MLK Day

Hope you all have a wonderful peaceful day honoring the Reverend, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

MLK Day - Giving Back

In honor of MLK Day we can all do something to give back to our communities. There is even an organization that helps people do just that. It's called the MLK Day of Service and it helps people find volunteer programs in their community.

If you live in Portland, check out this link to see if there's something that fits your schedule and ability. If you're on Twitter, you can follow the input using the hashtag @MLKDay. 

If you aren't able to volunteer, you can donate money to your favorite cause or charity.

But whatever you do, I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Super-Simple EZ Bake Bread or SSEZBB

Home baked bread is the easiest thing to make. No. Really. All it takes is a little time. I know, that’s something none of us have but if you use an early morning, one weekend, you’ll never regret it.

This bread will have no additives, no chemicals, preservatives or high-fructose corn syrup. All great to go without. And your family will thank you for it. Maybe not today, but one day.

I only want healthy food around my house. You know organic, locally grown, Omega 3 type food and I absolutely love Dave's Killer Bread (which if you can't bake is a great option) but at four loaves for $32.00, which includes shipping, I'm thinking I can save a little money by baking a few loaves on the weekend.

Baking over the years, I’ve learned a couple of tips and tricks and I’m going to share them so “Shoosh” don’t tell anyone my secrets.

TRICK #1: Tweak to your own taste

Most bakers stick strictly to their recipes . . . NOT I, like the little red hen. I have to tweak and twist everything a little. I’m always hoping to perfect my pastries and sometimes. . .I get really close. So tweak your recipes to your own taste.

TRICK #2: Factor in the temperature of the house.

Temperature makes a big difference. No. Not the temperature of the oven. The temperature of your house makes a HUGE difference.

I can use the same recipe in the winter as I do in the summer, but it has to be tweaked. In cold weather I don’t need to use as much flour. But in the summer, I need to add an additional ¼ to ½ cup…depending.

TRICK #3: Cover your dough while it bakes.

Cover your bread dough with aluminum foil so it won’t burn on the top as it cooks in the middle. No one wants doughy bread or burnt bread…well, to be honest I like the edges of my bread burnt (a little). I love crispy, crunchy textures. Not my family though. So, if your family is like mine, cover with foil while the bread cooks.

So I pull out my rolling pin, flour and a casserole dish with a lid so I can cover my bread dough while it rises - but you can use foil just as easily or plastic wrap, or even a warm wet towel.

Anyway, here’s the recipe for this super-simple EZ bake bread.

3 ½ cups flour

2 cups warm water

2 tablespoons (melted) butter (salted-that way you don’t have to buy unsalted butter-and who keeps that on hand, and you don’t have to measure out a tablespoon of salt-EZ tip)

1 package of active dry yeast

Take the warm water and add the active yeast. Let it sit while you melt your butter in the microwave. Then pour the yeast-water and melted butter into a bowl and mix, slowly adding in the flour until you have a ball of dough. Then take your ball of dough and put it in a pre-greased bowl and cover for ½ hour to let rise.

TRICK #4: Let dough rise in heat.

Set your dough bowl on top of the oven while it preheats, the warmth will help your dough rise and make it so much fluffier.

Then knead your dough a bit, right in the bowl, recover and let rise again for another ½ hour.

Then take a bread pan or two and grease them with oil and flour or a non-stick spray. Put your dough in the pan and bake at 400 degrees and bake for 20-25 minutes, then pull off your foil and drizzle with a couple tablespoons of melted butter mixed with 1 tablespoon of melted honey. Reduce heat to 350 and bake for an additional 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. I like to pour honey into the cracks when I pull it out of the oven for a little added sweetness. 

Another Tip is to bake in a cooking stone if you have one. It will make sure the temperature is even all the way around. Here's mine, it doesn't look pretty but the food comes out almost perfect every time.

Tip 2: Never Bake Just One Loaf.

I also have a glass bread pan that I use because you can never have too many loaves of bread and baking stones are expensive.

But as you can see, it isn't as pretty when it pops out as the bread from the cooking stone.

Tip #3: This tip is to flip.

I always like to flip my bread over just to make sure the bottom is done the way I want it.

Then I flip it back over and put it on a pretty plate.

Wah-lah! 

EAT while warm – it is sooooo delish!

Word for Wednesday

Word: Argil

Do you know what it means?


If you do, guess now.



If you don't scroll down for the answer...



