1 Degree Days Are Perfect For Bread Baking

January has been extremely cold, one morning when I left for work the temperature was negative 14. This makes it easy to stay in the house with the roaring pellet stove & two lap cats. This being said, with the extra time I've been spending around the house, I decided to try something fairly new to me - baking bread. I've attempted to make it a couple times before, it came out "ok", but I'd like to master a recipe & make it my own.

I started with mix of a couple recipes that I found by searching on-line for a standard french bread. I added a little extra yeast (because that is what was in my yeast packet). I also ended up adding extra flour because the dough seemed very sticky- looking back, perhaps it was supposed to be that sticky, I'm certainly not a bread expert...yet. 

 I started by dissolving the yeast in warm water

Other ingredients in this recipe were salt, touch of sugar, flour, olive oil & whatever you want to top the breads with for flavor. 

I topped the breads with garlic, parmesan & cheddar cheese & brushed with olive oil before baking.

My counter looked like this: 

The final product! 

I am very happy with how these loafs came out but am looking forward to mastering the recipe & toppings! I think my next attempt will include roasted garlic. 

French Toast

Sunday Morning French Toast! 

Using up leftover bakery bread for a quick delicious breakfast. 

So Long Sweet Summer

My last post was in June, and I was supposed to write about the cupcake flowerpots I made for my friends baby shower- better late than never.

The summer flew by, mostly because we moved to a new state-we have been in our new home for about a month now & are settling in.  I'm ready to get back to blogging business.

Cupcake Flowerpots!

Items you will need foam ball (cut in half) to hold the cupcakes, toothpicks, flower pots (I picked up plain pots & painted them myself) & a glue gun. Also, any kind of ribbon or bows you want to decorate the pots with. As for the cupcakes- use your favorite recipe, or take a little help from the store with the pre-made cupcake mixes. For this project I made a 1 batch of vanilla, chocolate & strawberry flavors.

Once you glue the foam in place. Attach the ribbons. I added a dab of glue to the ribbon as well. 

Once the cupcakes are decorated they are ready to assemble!

 I did a trial run to see how many cupcakes would fit per pot. BUT, I recommend waiting to assemble until you are at your location to avoid the risk of accidents. Bring some extra frosting- just in case there are any decorating emergencies.  

I hope you find this helpful!

Cupcake Flower Pots

Soon I'll be writing about the process of making these cupcakes for a baby shower! 

Easter Treat This Year!

Here is the final product of the cake eggs! They weren't as pretty as I had hoped but we enjoyed them. 

Hope you all had a great day! 

Easter Adventures

Getting ready for Easter Day means flower shopping, baking sweets & visiting family. Ever year I still decorate colored egg. Last year I made nest cookies-homemade sugar cookies, topped with frosting, topped with colored coconut, topped with a mix of jelly beans &/or chocolate bird eggs! 

This year I'm going to be trying to create a basket of eggs. Little chocolate cake bites, dipped in colored chocolate (white & pastel colors), rolled in festive sprinkles. Wish me luck! I'll post a photo of the finished project later this weekend. 

Another adventure this year was to color our eggs with homemade dyes. We tested the water with beets, blueberries & carrots. I think the carrots needed longer to boil in order to get the color out but the other eggs came our beautiful. The instructions were simple- boil your coloring liquid for about 15 minutes, add a few teaspoons of vinegar & start dipping.

Carrot, blueberries, beets 

My adorable little niece was on hand for egg tasting & supervision.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend & that the sun keeps shining!

March Means Maple

We are finally experiencing some signs of spring around us-daylight savings, warmer sun & even a few birds have been chirping. One sure sign of spring in New England is when the farmers start talking about tapping trees to make maple syrup. Warm spring days and cold nights make for good maple sap weather. 

My husband is from Vermont & loves maple everything. He even has been known to pour syrup over his vanilla ice cream. This morning I decided to celebrate maple season by making pancakes & serving it with syrup from a local farm (pictured below).

Pancakes are one of the foods I follow a recipe for. I've tried a number of recipes but came across this one on-line a couple of years ago & stopped experimenting. These are by far the best tasting pancakes I've ever made. 

Pancakes

Ingredients 
1 1/2 cups flour
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon white sugar
1 1/4 cups milk
1 egg
3 tablespoons butter, melted

Directions
1. Mix together flour, baking powder, salt & sugar in a large bowl
2. Make a well in the center & pour in the milk, egg & melted butter
3. Mix until smooth
4. Cook!

 (Source allrecipes.com)

 Enjoy!