annie blog

Yummy, Yummy, Yum
Oh, please try the bread that I posted in the recipe yesterday. It is seriously good. Great. And all you have to do is be active in its creation for like 5 minutes, maybe. I read about a lady making this very same bread with one of her arms in a sling. It really is a bread that you could make one-handed. How is that for easy?

Yesterday at about noon, I stirred the ingredients together, as the recipe directed. Then, today before leaving for church, I turned it out, let it rest, and then shaped it before leaving. When we returned from church, I heated the oven with my cast iron dutch oven inside for 30 minutes, and then plopped the dough in the pan and put the pan back in the oven. What emerged was an amazing artisan-type bread. It was crunchy on the outside and wonderfully chewy on the inside. The only change that I’m going to try is using bread flour next time just so that I can see the difference. Besides that I wouldn’t change a thing.

As usual, I didn’t stop to take a picture of my bread. But there are lots of people who have posted their pictures of bread made by this recipe on Flickr. Here is one. I’m making it again tomorrow.

Yummy, Yummy, Yum
Oh, please try the bread that I posted in the recipe yesterday. It is seriously good. Great. And all you have to do is be active in its creation for like 5 minutes, maybe. I read about a lady making this very same bread with one of her arms in a sling. It really is a bread that you could make one-handed. How is that for easy?

Yesterday at about noon, I stirred the ingredients together, as the recipe directed. Then, today before leaving for church, I turned it out, let it rest, and then shaped it before leaving. When we returned from church, I heated the oven with my cast iron dutch oven inside for 30 minutes, and then plopped the dough in the pan and put the pan back in the oven. What emerged was an amazing artisan-type bread. It was crunchy on the outside and wonderfully chewy on the inside. The only change that I’m going to try is using bread flour next time just so that I can see the difference. Besides that I wouldn’t change a thing.

As usual, I didn’t stop to take a picture of my bread. But there are lots of people who have posted their pictures of bread made by this recipe on Flickr. Here is one. I’m making it again tomorrow.

I’m Giving It a Shot

I read a fair few food blogs. The thing that they were buzzing about this week, well the baking blogs, anyway, was this bread recipe. So, of course, I had to try it. It first appeared in the NY Times and is attributed to Jim Lahey. I’ll let you know how it turns out. As far as recipes go, this one has been totally hyped. We shall see.

No-Knead Bread
Yields one 1 1/2 pound loaf

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

I’m Giving It a Shot

I read a fair few food blogs. The thing that they were buzzing about this week, well the baking blogs, anyway, was this bread recipe. So, of course, I had to try it. It first appeared in the NY Times and is attributed to Jim Lahey. I’ll let you know how it turns out. As far as recipes go, this one has been totally hyped. We shall see.

No-Knead Bread
Yields one 1 1/2 pound loaf

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

I’m Giving It a Shot

I read a fair few food blogs. The thing that they were buzzing about this week, well the baking blogs, anyway, was this bread recipe. So, of course, I had to try it. It first appeared in the NY Times and is attributed to Jim Lahey. I’ll let you know how it turns out. As far as recipes go, this one has been totally hyped. We shall see.

No-Knead Bread
Yields one 1 1/2 pound loaf

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

Persuasion
I wanted to mention to all of you who might be Jane Austen fans that the movie Persuasion will be on Saturday night on BBC America. I looked at the movie on IMDB and decided that it is definitely worth watching…or taping. Which reminds me that I need to get a new tape today. All of our vhs tapes are so old that when you fast forward or rewind them it sounds like a small helicopter is taking off.

Other things I’ll be up to this weekend…..
— hopefully not getting the cold virus that has claimed all but one boy and kept my oldest home from school 4 days this week.
— hopefully making cream cheese braids for the teachers at school.
— hopefully wrapping up my Christmas shopping. This is not as hard as it sounds since I buy all of like 5 gifts every year.
— hopefully figuring out what we’ll do with Sprugeon while we are gone…..too bad you can’t cryogenically store pets for a week. That would be soooo convenient.
— hopefully cleaning up around here before I lose my sanity.

Have a good weekend, everybody!

Persuasion
I wanted to mention to all of you who might be Jane Austen fans that the movie Persuasion will be on Saturday night on BBC America. I looked at the movie on IMDB and decided that it is definitely worth watching…or taping. Which reminds me that I need to get a new tape today. All of our vhs tapes are so old that when you fast forward or rewind them it sounds like a small helicopter is taking off.

Other things I’ll be up to this weekend…..
— hopefully not getting the cold virus that has claimed all but one boy and kept my oldest home from school 4 days this week.
— hopefully making cream cheese braids for the teachers at school.
— hopefully wrapping up my Christmas shopping. This is not as hard as it sounds since I buy all of like 5 gifts every year.
— hopefully figuring out what we’ll do with Sprugeon while we are gone…..too bad you can’t cryogenically store pets for a week. That would be soooo convenient.
— hopefully cleaning up around here before I lose my sanity.

Have a good weekend, everybody!

Persuasion
I wanted to mention to all of you who might be Jane Austen fans that the movie Persuasion will be on Saturday night on BBC America. I looked at the movie on IMDB and decided that it is definitely worth watching…or taping. Which reminds me that I need to get a new tape today. All of our vhs tapes are so old that when you fast forward or rewind them it sounds like a small helicopter is taking off.

Other things I’ll be up to this weekend…..
— hopefully not getting the cold virus that has claimed all but one boy and kept my oldest home from school 4 days this week.
— hopefully making cream cheese braids for the teachers at school.
— hopefully wrapping up my Christmas shopping. This is not as hard as it sounds since I buy all of like 5 gifts every year.
— hopefully figuring out what we’ll do with Sprugeon while we are gone…..too bad you can’t cryogenically store pets for a week. That would be soooo convenient.
— hopefully cleaning up around here before I lose my sanity.

Have a good weekend, everybody!

Coffee=Mama
My youngest has started playing with toys when he gets up in the morning. And, I know, you are saying, so what? Well, he used to come get in the bed with me every single morning. He doesn’t do that anymore. Sometimes he does, sometimes he doesn’t. Yesterday morning, he and the 6 year old were playing in the play room before the bigger boys woke up. I saw them in there, and decided to make some coffee before going in there to say hi and give my morning kisses. So, I was doing something in the kitchen and accidently let the kettle whistle for a few seconds — something that I try to avoid when everyone isn’t awake. Right when E heard the whistle of the kettle, he shouted out, “GOOD MORNIN’ MOMMY!”, and kept playing with his train.

I think that it is funny that he equates a red kettle whistling with his mother being awake. Those things do go hand in hand. And, speaking of coffee, I’m going to go make some.

Coffee=Mama
My youngest has started playing with toys when he gets up in the morning. And, I know, you are saying, so what? Well, he used to come get in the bed with me every single morning. He doesn’t do that anymore. Sometimes he does, sometimes he doesn’t. Yesterday morning, he and the 6 year old were playing in the play room before the bigger boys woke up. I saw them in there, and decided to make some coffee before going in there to say hi and give my morning kisses. So, I was doing something in the kitchen and accidently let the kettle whistle for a few seconds — something that I try to avoid when everyone isn’t awake. Right when E heard the whistle of the kettle, he shouted out, “GOOD MORNIN’ MOMMY!”, and kept playing with his train.

I think that it is funny that he equates a red kettle whistling with his mother being awake. Those things do go hand in hand. And, speaking of coffee, I’m going to go make some.