Give us our weekly bread, part dos

Yesterday I shared the first day of the two-day bread making process that happens in our home every week. I mean, maybe it's every two weeks, because I'm kind of a slacker. Whatever.

Last night, we left the bread dough looking like this.

After getting a good 8 hours of beauty sleep, it now looks like this!

Wow, a good night's sleep really does improve skin tone!

Technically, I could put the dough in the pans at this stage, but Mom told me to always let it rise a second time in the bowl if you can, because it improves the texture. So I always do. The dough gets punched down and left to rest a second time while I'm a-workin' on the railroad.

When I come home from school, then I dump it all out onto a well-floured counter and knead it for just a minute. The dough gets divided in half and rolled up into nice little logs and plopped into greased bread pans.

The plastic wrap goes back on and it's left to its own devices until the loaves have risen an inch or two above the top edge of the pans.

Ready to bake!

Into a 350 degree oven it goes for 30 minutes, and it comes out looking like this.

Mm-mm good! The crust is nice and chewy, the middle is soft and springy...so yummy!

Bread closeup!

I hope you've enjoyed this bread-making journey! If you have a friend who keeps a starter, get some!  If you're my friend and you want some, let me know! I'm happy to share the bread love!

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Give us our weekly bread...

For as long as I can remember, my wonderful mommy has been baking her own bread. She got some bread starter from a friend and has kept it going for years. I've always loved it hot from the oven with a thick slice of cheddar cheese!

It was kind of a big deal for me when Mom gave me some starter for my very own! It was this moment- not graduating from college, not starting my first real job, not moving to NYC on my own- that made me feel like a grown-up! That was in 2006, and I've been baking our bread almost every week ever since. I thought I'd share the process with you, and since it's a two-day deal, you get a two-day post!

The starter lives in a glass jar in the refrigerator. It looks like this when it's ready to be fed.

The starter "eats" a mixture of sugar, potato flakes, and water. I mix those three in a measuring cup and then add it to the jar. The mixture starts to foam and little and you can hear it fizzling if you put your eat near the mouth of the jar! So cool!

Fizzle!!

I usually do this step in the morning before leaving for work, as it has to sit for 8-12 hours. Then, before bed that night, I mix the dough.

The ingredients are very simple: equal parts white and whole wheat flour, vegetable oil, salt, water, and starter. Sometimes I add a palmful of dried herbs, which is a lovely addition.

This is what it looks like after it's mixed.

Sweet dreams!

The bowl gets covered with plastic wrap and it goes to sleep! Tune in tomorrow to find out what happens next!

The suspense is killing me!

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Freakin' cute with real feet!

Hi friends!

Just wanted to give a little update to this post about the soft baby shoes. The twins' birthday was this past weekend, and they got to try on their new shoes! My awesome brother was there to snap some photos of the epic moment, and here are two of my faves!

Caleb checks out the buttons on Abby's kicks.

"These shoes are so silly!"

 Love those chilluns!

Godspell

Spoiler: This post has nothing to do with crafts. Or food. But you should still read it.

Before the show...

I just got home from seeing "Godspell" at the Circle in the Square theater on W. 50th. I mean, this show is special for me for lots of reasons, one of which is that I was in it in high school. Also, you know, because of Jesus.

A group from my church got together to see it this afternoon, and I just wanted to tell all of you to see it as soon as possible. If you live in NYC, go now. If you live somewhere else, plan to visit so you can see it. We have a sleeper sofa.

It was such a special experience, and I'm pretty sure I was weeping the entire time, whether from joy or sadness or some other random emotion that sprung up out of nowhere as I was watching. It has left me feeling inspired and deflated and my heart is bursting and aching...

...just...go see it.

It's Mardi Gras! Make some earrings!

Happy Shrove Tuesday, friends! I hope you had your pancakes tonight! (Confused? Read this.)

I made my ears some pretty clothes today, and I thought I'd share a tutorial with you so your ears can be pretty, too. Yeah!

 

Note: The only real bead-making skill you need for this project is the simple loop. See how to do it here.

Materials

two ear wires

two 3 mm black fresh water pearls

two 6 mm black fresh water pearls
two 10 mm black fresh water pearls
two head pins
four eye pins (I was out of these so I made my own with 24 gauge wire)

Tools
round-nose pliers
needle-nose pliers
wire cutter (I just use nail clippers...they do the same thing and are cheaper!)


All my materials ready to go!

Step 1. Thread a head pin through one of your largest beads. Make a simple loop. Repeat with the other large bead.

Head pin with simple loop

Step 2. Thread an eye pin through each of your remaining beads and make a simple loop on the other side. You'll end up with a loop on each side of your bead.

Eye pin with simple loop

Note: As mentioned in the materials list, I didn't have any eye pins. So, I just cut a short length of 24 gauge wire and made a simple loop. Viola! Eye pin!

Homemade eye pin!

