A new bread recipe…

I have been exclusively using the bread recipe by Scott Peacock and it’s pretty much fool-proof. Well, the other day I picked up this ADORABLE cookbook, by Cheryl Day, from the library and decided to try her bread recipe. It’s actually her husband’s recipe, but whatever. I must note that I used 2 cups whole wheat flour and 3-1/2 cups all purpose flour (instead of 5-1/2 cups all purpose). I usually mix my flours.

After I formed them into loaves and put them to rest on the counter, I proceeded to forget about them and we went to run a few errands.

  
WHOA… that’s some HUGE, poofy bread! Just look how TALL it poofed up over the loaf pan!

  
As usual, I couldn’t wait until it completely cooled before I had to sample some and Oh.My.Heavens… it is SO light and fluffy! I don’t know if it’s the recipe or the fact that it proofed for about 2 hours instead of 1. Whatever it is, I’m TOTALLY doing it EXACTLY this way from now on!

Now I’ve got to figure out what we’re having for dinner. MAYBE something with bread?

Weekend mash-up

Weekends are busy around here. For one reason or another, this weekend was even more crazy than usual!

Friday night we had a gorgeous pop-up thunderstorm, so Steve, M and I took advantage of our huge front porch and enjoyed the deluge. It was so hot on Friday, but the rainstorm really cooled it off.

Saturday morning was a donut-kind-of-Saturday, so M and I got up super early to go to D Square Donuts right down the street. SO GOOD! My favorites are the Maple Bacon and Lemon filled. Square donuts have 4 more bites!

Friday and Saturday we spent getting the house ready for our out-of-town guests. I sent Steve to SAM’s Saturday morning and I cut the grass while he was gone (sneaky sneaky… he didn’t want me to do it, but he wasn’t here to tell me, “NO!” ). Then we pressure-washed the patio and driveway (this eeked over into Sunday).

Look at our sweet helper!

Saturday morning I made some more bread from my favorite recipe.

Sunday morning my goal was to make some pancakes to freeze for the week. I’ve made this recipe several times (thank you, Pinterest) and it’s pretty-much fool-proof! I did 1/3 plain, 1/3 blueberry (my personal fave) and 1/3 chocolate chip. Mmmm….
  

While Steve was finishing up the driveway on Sunday,  I decided to make some scones, but the recipe made so many that we still have some left (2 days later). I made some plain, some ham/gruyere and some rosemary/parmesan. Mmm…. So yummie! Look how sweet our lunch was – scones with pickled okra and fresh tomatoes. Hello Alabama!

My best friend, Shannon, and her whole family (and the dog) came in from Indiana on Sunday (passing through dropping off a kid on their way to their home – which is a long story b/c they live in Columbus, GA and Indiana… don’t ask) so that her oldest could go to Zoo Camp in Montgomery this week with Miss. M. She’s spending the whole week with us and I’m super excited to have her! A is at 4H camp for the week, so we’ve only got the two littles. It’s fun hearing them giggling and singing and playing – M never has friends spend the night… much less the whole week!

More bread, please…

Yesterday was a full day, but I don’t feel like I really accomplished a whole lot. I don’t know why, because when I look back at what all I did – it’s a LOT! I got up and walked 2.5 miles (YAY me), then took a shower and met a friend to pick up some shirts she was monogramming for one of my daughters. I came home and baked 2 loaves of bread (more on that in a minute) and ran to the farmers market, the grocery store and then came home to do laundry and make dinner.

Yesterday I decided to make something creamy and comforting for dinner – broccoli cheese soup. I used this recipe from the March issue of Cooing Light magazine and it was really good! It didn’t have any whole milk or butter or cream in it… it used puréed over-puffed rice to thicken the soup base. Sorry I completely forgot to take any pictures. By the time Steve got home, the soup was ready and we attacked it like coyotes.

But just LOOK what I got at the Opelika Main Street Farmers Market yesterday! GORGEOUS squash and tomatoes and vidailas and blackberries. I even found a Lions Club booth that was selling brooms. If you have never had a Lions Club broom – you’re totally missing out. These are the best-made old-timey brooms in the world. Very sturdy and NO PLASTIC.

Ok, so back to the bread. I’ve really found a love for baking and have been trying out some different recipes. There something really exciting about mixing up a big batch of dough and kneading it by hand. That’s right, I don’t use my mixer to knead. I mean, I mix/knead it with the dough hook just long enough for it to pull away from the sides of the mixer bowl, but then I do the fun stuff by hand. It’s a great ab/upper arm workout… and I’ve found that it makes the bread fluffier when you do it by hand. In the past I’ve made white Amish bread and honey oat and whole wheat and cinnamon bread… but I haven’t really found THE ONE yet.

Until yesterday.

The recipe I used is from Chef Scott Peacock’s book, The Gift of Southern Cooking, which was co-authored by Edna Lewis. You can find the book here on Amazon.

I love this cookbook.  The anecdotal stories are incredibly charming, but don’t mistake this for just a sweet book to read – the recipes are really good! After seeing that the bread chapter is called “Praise the Lard and Pass the Biscuits,” I just HAD to try his white loaf bread recipe. WOW! Not only was it easy, it turned out great! I think next time I’ll let the second proof go a bit longer – I only let it rise until the loaves were even with the top of the loaf pans (like the recipe said). Next time I’ll let it go a bit longer (so the loaves are a bit bigger). Other than that – this recipe made 2 gorgeous loaves of spongy bread and it went PERFECTLY with our dinner last night (and with butter and honey for breakfast this morning).