Artisan Bread

A couple of years ago Joel found a fantastic recipe for artisan bread in Mother Earth News magazine. I don't know about you but I'm a bread lover and it doesn't get much better than a piping hot loaf of crusty goodness! Fortunately, I have this great husband who loves to bake bread since I am baking impaired (well, to be truthful, I don't really apply myself to baking; too much mess to deal with).
I'm also not a good "how to" blogger so I'll give you a little visual tour of the process and then you can check out the specifics here!

The ingredients are pretty basic.

You let the dough rise in dutch ovens with plastic wrap on them for at least 8 hours, preferably 12 hours until it's all sticky and bubbly on top.

Dust with flour, cover with towel and let rise 1-2 hours. NO kneading required!

Cover and bake.

Mmmmm... go ahead, you know what to do next!

My New Best Friend

In the kitchen at least! Look at this beauty!

When my garlic press (that I hated using) died, I bought this handy looking garlic chopper at Target for $9.99 (same price as a press). I think it might be my best kitchen purchase EVER! It is so easy to use and my fingers don't get all stinky! This is good news around here because we loooove us some garlic.

Just thought I'd share. Because I'm nice like that. ;o)

Apple Pie in a Jar

Here's another great, super easy recipe from 4 Reluctant Entertainers! It tastes heavenly!

Entertaining Success!

I began the journey out of my entertaining-phobia tonight! W00Hoo!

We hosted our new bible study group tonight with people we have only met one time before and I did not, I repeat, did NOT freak out! Not only did we have bible study but my in-laws were planning to come into town right around dinner time. Normally this would be the cause of much panic and "weeping and gnashing of teeth", to put it biblically, as I frantically dialed for pizza delivery. Not so today! Thanks to 4 Reluctant Entertainers I had a plan. A scrumptious and utterly simple plan: crock pot vegetable soup, store bought crusty Italian bread with garlic butter, and No Peel Apple Cake.

It was a good day, I gave it to God and he blessed me with peace. For the first time I cooked and cleaned for company with the intention of creating a warm, relaxed and comfortable space rather than worrying about people judging me because my baseboards weren't clean or my cooking was bad. Not that they were actually judging me, I just feared that they were. Instead of focusing on myself and my fears I chose to remain outward focused and you know what, I enjoyed myself! Instead of feeling exhausted and drained afterward, I was energized. Imagine that!

From the Garden to the Pantry

I have to say that my husband ROCKS! He works so hard and is so passionate about growing and preserving our bountiful harvest!

Miscellany

I realize there are some loose ends I need to tie up.

Joel is healing well from his jaw surgery. He has been off pain meds for four days, hooray! The hardest part is certainly the lack of communication. Joel is a talker and it is weird for me to be doing most of the talking lately. Our best bet for clear communication is instant messaging eachother on our laptops (at times like these I love technology). Joel's gestures seem to be incomprehensible to me and writing notes is just too slow!

He has an appointment with his doctor today and we are hoping the bands will come off and he will be able to open his mouth, talk and eat something.

We still have no word on N's possible heart surgery. It is obviously not an emergency and I am putting it out of my mind for the time being. I am just getting on with life and as the saying goes, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Lastly, you may remember this post when I shared my hopes for this summer. Just because I'm sure you are dying to know, no, I never made cheese. Maybe I will tackle that project over Christmas break, or maybe next summer, or... sometime in the distant future. I did make some other stuff though, homemade pizza, strawberry shortcake, hummus, and salsa verde. I am reaching dizzying heights of domesticity.

I did not finish my daughter's scrapbook nor did I start my son's. But, this very weekend I finished 6 more pages in N's book. There's nothing like procrastination is there? The weird thing is that I really like scrap booking but I could never seem to make it a priority this summer.

More stuff on the summer list: swimming lessons, yes, check; losing weight, sadly, no; exercising more, sporadically; increased shopping locally and secondhand, yes; rekindling my relationship with Jesus, a work in progress but definitely getting there. I'm so glad he loves me and is waiting for me no matter how far I drift from him.

So that's it, all the random stuff rolling around in my head. I feel better now that it is out.

Jen

Salsa Verde

I was feeling adventurous so I made Salsa Verde!

The tomatillos, onion, and jalapenos are homegrown.

I'm not a recipe guru or a super fabulous cook so I'll just direct you to the original recipe here.

This is the part where I "blackened" the tomatillos. I felt so gourmet!

It was all very easy and I actually stayed true to the recipe--well almost, I didn't have lime juice so I opted for lemon instead. I tend to think I can modify recipes at will and add or delete stuff that may or may not be important.

This makes for inconsistent results...hmm, I might be on to something here.

Hence my lack of food guru status.

Here is the end result. YUM.