Step 3. Open one loop at a time and connect three beads, largest to smallest. Slip the end loop onto the ear wire. Repeat with the other three beads.

Pretty pearls!

Step 4. Show off those gorgeous lobes!

You could use this same idea for any number or types of beads or gemstones, this is just a very basic guide. I'd love to see what you come up with!

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So freakin' cute!

On President's Day a year ago, I was in Virginia having just celebrated with my sister-in-law, Renee, the upcoming birth of her and my brother, Nathan's, twins. The shower was planned well in advance of the due date, they received lots of adorable and thoughtful gifts, many of which were yellow and/or green since they were keeping the babies' genders a surprise. I made them baby quilts with Peter Rabbit fabric to go with their Peter Rabbit-themed nursery. We played that awesome shower game where you match the guest with their baby picture. Good times were had by all!

I think the babies had too much of a good time there in Renee's tum-tum, though, because a week after the shower, they just popped right out! "What, you mean we should wait another six weeks until we're full-term? Whatever! Let's get this party started!"

Brand new!

All of this to say, Abby and Caleb's first birthday is on Sunday, and I made their present yesterday. I am not kidding when I tell you that, several times during this project, I just had to stop and exclaim, "They're so freakin' cute!" You will see.

Yay, it's our birthday!

Joanna Armour over at Stardust Shoes has posted an awesome tutorial for how to make cloth baby shoes. I'm not going to post a ton of in-the-making photos, since hers are so well done. I made two changes; first,  I used leather for the sole, since they're standing lots now and will be walking soon, so I wanted something with a little more support and durability; second, I made each pattern piece about 1/4 inch larger all the way around to make sure they'd fit. You can see my pattern pieces next to the originals here:

My adjustments made the finished shoes about 5 inches from toe to heel, which is apparently size 6 in baby/toddler shoes.

The leather was all I had to purchase, as I had all the other fabric and notions in my stash. You could make these with scraps; they require very little material.

The leather, which was surprisingly easy to work with!

Abby's shoes are this adorable yellow bumble bee print:

All the pieces cut and ready to sew!

And Caleb's are a super-cool brown corduroy with a light blue lining:

And....ta-daaa!

Abby's Shoes of Awesome

Caleb's Crazy-fantastic Kicks

 eeee! So adorable! I can't wait to see them on those little chubster legs! You can bet you'll be seeing a picture of that when it happens!

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Second sweater progress!

Tonight I said to myself, "Self, you are going to finish the second skein of yarn before you go to bed!"
And I replied, "Self, I believe I will accept your challenge."
To which I responded, "Self, you'd better."
I retorted, "Self, stop talking to yourself and start knitting."
So I did.

that's 246 yards of goodness!

I got through my second skein! The back of my second sweater is about 14 inches long now, and I have 7.5 inches to go before separating the stitches for the front. Woot!

Up close and personal with some garter and stockinette...

Check back tomorrow for the cutest footwear ever...

My first link party!

So, apparently there's these awesome things in the blog world called "link parties." This is where a blogger hosts a party and guest bloggers post links to their blog to come to the party! Woohoo!

I just did my first one! The host is Fireflies and Jellybeans. Check it out! Number 37 in the "Crafts and Sewing" category!

Squashy-squash

Fact: I love winter squash. My favorites are the butternut and spaghetti varieties. I thought I'd share my favorite recipes for each, so you can love them, too!

This recipe might have come from somewhere, or I might have made it up. I've been making it for a while, and I can't remember ever actually using a recipe, so I'm just writing down what I normally do here for your eating pleasure.

Roasted Butternut Squash, Red Onion, and Garlic Pasta
Ingredients:
1 butternut squash (a few pounds), peeled, seeded, chopped into 1-in. cubes
1 large red onion, chopped
several cloves garlic (I always use at least 5, but I love me some garlic, so use less if you want a less strong garlic flavor)
2 tbsp. butter
1/2 cup white wine
1 tbsp. dried herbs de provence
1/2 lb. pasta, shape of your choice

Directions: Preheat oven to 400. Chop the tips off the garlic cloves, but leave the peel on. Toss cloves, squash and onion with enough olive oil to coat. Spread in a single layer on a baking pan and sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Roast for 30 minutes, or until squash is very soft.

Look at all those yummy black bits!

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil and cook the pasta. Drain; set aside.

My favorite pot

Once the garlic is cool enough to handle, squish the roasted cloves out of their peels. Using the flat side of a knife, smooth the garlic into a paste. Set aside.

Using the same pot in which you cooked the pasta (just because it saves time doing dishes later), melt butter over medium heat. Add wine and herbs, bring to a boil and cook 1-2 minutes. Add garlic and roasted vegetables, slightly mashing squash as you stir to create a sauce. Add pasta to pan and toss to combine. Serve with freshly grated parmesan cheese.

This usually makes enough for our 2-person dinner with either seconds or leftovers for the next day's lunch. If you use a whole pound of pasta and a second onion, it would definitely feed 4 people.

YUM!