Baking Bread...by Lisa

I bake bread, every week for the last year, sometimes twice a week. Here’s a link to the recipe, it’s a Youtube video, about 5 minutes long. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13Ah9ES2yTU

I ask my son for a recipe, and he sends me a link to a Youtube video—even recipes aren’t written on paper anymore. I read this week that blogs are out and Twitter is in. Guess I'm old fashioned. A friend of mine once said that when you're 50, everything's new. Well make that 46 now. 

I’ll give you the recipe here if you don’t feel like watching the video:

3 cups flour (all purpose is fine, I use bread flour and like it better). For whole wheat, replace not more than ½ cup of the flour with whole wheat flour.

¼ teaspoon rapid rise yeast (yes, just ¼ teaspoon)

1 & ¼ teaspoon salt (regular table salt)

approximately 1&1/3 cups water

Mix all ingredients in a mixing bowl. Place bowl of dough inside a plastic grocery bag and twist the bag and tuck it underneath. Let sit for 12 to 24 hours (I usually make dough and bake the next day). To bake, use enameled cast iron dutch oven with lid. Prehead oven and cast iron (ungreased) to 450 degrees (screamin’ hot). While oven is heating, remove dough, which will be wet and sticky, from bowl and place on flour or cornmeal-covered surface (I like the crunch of cornmeal, you can also use wheat bran or just flour). Do not knead! Pat into a circle, then fold the left side of the dough in, right side over that, then fold in the top and bottom to form a round loaf. Let rest while oven heats. When oven is hot, carefully remove lid to dutch oven and toss the dough in, then replace lid. Bake 30 minutes with lid on, then remove lid and bake another 10 minutes. Remove loaf carefully and cool on a rack, it will not stick at all to the enameled cast iron. You will have a beautiful round loaf that tastes delicious. After fully cooling the loaf on a rack, I store mine in a plastic bag. Slice it, toast it, and serve with cream cheese and jam—yummy!

Just Call Me Linus...by Jodi

Doesn't everyone have a face blankie?  I told my husband,Dan, about writing this little story and he told me about a blanket he had as a child. He called it his "Lilly" and it used to be white but of course, as it aged it became grey in color. He loved his "Lilly" until it was the square size of a handkerchief. I love knowing that about Dan because he is so adult and mature and I know he once loved something that couldn't love him back but offered him great comfort.

Years ago, when I was pregnant, I started sleeping with this hand knitted blanket my husband's grandma made. It was black and had all these psychedelic colors. I adored handmade stuff and it was cozy around my neck. I started wrapping my neck up because I got these terribly hoarse throats and the face blanket made a difference, I didn't seem to get the hoarse throats anymore. I developed a love for having my neck covered with this itchy yarn, it was comfortable and comforting to me. My husband and I got a divorce (another story) and I thought I better give that blanket back to him since his Grandma made it and all. 

My son, Travis, got all these blankets when he was born so I went thru them and found this one and it became my infamous "face blankie"!  It's blue, has a few different shades of blue in it and it's handknitted. It was made by the aunt of my son's "God Aunt", which is a different story as well!

Everyone should have a face blankie as far as I'm concerned.  I sleep with it on my neck every night.  It has this scratchy feeling that I have grown to love.

It's this face blankie that offers me comfort, warmth and security.

At night, if I don't have it around my neck I can feel it and I know I just sleep better because of it. I took it to the hospital with me, I take it to hotels with me, this face blankie has become my friend.  It's just a baby blanket so it travels very easily.  I wash it every few weeks and it smells and feels so good and it's so warm when it comes out of the dryer. Dan knows that I have an attachment to my face blankie, he makes sure I have it at night.  Travis will argue with me that it's HIS face blankie and I tell him I will let him choose a different one if he needs one. He's an only child so I think he just likes to argue sometimes plus he knows that I really love it so don't mess with it.  I sometimes come home to a dog wrapped up in it, I have 3 so it could be any of them.  Usually, it's my eldest dog, Wrigley snuggled up with it because it smells like me.

I wish my face blankie could create world peace, end hunger or make people thinner but it's just my face blankie, it really can only make me feel better. I don't know why but I'm so glad it does. 

I think the world could be a better place if everyone had a face blankie to cuddle with?!  There is something about that yarn, it's not itchy anymore, it just comforts me.  Who couldn't use a little comfort at the end of the day?

