She Knits Shizknits

baking:: trying a new recipe

2011-11-20T18:41:00.000-08:00

I recently checked The Bread Bible out of the library and wanted to try the Basic White Sandwich Bread -I had heard great things about this recipe so yesterday morning around 11am, I started making the sponge starter. The starter needed to sit for at least an hour (I let mine sit at room temp for about 2hrs), then I used my KitchenAid to knead the dough together for the first rise. The recipe called for three rises (!), so I knew it would take a while- but last night around 11pm I finally gave up and stuck the two partially-risen loaves into the fridge. This morning I pulled them out, let them rise one last time and then popped them into the oven to bake.

The resulting loaves were DELICIOUS! And honestly, they should be, considering the amount of work that went into them: if I only count the rising time, it was about 7 hours! Add two hours for the sponge to come together and it's an all-day process. My normal bread recipe goes from mixed to baked in about four hours with two rises.

The flavor of the Bread Bible white bread was good, but it was the crumb and the lovely chewy crust that really stood out. I took a few photos to highlight the differences between the Bread Bible recipe and my regular recipe (sorry for the awful lighting- it has been dark and stormy all day!).

Here is my regular recipe: the Amish White Bread-

Note the denseness of the crumb and the thinner crust. This bread uses just water and flour with some sugar for sweetening. I usually use 2/3 all purpose flour and 1/2 whole wheat flour with this recipe.

Here is the Bread Bible Basic White Sandwich Bread:

See how much more air there is in the crumb? This recipe also uses powdered milk and less flour to make for a wetter, more pliable dough. I also used about 1/3 (by volume) wheat flour and added some wheat germ for crunch. The crust of this bread was really nice and crisp right out of the oven.

And the two slices side by side (Bread Bible on the left, Amish White on the right)

After all the effort making the Bread Bible recipe, I was surprised that it wasn't much different in flavor than my normal recipe. The biggest difference between the two loaves was the tenderness of the crumb. I'm now wondering if I can try making a sponge for my Amish White Bread recipe....

::thrify thursday::

2011-11-17T08:03:00.001-08:00

Why is it when I go to the Goodwill to drop off donations, I always manage to come home with a little something?! It happened again a couple of days ago- I found a set of four vintage mugs for $3.99...the fun footed design caught my eye so they followed me home. I'm a sucker for the perfect coffee mug- these have a nice shape and size (I drink coffee slowly so narrow cups work well for me as they keep the coffee warm longer).

Here are the small men enjoying hot chocolate out of our "new" vintage mugs:

Evidently the pattern is called "Spice of Life" and was originally made by Corning/Pyrex:

Love the retro fruit and veg!

These are probably about 30 years old....still in amazing condition and a fun addition to our everyday glassware.

::cooking:: homemade granola bars

2011-11-16T15:16:00.000-08:00

Monkey Boy and Little Man are going to different schools this year...something I neglected to blog about simply because having two kids in two different schools means 2x the volunteer hours for me! We sent MB to a new charter school and have been super happy with how it has turned out- small class sizes and a collaborative, "21st century' approach to learning has made MB's 1st grade outstanding so far.

One of the other differences between the kids' schools is that MB's school is nut-free- no peanuts, tree nuts or any other nuts are allowed. LM's school allows nuts and has an 'allergy table' for those kids who need to avoid nuts (or other allergens) at lunch time. One of kids' favorite things to eat is granola bars, which I never had a problem sending until this year...did you know it's practically impossible to find nut-free granola bars?

I searched high and low and found gluten-free granola bars, dairy free granola bars, sugar free granola bars- but it was impossible to find nut-free bars. Of course I then turned to the internets and found a granola bar recipe that I was able to change to be completely nut-free so that both LM and MB could bring bars to school. Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
3 cups rolled (old fashioned) oats
1/2 cup wheat germ (not pictured)
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips or chunks
1/2 cup dried fruit- I use a berry medley from Trader Joe's
1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk

Preheat oven to 325

Line a 9x13 inch pan with parchment paper or heavy duty foil. Make sure the lining covers the bottom of the pan and goes up the sides part way- otherwise your bars will stick like crazy to the pan! Grease lining with cooking spray.

Mix all the ingredients in a big mixing bowl.

Pour into the prepared pan and pat down until it's evenly and firmly packed.

Bake until golden- approx 30 min. Let the pan cool on the counter till granola is firm, then use the parchment paper/foil to lift the bars from the pan.

Cut into bar shapes with a sharp knife.

Wrap individually in wax paper or plastic wrap, or store in an airtight container.

Makes approx. 16 bars.

