BBA Challenge #12: English Muffins

Here's the latest recipe in the BBA Challenge: English Muffins. These were a standard, enriched dough, quick and easy to make. Different from most breads, these bake in a skillet, then finish up in the oven. I left mine in the skillet a little too long and ended up with some rather dark tops and bottoms, but other than that they were... just okay. I'm not a super English Muffin connoisseur, but these didn't really seem like anything special to me or to Erik. We did enjoy them, however. The first night I made Eggs Benedict, and well, even mediocre bread is delicious when topped with ham and egg and smothered with hollandaise sauce. The second night we used them as hamburger buns. I didn't even eat one plain, but did enjoy them. Even so, if I'm going to make bread I'll put my energy into recipes I've enjoyed more. To be fair, I should probably try the recipe again. To be honest, I probably won't. :>

Up next: Foccacia. Yummm...

Rainbow

Here is a fun, quick, and simple little science project we did on a hot day last week. I gave each of the kids six jars, three large and three small. The large ones had water with red, yellow, and blue food coloring, the primary colors. We placed them in a row and put the smaller jars in between. Then they mixed colors to make orange, green, and purple. They, of course, enjoyed getting to pour and mix water, and also learned how the primary colors blend to make the others. After that they had fun mixing and pouring and coming up with different shades.

A few days later we dyed silk- with Kool-aid, in all the colors of the rainbow. Lots of fun!

Foursday

Poppy: Mama, is there a Foursday?

Mama: Foursday?

Poppy: Well, there's Tuesday, and Onesday.

A Happy Twosday to all!

BBA Challenge #11: Cranberry Celebration Bread

The 11th bread in the challenge: Cranberry Walnut Celebration Bread. I left out the walnuts in my loaf, mostly due to the fact that I didn't have any. (Which seemed a perfectly reasonable reason to the likes of me.) I don't have much to say about this bread, or much time to say it. It was yummy. And there you have it.

There's milk to be skimmed, a shopping list to be made, and English muffins rising, so I'm off.

Beautiful-ler and Beautiful-lest

Poppy with Poppies

It was a quiet morning and cool air came in through the screen door that opens onto the back deck. I could hear Poppy chattering away out there, her sweet little voice floating through the air. After a few minutes she came in and related this to me:

“Mama, there is a garden spider who made the most beautiful web! And I tried to go under it, because it was so beautiful and I didn’t want to break it. But I did. So, I told him the story of The Very Busy Spider, and I hope he’ll build his web again. It was the most beautiful web! Maybe if I find him something to eat then he will be strong enough to build that web again.”

She proceeded to find a small, dead moth by the windowsill and happily tromped back outside to feed “her” spider. When the spider didn’t leap at the moth she was a little sad, but went off and found him some ants instead. I told her that maybe he would eat them when she wasn’t standing there watching. Sweet Poppy wandered off to do something else, but later in the day she remembered her spider and told me again “It was the beautiful-lest web ever! But I think now he is strong again and he will build an even beautiful-ler one!”

BBA Challenge #9 & 10: Cinnamon Bread and Cornbread

Gluten Free Cornbread

The last few weeks have been crazy-busy, plus some of us have been sick, and while I've still baked, I haven't made time to post my pictures. (Let alone do any "real" blogging!)

The ninth bread in the challenge was a cinnamon raisin loaf. I used the whole wheat recipe out of Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads; it was delicious. I'm pretty sure I took a picture, but if I did it has disappeared along with the bread.

The next recipe in The Bread Baker's Apprentice was for Corn Bread. This was the only non-yeasted bread in the book, so I thought I'd make it gluten free so Poppy could join us in eating it. So, as a disclaimer, it probably came out very different than the original recipe. I used brown rice flour, which I soaked overnight along with the cornmeal. I also skipped the bacon and fresh corn, so, yeah, I pretty much altered the recipe beyond recognition. But, it tasted good, especially with some cinnamon-honey-butter spread on it! Perhaps someday I'll make it again and stick to the recipe.

Up next: Cranberry Walnut Celebration Bread.