Rustic Bread

This is the easiest bread you will ever make.  AND it's darn good too!

Ingredients:
3 cups of all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp instant yeast (please use the instant, don't ask me why)
3/4 cup plus 2 Tab lukewarm water
6 Tab mild flavor lager (I used Corona actually, then I just finished what was left in the bottle)
1 Tab apple cider vinegar
natural veg oil spray or shortening

In a large bowl, whisk the flour, salt and yeast,
Add the liquids and mix with a rubber scraper, just push it all together until you get a shaggy ball of dough. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it sit on your counter for at least 8 hours up to 20 hours.
Dump dough onto a lightly floured counter and knead it about 20 times.  Take a big piece of parchment paper and spray it with the veg oil spray or brush it with shortening. I'm pretty anti chemicals in my food and I found a spray from Emeril that doesn't contain all that plastic crap.
anywho, now make a ball of the dough and put it on the paper seam side down and lift the whole thing up and stick it in your Coquette.  Oh yeah, spray it with more oil or just brush some on top. Then cover it with a towel or plastic wrap or what have you and let it rise for a couple hours. 
Take the towel or plastic wrap off and put the cover on your Coquette and set it in the oven with the rack in the middle.  Turn the oven on to 425 and leave it alone for 40 min.  Then go in and take the cover off and bake it another 15 to 20 until the internal temp is 210 degrees.  I have found that this is the best way to see if bread is done.  I used to do the thump on the bottom to see if it sounds hollow but the temp is the most accurate.
Pull the bread out by using the paper edges and set it on a cooling rack for at least 20 min.  You may have to leave the house at this point so you aren't tempted to hack into it anyway.
My plan was to have a picture on here to show you, but alas my new laptop doesn't want to play nice with my new cellphone and they are refusing to share photos.
You'd think they were kids!

summer 2014

It has been a busy summer.  I suppose they all are and if course they always go too fast. 

I've been learning to use my smart phone,  learning to use my new laptop,  and feeling very tech un savvy. 

This girl has been keeping me on my toes.  The bug guy had to travel a lot fir work so she's been keeping it real fir me.

let me out! 

Let me in!

Why are you leaving? 

Let's go to your sewing room of happiness now! 

 Last week while camping with some good friends my unblood sister and I got matching tattoos. 

She's the pear,  I'm the apple.  

More on that later.  I hope.  I'm terrible about blogging since I lack the familiarity of my old laptop.

30th Anniversary

 

Thirty years ago I was at my parents home preparing for Keith and Terry's wedding.

It was to be a very small family wedding, the big guy was working so I was there with 8 month old daughter number 1. Mom and I prepared the food for a brunch reception, and I convinced Terry to wear moms wedding dress.  It was a very simple ivory tea length embroidered satin.  I braided Terry's short hair into a wreath around the back of her head and then pinned it with little pink ribbons.  We made her bouquet from flowers from moms many flower beds, a few pink roses and some little daisies and greens.  After the wedding ceremony at the small neighborhood church we came back to the house for the reception.  Terry was sitting at the table with Jes on her lap, she let her pull the bows out of her hair, and then the braids until her hair was flying all over and they both were laughing and laughing, and Keith was just sitting there shaking his head and giving them his patented grin.

Always the grin with him.

 

Fighting our Way Back

Well we are fighting our way back from last summers tornado.

The yarden won't ever be the same, but I'm learning that it's okay. 

Different isn't bad, just different.

 

The quality isn't awesome on these, as I said before we have had

tons of rain and fog here all month.

In fact, the joke at work is "how do you like living in Seattle?"

Still, the plants seem to be doing all right, though I'm concerned about a few of the large pots

rotting from the bottoms because they are just too heavy for me to tip the water out!

The washtub was rescued from under the milk house roof last week.

It's not really that much worse for the wear.  We used to

use it for icing beverages for parties on the porch, but it's kind of funky in the bottom after sitting under the roof and hay bales for almost a year. 

So I got the brilliant idea to plant it. I'll take more pictures as those

sweet potato vines grow.  I have lots of confidence in them!

And as you see, they have Metro guarding them.

