Doesn't she look stressed out? I walked into the room and this was how she was relaxing on the couch. Oh, the life...
Saturday, November 21, 2009
My dogs need a job
Doesn't she look stressed out? I walked into the room and this was how she was relaxing on the couch. Oh, the life...
Bread Therapy
I decided a few weeks ago that I wanted to learn how to make homemade bread from scratch. I thought it might be a good skill to have and I've always wanted to be able to "whip up some bread" whenever I felt like being housewifey. I had no idea what I was in for. No idea.
Round 1, Sunday night: I had some time and I really wanted to get started. I had everything that I needed except yeast and it being Sunday I couldn't go to the store to buy some. A few days before I had made some zucchini bread without yeast, so I didn't think it would be that different without it. I looked up a yeast-less recipe online and the people who wrote swore that it was delicious... The batter ended up really wet, the consistency of pancake batter, but I put it in the pan and baked it anyway thinking that the recipe must know something I didn't. It baked for over an hour and didn't even brown. It ended up about a half an inch high, a yellowey white color on the outside and mushy on the inside. I almost threw it away, but Ant hates to throw things away so I put it in a container and left it on the counter. (Fast forward 5 days later and I finally threw it away after it started culturing mold and feeding fruit flies)
Round 2, Monday night: On the way home from work I picked up some yeast and milk from the grocery store. I found a different recipe online and it looked so simple that it had to work, right? Wrong. I went through all of the steps and ended up with a fist sized lump of dough that never rose and baked into a thick half-inch brick of bread. After researching online I decided that I must have killed my yeast by using too hot water to dissolve it in. Rookie mistake.
Round 3, Tuesday night: I was sure my persistence would pay off. I tried again, same recipe but made sure to use only lukewarm water as well as to proof the yeast to make double sure that they were doing whatever it is little yeasties do. Check, everything all go. I didn't think that my counter would be a warm enough place to let the dough rise so I had the genius idea to place the dough in a glass dish and put it on a stove top burner on the lowest setting to let it rise. Fast forward to an hour later, I checked on the dough and the bottom was cooked, while the rest was an unrisen yeasty dough. Oops. To much direct heat.
Round 4, Friday night: I was not going to let this bread beat me. I stocked up on extra yeast at the grocery store, and I felt like I was appropriately chastened. I had not give this bread thing the respect it deserved and the bread was punishing me. So, I went through all of the steps AGAIN and put my dough to rise on the counter. I was assured by multiple people that it would be warm enough there as long as I covered the dough with a kitchen towel. After the first round of rising and it hadn't moved, I googled some more and decided to do the next round of rising in the oven on the "warm" setting. Finally my dough rose!!! Not very much though, but at least some measurable progress. This was definitely the most bread-like of loaves so far.
Round 5, Saturday night (tonight): I gambled today. I decided to change more than one thing at a time, yet another rookie mistake. I was kicking myself part of the way through for doing that, but fortunately it finally worked!! I used the same basic recipe, but I made more of it. I used highly active yeast instead of the regular kind, and I let the dough rise in the oven for the full time. I cannot tell you how excited I was to see how large those loaves got after the first hour!!!!! Here is the finished product:
After hearing about a few of my failed attempts, a friend of mine suggested that I develop a new therapy called "bread therapy" for relationships.
Insert your significant other's name when ever you see "bread":
Round 1, Sunday night: I had some time and I really wanted to get started. I had everything that I needed except yeast and it being Sunday I couldn't go to the store to buy some. A few days before I had made some zucchini bread without yeast, so I didn't think it would be that different without it. I looked up a yeast-less recipe online and the people who wrote swore that it was delicious... The batter ended up really wet, the consistency of pancake batter, but I put it in the pan and baked it anyway thinking that the recipe must know something I didn't. It baked for over an hour and didn't even brown. It ended up about a half an inch high, a yellowey white color on the outside and mushy on the inside. I almost threw it away, but Ant hates to throw things away so I put it in a container and left it on the counter. (Fast forward 5 days later and I finally threw it away after it started culturing mold and feeding fruit flies)
Round 2, Monday night: On the way home from work I picked up some yeast and milk from the grocery store. I found a different recipe online and it looked so simple that it had to work, right? Wrong. I went through all of the steps and ended up with a fist sized lump of dough that never rose and baked into a thick half-inch brick of bread. After researching online I decided that I must have killed my yeast by using too hot water to dissolve it in. Rookie mistake.
