Mr.Happy!!

Look at this face, the world is perfect in his eyes, life is so sweet that he can't stop smiling, this is my nephew, Mr.Happy!!!

Pretty Vintage Fun!

Okay so let's take a break and do a puzzle, here is a pretty and vintage looking one, just click on the puzzle, and have fun and enjoy!

No Picnic Today!

Good afternoon everyone, well here it is Sunday afternoon and finally a break in the snow!! It has literally been snowing here since last Wednesday, I thought I would show you what my patio set(the black one looks like on my deck), the other photo is my neighbors picnic table outside, I guess neither will be enjoying any picnics any time soon!

This is our table Tuesday before it started snowing!


This is what it looks like today, Sunday!


Neighbor's picnic table

White Sandwich Bread Recipe:

To those who want to try their hand at breadmaking I am going to post the recipe I used for my bread, now this is a dense bread not your feather light type of bread this has some soul to it and one piece of this probably equals 2-3 slices of regular bread, and it has a very mild sweetness to it, this recipe is for the sandwich bread not the sourdough bread, if anyone would like to have the sourdough recipe and starter let me know I will post that one also.



Ingredients:
2 cups warm water (110 degrees)
2/3 cups white sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons active dry yeast
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
6 cups bread flour*(see note below)

Instructions:
1.Step One
Using a large bowl, dissolve the sugar in the warm water. After the sugar is dissolved, stir in the yeast, and allow the mixture to proof until yeast resembles a creamy foam.

2.Step Two
Into the yeast mixture, add the salt and the oil. Gradually mix in the flour, only one cup at a time. On a lightly floured surface, knead the dough until smooth and place in a well oiled bowl, turning the dough to coat. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and allow to rise until doubled in bulk. This usually takes about one hour.

3.Step Three
After the dough has finished rising, knead for a few minutes, and divide in half. If you have a scale, weigh out the pieces to ensure even baking. Shape each piece of dough into loaf shape, and place into two well oiled 9 by 5 inch loaf pans. Allow the dough to rise for thirty more minutes, or until dough has risen about one inch above the pans.

4.Step Four
Bake the loaves at 350 degrees for about thirty minutes, until golden brown on top.

*note- I used probably 1/2 to 3/4 cup more of flour so use judgement on this, the dough should pull away from sides of bowl and be elastic and almost satiny feeling, also oil bowl and then roll dough in it then cover with a warm damp kitchen towel.
HAPPY BAKING!!!

Thunder Bay Resort

I am thinking of making reservations for my family and myself for this resort to go on a sleigh ride and spend a couple of nights, possibly for this coming December looks very inviting, I know that is a long time away but I am just trying to prepare. This is a two part video.

Snow Yesterday, Snow Today, Snow Tomorrow...

Yesterday I wrote about the snowstorm I got stuck in and the little red bird trying to find cover, I wasn't sure if it was the storm we were waiting for or a different one, well it was a different storm, last night clear through about 3 this afternoon it snowed and snowed and kept snowing, see pictures below so you get an idea of how much snow we got since it started again last night!





They are still calling for more snow tomorrow!!

Snowstorm!!!!!

Today we were to have a quite clear day then tonight we were suppose to get about 6 inches of snow, well I don't know if this is a different storm or what but we got hit this morning with this, I couldn't see anything even the little red bird in the tree was trying to take cover.

This picture the snow had just started falling.

The snow really started coming down at this point.

This is all I could see while driving home!(scary)

There is a house right behind these trees, can you see?


I think this may pose for a very cold night.

Evening Solice

Sourdough Bread!!

Yesterday I said that I would post the pictures of my sourdough bread today, well as promised here they are, these turned out fabulous and the taste was fabulous!!

Goodnight Moon........

Sourdough Bread Starter

January 5th I posted about bread I had made, yes it turned out delicious see previous posts for pictures, in the meantime I also decided to make a sourdough bread starter, I love sourdough bread, so I dug out an old recipe and proceeded to make the starter. It takes 48 hours for the dough to ferment and get the sourier aroma to it, well tonight I made to large round boles of sourdough bread, they turned out beautiful and delicious, I sliced one of the boles up and put oil and garlic, salt and pepper on it put the baking sheet in the oven for about 15 minutes. Tonight I am posting the starter and it's appearance tomorrow I will post the bread pictures.
This is the three things needed for the starter itself.

This is what it looked like after I had mixed up the ingredients on the first night.

This is what the starter looked like after 48 hours.

The aroma that comes off of this starter is out of this world!!!

My Morning Comes To Consciousness

Remember this,

Well it became this,

Then I did this,

Then I joined it with this,

Ahhhhhhhh, what a great start!!!

Soothing the Mind

“Music speaks what cannot be expressed, soothes the mind and gives it rest, heals the heart and makes it whole, flows from heaven to the soul.”

Cookies for my boys!

The cookies for the boys, if you read my previous post you will see that last at 8 last night I started making bread which this morning my son raved about the toasted sliced bread, he said mom this is the bestest bread I have ever had, that is enough for me to know this recipe is a definite keeper, now I realize that Bestest is not a word, but I had to put exactly what he said in this post, now enough about the bread now I am on to the cookies I changed a couple of things in this recipe like the length of time for baking and I used margaine instead of butter, I love cake like chocolate chip cookies and truly dislike skinny flat cookies!! These cookies happen to fall right into the palm of my hand and I think I am in love.

Baking Before The Storm!

Good Morning Everyone, well yesterday was one very busy day!!!! The weather folks kept saying we were in for some bad weather today, so I thought there is a few things I need from the store, like bread, well the day went on and I just didn't want to get out anywhere so I decided to make my bread, at 8 last night I started baking with the intent of only making bread, well my boys decided they wanted cookies so I decided to bake a batch for them, what was suppose to be 1 loaf of sandwich bread turned into 2 loaves of homemade bread and 31/2 dozen chocolate chip cookies. I tried two new recipes depending on the comments from the family will tell whether they will be made again!!!


Wallah is this even a word, hence the finished product!

Will post pictures of the cookies in a later post.

The Beauty Queen

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!