Yes, that's his name.  See, he is a....

Metro Gnome.

(sorry)

kind of.

White roses from my mothers front yard where I grew up.  They smell soooo wonderful.

You just can not imagine how lovely that aroma is.

And here is part of my Fathers Day project.

The big guy had to leave for Florida again at 6 am Fathers Day morning.

At around 10 am I got a tearful call from the oldest daughter.  One of their ferrets had died.

They knew it was coming and had talked to dad about burying her in our yard since

they live in an apartment.

He forgot to tell me.

So We made a nice little spot in one of the flower beds for Molly.

Since dad wasn't around, I pulled Father duty.

It's okay, I'm flexible like that.

A foggy wet June

It's been pretty damp, foggy, windy, and wet in our part of the Wisconsin world so far this "summer"

When it's not actually raining or drizzling I've been attempting to win back

the yardens from last summers tornado.

Some progress has indeed been made. 

When it's too unfriendly to be outside I've been attempting catch up in my

Sewing Room Of Happiness

Lots of mending and fixing, and projects that have been promised

A Kindle case for Miss V.  

A table runner request from a friend.

Zeller was so very helpful that night.

 

The beginnings of a baby quilt

 

 

The top is finished, and I'm pretty pleased with it.

 

 

Some blueberry lemonade to stay hydrated.

And that's it for the moment, but as it's too foggy to even see across the road today, there will probably be more time spent in my

Sewing Room Of Happiness

today also.

(I usually say it in a radio personality voice)



The day after I arrived in Palm Springs we drove across the state to visit a

fabulous friend.

Look!  The famous "Kiss" statue! 

Under a Palm Tree.

 

 

 See that bridge waaaaaaaaaaaaay off in the distance?

 

We're going to cross that, now that we paid the toll

 

It is the biggest bridge I have ever been on in my life, it goes

on and on forever! 

AND, it only cost us $1.25!

What a deal!!

See that red truck behind us?

That just might be the big guys dream Florida truck.

Want to know why?

It's a rag top convertible truck!

Seriously, a convertible truck, with a roll bar.

THE perfect truck for Florida!

Here we are!

 Still the best beach town in my opinion!

And, of course, there are palm trees.

 

Whirlwind tour of Florida

I realize it's stating the obvious, but there are Palm Trees in Florida.

 

Everywhere. 

Palm Trees EVERYWHERE!

 

It didn't seem to be that big of a deal to anyone else on the planet.

But to this Wisconsinite...

 

THERE ARE PALM TREES EVERYWHERE IN FLORIDA!!!

 

Seriously, Palm Trees growing out of gas stations, Palm Trees on the roofs of buildings.

Palm Trees growing along the road.

Palm Trees in every yard and on every business lawn.

 

\

And if you look closely, and squint a bit, you might even be able to see that this

PALM TREE outside the hotel balcony

had a bottle in it.

 yes friends, Palm Trees grow beer. 

Who knew?

(You'd think Wisconsin would have them then wouldn't you?)

The Atlantic Ocean as seen from, ahem West Palm Beach.

(where there are Palm Trees)

Looking out over it, it seriously looks a lot like Lake Michigan because our "pond" is so big we can't see across it or up or down it.

However, stepping into the ocean I at once felt the difference..

The ocean is NOT FRIGIDLY COLD!

Lake Michigan makes your feet numb, the ocean is refreshing.

Also, our stretch of Lake Michigan does not have those high rise hotels you see behind the big guy.

Chess, Palm Beach Style...

Palm Beach is way too classy for regular old stop signs

 

Even the parking lines are paved, not painted

Now that is a big Gerbera Daisy!!

Even the grease cover in the street is pretty classy..

Look at this guy, isn't he neat, he's some sort of knight...

and he lives inside this chess piece! 

They apparently take chess seriously in Palm Beach

So pretty, I'd love this in my yarden!

 

 

and did I mention there are Palm Trees along the roads?

 

And the cows

hang out

under

Palm Trees

 

Cows and Palm Trees.

wow

Spring at last?

Spring has been so reluctant to arrive here in northeast WI.

