Allergies or colds

I don't know, but we've been sick for a few days. Just when we think we are feeling better, a short trip to town convinces us otherwise.
Two days ago I had a very low grade fever for the day. Yesterday I felt better, so I baked some bread!
I did not take pictures initially, because the dough was very stiff and crumbly and I thought oh great, another paper weight. (Yes, I know, usually even bad bread is good.)
However, after reading several googled pages, I put the bread in the microwave with a pitcher of hot water.
It rose!
This is how it looked after letting it rise in the pan, using the same method.

Here it is out of the oven.

A little lopsided, but one of the better looking loaves I've made so far. :-)

And here it is after I sliced and toasted a piece today.

Yummy!

I think we had enough rain yesterday for May flowers. It rained all day!

Blessings to you all. ♥

Still a lot to learn

I am pretty sure I am the only person who goes through TWO SHIRTS when making bread.

I just can't seem to get the 'smooth elastic' look I remember my granny's bread having, without getting flour and dough all over myself and the kitchen. If we could have made the counters just a little shorter, then maybe it would be better; but oh well.

I made the oatmeal cheese bread again. I am pretty sure this will become our main bread, so hopefully I can eventually get it right.

The loaves rose over the sides of the bread pan and got on the bottom of the oven. After putting the bread in to bake, I found that I had not gotten all of the bread dough off the bottom.
Live and learn.

I'll put this post in draft until I can take a picture of the finished bread. Maybe. Ha!

Okay, update one. The house is smelling pretty good right now....

Update two. Doesn't look too bad.

Hubby said the crust was too hard. I put butter on it when it came out of the oven. Next time I'll try wrapping it in damp towels...
Probably when it fell and I had to kind of rework it in the pan, that didn't help.

It is still a lovely, blessed Sunday; even if it did warm up twenty degrees in four hours. Hope your Sunday is safe and blessed, too. ♥

Practice may make perfect.

But I'm not there yet.
Did better today, but as you can see I am not the perfect baker.

They are a kind of oatmeal bread. One with cheese and one without. As you can see, they fell just a little bit. I researched and this means I used too much liquid. It was 80 degrees in the kitchen, but I had a fan on (not on the counter or the bread), and that helped a lot.

Until I put them in the oven, they seemed to be raising normally. The cheese one didn't raise as much, but I sort of expected that, too.

This is what the plain oatmeal loaf looked like when I sliced it.

:-)

Hubby and youngest boy liked them both, so that is success enough for me!

We got some rain last night and today, so I played hooky from the weeding. I'm sure I'll regret it tomorrow, but it was getting really hard to get out there every day. I am not a proper country girl.
Oh well. I'll probably be out tomorrow unless we get more rain. I am thankful for the rain and more thankful that we didn't get the bad weather others had. Praying that the Good Lord looks out for them.

Hope you all have a wonderful, blessed weekend. ♥

So now that we have cupboards

I've tried my hand at baking. I know this seems weird, but now I can clear my counter enough to make me want to try.

Joanne over at My Random Insanities was kind enough to send me a pie crust shield when I asked her about one she had shown in a post. I promised her I would take pictures, and I did. :-)

This is the pie before it went in the oven. Not completely right, but pretty close.

This is right after it came out of the oven. And yes, it is pumpkin pie. It smelled great! We like it any time of the year. This year we may even try growing our own pie pumpkins, but I think I need a pressure canner for that?

Yes, I overcooked it and scorched it slightly, even with the pie crust shield. I can't draw a straight line with a ruler, either. I think when I checked it the second time it was actually done, but I left it in another five minutes because I thought the knife didn't come out clean.

Oh well. Live and learn.

My other baking foray I only took two pictures because it was a disaster and I wasn't going to share it. I will definitely need more practice with kneading and adding flour and bread baking. That and figuring out how to get bread to rise when the temperature in the kitchen isn't more than 55 degrees Fahrenheit with a heater on.
I used the oven and a pan of hot water that I changed a couple times, but nothing would have helped, haha. I know now that I added waay too much flour (I added only as much as the recipe called for, plus a tiny bit because the dough was so sticky!); and I kneaded too much, probably because of that sticky part. I swear I never saw the 'smooth and elastic' form that the recipes tell you to look for.

Anyway, after FIVE or SIX hours of trying to get the bread to rise, it looked like this.

It was already 7:30 at night and I wanted to get it baked before bed, so I started the oven and let whatever might happen, happen.

This is how it looked coming out of the oven. My first loaf of cheese bread. (I LOVE Cheese Bread!) ;-)

It is quite heavy. Can't eat more than two slices at once. But it tastes good and I'll try it again.
I'll be trying some of the bread and pie recipes that Gail over at At The Farm sent me, too. :-)

Have a wonderful Sunday and stay warm if you're getting hit by that next cold front! ♥