recently. The bread was more of a challenge as I have never made bread by myself except for sweet quick breads. (I make a mean chocolate chip pumpkin bread...YUM!) So a couple of weeks ago our RS set up a breadmaking class at church, and I successfully baked 2 loaves of white/wheat bread (under supervision). So, last Wednesday for craft group, we decided to try making bread on our own. I found a new recipe that you're supposed to be able to completely make in your Kitchenaid. It was a Honey Oat Wheat bread. Let the games begin...first, I think this recipe was for a bigger Kitchenaid than mine. So kneading it was a trick, but I succeeded. Feeling pretty good about my new breadmaking prowess, I was just about the put it to rest and rise, when I noticed that I had forgotten to add the eggs!! So, back in the bowl it goes, I crack in 2 eggs and start the mixer again. It starts splattering eggs all over the place!!! Ahhh...so I quickly add more flour, and finally get an acceptable lump of dough again. I put it in a bowl on the stove to rise a little worried about what the 2nd knead has done to it, but it rises, albeit slowly. I punch it down, shape it up and put it in the bread pan and set it for the 2nd rise. At this point everyone has left to finish at home, and the oven is no longer being used. I went ahead and turned in on to 375 in preparation for baking and so the stovetop will be warm to aid in rising. They rise beautifully and I am once again excited. I put them in the oven to bake know that the oven should really be nice and hot and set the timer for 40 mins. The fact that I've forgotten something is in the back of my mind, but I ignore it.

Ding...40 mins. Woo hoo fresh bread, by myself!! I open the oven and they're not brown. WHAT??? I touch it and it's still doughy. I look at the stove and realize that somehow I turned the oven off!! So I turn it back on (I really should have removed the bread, but I didn't). Set the timer for another 40 mins and wait. Ding...this time the house smells like bread, good sign. I open the oven and the top crust is a little darker than I would like, but since I'm cooking in glass pans, I can see the sides are brown, so it should be done.

I pulled to bread out of the oven and slide the loaves out of the pans and onto a cooling rack. Worried about if they're done, I immediately slice into one loaf to see what all my goofs have done to it. It looks and tastes fine. A little chewy, but good. Then I look at what I just did to the loaf. In slicing while it was still hot, I've squished the loaf! Oh well. Guess if I make all the mistakes the 1st time, maybe when I make bread for this week, it will go better! LOL Here's a picture of my squished loaf.

Pretty Clipboards

I wanted to do something different this week, and I got a new calling on Sunday as Primary Secretary. So like peanut butter goes with chocolate, I think being a secretary goes with having a clipboard. Of course I can't just have a plain clipboard...what's the fun in that?!? So this week in craft group we covered clipboards to make them pretty! I made the turquoise and orange one, and my friend Marissa made the rainbow/red variety. I love them, and can't wait to use mine to pass something around on Sunday!!

Superheroes to the rescue!

I just adore this week's craft!! I found an adorable pattern at pukingpastilles.com for a reversible superhero cape and we made them this week. My girlfriend, Mandy, made the girl version, but had to leave before she finished. I can't wait to see hers as well.

Bandana Pants

Today in craft group we made bandana pants (shorts). It was a super simple pattern I found at http://blueyonder.typepad.com/photos/bandana_pants/. You just need 2 bandanas and some elastic for the waist. So cute and so much fun to make!!

More baby crafts

This week for craft group I went back to a baby craft. I saw this idea on Handmade By Jill's blog (see link on side for some really cute ideas). This was really simple, but so cute!!

New Skirts for tax day

Today's craft was to make new skirts. After much fussing I finally finished mine. Here's what it looks like. I should have made the elastic waist a bit tighter, but hopefully I'll be needed more room in my waistband in the near future. As it is, it stays up, so I'm not sewing the elastic again. I plan on wearing it to the temple of Saturday. As this is my first skirt, I'm pondering tucking away another skirt just in case! LOL

Homemade Bread and Butter

All you LDS folks out there know that this past weekend was conference weekend. For my non-LDS friends, twice a year we have a two day general conference where we receive instruction from our general leaders of the church in SLC. Sam and I have the BYU channel through our cable provider, so we watch conference at home. That's a lot of time at home! Between sessions on Sunday we decided to try our hand at some bread and butter. We'd made bread before (this was an old mix we found in our food storage), but we'd never intentionally made butter before. Anyone who was friends with us during our foray into ice cream making knows that we unintentionally made really sweet vanilla butter no matter what ice cream recipe we used!! The butter was so easy to make! We used 16 oz. of walmart brand heavy whipping cream as our base. I let the cream come to room temperature (about 90 mins) and then dumped it into my food processor. Turned on my most beloved appliance and about 3 mins later we had butter!! I saved the leftover liquid to make pancakes with later this week, and began washing the butter.
It only took 2 rinsings to get the water clean. I didn't do a great job squeezing the excess rinse water out, so it's a little moist. We added a pinch of salt (literally Sam pours a small amount in my hand) I'd guess that it was about 1/8 of a teaspoon and stirred it in. Sam can't really taste the salt, but I can. In the end we made about 7 oz of butter. Next time we're going to try cream from a local dairy to see if it's any different. Yum and easy! You can't get any better than that!