Our Daily Bread

I've baked bread off and on for many years.  

My go-to method was always the "no knead method" that lets the dough ferment for 

12-18 hours.  

That's too dang long to wait for bread!

One day while scrolling on TikTok, I found the BEST process for a loaf of daily bread.  It is literally perfect, takes almost no effort, and I can have it in under four hours!

Credit to @brittkubicki

 

Basic Sandwich Loaf

In a bowl, combine:

3 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp. each of instant yeast, salt, and honey

1 1/2 cup of warm water

Mix ingredients.  Dough will be wet and sticky, if it's not, add a tablespoon or two more of water.

Allow to rise for two hours.

Dough should be doubled in volume 

and full of bubbles.

With two forks, pull dough away from sides of bowl and into the center. 

Go all the way around the bowl.

Drizzle a small amount of olive oil over the dough, dip your hands in that oil, and work the dough ball off the bottom of the bowl.  Pick the dough up and let the weight of it pull it into a rectangle.  Then roll the dough onto itself to form a loaf.

It doesn't have to be pretty!

Plop your loaf into a well buttered bread pan 

and allow to rise about an hour.

Your loaf should rise about 1-2 inches 

above the bread pan.

Heat oven to 375 degrees 

and bake for 45 minutes.

PLEASE, do not cut your bread 

right out of the oven!!!

Allow it to cool completely...

or almost completely.

This is the perfect sandwich bread or 

daily loaf to serve with meals.

Now will somebody please pass the 

butter and honey?

A Busy Week!

Every June, there is a week that is book ended with Father's Day and Doug's birthday. 

Last week was that week!  

 

Doug and his dad

We celebrated Sunday at Doug's parent's house with a massive dinner, chicken fried steak, country gravy, black eyed peas, squash casserole, and the most delicious banana pudding...

all prepared by our kids.  

It was a good 'ol southern Sunday supper FEAST!

And then on Saturday, we did it all again 

for Doug's birthday!

All the kids were home and we had a wonderful celebration with food, drinks, and two cakes!

My whole heart in one picture!

(even if they do drive us a little crazy!)

Doug, you're like a fine wine 

that just gets better with age...

and sometimes you make me a little tipsy!

Hope you've had a wonderful week,

we love celebrating YOU!

UGH, cats!

I hate cats.

I've always hated cats.

They make me itchy, scratchy, 

and make my eyes water.

I dry heave if I see a litter box.

So when my daughter found two little kittens dumped by our neighborhood burn pile, and then hid them in our garage for three days before I found out...

to say I was less than thrilled was an understatement.

No one would take them and

our local shelter is at maximum capacity.

So meet the newest Creamers:

OPAL

and PEARL

If you need me, I'll be popping Benadryl 

like PEZ candy and trying not to dry heave!

Beauty in the Ordinary

They say we, "eat with our eyes first."  

And while a basketful of homegrown green beans can be lovely, purple and yellow ones feed my soul 

as well as my body.

A basket of yellow heirloom tomatoes sitting on my kitchen counter may be boring to most people, but to me it is like a priceless sculpture.  

I'll stare at it a day or two before processing them because they're so lovely!

 

And even walking into my ordinary, unorganized, non-Pinterest pantry, I see the beauty of  the contents of these jars.  The seeds that I started in January are going to be feeding us all year long.

True contentment, for me, consists of finding beauty in the ordinary. To shift my thinking from a consumer mentality to one of being thankful for what I have right in front of me.

Our chaotic home, family dinners, hand picked bouquets, a hot cup of coffee in the morning...

and drinking it with my two dogs.

The ordinary is quite beautiful 

if we choose to see it that way.