What I've been up to: collecting rewards and making bread.

I feel like I haven't been taking very many pictures of late.  Although I've written over 475 posts for this blog alone this year, so perhaps a short break is in order.  But here's what I've been up to, aside from reading, writing, watching movies and blogging.

I didn't realize I had backer rewards coming, but here they are.
 

I made some bread.  It's from Laurel's Kitchen Break Book, which is the best book to pick up if you are thinking of taking up whole-grain bread baking in the new year.  This is the milk bread recipe and made two very nice loves.  The book itself teachers you step-by-step what to do to create excellent all-whole-wheat flour bread.  Most "whole wheat" recipes use a bit of whole wheat and a goodly amount of All-Purpose Flour.

Bread making is a good skill to have if you want to save money and control your ingredients.  It's also kind of magical.  This started as two cups of milk, a quarter cup of honey, some yeast, flour and salt.  A bit of mixing (with a mixer) and a few hours of rising and deflating and shaping and there is delicious bread waiting for me to eat.

Two tips should you embark on the bread journey:
1) Buy some vital wheat gluten (Bob's Red Mill carries this product) and add 1 tablespoon per cup of flour.  It makes all the difference.
2) If you don't have a warm place for rising (our house is mostly pretty cold) turn the oven to 170 and when it comes to temperature, set the timer for 10 minutes.  Then shut off the oven.  The heating turns the oven from a cold cave to a warm environment and if you turn on the light to the oven the temperature will be maintained.