Round 3, Tuesday night: I was sure my persistence would pay off. I tried again, same recipe but made sure to use only lukewarm water as well as to proof the yeast to make double sure that they were doing whatever it is little yeasties do. Check, everything all go. I didn't think that my counter would be a warm enough place to let the dough rise so I had the genius idea to place the dough in a glass dish and put it on a stove top burner on the lowest setting to let it rise. Fast forward to an hour later, I checked on the dough and the bottom was cooked, while the rest was an unrisen yeasty dough. Oops. To much direct heat.
Round 4, Friday night: I was not going to let this bread beat me. I stocked up on extra yeast at the grocery store, and I felt like I was appropriately chastened. I had not give this bread thing the respect it deserved and the bread was punishing me. So, I went through all of the steps AGAIN and put my dough to rise on the counter. I was assured by multiple people that it would be warm enough there as long as I covered the dough with a kitchen towel. After the first round of rising and it hadn't moved, I googled some more and decided to do the next round of rising in the oven on the "warm" setting. Finally my dough rose!!! Not very much though, but at least some measurable progress. This was definitely the most bread-like of loaves so far.
Round 5, Saturday night (tonight): I gambled today. I decided to change more than one thing at a time, yet another rookie mistake. I was kicking myself part of the way through for doing that, but fortunately it finally worked!! I used the same basic recipe, but I made more of it. I used highly active yeast instead of the regular kind, and I let the dough rise in the oven for the full time. I cannot tell you how excited I was to see how large those loaves got after the first hour!!!!! Here is the finished product:
After hearing about a few of my failed attempts, a friend of mine suggested that I develop a new therapy called "bread therapy" for relationships.
Insert your significant other's name when ever you see "bread":
*Bread loves it when you give it a massage. In fact, it demands it in order for it to be at its best.
*Life with bread takes commitment, perseverance, preparation, and most importantly a good sense of humor (think flour hand prints all over your hair, face, clothes, pets, children, etc..).
*Even with the most careful of plans, there will be times when bread will not cooperate and instead of getting mad and giving up you need to try to make it work, find the problem, and fix it.
*It is necessary to consistently give bread some space, or bread will rebel against you and no one will be happy.
*You must respect the finicky complexity of bread or it will not rise/bake right for you.
*You get back what you put into it.
There you have it. There's nothing like a good old fashioned throwdown with a centuries old recipe to give you a new perspective :)
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Who steals crabs, honestly?
For the past few months, Ant and I have been putting out his crab trap near a local bridge and catching some blue crabs. We were able to have at least two dinners of all crab that we "caught" ourselves. There is something about eating food that you have foraged or grown yourself that makes you feel like you can accomplish anything :) Here's a picture of one of our catches: 
I know what you are thinking. Yes, They were delicious.
So imagine our disappointment when the last time we put the crab trap out, we went to retrieve it a day or so later and it was gone!!! Some joker stole our crab trap!!! Ant was definitely upset over it, but I couldn't really think of anything we could have done to prevent it. I mean, can you deadbolt your trap to the bottom of the ocean? It kind of ruined our crab-catching fun. It was also pretty economical too because we would pay a couple of dollars for bait and end up with a crab dinner for two.