This makes for a firm, slightly chewy granola bar that tastes a lot like a big oatmeal cookie. The kiddos love them and will eat two batches a week. It's a very versatile recipe, too, since you can use different dried fruit: I've tried a raisin medley, plain cranberries, wild blueberries, and chopped mangos in different batches and they all came out delicious.

If I let Little Man make a batch, he will add some honey or molasses for some added sweetness but I think it tastes fine without. The sweetened condensed milk not only binds the granola together, but adds a nice carmel-y flavor once it's baked.

And of course, you can add any nuts you would like...just reduce the amount of rolled oats by the amount of nuts you add. So adding 1/2 cup of almonds means you will only use 2.5 cups of rolled oats.

Enjoy!

monday funny

2011-11-14T07:51:00.000-08:00

Source: Uploaded by user via Courtney on Pinterest

Thrifty Thursday

2011-11-10T08:37:00.000-08:00

I went to lunch with the Dearest the other day and on the way home I spotted a (new to me) thrift store. Since it was *right* by the freeway entrance I needed to take to get home....well- I had to stop didn't I?!
Walking in, there was a sign that said "50% off entire store". Really?! I'm so there! It was a quick blow-through the store kind of trip (I had to get home because Little Man's school was letting out) so I went straight back to the books. I found these three in beautiful, nearly new condition:

Total cost? $1.59 for all three!

The Little Red Riding Hood book is perfect for Monkey Boy to read himself. And check out these sweet 70's illustrations!

I especially like the woodcutter's mutton chop sideburns and CHiPs 'stache:

Halloween!

2011-11-02T14:14:00.000-07:00

we carved pumpkins:

we made costumes:

we made 'mummies' at a block party:

we trick or treated:

Our Halloween was a blast!

love thursday

2011-10-13T20:40:00.000-07:00

this thursday, I'm loving the hot (95F!) weather, which spurred us to visit the beach one more time....

NONONONONO (must be Monday)

2011-10-03T16:09:00.000-07:00

Buddy!

2011-09-30T09:36:00.000-07:00

The boys caught a big fat blue belly lizard the other day and after taking it to school for show and tell, it was time to let it go. We actually have a 24hr rule regarding creatures- we only keep whatever is caught for 24hrs....that way we don't end up having to feed or take care of the many bugs, lizards and critters the small men have caught.

Monkey Boy really wanted his photo taken with "Buddy" before we let him go.

And of course Little Man had to have one, too.
After the photos it was time for Buddy to be free and we set him loose in our flowerbeds. I'm pretty sure that the boys will catch him again. Last year we caught and released the same lizard about four times!

Giant Candy Corns!

2011-09-29T16:03:00.000-07:00

Supplies:
Styrofoam cones in various sizes (5 inch to 18 inch)
Yarn in yellow, orange, and white (I used cheap Red Heart: $2.50 each giant skein)

Gather up your supplies under the watchful eyes of your supervisor:

"Get to work already!"

My styrofoam cones were green so I asked Monkey Boy to paint the tops for me. We used white acrylic craft paint. This way the very tip of the cones wouldn't show up green against the white yarn when we wrapped it.

My supervisor is making sure the yarn is all there...

Then comes the tedious part: starting at the bottom, wrap the yarn around the styrofoam cone:

It's not difficult but make sure you occasionally turn the cone to cover all the green. When you're done with the yellow, go on to the orange, and finally the white.

"Hmmm...you need to wrap more..."

I didn't use glue or anything to hold the yarn on...it sticks pretty well to the styrofoam so I just wrapped it up to the top and tucked under the last piece.
Here are the finished products:

This is a super easy project- in fact Little Man did the front piece all by himself and it turned out wonderfully.

Though....it's a much easier project if you don't have this kind of 'help'....

Library trip.... !

2011-09-26T15:32:00.000-07:00

Photo dump!

2011-09-23T19:29:00.000-07:00

Yes,I know it's been FOREVER since I posted....we were super busy with camping toward the end of August...then school started (and kids are in two different schools now)... and I have been teaching yoga a lot. All that equals very little time to blog!

So in an effort to catch up, I am going to dump a bunch of photos in the post and let them speak for themselves! (click on any photo to embiggen)

Camping in Big Sur with our good friends:

Stopping on Highway 1 to take a sunset photo

sun setting in the fog

kids on the big sur river by our campsite

Monkey Boy on the rope swing

Little Man and his pal on the floatie

Monkey Boy was fascinated by the water skaters and caught a bunch!

The kids loved jumping off this log into a pool

We camped at Big Sur for three days and then headed up the coast to Monterey, where we got to visit Cannery Row and the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

MB said his favorite fish were the sharks, and LM liked the sunfish the best.
They both enjoyed petting the batrays, too.

We got home just in time for Labor Day weekend, then it was back to school!