Further




Further



It is clay - especially potter's clay - if you want to read more about it, check it out here.

Treasures Worth More than their Weight in Gold

When I was growing up in the house with nine kids and grandma living in the back bedroom, Mom used to have an ugly old, dented tin. That metal tin was her secret "treasure" chest and it held so many itty-bitty beautiful bits-and-pieces she called "treasures".

But those treasures of hers weren't worth any money.

Still, I used to love to pull out that old tin and rummage through it. I don't remember what I was looking for because it was only filled with old buttons. But I believed it was a treasure chest, filled with pirates gold of colored glass and make-believe doubloons.

See, Mom didn't believe in throwing anything away. I guess she would have been one of the original hoarders only she never had much to hoard. So it wasn't a problem.

I mean, when all you're hoarding is an old tin of buttons, it doesn't take up much room in a house.

Some days, when I came home from school, Mom used to call me out to the kitchen table to talk with her while she made dinner.

She'd cut, chop and dice while I'd sit beside her cutting buttons off our old worn-out clothing. Then I'd slip those little beauties into our "treasure chest". When I'd "saved" all the buttons then I'd cut the fabric into scraps for quilting. Grandma used those quilting blocks to make blankets.

Our rescued buttons went into that old tin to be used at a later date, when a button popped off and rolled away, never to be found again.Then Mom would call me out to the kitchen again and I'd pull out the treasure tin. It was easy to spend hours searching through the treasures for just the "right" button to replace the renegade runaway...or rollaway.

That old tin gave me a love for re-purposing, recycling and reusing...buttons.

Even today, I still love to walk down the aisles at the fabric store and gaze at the beautiful buttons (I know I live an exciting life) and sometimes I buy a few--buttons I might never find a purpose for.

"Sew" crafting friends aren't surprised, at Christmas, if they find a gift of beautiful buttons, fabric and/or yarn tucked away inside their gift.

Maybe that seems odd to most people, but I still think of those beautiful buttons as tiny treasures. Little beautiful baubles, to me they look like gemstones or charms and I love them all.

Tomorrow, I'm thinking of working on a button wreath for Valentine's Day. See the one above. I found it on Pinterest and fell in love.

If you want to see the instructions for this Cute as a Button Wreath, just pop over to this site to check it out.
The estimated cost of making this Button Wreath, if you don't have a tin to hunt through, is $10.00. But I can guarantee you, if you sit with your sons and daughters and make this wreath, together, the memories you'll create will be worth more than their weight in gold. They'll be PRICELESS :D

How 'bout you do you have any secret "treasures" worth more than their weight in gold? I sure do. And aren't these the little things that LOVE is all about.

Homemade Baklava

I spent the morning baking with my friend Roz. She was teaching me how to make the best homemade baklava.

Here's the recipe:

6 cups ground walnuts
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup of honey
1 package of fillo dough
2 sticks of butter (melted)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350.

Prepare fillo dough layers by spreading butter between each sheet and adding walnut, sugar, cinnamon mixture after every five to six sheets of stacked fillo dough.

Then cover baklava with foil and bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes. Pull off aluminum foil and bake an additional 15 minutes or until the top is a golden brown. Pour honey between the cracks and edges.

Start by buttering your baking dish, the bottom and sides. Then layer six sheets of fillo dough on the bottom of your pan, be sure to spread a thin layer of butter between each sheet.

After you have six sheets buttered, put three heaping scoops of your walnut/sugar/cinnamon mixture on the top and then layer five sheets of fillo dough on top (laying with butter again between each sheet), add another three scoops of your walnut mixture and cover with five more sheets of buttered fillo dough, (repeat four times).

Spread the walnut, cinnamon, sugar mixture around to make sure it covers the fillo dough. Warm your honey so that it pours easily.

After you have baked the baklava, pour your warmed honey between the cracks and over the edges.

Ready to serve :D

LOVE

Valentine's Day is just around the corner. So I decided to bake some test cupcakes. Well these are actually brownie cupcakes that turned out yummilicious.

I used some black sugar sheets to put over the brownies so that the flowers, hearts and decorations would POP.

Then I made some fondant hearts and flowers to put on the top. I think this top really does pop!

I want to make some cupcakes and use conversation hearts to decorate the tops too.

Some cupcakes I make for fun and just want them to be cute or make my family smile.

This is an easy way to give flowers for that special day. And to make my hubby's extra-special, I put it on display in this little cake stand.

I love to bake, make and create. How 'bout you?