Mmmmmm! Bread!

I used my new Bosch to make some white bread. It rose up so nicely! Come to my house for some bread or else I am going to have to find someone else to give it to.

It is deee-licious!

Basic White Bread (Makes 3 loaves)

3 cups warm water

2 tablespoons yeast

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup oil

3 t. salt

9 cups bread flour

Non-Bread Mixer Instructions:

In a large bowl put 3 cups of warm water and sprinkle the yeast and sugar in the bowl and let it sit for about 5 minutes. After it has bubbled add the oil and salt and begin to add flour a cup at a time. At first you can mix with a large wooden spoon but soon as you add flour it will get much too thick for that.

As soon as it cannot be mixed with a spoon, dump it all out on a clean counter that has been dusted with flour.

Keep adding flour and mixing and then knead your dough for about 12 to 15 minutes. Put a dishtowel over it and let sit for about 1 hour. When the dough has doubled in bulk, punch it down and knead it some more to get all the air bubbles out. Cut the dough into 3 pieces and shape them into loaves. I simply roll and shape and make it look like a loaf. Put the dough in 3 greased 8” loaf pans or 2 - 9” pans (I spray with non-stick cooking spray). Then it needs to rise once again. This time you let it rise for 30 to 40 minutes. When the bread is almost done rising you can pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees. Bake the loaves for 30 to 35 minutes. If bread is browning too quickly, cover with a sheet of aluminum foil until the last 10 minutes of cooking.

Bread Mixer Instructions:

If you have a high powered mixer like a Bosch then the process gets easier. Simply put all ingredients in the bowl (start with about 7 cups of flour an add flour as needed until the dough cleans off the sides of the mixer). Knead on the setting 1 or 2 for 5 to 7 minutes and that is it. You can take the dough out and proceed to form loaves and let them rise and then bake. The reason is that the Bosch incorporates a lot of air into the mixing process and the additional rise time is not needed.( I found I needed to let the dough rise about 10 minutes before shaping into loaves.) Place in 3 – 8” greased loaf pans (or 2 - 9” pans)and let rise about 30 to 40 minutes. Bake at 350 for 30 to 35 minutes.

Bruce's Bonus

Bruce is getting an incentive bonus from work. It will arrive sometime this month.

I found the camera store catalog open on the kitchen table this morning.

What will he use the bonus for?

Maybe THIS Year?

Do you think Robby will get his stocking in time for Christmas this year?

I'm working on it!

Centerpieces

Sunday is Stake Conference and the Stake Relief Society Presidency are to serve dinner to Elder Brinkerhoff (our Area Seventy) the Stake Presidency and their wives and the Bishops and their wives. Elder Brinkerhoff requested "low" centerpieces. Here are my contributions:

I've had to keep Bruce out of the candy pumpkins. After Saturday night he can have at it!

I used these little foam balls in the bottom of the bowl. They are so cool and not nearly as expensive and the flat glass marbles.

Ikea Curtains

We went to Portland on October 15th for Toni and Aaron's open house. While we were there we went to Ikea to buy new bookcases for the family room. We needed some kind of window dressing for the dining room. Bruce saw these curtains. They hung in the dining room for about a week before I hemmed them. I used the cut-off fabric to make a shirred cover for the rest of the curtain rod and the exposed wall between the panels.

I Love My Bosch!

I love my Bosch Universal Kitchen Machine. I have had it since before Drew was born (23 1/2 years). It only gave me problems one time and that was when it was dirty inside. Bruce opened it up, cleaned up the flour dust and crud and then it worked perfectly again.

Sometime in August the blender blades broke. I temporarily repaired it with super glue, but that didn't hold for long. I looked for a replacement blender (stand-alone) every weekend at yard sales until late September, but no luck. A Bosch blender for the machine was $65. Bruce didn't think we should spend that much for a new blender to go with an 23+ year old machine, so he started birthday shopping for me. He had a hard time deciding between a KitchenAid or a new Bosch.

This is what he settled on:




Thank you to Kate and Mike for the food processor and to Betty and Clark for the blender.

PS I sold my 23 1/2 year-old Bosch for $175.00 on Craigslist! These things hold their value better than a car!

Early Birthday Presents are Wonderful

The UPS man came today and brought two packages: one I was expecting; the other I was not.

Aunt Mitzi and Uncle Stan SURPRISED me with two dozen of the most beautiful roses I have ever seen! They even came with their own vase, but they were so huge, that one vase wouldn't hold them. I split them up and put one vase on the kitchen table and one on the dresser in our bedroom. I was able to see the lovely sight twice as frequently.

Thank you Mitzi and Stan...I love you (even when you don't send me flowers)!