How did they get so big?!

LM walking to school...

Thumbs up for his new classroom

MB as a first grader!

walking into his new school...

We are finally settling into the new school year routine so hopefully I will have more time to post. There has been a lot going on in our house besides camping and school....!

homemade whipped cream is way better than storebought!

2011-09-23T19:26:00.000-07:00

<<whipped cream.jpg>>

skating fun

2011-08-22T18:36:00.001-07:00

The small men have been into skateboarding lately. Luckily, we live pretty close to the Etnies skate park. Even more luckily: the skate park is free! We headed there this morning for a little bit of skate practice while it was still cool.
Here's some video I shot of them trying out the ramps....You can see Little Man in the dark shirt and then Monkey Boy in the tie-dyed one.

The funniest thing happened while we were there: MB decided he wanted to go over and check out the "pools", which are like big empty swimming pools for skaters to do tricks on. Little Man went with him and then came back alone. I asked LM where his brother was and LM said "Oh, he's still in the pool."

When I went over to check it out, all I could see from my vantage point 20 feet away (I have to stay on the other side of the fence) was the very top of MB's head as he ran back and forth trying to get out of the pool! He was yelling "Help! Let me out!"

After some pushing and pulling from our friends and LM, Monkey Boy was set free of the pool and went off to skate more ramps. He said next time he tries a pool, he will stick with the one that has a ladder!

Wednesday Words

2011-08-17T07:50:00.001-07:00

Yogic meditation, a photo by kleio's belly on Flickr.

added to my "To-Read" list

2011-08-16T07:55:00.001-07:00

My Goodreads list keeps growing. One of the books I just added is "X-Posed: the Painful Truth Behind Yoga & Pilates". I found this post on It's All Yoga, Baby, where the author of X-Posed talks about his own views that not all yoga/pilates is safe.

This should be an interesting read, as I somewhat have to agree. With my own issues stemming from moderate scoliosis, I have learned to alter my practice to fit my body. But as a yoga teacher I regularly see people forcing their bodies into various asana on a daily basis.

One of my opening statements in every class is something along the lines of "Trust your body and your breath- don't force yourself into any pose." But it never fails that I see a student panting, red-faced and grunting as they try to get into 'that advanced asana'.

I know it's their ego taking over- I've been there myself! "I can TOTALLY get into Peacock pose!"

Uh, no, I can't...but that doesn't stop me from grunting and holding my breath and trying! At least nowadays I can usually see this ego/competitive part of my practice for what it is- and I can slow myself down to return to the practice with a more gentle mindset. Hmmm...sometimes at least!

A day at the beach and a letter to the tooth fairy

2011-08-15T08:16:00.001-07:00

We have been trying to spend more time at the beach this year. The small men are finally big enough that I feel comfortable taking them by myself. I usually make them carry their own bodyboards and sand toys, which frees my hands up for all the rest of the junk we need to carry.

Our beach of choice lately has been Strands- the boys love taking the funicular and I love the fact that there's FREE parking...a rarity among beaches. The waves break shallowly and far enough out that the kids can bodyboard without getting slammed into the sand.

The Dearest accompanied us to Strands yesterday, bringing his new fishing pole to try out. This made the boys very happy as they got to fish with daddy and dig up plenty of sand crabs as well as play in the water.

The most exciting thing that happened was Monkey Boy *finally* losing his tooth. He was biting into a sandwich and suddenly started shouting that his tooth had fallen out. This baby tooth has been hanging on for over two months, and I was even about to call the dentist to get some 'help' with pulling it out. MB was so excited that it finally came out without help!

The funny thing is, last night he wanted us to help him write a note to the tooth fairy because MB didn't want to give up the tooth! So here's the note:

"Dear Tooth Fairy,
I want to keep my tooth. You can keep your money because I want my tooth. This is for good, so come back when my next tooth falls out.
(signed) Monkey Boy"

!!!!

So did the TF let him keep his tooth??? Yes, she did...and she gave him a $1 gold coin to boot. Probably because he's just too much of a cutie:

words from monkey boy wednesday

2011-06-15T09:49:00.000-07:00

MonkeyBoy has been a bit of a bear lately- he gets upset about something and goes from happy to crazy PO'd in 2.2 seconds. Then he's so worked up that nothing is going to get him to calm down...we've found it's best to commiserate a bit then let him have some time to himself to work it out. If we continue to stay with him, he just gets more upset.

Last night MB lost it right before dinner so I told him to go to his room and come out when he was done screaming....the rest of us sat down to eat and a few minutes later this little message came floating down the stairs:

"frum finn
to dad
to mom
can you let me out"

!!!!! We laughed SO HARD when we saw this. It was shortly followed by another paper:

"can you feed me dinner upstairs in my room?"