Linus had his blue blankie and seemed so evolved, at least I haven't given in to my thumb.

So Many Interests, So Little Time...by Lisa

Jo wrote about her interests this week. I am interested in way too many things, which makes it hard to focus on any one for very long. I do bake break every week. Bread baking has begun to become more intriguing and less successful lately, as I have been experimenting with refrigerated dough that has a lot more yeast than the no-knead, unrefrigerated dough I usually make. I think baking in the cast iron dutch oven is the trick, but I’ll have to write a whole blog entry on this topic to do it justice. Stay tuned for my sad tale of the search for bread nirvana. I also like baking muffins and cupcakes. Who doesn’t love cupcakes? I think they’re really for adults and not kids—what adult doesn’t smile when given a cupcake with pretty frosting on top? I ate one from a bakery at Findlay Market a couple of weeks ago, chocolate with chocolate ganache and white chocolate shavings. It was bliss and felt so decadent. It’s perfect little size made me feel it was just for me, and guilt-free!

Origami—I took that up a few years ago when I needed a little frustration (just kidding!).  I made my first trip to NYC last June to go to the Origami USA Convention, something I had wanted to do for years. It’s amazing what people can do with paper. I added a link to my flickr page on the blog (Uploads by bsktlisa), so you can see some of my work and the work done by my flickr contacts—its really amazing how creative people are.

Other interests—well, we already wrote about reading, and I just finished Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Wall, and The Help by Kathryn Stockett, both of which I recommend. They could probably be called historical fiction.

I love to be outdoors. A dream come true would be going to Washington State this summer and going hiking in the Cascades. I also enjoy taking pictures, and will try to post a photo I took last year that I really like. I like to get together with girlfriends and try to get my 7,000 words per day in (isn’t that how many words women supposedly say in a day?). I like medical blogs, medical journals, medical shows, and crime shows (what is it with crime shows?!). I like dogs and would really like to get my very own dog. I was going to steal Boone from Jodi but he’d miss Wrigs and Sid. My friend Melanie said she’d give me one of her dogs, Chewie, if I’d take the other one too. I’m frowning, and dogless so far.  

I like working with students (pharmacy students are usually the victims of my enthusiasm). I like teaching, which I like to do as a collaboration and not just lecturing. One of my hobbies is rubber stamping, and I used to be a demonstrator for one of the rubber stamp companies. I didn’t really care much for selling stuff, what I liked about it was sharing stamping with others. If I designed a card and precut the materials for 12 people to make the card, each person came out with something different. It was really fun to see how creative people are, and how some will follow the instructions exactly, others not at all, and there are lots of cool ideas that get shared. On that note, I am really stuck on adhesives for papercrafts. Give me a coupon for Michael’s crafts and turn me lose in the adhesives aisle, and good luck getting me unglued. I like glue dots, glue sticks, the puffy self-stick circles that add space between layers, the Hermafix variotabs (little flat squares, my favorite), and the liquid glue with the tiny applicator tip. I love yarn, the beautiful colors and all the textures, especially the soft, fluffy baby yarns. There are some really cute ponchos for little girls, I know because I made several for my 3 nieces a few years ago. A great crochet project helps pass the time on an airplane. Enough of my interests for now, what are yours?

What are your interests? by Jodi

What are your interests?

Heck, if I know? Lisa will say, cool things, like, "baking bread, origami and reading "Oprah Magazine" and What are mine? I guess, my iPhone, my iPad, my 3 wheeled bike, coffeehouses, tea houses, going out to lunch and food trucks and Farmer's Markets. I used to like reading books, study the Bible, walking, museums, whatever? 

I have an attraction to going to Trader Joe's. I like buying new things to try. I like their butter cookies, Mac n cheese bites, lemon curd, eggs, daffodils and cream friache, who knows?

I adore this new Tranquil Tea Lounge! They offer cold and hot tea and yummy food and fairly decadent desserts!

I love to share with people. Find out what matters to them. What do they like to do? I really enjoy folks!

I'm trying new things? Help me, what is new and fun to you? Do tell!

Book Favorites.....by Jodi

Book Favorites....

