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.

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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.

Southbank

If you're going to give yourself a tour of London, the best thing to do is walk. You can get most places and see more by skipping the tube and using your feet. One of the best place to go for that walk and see all the best spots is Southbank.


Waterloo is a good starting point. If you go towards the river, you can look across and see Somerset House to the east just a bit, and Parliament to the west. I like to go from Waterloo to Westminster Bridge, then cross the river at the bridge to see Parliament, Westminster Abbey... etc. From there I can either go east to Somerset House, or go west to St James Park, Buckingham Palace, Primrose Hill... and so on.

This is Somerset House:

Somerset House is a great place to go for art exhibitions - so check them out and see what's on when you visit.

Keep walking down Southbank towards Parliament and you end up go by the London Eye, the Southbank Centre, Aquarium and City Hall. I highly recommend doing this twice - once during the day, and again at night. The London Eye, City Hall and Parliament should all be seen at night when all lit up. You can get great pictures from Westminster Bridge.

 So put your walking shoes on, grab a map and get going.

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Just a Song

Slightly obsessed with this song at the moment. That's all I've got for now. Enjoy.

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What to do in London - Borough Market

Maybe this will turn into a regular series for the blog...

Loads of people ask me what they should do in London - given a week or just a day. So going to kick this off with one of my favorite places to hang around.

Borough Market is located just across the road from London Bridge tube station. Easy to get to and find. Its chock full of food, drink, atmosphere, interesting characters, and a fair mix of both locals and tourists.

There are stalls of all sorts - vegetables, fruit, bread, wines, beers, cider, ready to eat food (get the curry from the folks next to the fish monger), meat, pies, candies, jams, cheese and on and on and on...

The market is open daily for lunch hours, but from Thursday to Saturday its open all day. My secret is to go mid afternoon and walk around taking pictures until about 4:30pm. This is when awesome things happen. The vendors start packing up - and giving stuff away cheap or even free that they don't want to or can't keep for the next market day. SCORE.

A few days ago I wandered around at the end of the day and ended up stuffing my camera bag full of 2 huge (HUGE) loaves of artisan bread baked fresh that day. OMG was it good. One was a fancy olive oil and rosemary round loaf. YUM. I paid a quid for each of them. Would have cost about 4 quid a piece had I bought them earlier in the day! Another guy offered me a free pork sausage roll - I was almost tempted to start eating pork again it smelled so good, but instead I helped him hock it to the next person who walked by.

 

My favorite thing to get at the market is mushroom pate. They guys who sell it weren't there when I went the other day (which is good because I am far too poor to buy it!) 

I also recommend hanging around the fish mongers - the larger of the few in the main area. They have a great set up and are really nice folks, will talk your ear off and give great recommendations for what to get and how to cook it. They also like to have a bit of fun with the shoppers by making some of the fish look very much alive.

So if you're coming to London, put this place on your list! And buy some mushroom pate, its to die for.

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Back in London

Been back home in London for just over 2 weeks now. Got off the plane, took a couple buses back to my old house and as I was on the bus just realized how much I felt at home. Reconfirmed that the US just does not feel like home to me anymore, and hasn't since I arrived in the UK in 2006.

Been trying to get out an take photos as much as possible. Hard to do when poor and can barely afford a tube journey into the city, but I've managed a few days out with good results. Click on them to see the image larger!

My favorite from a couple days ago:

And I believe there's a new coffee table book in progress: my favorite old pubs!

And one with a bit more dramatic flare:

More available on the website! And I'm sure many more to come :)

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Calendar is Ready!

The new 2013 Marshmallow Microcosm is ready to go!

I've already sold 5 out of my Etsy shop, so get yours sooner rather than later - I sold them very quickly last year as Christmas got closer.

Order Here!

Even though I'm now living in the UK, they are being shipped out from the US - by my mom, who has done an awesome job so far of getting them out on the same or next day :)


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