Doing it all ????

We have neighbors that have the most beautiful well-manicured lawn I have ever seen,  They spend lots of time mowing it just a certain way and redoing the flower beds.  They do most of the work themselves but they also have professionals come to trim the trees and  do the feeding-weeding-and bug-killing spraying.

Our lawn turned brown this past summer from the heat and drought but our neighbors have a had a beautiful golf course quality lawn year round.

They are very nice people, busy with work, their son, golf, redoing a classic car and lots of yardwork.   

So what do my busy neighbors have to do with this cute picture of my granddaughter in a 1999-ish diaper?

Elizabeth in a retro diaper from neighbor Marcus

Well,  Mrs. Neighbor stopped me last month when I was out walking with my grandchildren.  She  had a package of diapers for us,  she sheepishly explained that their only son, who is 6 feet tall and 14 years old,  found the diapers in his bathroom cabinet.  They were his diapers but obviously he has has not needed them in at least 11 years. The diapers have been stashed away in a cabinet all this time.
I am glad she shared the diapers with us,  even if she was a little embarrassed about still having them.

I  have organized cabinets and a brown yard, while my neighbor may spend less time on her cabinets and has a green yard.    I don't think either of us is right or wrong,  we are just doing what works for us.

The moral of this little story- other people/bloggers may look like they have everything just perfect but really,  nobody can do everything.  Don't put other people who seem to be perfect on pedestals and don't look down on others or yourself when things are less than perfect.

Do what you can,  let other people do what they can and lets just enjoy others and ourselves as we all do the best we can -and not stressing about stuff that does not matter.

3rd & 4th batches of no-knead dough

3rd batch of no-knead 14 day dough
made into 6 buns

On the dough's 13th day,  I shaped half of what was left into 6 sandwich buns.  We had sloppy joes for supper that night,  It was very nice to already have the dough made on a busy day.
They rose up almost as good as fresh dough.
However,  we were not crazy about this batch either.  They are certainly edible but the crust, especially the part that bakes on the stoneware, is just not good.  It is chewy in an unpleasant way.

Since we were not thrilled with any of the first 3 baking attempts,  I threw out the 4th batch.

In the future,  I will try this no-knead method again.  I plan to use a different recipe though, maybe one that includes at least a little sweetener and fat.

Have any of you had any more success with this method than I did?

2nd portion of no-knead dough

I used the 2nd of 4 portions of the no-knead bread dough we mixed up Saturday.  It has been waiting patiently in the fridge ever since and does not seem of changed much.

From the second portion,  I made one good sized pizza.  It was topped with chunky tomato pizza sauce (no off spring at this meal to complain about that)  onions, bell peppers, a little sausage and mozzarella cheese.  

It baked up just about like any good pizza dough.  

We liked it,  just not quite as well as my regular pizza dough.

Unbaked

baked

one slice

Batch #1 of no knead Artisan bread

 The dough has been in the fridge for almost 24 hours.  It is deflated and very yeasty-scented.

I used a rubber spatula to break off about a 1/4 of it.   Then I just shaped it into a ball and turned the edges under until it was smooth.  

 Then,  I put it on a sheet of parchment paper sprinkled with cornmeal.  

 The instructions said to let it rise for 40 minutes,  it was slow to rise so I left it set for an hour.  

The recipe said to use lots of flour but I used just enough to keep it from sticking.  

After it had raised enough,  I cut an X in the top with a sharp knife.

Then I picked up the whole sheet of parchment paper and transferred to a dutch oven that had preheated at 450 for 10 minutes.  

For the first 30 minutes, it baked with the lid on the dutch oven.  

 Then I uncovered it and let it bake 10 minutes more.    

The bread did a lot more raising in the oven.  

 It came out golden brown.  Even with no fat, it did not stick at all to the parchment paper.  

Sliced

The bread has a great flavor.  The round loaf looks pretty but it takes a long time to bake.  

Also, the crust is very sturdy,  I would not describe it as crisp or tough,  just sturdy.  

We liked it alot  even though it was not our favorite bread of all time.

It was excellent for the first try I think.  

I plan to shape the  next loaf  more like a traditional loaf of French bread and will bake it on a stone or baking sheet..  

Maybe I will bake loaf #2 on Thursday.  

Follow our 14 day no-knead Artisan bread project

 I've been hearing and reading about 2 new popular methods of making bread.  One is called the No Knead method and the other is called 5 minute artisan.  I even found a copy of the 5 minute artisan book at a yard sale for just $1.

Anyway,  even though the mixing seems simple,  other parts seem complicated.  

One drawback for me is that the 5 minute book recipes call for unbleached flour, which is hard to find in my small town and expensive if it is found.

The other part I did not like is that the oven is supposed to be pre-heated for 30 minutes at a very high temp.  That seems rather energy wasteful to me.

Well,  I have been doing some online research on this easy to mix up bread and have watched several videos on Roku where the cooks make this bread.

Seems the unbleached flour and long pre-heating are not necessarily required.  

Nina and I picked out one of the simplest recipes and mixed it up before lunch today.  

We used 

3 cups of water

1 1/2 T yeast

1 1/2 T salt

1 C whole wheat flour

5 1/2 C bread flour   - thats it,  no sugar or oil of any kind in these recipes. 

So it is thriftier and lower calorie than most bread recipes.

the actual pages from the book - click on them to enlarge if you want to read the book's details.  

Just stir up the ingredients,  the dough was thicker than I expected it to be.

 Cover loosely and let set at room temperature for 2 hours.  

Ours actually sat out for 3 hours because we went to some thrift stores and forgot.

Then it goes in the fridge and just stays there for up to 14 days.

When you want bread,  you break off a lump and form your loaf,  Then let it rise for 45 minutes and bake.

If you want to see the first loaf,  I plan to bake one tomorrow.  

This batch is supposed to make 4  1 pound loaves.  

I may use one lump for pizza and some for buns as the 14 days go on.  

Anyone make this kind of bread?  Any advice?