We're becoming quite the experts on living on no money now that Anthony isn't working and I'm only making lowly-intern money. Anthony especially has been making great strides on that front. I used to have to show him over and over again how much money he was spending on his aquarium and his fishing because he just wouldn't believe me that he spent that much. Now, he comes up with creative ways to sell things so that he can buy a $10 coral from some guy down the street! As for me, I'm still a crazy coupon lady and proud of it. Today I did our weekly shopping at publix and spent $32 and saved $87! After more than a year I still get a little jolt of adrenaline everytime I see the cashier start scanning my coupons and my total starts to drop :) I keep thinking how wonderful it is that I got into doing this before we moved to Tampa because if not, life would be so much harder now with us trying to figure out how to make everything work.
Other than that, life has been pretty uneventful. Work has been heating up as finals week approaches. The testing gets crazy busy and since after next week I will be running the testing center, I'm hoping that everything goes relatively smoothly. I've been looking around at the different jobs available but I think I have decided to wait to actually apply to any of them until after I graduate. Maybe by then something at USF will have opened up....
I know what you are thinking. Yes, They were delicious.So imagine our disappointment when the last time we put the crab trap out, we went to retrieve it a day or so later and it was gone!!! Some joker stole our crab trap!!! Ant was definitely upset over it, but I couldn't really think of anything we could have done to prevent it. I mean, can you deadbolt your trap to the bottom of the ocean? It kind of ruined our crab-catching fun. It was also pretty economical too because we would pay a couple of dollars for bait and end up with a crab dinner for two.
We're becoming quite the experts on living on no money now that Anthony isn't working and I'm only making lowly-intern money. Anthony especially has been making great strides on that front. I used to have to show him over and over again how much money he was spending on his aquarium and his fishing because he just wouldn't believe me that he spent that much. Now, he comes up with creative ways to sell things so that he can buy a $10 coral from some guy down the street! As for me, I'm still a crazy coupon lady and proud of it. Today I did our weekly shopping at publix and spent $32 and saved $87! After more than a year I still get a little jolt of adrenaline everytime I see the cashier start scanning my coupons and my total starts to drop :) I keep thinking how wonderful it is that I got into doing this before we moved to Tampa because if not, life would be so much harder now with us trying to figure out how to make everything work.
Other than that, life has been pretty uneventful. Work has been heating up as finals week approaches. The testing gets crazy busy and since after next week I will be running the testing center, I'm hoping that everything goes relatively smoothly. I've been looking around at the different jobs available but I think I have decided to wait to actually apply to any of them until after I graduate. Maybe by then something at USF will have opened up....
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Happy Halloween 2009!
This year for halloween we were pretty low key. Since Ant worked Friday night, we didn't go to our new ward's trunk and treat :( But, on Halloween night we went to a game night at our new friends Lindsay and Scott's house and we had a blast!!! We decided to go as gator fans, since in Tampa it really is a costume to be a gator! It is so weird compared to Gainesville where everyone wears gator attire as a matter of course (remember my counting-the-gator-clothes game that I used to play at the gym?), here I feel like I am in a secret gators club and I recognize other members because they half whisper "go gators" when I walk by in a gator shirt :) Here is a picture of everyone who came to the party:
Our hosts were the Chiquita lady and a Chiquita banana, a reaper and a queen bee, another couple was a coon hound and a racoon, an 80's workout girl and Jim from the office, and a hillbilly :) Next year I vow to really go all out on the costumes!!!So now we have a SERIOUS amount of candy that I am dying to give away, but Ant insists that we not only need to keep it, we need to get even more clearance candy from the store! A girl can't stay on a clean food diet with a husband who eats like a growing teenager!
We are still loving our jobs and school. We have definitely settled into our schedules. I get up and go to work and Anthony gets up to study all day or go to class. After work I usually go the gym while Anthony cooks dinner (!). When I get home we eat dinner and catch up for a few hours and then we go to bed. Repeat x7 weeks and you will have a pretty good picture of what we have been doing :) I've decided to run in another 5K to see if I can improve my time, so I need to get back into training. I keep waiting around for the weather to change so I don't have to run in 90 degree weather in November!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