When we didn't reply right away (we were wiping tears of laughter from our eyes), he sent down one more:

"can you give me som bred"

Not long after we got this last message, he came downstairs and joined us for the rest of dinner...all tears gone and happy as a clam. Well, at least we know he's definitely learning how to read and write in kindergarten!

wordless wednesday: annual strawberry picking trip

2011-06-08T09:01:00.000-07:00

complete set here

date night, DIY style

2011-06-06T08:47:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend, the Dearest and I went on our first date night in a while. I had planned this date night out some time ago and didn't tell the Dearest where we were going...I just told him that it was something we'd never done before, and that he had to wear close-toed shoes. I'm sure that led to some crazy speculation on his part!

But no, we didn't go zip-lining or bungee-jumping....instead we did this:

It was a "Date Night" cooking class at the Laguna Culinary Arts Institute! When we arrived, we were given aprons and shown to our stations....

Whew, that's a professional kitchen set up, isn't it? A little bit intimidating even if you are a decent home cook.

We were joined by four other couples- it turns out each couple had one person who did most of the cooking and other one was there to learn how to cook better. In our case, I was the 'home cook' and the Dearest was the aspiring cook. Don't we look like pros?

After a short introduction on how to best handle/use the knives, Chef Anna led us in preparing the lemon curd for dessert. That required whipping egg whites over a double boiler on the stove for at least 10 minutes.....and let's just say that everyone was taking shifts because after 2-3 minutes of constant whipping our arms were getting TIRED. I don't know how the pro chefs make it look so easy when they whip something by hand. If I have to make whipped cream I always use my Kitchenaid and if I was making this recipe at home I would have been sorely tempted to use a hand mixer to do the whipping on the stove.

Once we had the curd made, we stashed it in the walk-in to chill while we worked on the rest of dinner. First course was asparagus soup - it only took about 20 minutes to make but it was SO GOOD. We all sat family-style around tables in the dining room and happily slurped up our soups. Then it was back into the kitchen to work on the side dishes.

Chef showed us how to blanch veggies and use an ice bath, then we worked on making a compound butter of lemon and tarragon. We cooked orzo, added lemon and parsley to flavor it, then moved on to preparing the salmon. First we seared the filets in a very hot pan, the moved them to the oven to finish. Check out the Dearest 'working the line':

With all the people at the stoves, there was much shoulder bumping, elbowing and jockeying of position- all in good fun! And here is the finished plate:

Seared salmon topped with lemon-tarragon butter on a bed of lemon-infused orzo and a side of sauteed spring veggies. SO YUM!

After we finished our main course, it was back into the kitchen one last time to assemble the trifle. Pound cake, lemon curd and berries were layered to create these:

And no, they weren't supposed to be overflowing but this was our final course and some of us had had 'some wine' so we got a little enthusiastic filling the cups! It was amazingly delicious-like a restaurant-quality dessert! We ate so much over the course of the class that I could barely move once we got home! And we came home with a big box of leftovers, too.

The whole night was great fun and the Dearest said he really enjoyed the surprise. We might have to take another class with friends as I can see this would be even more enjoyable with a group who know each other well.

love thursday

2011-06-02T08:56:00.000-07:00

This week I am loving:
-spring weather: not too hot and not too cold!
-little boys missing their first 'toofer':

-spray paint (10 minutes and you have a brand-new item!)
-sending the small men outside to play nerf gun wars
-caramel pecan brownies:

-upcoming date with the Dearest (it's a surprise so he doesn't know where we are going!)
-teaching yoga at a new studio...the students are amazing and I LOVE LOVE LOVE teaching!
-getting together plans for the upcoming summer
-coffee with mexican hot chocolate mixed in

What are you loving this week?

Happy Memorial Day!

2011-05-31T11:58:00.000-07:00

Little Man designed and crafted this balloon flag by himself!

Love thursday, b00b tube edition

2011-05-26T06:06:00.000-07:00

this is what you get...

2011-05-25T15:35:00.001-07:00

playing with photoshop, a photo by shizzknits on Flickr.

when you let your 6yr old use Photoshop and a tablet....

there and back again...

2011-05-15T09:01:00.000-07:00

Well, looks like after a couple of years using Typepad to publish my blog, I'm back here at Blogspot! I had originally gone to Typepad four years ago because Blogspot didn't offer enough control over templates/viewing as I liked. But things have really improved over here in Blogpsot land so I'm back... (plus the fact that Typepad raised its yearly rate to $95 and I couldn't justify that kind of outlay for what was essentially a hobby).

You can find my Typepad blog here if you still want to visit. I will probably eventually export the whole thing and maybe shut it down. We'll see...