You know you're a cloth diapering Mama...

when your living room looks like this after you wash diapers...

"Seeeeee!!!!"

So Gabriel and Eli played their first game together. It was the other night and Gabriel wanted to pretend to sleep on the couch/go "ni ni" with Eli next to him. So I laid them next to each other and got Gabriel's mankie, teddy, fishy and boomer, all of which he cannot sleep without and tucked the boys in. They were having a grand old time playing together. Gabriel was so excited that Eli was sleeping with him and kept giving him kisses and Eli was soaking it all in!

And then Gabriel realized that I had the camera pointed at them and lately when he sees a camera pointed at him he freaks out because he wants to see what the picture is and he starts yelling "see"...

See, you can tell it on his face, "see, see seeeee, See, SEE, SEEEEEE!!!!!" Eli on the other hand looks like he's saying "what the heck Mama?"

Then he totally left Eli in the dust to play ni ni all by himself while he went to see what picture Mommy was taking except Mommies whole point of taking the pictures now was standing behind the camera, not with his brother being extra cute on the couch playing their first game...

sigh... at least the played their first game together!!!

Delightful French Bread

So I've been looking for bread recipes in some of Josh's old cookbooks that he picked up somewhere throughout his existence. I don't know where these cookbooks came from but he's had them since before we were married. While looking through them I came across the recipe for 'Delightful French Bread'... delightful? I was intrigued so I decided to try it except I didn't want purely white bread as the recipe called for so I used half wheat flour and half white flour (I hear it's a bad to substitute all wheat flour when the recipe calls for all white flour, things can potentially not work out so it's better to only substitute part of it).

Here's what you'll need:

2.5 Cups warm water
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 Tablespoon salt (yeah it's a little much for bread but it is spread out over two large loafs)
2 Tablespoons cooking oil
2 Packages dry yeast
6 Cups white flour (I used 3 cups white and 3 cups wheat flour)
1 Egg
Sesame OR Poppy seed

Pour warm water (105-115 degrees) into large mixing bowl and dissolve yeast in water...

Stir in sugar, salt, oil and half the flour...

Beat vigorously for 3 minutes. Stir in remaining flour and mix thoroughly...

Leave spoon in the heavy batter and allow to rest for 10 minutes. Stir down. Again allow to rest for 10 minutes and stir down again. Repeat this process until the dough has been stirred down 5 times. The texture of the dough will change quite a bit...

Turn dough onto floured surface. Knead dough enough to coat with flour so it can be handled (5 or 6 times). Divide dough in half. Roll each part into 9x12 inch rectangles. Roll up from long side like a jelly roll. Pinch seam to seal dough and arrange loaves on a large baking sheet that has been sprinkled with corn meal, allow room for loaves to expand as they rise.

Cover lightly and let rise at room temperature until nearly doubled (about 30 minutes). With a very sharp knife cut three gashes at an angle on top. Brush with slightly beaten egg and sprinkle with sesame or poppy seeds. I forgot to take a picture of this before I put it in the oven so I turned on our oven light and took a picture while it was baking...

Bake immediately for 25-30 minutes at 400 degrees. Remove from baking sheet and cool on racks.

And there you have it! Delightful French Bread! It actually was very very good! I will definitely be making this bread again! It's not exactly what I'm looking for but I still have yet to make the bread recipe that my cousin gave me. Either way, we have been eating this bread up like it was candy, so good!

a little piece of metal heaven

Does anything in this picture look extra super duper fantastic?

Well to me there is! It's this!

A very shiny, very new Kitchen Aid Mixer!!!

LAAAAAAAA!!!! (do you hear the angels singing?)

I have wanted one of these F-O-R-E-V-E-R!!!!! And I mean like, seriously FOREVER! How did I end up with one of these metal pieces of heaven? Well I'll be happy to fill you in.

So, we have been trying to sell Josh's car for a long time, as in over a year, as in before we ever moved to Korea, it's been forever. So all the sudden, MIRACLE, it's sold! Now, this was not the first thing that came to mind when we found out the car sold. No, about a billion other things came to mind like clothes (which yes, I finally got!) and saving it for Christmas ect (which we did this too). But then I baked Granola Bread and I used my hand mixer to mix the dough like the recipe said and then this happened...

The dough grew up and up and up the mixer medal thingy's that spin around and before I knew it things started smelling like a burnt motor and yeah, we had to stop things. Then my loving husband said he'd clean it and took the whole thing apart and found mounds and mounds of dough all over the inside.

Then I said something along the lines like 'someday we'll have a Kitchen Aid Mixer and then you won't have to worry about it doing that' and then my husband said something I thought I wouldn't hear for another 7 years 'well, do you want to go get one?' I was SPEECHLESS! See, I have always joked that if I won a million dollars the very first thing I would buy would be a Kitchen Aid Mixer, in red to be exact. Now I don't have to win a million dollars to get one because now I ACTUALLY HAVE ONE!!!! YAY!!!!

(lalaaaaaaaaaa.... I'm pretty sure I hear angel's singing again!)

Isn't it beautiful? Sigh... I'm in kitchen/bakers heaven!!!

Granola Bread

I am on a mission! I am on a mission to find a whole wheat bread recipe that I like and can make without a bread machine. I tried one this last weekend and it turned out pretty good but it's not exactly what I'm looking for. I'll bring you along on my escapade if you care to read about it! I have two more recipes that I want to try. One if a french bread, but it's with white flour, so we'll see how it goes using wheat flour. The other is a recipe is from my cousin Leah, which I am the most excited to try, but I don't have all the ingredients for it so I'll have to wait until after my next shopping trip to make it. Yes, I do only live 3 minutes from the grocery store but I hate shopping, especially grocery shopping so I avoid going at all costs, so I will wait until this weekend to get all my ingredients.

The bread I tried this past weekend is called Granola Bread. It is actually very yummy bread but it's more of a breakfast bread with butter and jam, not a sandwich bread. It's worth a try if you are looking for a new bread. Plus, if you make this and go to buy your orange marmalade at Super One you get this really awesome cute jar to hopefully use for canning in the future...

Alright so it's not the only reason to make the bread, it truly is yummy!

Granola Bread
2 Tablespoons Butter
1/2 Cup Orange Marmalade
1/4 Cup Molasses

1 Cup Granola
2 Cups Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 Cup Wheat Germ
2 Teaspoons Salt
2 Packages active dry yeast

4 Cups all -purpose flour

Put 2 cups water and first 3 ingredients in pan over low heat until very warm. Stir in next 5 ingredients and 1 cup flour. Pour heated mix over the remaining flour mixture. Beat at medium speed, scraping side of bowl occasionally for 3 minutes (Note: DO NOT USE A HAND MIXER!!! I Repeat, DO NOT USE A HAND MIXER, I will explain in a later post). Turn out on floured board and knead (the recipe didn't say for how long, I did 7 minutes). Flatten to rectangle (FYI rather hard to flatten to a rectangle but if you make it big enough you don't have to roll it out like it says later, you can just cut it in half). Let dough rise in a warm place free from draft for 1 hour 15 min until double in size. Punch down and divide in 2 loaves by rolling dough from short end of rectangle. Seal ends and put in loaf pans. Let rise another 1 hour 30 minutes. Bake at 375 degrees for 40 minutes.

It's like a whole wheat bread with a bit more flavor and when you get a piece of the orange marmalade peal it's a little zing of sweetness. Tastes great toasted with butter (and if you like jam, but I'm not a jam type of girl, I just like butter on my toast).