Saturday, February 16, 2013

Idiot Proof Bread

This is my go to bread recipe - it makes a decent sized round loaf. It's for ripping apart rather than slicing all perfect.

3 cups Flour (use whatever flour you want - all purpose, wheat, half and half, bread... I pretty much always use all purpose)
1 cup Warm water
1 Tbls or 1 packet Yeast (not rapid rise, the regular kind)
1 Tbls Honey
1 tsp salt

Optional: Onions, herbs, cheese... etc. You can add whatever strikes you to this basic mix. I tend to use onions, with a bit of garlic powder.
 
1. In a measuring cup mix the warm water and honey til the honey is all dissolved. Dump the yeast into the water, let sit about 15 minutes so the yeast can bubble up and become active.

2. While that's sitting, grab a medium sized mixing bowl, and whisk (cause I don't sift) the flour, salt, and any herbs or garlic powder if you want it (basically anything dry you can dump in now). Form a well in the middle.

3. After your yeast is ready, dump into the well with the dry stuff. Use your hands to mix it up as much as possible in the bowl.

4. Dump the dough onto a floured surface and start kneading it. It doesn't need a lot of kneading, and you'll probably have a bit of flour and bits that don't perfectly incorporate, don't stress over it. Form into a ball.

5. Put it back in the bowl - can oil the bowl if there isn't any flour left in it so the dough doesn't stick while its rising.

6. Cover with a damp towel, put in a warmish place, and let rise for about 20-30 minutes.

7. Turn the oven on to 350 F.

8. After it's risen, you can either take it out and knead some onions into it, then let it rise again another 20 minutes or put it in the oven if not adding onions.

9. Put on a cookie sheet (I put cornmeal on the pan), then slice an X into the top. This lets the dough expand as it cooks, and makes it look all rustic, bakery like.

10. Bake for 20-30 minutes, check after 20, might take 30 based on your oven and the density of your dough.

Rip off chunks and eat hot out of the oven.




pigeon point lighthouse art mushrooms art

Sunday, February 3, 2013

New town, new website

I've moved. Again.

I'm now living on my mother's ancestral family farm in Johnson City, TN... or Gray... not sure which. The mailing address could be either. One of those places.

My niece and her chickens.
Its not a cool kind of farm with cows and chickens, although there are cows across the street at another farm, and I hope to get chickens one day. Its an old tobacco farm. Some other cousin or something cultivates it.



Trying to launch my photo biz here. Dead of winter not a great time to start, snowing like mad last couple days. But not having another job yet has given me plenty of time to work on my new website:

http://www.heatherapplegatephotography.com

Check it out. Especially if you happen to live in the Johnson City, Tennessee area.

My new nephew. 4 weeks in this photo.