Sunday, July 18, 2010

As scar says in lion king "be prepared!"

So our ward was holding a preparedness fair, man it was fantastic! the taught couples about first time home buying and about marriage and ways to make your spouse feel loved. It was a lot like the book called the five love languages. we highly recommend it! once the talks were done we went into the cultural hall where they had a bunch of booths set up! LOTS OF COOL STUFF!! the first one that we went to though was bread making. So i asked do you find your bread crumbly and a bit dry and she said "no, try it." OH MY GOSH it was so soft and yummy!!! and she gave the recipe to all of us. It is whole wheat bread but the secret is putting 2 tbsp of dough enhancer in it and vital wheat gluten. i will share the recipe with all of you!! i am going to try it this weekend i hope!

easy bread recipe
this makes 4 loaves
5-6 cups of hot tap water (hot to touch)
2/3 c. oil
2/3 c. honey
2 tbsp instant yeast (SAF is recommended)
2 tbsp salt
2 tbsp dough enhancer
2 tbsp vital wheat gluten
12-16 c whole wheat flour

pour warm water into mixing bowl. add approximately 6 cups flour on top of liquid. then add dough enhancer, oil, honey, yeast, and gluten. mix well.
add approximately 5 additional cups of flour, and salt. Turn to speed 2. continue adding four 1/4 cup at a time until dough pulls away cleanly from sides of bowl. continue kneading on speed 2 for 5 min.
oil or grease hands and counter. divide dough into equal portions and shape into 4 loaves. put into well greases pans. Let rise until double the size. bake at 350 degrees for 23-30 min until golden brown on top. remove from pans and cool on wire rack. top of loaves can be brushed with water or butter for shiny appearance. dough can be used for pizza crust. cinnamon rolls and monkey bread.



Monkey bread
pull off small pieces of dough about the size of a golf ball. roll into a ball. then roll in melted butter or margarine and then in 1 c sugar and 2 teaspoons of cinnamon mixture. layer in loaf pan or bunt pan. let rise until double. bake at 350 for 23-30 min. when they are done invert pan onto a plate and pull apart to eat.

if you want any more information or cool recipes go to www.everydayfoodstorage.net

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Watching the plants grow

Okay so this may sound weird but Adam and I discovered that we like watching the plants grow. There is something satisfying in know that all the hard work is paying off when you see the plant get bigger and stronger and then you get yummy rewards.
We aren't plant killers after all! OUR TOMATO PLANT IS ALIVE!! We have been watering our tomato plant for a while, half hoping it would bounce back and some what thinking we had false hope for it. BUT THEN i spotted 2 little flowers on it along with new green branches. WOO HOO!!! Now it has 4 flowers on it and we are hoping to get some tomatoes before it gets cold.
our other plants are doing fantastic. We have had 3 strawberries grow so far but only got to eat one because we think the other two got eaten by birds or children. haha. But man was that strawberry was good. it was super sweet and perfect color. OH we also have a GIANT banana pepper growing outside our front door and a baby pepper following shortly behind it. we are going to try cooking with them soon but i hope we don't burn our mouths off. but yeah that is the exciting tale of our tomato.

Epic moments

So on Friday Adam and I were asked to go to a movie party by some of my old roommates at the single girl's apartments. Some of our friends were in town and they wanted us to come and visit them. So we got there and chatted and hung out til about 11:30 (really late for us). When we were finally leaving music was playing it was the song "Don't stop believing". while walking to the car we walked passed the neighboring apartment whose door was wide open and a girl was in the living room. She had her arms stretched out and spinning gracefully in a circle while saying very loudly "I'M IN LOVE AND I DON'T EVEN CARE!". Adam and i stifled our giggles till we were out of earshot and then laughed remembering the single life! Oh how life has changed. I LOVE IT!