A Delicious Dinner!

I was very pleased with myself last night, and cooked a really good dinner!  After going to the store and picking up a few things this weekend, the refrigerator was very full of things to be taken care of, and since we're trying to eat better for DH, I thought I would cook up something.  I was going loosely after a recipe my brother gave me.

I sauted 5 chicken breasts with about 8 cloves of garlic that I squeezed right over the top.  I added about half a jar of sundried tomatoes and oil, and then some white wine (don't I add wine to everything?).  I didn't have any heavy cream, so I used a can of cream of celery soup.  Since I wanted it to be a little bit richer than that, I added some cheese, mozzarella and a little bit of parmesean.  I made up some whole wheat penne to go with that, and then sauted a bag of spinach with about 5 cloves of garlic and a little bit of anisette.  I know that it sounds like a lot of garlic, but it was strong at all, because I added it at the beginning of cooking.

I will definitely make it again.  It was delicious, and if you are in need of an easy dinner, this is it!

Sourdough Starter Part 2

Well, my original intents on the sourdough starter, poolish method did not go so well.  I threw it out last night.  It did not do what it was supposed to do, and I tired of it quickly.  So I am doing a Desem method sourdough bread instead.  I'm not going to go into the whole method.  You can read about it here.  Tonight starts day 7, so I hope to bake bread within the next two days with this.  It smells pretty good, and its nice and sour.  Now the problem with this is going to be converting it to a liquid starter so that I can give it to my mother too.  So, I picked up 3 books at the library to assist me with my sourdough endeavors.  Any of these 3 would be a great addition to my library (ahem).

I originally went in looking for The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book by Laurel Robertson, which I thought they had, but they didn't.  Instead I got:  Bread A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes by Jeffrey Hamelman, The King Aurthur Flour Baker's Companion, and The Bread Bible by Rose Levy Bernbaum

The first book, Bread, A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes is full of great information, and a good conversion table for convering the stiff starter to a liquid one.  Most of the recipes are for large format baking though.  Easy if you have an 80 quart mixer, but I don't have access to one anymore.  I really liked the King Aurthur Flour book, it has some great recipes in it, and the long lost Panzanella recipe, which technically isnt a baking recipe, but totally cool that they included it.  Not a lot of info about sourdough, but it would be a great general baking book to own.  The last book the Bread Bible I was reluctant to pick up, because the writer is one of those "cookbook writers" and not a real baker or chef.  Luckily she did a lot of research, and it had a lot of good stuff in there, most important the bakers percentage which I had never heard of which is strange because I was a commercial baker.

Anyway, tonight I will be dividing the desem to bake.  From what I read, it should take all day to rise.  Hopefully tomorrow night we will have some bread!

A Sourdough Starter Experiment

So He says He wants me to make Sourdough.  Only problem is we have no starter.  So I'm off to find a recipe!

3/8 cup of Flour
1/4 cup of water

Now I wait 12 - 24 hours....

Giving Thanks, A giveaway...with an update

Since this is a month of giving thanks, I wanted to thank you all who read my blog!  As a special gift I am going to give away a special gift to one lucky commenter who tells me how they're giving thanks this year! 

The rules:
You must leave a comment here on my blog, not on facebook where the blog publishes as well.
You must comment before November 14th at 12:00 pm EST on this post.
I will choose by random using random.org

What you get:
A code for a free 20-page 7x9 photo book*, from Shutterfly a $15.99 value. You just pay for the shipping ($4.99 standard U.S. shipping) and the cost for any additionally pages you choose to add.


This year, I have been updating my facebook status to give thanks to the people in my life!  It is a wonderful way to feel positive all day long!


Edited to add the following:

I suppose that you may be wondering who won?  Me too, because there were no comments at all on this post at all.  Sorry.  :(  No Winners.  All Losers.  I guess that makes me a Loser too??

Our weekend in pictures

Kaitlyn

She's holding her head up now!! Such a cutie pie!

IPPITY!!

Getting in on this while the gettin's good!! If anyone wants the set of stamps let me know! I will have IPK-101 Kissmas & Mistletoe in my hands to get to you! There will be 7 more stamp sets to choose from, with new releases every 3 months! Plus paper!! And Ink!!! And its from Unity, so you know it's good!!!

3 years and 2 months appointments

Melissa is up to 30 pounds now (45th percentile) and 38 inches (70th percentile). The doctor said she was doing good. Asked if she was putting 3-4 word sentences together. I laughed at him. She has recently started making up her own language. She thinks its hilarious. He talked to her about going on the potty, and she did great yesterday. Only had 1 accident, and she actually pooped on the potty! I did go ahead and get her the nasal mist flu vaccine. The daycare already has their first confirmed case of H1N1, plus she gets so sick in the winters.

Now, the chunker, Kaitlyn is up to 16 pounds 10 ounces (OVER 97th percentile) and 24 1/2 inches (95th percentile). We're doing modified shots for her, so we have to go back next month for the Pneumococcal. She only got DtaP. I think she is doing great so far too. Didn't seem to bother her at all, like they did with Melissa. I think it was all the aluminum in her system.

We're going to Trunk or Treat on Thursday, so I'll have some pictures to add then. Plus we may go again on Halloween. We'll see!!

Pumpkin Patch & Brevard Zoo

We went to the pumpkin patch, and the Brevard Zoo this weekend.

Someone was kind enough to get this picture of us. It's our first family picture since Kaitlyn was born.

The rest of the pumpkin patch pics can be seen on my facebook page here.

We were supposed to go to the zoo with Neil's old friend, RJ, and stopped by his house before we went. Melissa got to drive the little car. First thing she did was hit another car! LOL! Here she is in her glory, running into the other car. And if you click on the picture, you can see RJ in the background in shorts, a tee shirt and flip flops, and that is his girlfriend, Heather, bundled up in her coat.















And here are pics of my girls in their costumes for the Zoo. Kaitlyn spent most of the time asleep, so she barely got to wear hers, and this is one of Melissa's costumes for the season. A little dancer! She was so cute!

UBBRO5 -- Snapped Elastic Card

I am playing along with the Unity Stamp Co.'s BRO Challenge! My first attempt! I love love love their stamps, and the only problem that I have is finding time to stamp! I have something in mind for a Christmas gift!

Anyway, here's my creation. The challenge was to use something from your HOME that you typically would not use in a papercrafting project. I used elastic. I frayed it and pulled the elastic out some.



















I used the Unity September 09 Kit of the Month Stamps, Coredinations Whitewash paper, and Watercolor papter, Stamped with Black Pigment Ink, Colored the image with Micron Pens, VersaMarker Pen, and Tea Dye Distress Ink. I distressed the sentiment, and lightly did the paper just to rough it up more.