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Sunday, March 18, 2012

Best Whole Wheat Bread


My friend, Breezy, had me over one day to learn how to make her scrumptious bread. I have to share it with you! First, though, you need to know that my old wheat grinder just couldn't grind the wheat fine enough. It was worth it to me to invest in a new NutriMill - and I'm so glad I did! It ground the wheat into the finest flour I've ever seen! And it made amazing bread - one would never guess it to be freshly ground whole wheat! So, here's the recipe & instructions:

BREEZY'S BREAD (makes 4 loaves)

put in kitchen aid in the following order:
2/3 cup oil
2/3 cup honey
mix

most important: perfectly warm water ... very warm - put your wrist under it and be able to leave it there for 10 seconds

Add to oil and honey:
5 cups warm water
3 HEAPING TBLSP yeast

barely mix it

let rise for 20 minutes so it looks something like this:


Grind wheat. I use about 8 cups whole white wheat to equal 12 cups flour.

12 Cups freshly ground whole WHITE wheat

Add 4 cups flour, mix. Add 5 more c flour, then 2 Tbls salt

add more flour to equal about 12 cups - just enough so it pulls away, but is still sticky

knead at low speed for 12 minutes

turn on oven light to heat up the oven a little or heat oven to 170 then turn it off
spray pam on the bread pans
pour oil on the counter, coat hands in oil and knead dough with hands into a giant loaf.
Divide into 4 equal loaves, then shape each loaf and put in prepared pan.
Place all 4 pans on middle shelf. Let rise in oven 30minutes or until dough is risen to desired height. Leave bread in oven and turn to 350 for 24-30 minutes.
When it comes out of the oven, let it sit on the counter in the pan for 5 minutes. Dump out of pans and let cool till it's cool to the touch, but slightly warm so there gets a little moisture in the bag you put it in to store it. This freezes well.

Enjoy!













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Monday, March 12, 2012

what I'm doing up at 4am

well, I just never went to sleep. Well, I think I slept for maybe half an hour because I think I dreamt that I was supposed to get on a cruise, but there was a scary guy I was hiding from and so I couldn't get my boarding pass. Anyway, I'm in the spare room - was Bryan's room - and here's what I've done so far:
read a bit. Turned off the light to go back to sleep. Turned the light on and walked down the hallway to hear the girls giggling. It was 1am. They have to get up at 5:00. But it made me happy to hear them making memories together. Went back to bed. turned off the light. Turned the light back on, finished the book. turned off the light. Lasted about 15 minutes. turned the light back on. Ate some grapes. folded laundry. turned the light off. Got back up. wrote a letter to Sierra who turns 18 when she wakes up. checked my calendar for the week. No more turning off the light. I have 44 minutes till everyone gets up.
A few years ago I couldn't sleep unless I took tylenol pm every night. I SO don't want to get back into the I-need-medicine-to-sleep mode. But I'll tell you, after a sleepless night Friday too, I'm taking tylenol pm tonight! Ugh.

Happy Thought:
"I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe in manicures. I believe in overdressing. I believe in primping at leisure and wearing lipstick. I believe in pink. I believe happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day, and... I believe in miracles."
-Audrey Hepburn




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Friday, March 9, 2012

kids make me smile

Our 5-year-old grandson, Jace, rode 6-hours in a car with us home from the funeral. Azure, our 14-year-old daughter was in the back seat with him. At one point they had ahold of my iPad and this is what came of it:
(obviously Jace took this of himself)
(I wonder if this driver knew he was being captured on camera)
(seat belt a little tight, Jace?)
(I know. It runs in the family)

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Thursday, March 8, 2012

on relationships

No doubt, relationships are more important than things. SOME things are important because they remind us of relationships. I have a doily my mother-in-law crocheted for me. It's more important to me now that she's gone. I have my parents' quilt that my grandmother made for them for their wedding. That's important to me. (hey siblings - if you're reading this, I wonder if you already knew that I have that ...???) But the older I get the more firmly I know that relationships are more important than anything AND that they take work. There's not a single relationship that is worth anything that doesn't take work. So I know this: It's worth any sacrifice, even sacrifice of my ego, to make relationships solid and positive and lasting. And I'm committed to work harder on them.


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Wednesday, March 7, 2012

more on 30 years

30 years is so long that it doesn't even make sense to me. I don't even feel like I'm 30 years old! So being married 30 years - well, I just can't wrap my mind around that one. But here's something great about 30 years: we were both great with celebrating quietly - neither of us felt like we had to do something big. Our anniversary was the day after the funeral, so we put some of our plans on hold, but still enjoyed cake,
lunch at Joes Crab Shack,
a chick flick romance, and a kiss or two of our own...
Happy Anniversary Brad! Here's to 30 more!!!


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Tuesday, March 6, 2012

In His Arms

My mother-in-law passed away and her funeral was Saturday. It wasn't unexpected, but there's a hole with her gone.
I feel great joy knowing she's in a realm of peace and love. Brad (my husband) told me about a beautiful statue that's in the funeral home. It's an old woman reaching through a veil while waving good-bye the other way ... on the other side of the veil she's a young woman again, bathed in light. Tis is how I picture her passing.
It was really sweet seeing family and friends. I imagine she was right in the midst of us, happier than ever because we were all together.


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Monday, March 5, 2012

comparison

So Brad and I celebrated our 30-year-wedding anniversary this past weekend and it was lovely! And I thought it would be great to make a mini-wedding cake (even though I'm not a cake decorator) and put our original cake topper on it. It took me an ENTIRE day. I am happy that I did it, but I don't have even the tiniest desire to ever decorate a cake again! Ugh.
The symbol for 30 years is PEARL, thus all the pearl candy on here. So anyway, I had some left-over stuff and my 14-year-old, Azure asked if she could use it. In about 20 minutes she created this:
I think this is proof that "some of us have it and some of us dont"! She's amazing.


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