Saturday, June 11, 2011

Impress your friends, make bread!

First of all...I'm fine. :) Thanks for asking! I just haven't felt much like blogging lately. We've just been going on about our day-to-day and nothing real exciting has been going on. Trying to figure out what summer is going to look like around here. Though, I think I'm beginning to realize that summer and Oakland in the same sentence is somewhat of an oxymoron. My entire life summer has meant tank tops and flip flops; swim suites and Popsicles; hot, hot sidewalks and baseball and BBQ's. It's just not quite like that here and I'm trying not to be Debbie Downer about it but..... well... I'll just stop. Technically it's not even summer for another week and half, right?

Anyway here's what's going on around here...
*I made bread! Well, I've made lots of bread before. Megan and I made yummy pull-apart cinnamon bread a few weeks ago.


Dang that was good. I've also made pretzels and pizza dough and even full fledged french bread with the 3 rising and kneading times. But I picked this book up at the library this week..Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.

WOW! seriously? This is so easy. It's like less than 5 minutes a day and it's GOOD. There is just nothing like homemade bread. We had our friend Joe over for dinner Wednesday night and I threw a baguette in the oven and served it up warm with homemade spaghetti. He took one bite and looked over at Pete and said, "Dude....she cooks like this every night? Do you know how lucky you are?" Ha! I'm sorry, but that made me seriously happy. So try this method out. It's super, super easy and yields great results. I can't wait to try other variations.
*Jake made a swing. He got some rope and a board and with the help of his dad hung it up in the tree next to the driveway. It's definitely the new favorite thing around here. And of course they both fight over it.

*We went bowling. That was super fun. I really love bowling. Did you all know I took bowling as my PE credit in collage? It's true. I thought it would be and easy A cuz I'm super lazy. Anyway the kids had a great time. Jake loved it. Megan could have cared less I think, but she had fun. I beat Pete...and really....that's all that matters, isn't it? !!

* Our garden is growing like crazy! We've already enjoyed some basil and cilantro and just this week we have our first zucchini! I can't wait to eat it. It's just about ready to harvest. We also have a gang of tomatoes, peas and carrots. For some reason our green beans and bell peppers didn't do so well. But for putting seeds directly into some pretty crappy soil, I think we're doing pretty good!
*Hmmm...other activities have been going to the zoo, going to the in-laws for memorial day where it SNOWED, Pete's been cutting down trees so we now have a better view out our living room window for the 4th of July fireworks. We're planning to have party for that. Oh and hey! guess what?! Our house finally sold. What house, you say? The house we moved out of a year ago. hmmhmm. It's a very long and drawn out story that I don't really plan on sharing on the internet. But I'll just say this: FINALLY! We are so relieved that it's finally over. And we're getting closer and closer to being debt free!
*So I guess maybe it's not all that boring around here after all. Maybe I should blog more so I don't overwhelm you all with these random bits!

2 comments:

nicole said...

I need to try that pull apart bread!!
Tonight I made a coke a cola cake that i found on pinterest...that one - not such a hit. oh well at least i gave it a shot - and probably better that i wasn't impressed or i'd be eating another piece right now :)

it has been a cool summer here too..although a weird one - on tues last week we had a temp of 101...and on wed. 65. crazy! hope summer weather arrives for you soon!!

Jude said...

ok, I need to check out that book :) your bread looks AmaZing!! and I had no idea that Oakland was so cold! I guess we just picture all of CA as warm and beachy. I mean, SNOW on memorial day?!@?!? You are in the buffalo of the west I guess! ;)
SO glad the house sold :)