We Did It

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As of today no more TV for us!
We canceled our Direct TV and since we can’t pick up any other signal, Digital or otherwise we are now totally TV free!!!

We have been talking about it for sometime now, the 60$ a month was a factor, but more convincing to us was the garbage that was being pumped into our home. If it wasn’t out right bad (language, sex and violence) it was mind numbing, and even if you were watching a “good” show you never knew what the commercials would be like.

We did sign up for net flix and so far we have liked the service. I am impressed by the selection.

Anyone else out there taken the plunge?

Little Bit of This and That

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Dadzoo finally was able to back to work this Monday after three weeks of recovery time from the big fall. He luckily was able to work from home the last week, but he was itching to get back into the swing of things and go to work.

Having him here for that amount of time was a lot of work, especially the first 10 days or so when I had to do just about everything for him. I dressed, bathed, brought him his meals and helped him to the bathroom, gave him his pain pills at all hours of the night and took on all his regular responsibilities.

I learned a lot.

I was happy to do it.

I have finally been able to get back into the swing of things and Monday I tackled the kitchen area, I posted the before pictures on Saturday. Here are the “after” pictures. It sure felt nice to have some order to the house.

This pile of papers needs to be gone through, and my housekeeping binder updated, but at least is it neat.

(even if the picture is blurry….)

And all I have to do is pan out at bit and here is a lovely view of the laundry stacked in my living room waiting to either be folded, hung up or washed.

I didn’t take a picture of the other chair stacked as high….or the couch….

I swear all I do is laundry.

Ok, I take that back….I swear all I do it pick up after kids, and cook. I really don’t do laundry all week. I usually get it done by Tuesday, mostly done, there always seems to be a pile of socks or underwear that is hanging around wanting to be folded. But anyway, I am babbling….


See this pretty shiny little tool, my in-law’s gave this to me for Christmas, I have wanted one for a while now and I am so excited to have it.

Monday I made this with it


I seriously think I will be making all my pasta fresh from now on, it was so good, and really easy. I didn’t have any whole wheat ground or I would have used that. Last week I made big fat noodles for Chicken Soup with whole wheat and everybody loved it. Making whole wheat pasta from scratch is so much cheaper than buying it.

And last but not least.

A picture of my favorite guy…

my favorite little guy that is,
Dadzoo is my favorite guy.

Questions and Comments

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The last post I did about baking bread was a fun one for me, the best part was reading the comments. I love my bloggy friends, I feel like I belong to a club or sisterhood or something. Bread baking is something I have learned to really enjoy. It didn’t necessarily start that way. I have always like the satisfaction of pulling hot crispy bread out of the oven, but there sure were times I was very frustrated with my results. Learning to bake bread is a process, you have to learn the small little tricks that have to do with where you live the temperature of your oven and the humidity of your house. While I don’t claim to be an expert, I do feel proficient and that is a good feeling.

I had a few questions that I would like to answer here.

Tif wanted to know how long I can freeze my bread for. That is a great question. I don’t really have a definite answer, but I have frozen it for as long as two months and it still tastes fresh. I just use regular bread storage bags, nothing fancy. Last May I knew that I wasn’t going to want to bake bread in the heat of the summer time. My kitchen is on the South West corner of the house and with the oven going it gets really hot. So I baked my brains out for about three days and I stored about 2 1/2 months worth of bread in the freezer. It made for a nutty few days of baking, but was well worth it in the summer.

Shannon, yes I bake 10 to 16 loaves in a day, that is 5 to 6 batches. That will give me almost two weeks worth of bread, I just don’t have the time to bake every other day. I will start around 10 in the morning and bake until the evening. It really isn’t all that bad, there is a lot of time where the bread is rising that I can do other things. I will usually have dough rising in the pans, and bowl and the Kitchen aid, and a batch baking in the oven. It is satisfying to see 16 loaves of bread lined up on my kitchen table cooling! (the state of my kitchen, that is another story!) Thanks for the compliment on the pictures, that is one of my favorite parts! (If you don’t mind I would love to read your blog! e-mail me aimee@prosphotos.com)

Charlotte, I am sorry about your Kitchen aid, that would be major at my house I use mine all the time! I got to thinking about kneading, it is really hard to over kneed, usually people don’t kneed enough! As I got to thinking about it, I don’t just stop the kneading process when it pulls away from the bowl, I probably give it 3 to 5 minutes once it starts to pull away. I probably should kneed it more.