Can I tell you how many children's books I have read to children? Books I have had read to me?  I have read to my son?  I have read to adults.  I have a thing for children's books, a love.  They have this imagination, anything can happen in a kid's book!  I am a big proponent of ordering used books from Amazon, you can't beat the price.  I know that I will miss something so just know there are a ton of children's books out there for all ages to enjoy!

Reading to my son was a favorite. He'd bring me a stack of books to read to him before preschool started. I loved reading to him.  I read every "Thomas" (train) book, we even had a "Thomas Treasury" of stories. I made up plenty of stories from the catalogs we picked up in the stores.  We had "Star Wars", "Cat in the Hat" and the love stories, "Guess How Much I Love You?" and "Love You Forever".  Favorites include, "The Search for Who Done It?", which is the story about who poops on this dog head and taking revenge!  "The Monster Bed" that Lisa told you about, which I have a stuffed animal for and "Authur" stories that were on PBS and we had books and toys galore. My child had on an "Arthur" shirt and some drunk women were on a plane and called him Authur.  We also have an animal for him dressed in a winter look.  Other favorites include, "This is Baseball", "Pigs Aplenty, Pigs Galore" and "Suzy's Vacum Cleaner." Books bring back lots of memories.

What about those illustrious books I read, starting out with holiday books.  I loved "Santa Mouse and even had a giant stuffed mouse as well as pjs!  I made the "Old Witch Pancakes" and the Cranberry Cake for "The Cranberry Thanksgiving." I loved, "The Best Loved Doll", "Baby Island" and and books by Judy Blume, "Forever" and "Are you There God, it's Me, Margaret." Paula Danziger with "The Cat Ate my Jumpsuit" or Paul Zindel with, "The Pigman" and "Pardon Me, You're Stepping on My Eyeball."  I loved Beverly Cleary books and Amelia Bedelia drawing the curtains. "Go, Dog Go!" and " Put me in the Zoo" are children's books to adore through the sands of time.

Reading to adults, I love kids books that make adults laugh and sometimes cry too! I read this tale at Valentines Day, of course, I have the donkey and at the end of the story I pass out red peoples so they could look at them any time and know they are loved. 

I have a great big whale my friend Rosalie made for me, it has 8 legs and I went and found a fabulous story to go with him.  I love Rosalie and I will never forget the day she gave me that to add to my class.

Some children's books are just wonderful for all ages.  I adore books and if you spend some time at the library or local bookstore you will find the ones you love, there are excellent ones out there. Happy Reading!

My Favorite Children's Books, by Lisa

 How to choose a favorite children’s book? I have so many favorites. I love books, and I love children’s  books. I was a voracious reader as a child, and still loved reading as an adult, only to be slowed by graduate school over the last few years. I finished last June and am now getting back to reading for pleasure since I bought myself a Kindle. I could go on for days about great books for kids of all ages. I never imagined I would memorize Goodnight Moon until my daughter had to hear it every night. And don’t we all know The Night Before Christmas by heart? I love the book Santa Mouse, too, at Christmas time. And then for Halloween there’s Old Black Witch, which is out of print, but such fun and the pancake recipe on the back really works. Then there is Caddie Woodlawn, a kind of Little House on the Prairie tale, which my beloved 4^th grade teacher, Mrs. Ley, read aloud to our class when I brought it in. I mention this more because it’s a memory of being comforted by her at the time my parents divorced than because I liked the book. I also love pop-up books, they go well with my love of paper and paper crafts of all kinds (some of you know my handmade cards and origami creations, maybe I’ll write about those some time). There are so many beautiful pop-up books, check out anything by Matthew Reinhart or Robert Sabuda. Robert Sabuda has a web page where you can print simple pop-ups to color and assemble yourself, they make cute greeting cards. There is even a set of pop-up Christmas cards by Robert Sabuda, called Christmas Alphabet Cards—unique, and you can get them on Amazon.  Some of my all time favorite kids books that I have given as gifts include:

The Tale of Despereaux, which was made into a movie but I highly recommend the book (it’s a chapter book)

Island of the Blue Dolphins (I’ve even re-read this as an adult, more than once)

How to Eat Fried Worms (lol, need I say more?)

And a special favorite, From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. It’s about a girl, Claudia, and her brother, Jamie, who decide to run away from home and hide out at the Metropolitan Museum of Art to teach their parents a lesson. They become involved in trying to solve a mystery at the museum. You’ll just have to read it to find out what happens!

