Homemade Bread Recipe

Okay, so I'm now addicted to making homemade bread. I don't know if I will ever want to buy store-bought again (I might out of necessity, though). This recipe makes 4 loaves of bread, but you can make part of the recipe into loaves and the other part into just about whatever you want: Breadsticks, cinnamon rolls, pizza dough, scones, tortillas, butterflake rolls, soup bowls, french bread...use your imagination. This recipe is fool-proof, if I can make it so can you.

Homemade Bread Recipe
10 1/2 cups flour**
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon salt
3 rounded tablespoons Saf-Instant Yeast (Macey's or Harmons)
3 tablespoons* liquid lecithin (health-food store)
4 cups hot tap water

Mix dry ingredients into mixer (Bosch works really well!) and mix for 1 minute. Check for consistency and add more water or flour if needed. Mix for 5 more minutes. Dump onto counter & shape 4 loaves. Spray pan and place loaves in pan. Let rise for 25 minutes & then bake for 25 minutes @ 350 degrees.

*Squeeze or pour out about 3 quarter-size amounts from bottle instead of measuring because lecithin is SO thick.

**For whole wheat bread, used only 3 cups of hot tap water and 1 cup applesauce. Mix for 10 minutes instead of 5.

Thumb Sucker?

Are we going to have a thumb sucker in our family? Nick's been trying to find his thumb for weeks now, but the last few days he's been fairly successful. In a way I'd almost like it if Nick would find his thumb so that he would have something to appease himself with. On the flip-side, I don't really want the battle of getting him the quit sucking his thumb in a year from now. With a pacifier, you can just take it away (if I was only lucky enough that he would take a paci), but a thumb is always there. Still, Nick does like to try and find it during every waking minute of the day. So the question for all you moms of thumb-suckers...Should I try to discourage him from the thumb by moving it away when he's trying to get it into his mouth?

Weekly Happenings!

Uncle Craig & One Of His Favorite Nephews!

Craig's girlfriend, Britta, and I both recently got new cameras. We had photography 101 on Sunday afternoon taught by Grandpa George (my Dad). We learned a whole lot more about shutter speed & letting more & less light into the camera than I thought we would, but now we have a better comprehension of how the process works. My favorite is the setting that blurs the background or foreground so that the picture looks more professional! Hopefully as I play around with it I will get good enough to abandon having to pay for my kids' pictures to be taken by other people.
Hooray for the Sweet Peace Baby Soother!

Cabin Fever! Seems like all we get is snow, snow, & more snow these days. We got about 15-20" on Valentine's Day in that big storm that I'm sure most of you heard about on the news. Those poor kids that had to spend the night at school...wait, I mean those poor teachers. Love you guys that are still teaching, I only miss it a little. I'm getting restless for spring & planting season!

What a great guy I'm married to! Our neighbors, the Bertagnini's, across the street retired here from California & I'm not sure that they anticipated the amount of snow we get in this area. We always have a good chuckle when it snows because John will be out trying to plow his driveway with a large push squeegy! Good thing Jeff usually has the time in the mornings to go over and dig them out of the giant snow that piles up frequently.

Immunizations

What Was I Thinking???

Last month I called to make Nick's two month check-up and decided I'd better do Ryan's 5 year (a little late since he turned 5 Nov. 21) at the same time. Boy was that a mistake. I've always considered Ryan to be a fairly mellow and very well-mannered boy, so you can imagine my surprise when we had a total freak out at the doctor's office. Nick went first (my mistake) and Ryan got scared becuase Nick got 5 shots. Ryan sort of just cried through the first on in his arm, but it was all over from there. He first tried to run out of the room, then started screaming that he "hates shots," then he said he didn't want to go to kindergarted if he had to get shots. I calmed him down a little, but the second shot in the other arm started the screaming right back up. The doctor came it to see what the problem was and Ryan just started screaming "I HATE YOU, I HATE SHOTS, I HATE YOU!" and I'm not sure that Dr. Miller even knew what to think. At last, while pinned down by three people, Ryan just cried and screamed "I want my Dad, I want my Dad" until the other two shots in the leg were done. If it wasn't so sad, it would've been funny. All in all, a very traumatic experience, but now we're all immunized. Both Ryan and Nick are somewhere in the 50% for weight, but they are both in the 97% for height. The doctor says that he likes to see his patients tall and skinny, better than short and fat!

Thanks Grandma & Grandpa

Grandma RaeMi bought Nick this play gym...and thank goodness she did. It is now a third thing (besides the vacuum and the tub) that can make him happy. The other day he just "played" himself to sleep and I couldn't help but take a picture. Maybe I have a little hope of Nick finding things to pass the time (besides crying).

For Christmas this year, Rex and RaeMi gave us pre-loaded Visa cards so that we could buy whatever we want. I didn't have anything right away that I wanted to go spend it on, so I've just been waiting for something to come up. When the girls in the neighborhood decided to go to Four Chairs for their annual sale (love that place) the other night, I knew I would find my Christmas present. It didn't take long before I picked up not one, but three floral arrangements. I coudln't resists the good deals and I decided that sometimes when you find something you like you just have to buy it or you'll kick yourself later on.

So, Thank You, Thank You Rex & RaeMi!