WARNING!

My blog has been hacked!!!

Bugs is taking over!

Indoor Picnic

My oldest, J, age 3, loves picnics. It's been so hot and humid here (YUCK!) that Mommy & Daddy haven't wanted to do anything outside. But today I had a project taking up the kitchen table, so we ate supper picnic style in the living room.

Family picnic, indoor style!

We ate food from the garden! Tomatoes, cucumbers
and sauteed okra with onions.

Cucumber and tomato sandwiches with fresh bread

Fresh corn--picked today by ME! 

J loved the picnic idea and the corn!

Little picnicker

Baby loves tomatoes! 

Every picnic needs a bug...

Baking Bread

I'm relatively new to the whole baking bread thing. Mom made bread and I would help her, but having the full responsibility from flour-to-loaf was intimidating to me! Before we married, my husband would make bread and invested in a fancy machine to make it easier. Since I stay home and he works full time, it seemed logical that I would take over the bread-making chore. 

Well, I like detailed instructions until I get the hang of things, and the recipes I was using didn't tell me exactly how to work with said fancy machine--a Bosch. So like any modern kitchen maven *cough* I googled it. As in specifics. As in "make bread bosch machine". I landed on the perfect step-by-step guide--with pictures!!! And it works. Ever since then my bread has been great. This was at least a year ago.

Just last week when I was making bread I realized my snazzy instructions were from a real live blogger. Like me! I finally took the time to comment and thanked Jennifer at Colourful Threads for allowing me to be the bread-maker for my bread-winner husband. :)

I'm going to go ahead and post my pictures and some additions to the basic whole wheat flour that I like to include, but go here to get the details. I'm sure you could adapt it to work with a stand mixer or even by hand.  Enjoy!

Handy-dandy bread-making machine

Ingredients for sponge (+ flour)

Whole wheat flour

Foamy sponge

Things I like to add just for fun

I use unbleached white flour, whole wheat flour, flax seeds (sometimes I use a coffee mill to grind them up), wheat bran or wheat germ, gluten flour, and of course salt. I sometimes add a cup of oatmeal, dry or leftover 7-grain cereal, corn flour, sunflower seeds, or ground nuts.

When the dough doesn't stick to the sides,
 you've added enough flour.

The Bosch kneads the dough so effectively
that it eliminates the first rise!

Properly kneaded dough

Turned out on the work surface 

Quartered

Shaped into a loaf

Lined up and waiting to rise

All done--and the house smells SO good!

Turned out to cool on racks.

Seriously, it's so good! Try it!

The worst part of the job:
Washing the bowl and dough hook.

Light Up My Life

This post includes a confession. I'm sure we're the ONLY ones who have ever done something like this... You see this? 

Yeah, gross!

Here's a close-up. The brown tip? Dead bugs. 

EWW!!!

We moved in almost 2 years ago and that was taken yesterday. It's the entry light. We've cleaned, scrubbed, painted, refinished many other surfaces, but that light just got put off. I knew I had another small light somewhere that matched the pretty dining room light... So the dirty one in the entry just got left. 

Until yesterday. 

I took the globe down and washed it. 

Pretty!

I asked my very handy husband to take town the base (I googled it but it looked scary, so I waited for my man to come home from work). This morning I spray painted the base ORB. 

Three coats and it's as good as new!

Before my husband left for work I asked him how I could hook the lamp back up. He's much easier to understand than google directions! 

See?

Up close.

Why did I put that off for 2 years? Please tell me we're the only ones who would ever put off an easy project like that!

~ Ellie

I'm linking up!

Breakfast in Bed

It's a gray, rainy day.

Why not stay in bed?

I brought you a tray full of delicious goodies!

We're using my Grandma's Dessert Rose dishes, of course.

There's healthy, crunchy, low-fat, home made granola--Mom's recipe.

Milk for your granola.

Fresh fruit: peaches, blueberries and strawberries.

Let me fluff up the pillows for you!

Now enjoy your hot beverage as you linger!

What's that? Oh, those little guys?

Pretty hard to sleep in, isn't it?

Good thing they're cute!

A girl can dream, can't she?

Linked to:

~Ellie