Then there’s The Monster Bed, which may be out of print, which is unfortunate. As a child, I was afraid of lots of things, including the dark and whatever or whomever might be lurking under my bed. This story is of a young monster named Dennis, who doesn’t want to go to bed for fear that there is a human under his bed. You’re laughing already, aren’t you? Uh, huh, some of you know the fear I’m talking about. Reminds of when I was little and had to have my closet doors closed at night for fear there was a monster in the closet. My grandparents came to visit and I woke to hear the monster breathing loudly. I lay in bed, playing possum in hopes the monster would not notice me. Only later when the loud breathing stopped did I realize it was my grandfather’s snoring. No one in our family snored and I had never heard snoring before. I still use a night light, in case you’re wondering.

One last book—Waking Beauty, introduced to me by Jo when I was visiting her last year. It’s a funny twist on the fairy tale we grew up with. That reminds me of The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales…get thyself to the library! And por favor, tell us your favorite children’s book!

Soup, by Jodi

Soup, by Jodi

My sisters made this lovely soup recipe for us when we paid a fun visit to OK! It is a yummy recipe. I think you take a lot of joy in making it and eating it.

Spicy Chicken Tortilla Soup

1 medium onion, chopped

2 tsps. minced garlic

2 tblsp. vegetable oil

4 ounce can of chopped, green chilies

15 ounce can of italian-style stewed tomatoes, chopped, reserving juice

4 cups reduced sodium chicken broth

1 tsp. lemon pepper

2 tsp. worcestershire sauce

1 tsp. chili powder

1 tsp. ground cumin

4 tblsp. All purpose flour

1/2 c. water

1 lb. shredded chicken breast, cut in cubes

1/3 cup nonfat sour cream

Salt and pepper to taste

In a large saucepan, cook the onion and the garlic over mod. High heat over 5 minutes until the onion is soft. Add the chilies, tomatoes with their juice, broth and lemon pepper.   Add the worcestershire sauce and spices and allow the mixture to simmer for 20 minutes.  In a small bowl, combine flour with the water and whisk it into the soup.  Bring the soup back to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Add chicken and simmer for 5 minutes. Stir in sour cream and salt and pepper. Garnish with tortilla chips!

Enjoy!

Recipe and Rumination, by Lisa

Recipes—I can’t leave a recipe alone. I almost never follow a recipe exactly. What if I don’t have honey but I do have corn syrup? Or I need to use up the last little bit of frozen okra before freezer burn sets in and I’m making vegetable stew? I mean, waste not, want not, right? And let me tell you, beer is a very good substitute for beef broth, in case you were wondering. For the most part, I don’t even measure anymore, I just eyeball the quantities of ingredients. There is one exception—baking, except for bread. Bread is pretty forgiving, a little more or less flour, water, yeast, and salt, and it still turns out beautifully. Everything else—why get measuring cups and spoons dirty when you can use your hands? Jo and I decided to write about recipes, so here’s one from me on this cold, rainy, icy, windy, Groundhog’s Day Eve. As I wrote out the recipe, I had to smile at the memory of my beloved grandmother, Adeline, who wrote “delicious” at the top of each recipe given to her by someone else. As my mom would say, she was a national treasure. I should blog about her sometime.

Pepperoncini Beef in the slow cooker

This is great topped with the onions and pepperoncini and some provolone, then toasted in the toaster oven to crisp the roll and melt the cheese. You can even make a gravy from the broth with flour or cornstarch if you want. It’s got a little kick from the pepperoncini—delicious!

A 3 pound chuck roast or your favorite cut of beef roast

2 sliced onions

1 bottle of beer (Duvel is too bitter)

Some diced garlic

A 16 oz jar of pepperoncini

Provolone and rolls for sandwiches

Salt and pepper to taste

Place roast in slow cooker and surround with sliced onions, throw in some diced garlic (up to 4 cloves worth), pour the jar of pepperoncini with liquid over it, and pour in beer. Cover and cook on low 6-8 hours. Allow to cool enough to shred the beef, then serve with the onions, pepperoncini (remove the stems, they come right off), and top with provolone. Toast in toaster oven or microwave for a few seconds to melt the cheese.