A Good Weekend

So this past weekend seemed busy, but...we didn't really do anything.

Started out Friday by finally getting to making homemade bread for only the second time. I tried making it a couple of years ago and it came out like a rock and because of that experience I never wanted to give it another try. Well, since the weather had been so cool lately I thought it was great weather to bake. Alex was off Friday so we rented three movies and watched them in between waiting for my bread to rise. Now, this recipe is my Great Grandmothers recipe...I remember as a little girl, my grandpa making it and it being so incredibly yummy as toast for breakfast when we stayed the night at their house. My Mom makes it (mostly in the winter and spring) and when I came home to visit from Sacramento, if she had baked some, I took a loaf home with me.

It seemed like a very tricky recipe as I remember my Mom making it in a HUGE plastic bowl, we COULD NOT open the oven while it was rising and we had to keep all the doors and windows closed. NO DRAFTS! I remember her kneading and kneading this gigantic ball of dough and then that wonderful smell of baking bread wafting through out the house. A scent a house longs for to make it a home. I thought, wow! this recipe sure is sensitive, but sure is worth it! Maybe that is why I took so long to attempt it and when I did and it didn't turn out, edible, I never tried again...until this past Friday.

I called my Grandma to get her version of the recipe, detail by detail. Again, do NOT open the oven while it was rising, do NOT open any windows or doors, everything had to be just right. I wrote it down in a notebook and followed it step by step while I dove into this recipe that I had put on a pedestal my whole life. I called her a few times in between to double check some steps and hoped that I could hold up the standard set before me three generations back.





After the first rise I knew I had done something better than the last, the last time because, the dough had actually doubled in size!

BEFORE

AFTER

Last time, I don't remember that happening, but I kept on going hoping it would turn out ok. So this time I was ecstatic to see all was going well. Alex probably wondered what was so exciting about dough that resembled an albino Blob. I took it out, 'punched' it down, kneaded it, covered it with a towel and into the oven it went again for another hour. Again, it doubled! Hooray! I then cut it into seven loafs, placed them in the pans to rise one more hour and then the bake off!

By 4pm by bread was finished and it was just as tasty as I remembered it to be. The house felt like an oven because I had been so careful not to let my dough catch a cold draft, so I opened the doors and windows and finally Alex was allowed to leave the house and buy our Mega Millions ticket. That night we made dinner together, but really, all I wanted was toast and more toast with butter and boysenberry jam for dinner.






Saturday morning Alex woke up with a sore throat and stayed home another day with one of those 'man colds'. I went out early to Target to get cold medicine, ingredients for honey lemon tea and homemade chicken soup. We didn't have any cold medicine in the house (good thing, I guess)...actually we did, but all of them expired in 2009 or so! So that afternoon, I worked on the soup while my sick husband slept and watched some movies. The soup came out soooo delicious and I made yummy grilled cheese sandwiches with my homemade bread and gruyere cheese. Alex said the sandwiches tasted like Sizzlers cheesy toast which I took as a great compliment! Gruyere cheese really makes such a difference in a grilled cheese...and homemade bread of course.



Sunday, Alex worked early so I spent the morning relaxing in a quiet house with coffee, toast of course and the LA Times. It was a very lazy Sunday.

So today I went to Target for necessities for the week, fun but time consuming matching coupons.

Filled the cars up with gas, not fun! almost $100! I am so thankful Alex only works two miles from our house.

Now I sit here at 10:30pm waiting for Alex to get home from a long day of work and school! Maybe we'll play a little Wii when he gets here....

Looking forward to coffee and toast in the morning. g' night!