For a while I wondered if the plants knew something we didn't and they were protecting themselves,and sure enough, last week we got a light frost.

 

The big guy has been out of state lately for business so yours truly has been in charge of the house, yard, cats, dogs and fortunately the wine cellar.

I used his big mower for the first time last week.  I am pretty sure I did a lousy job of it, but I did get most of the tall stuff whacked back down to size.  Sometimes good enough just has to be good enough.  And not for the first time have I been deeply grateful we live in the middle of no-where instead of town or city.  Our yard is made up of what used to be a field so our lawn is timothy grass, crab grass and dandelions.  Personally I prefer the dandelions.  But from what I hear from my townie friends, their neighbors do not.  I don't know why! They are so nice and soft on bare feet and of course the first flowers of spring.  I don't mind those pretty yellow buds at all.  Each of the girls brought beautiful little bouquets of them when they were small.  Nothing beats a tiny handful of dandelions given with pride.  Especially when half of them don't have stems!  I miss those bouquets, maybe I'll go pick some for myself!  ;-) 

 

 

Meanwhile, this lovely fellow doesn't mind our damaged yarden as long as his house is available and we keep the feeders full!

Where does time go

Not Why does time go so fast, but where does it go?  Where does it all end up when we run out of it?

These two wonderful gentleman finished their time.

My dad and my brother.

One had a long full life and one had so much of his life ahead of him.  So many things left undone and left unsaid.

When we were growing up my dad was not a quiet man, if he was angry everyone knew it, but he loved us and we knew that too.  Keith on the other hand, was one of the quietest men I ever knew.  Come to think of it, my other brother is a quiet man too.  I wonder if it skips a generation?  Quietly good, that's what I think when I think of Keith.  Not a mean bone in his body, not a cruel thought in his head.  A wickedly dry sense of humor, and a darn good cribbage game.

I have no regrets about the manner in which we all ever said goodbye, we all aways said "love you"

and meant it.  Yet so many regrets for the time unspent by Keith.

Time with his wife and daughters that meant the world to him.

Time with his two beautiful granddaughters.

 

 

His first granddaughter, and his first time seeing and holding her.

He was visiting his daughters in California and texted me this wonderful picture because I hadn't ever met this sweet little peanut.

 

His youngest granddaughter, loving grampa too.

This was just days before he left us.

My wonderful sister in law texted this one to me.

I'm so grateful for all the texts between us, and yet that is one of the things I miss most.

With me in WI and him in Maryland, I would always let him know when it snowed or was "snot freezing cold" because he totally understood that!

We would text through football games with our favorite team, we would text just to stay in touch.

It never failed to make me smile to see his name pop up on my phone, and he invariably started with "hi lil sis"

He never called me that growing up, so it made me smile an awful lot now. 

I already miss him more than I could have imagined.

 

I hope he is playing cribbage with dad.  There must be cribbage in heaven right?

 

January was just a blur of snow and cold weather here

Even these pictures are from two years ago because I can't seem to make my camera talk to my lap top.  Honestly though, even though the snow is the same this year, these are much prettier than any I could take now, see all these trees.

gone.

None of them exist anymore. 

Wait! the one in the middle here does exist yet. It's the only one around the house that is left.

I'm thrilled that ONE was saved.  The big guy is not so thrilled, he refers to it as "that stinkin Chestnut"  True it does make a dreadful mess both when the blossoms fall, because they are SUPER sticky, and when the zillions of chestnuts fall, then lose their prickery covers, then stay in the yard FOREVER.  But I don't care on whit! It's a TREE!

And it's a decent SIZE tree!

Anyway, this winter has been so looooong.  It seems like we either have frigid temps or tons of snow.

What can you expect in Wisconsin in January, I know.  I know.

It just feels now like spring is decades off. 

And we are supposed to get more snow today, again.

 

Time to dream about gardening, and planting flowers and shrubs and TREES all over the yard,

Oh I think I really NEED this pond and gazebo and bridge.

 

 

and perhaps this little area....

 



 

 

 Oh, yes, a flower seed bag to carry all my gardening ideas in!

Perfect!!