Thanks Jesica, you should try it! Let me know if you do.

Michelle, I agree it is nice to see others bake bread, it is a lost art that is slowly coming back, someday I would like to experiment more, but now I am just trying to feed a bunch of picky kids!

Patty, I bet your house smells good all the time! There are weeks that I don’t have a full day to devote to baking, when that happens I will bake every other day, but that isn’t my favorite way of doing it. (y’all need to go take a look at Patty’s blog, she has a yummy picture of a loaf of her bread!)

Chrissy, I would so deliver, if you didn’t live a gazillion miles away.

Thanks Kate, I picked the prettiest ones to take pictures of. There were many that (past and present) that aren’t so beautiful. (Kate, I would love to know who you are…your profile is blocked.)

Heatherann, I have done that so many time! My kids favorite lunch is warm bread with butter and jam…hehe…freezing it works really well, you should try it.

Janelle, I am glad you liked the pictures, let me know if you bake some.

Angie….I just might.

Erika, I would love a professional Kitchen aid, when this one breaks I am going to buy the biggest professional one out there!

K2 (aka Katheryn) let me know when you try it!

Happy Baking!

How I Bake Bread

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I have been wanting for a while to do post about baking bread. Since I am at my one year mark when it come to baking bread I figured this would be a good time.

One of the great things about baking bread is that there are so many ways and so many different recipes. Mostly it is a matter of person preference. There is a bit of science involved, for instance if you are closer to sea level your bread will take longer to rise than mine does at 4700 feet. Humidity is a factor too, where I am it is pretty dry, the west side of the Rocky Mountains is pretty much desert (although with two feet of snow in my yard one wouldn’t think I live in a desert, I guess you could call this our wet season!). In the winter the humidity is really low and I usually have to add a touch more water, I am thinking that in the south where it is 100% humidity you would need to add less.

Here is a list of ingredients:

2 1/2 cup hot water
1/3 cup honey (or any other kind of sweetener)
1 Tbsp yeast
3 cup whole wheat flour (I grind my own, I use hard white wheat, I like the flavor better)
1/4 cup butter or shortening (I use coconut oil, it is better for you)
1 Tbsp salt
3 Tbsp gluten
3 cup unbleached white flour
To the 2 1/2 cups hot water I add my honey.
The honey will cool down the water, that is why I start with it hot.

Then sprinkle the yeast on top of the water and let it sit and start working.


Once it looks like this it is ready to add to the other ingredient (except the white flour) to make a sponge.

While the yeast was growing I put together the coconut oil, wheat flour, salt and gluten

(this is my jug of coconut oil, it is the coolest stuff! In the winter when my house is a little cooler it is hard, like shortening, but in the summer when things are warmer it melts and is a liquid oil. this stuff is great for the skin too)

You can find wheat gluten in the baking section of the grocery store, or health food stores.

The gluten looks like really fine flour, it makes the bread softer and more elastic, it is especially important when using whole wheat.

When the yeast is dissolved and starting to get bubbly, pour it into the dry ingredients and give it a stir, don’t over stir it at this point, all you need to do is mix it well.

Let it sit in a warm place for about 10 to 15 minutes, until it gets a little bubbly, like the picture below. You don’t want it to rise, you just want the yeast to start working a bit.


Then add the three cups white flour and mix it well.

(have I ever mentioned how much I love my Kitchen aid)


Let the mixer just mix and mix

Once the dough forms just keep it going and it will knead it for you.
Of if you would like you could take the dough out and kneed it by hand.

Once the dough starts pulling away from the sides (if it is too sticky add some more flour) it is ready to rise. You can either just leave it in the bowl and cover it with a damp cloth, or transfer it to another bowl (that has been greased) to rise.

I always move it, when I bake bread I do between 10 and 16 loaves, so at this point I am ready to start the next batch.

When it has doubled in size, take it out and divide it in half and form into loaves.


Let is rise again in greased bread pans

I do two risings in my bread pans, I think it makes the texture a lot nicer. Once it has risen I just punch it down and reform the loaves.

(sorry the pictures are off, the sun had gone down)

When the tops are just taller than the pan stick them in a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes.

Don’t let them rise too much, or they will fall and be flat and hard to slice. If they rise too much you can always punch it down again and reform the loaves.


Take them out of the pan when they are still hot and lay them on their sides on a rack to cool.
When they are completely cool I put them in bread bags and freeze them until eatin time!