Our Little Life Adventures: 2013

Mormon Tabernacle choir and temple square lights

6:42 PM

How to save some dough (eh hem money) and make the best bread

2:53 PM

I'm going to confess. I used to be one of those people who slightly made fun of others who made their own bread. It just seemed too "1950s housewifeish" too much like a leave-it-to-beaver-mom.

I used to say in a gruff ogre voice, "What am I going to do, grind my wheat, to make my bread?"

Well, now I actually do.

I have always loved homemade bread (who doesn't), but it seemed like too much work.

I was wrong.

The fact is, homemade bread not only tastes better, has more nutritional value, and costs less, but it is fast and easy to make. For poor married college students, it should be a staple. Why do people talk about cans of Spaghettios and packages or Ramen, when homemade bread is the real poor-man's (or poor-woman's) food? We make a fresh loaf every few days. It is heaven.

We started making fresh bread by accident. We somehow stumbled on a bread maker. It came from Calvin's parents, and was a wedding gift of sorts. They never used it, and Calvin thought it would be fun. It is fun. There are endless possibilities of delicious breads. After our first loaf, we were hooked.

Here is the recipe I use. It is pretty much impossible to mess up. I substitute and add ingredients all the time and it still turns out great.

Best Bread Ever (really)

* 1 cup lukewarm water

( my grandma says water is lukewarm when you run your finger in the faucet and it is hot but not hot enough to burn you. Hot tub temperature. If you're in doubt, just use cooler or cold water and give it some time to bubble before hitting start on the bread machine.)

* 2 teaspoons of yeast

(affectionately referred to as yeast beasties in our house. Keep them in the freezer for longer shelf life.)

* 3 Tablespoons sugar (or honey, agave, raw sugar, brown rice syrup, maple sugar, pureed banana,)

* 1/4 c vegetable oil (or olive oil or melted butter)

* 1 teaspoon salt

* 3 cups flour (1.5 cups of white flour, 1.5 cups of wheat flour, 2 cups white flour, 1 cup wheat flour, 2 cups wheat flour, one cup white flour, any combination works)

Flax Bread (substitute 1/2 cup ground flax seeds for 1/2 cup flour)

Oat bread (substitute 1/2 -3/4 cup of regular or instant oats for 1/2-3/4 cup flour)

Potato bread (substitute 1/2 cup potato flakes or instant potatoes for 1/2 cup flour. Increase water by at least 1/4 cup.)

Italian bread Add at least a teaspoon of Italian seasoning to the bread mix)

Rosemary bread Add a bunch of fresh or dried rosemary to the bread mix)

Pour water, sugar, and yeast into bread machine.

(We're in the big leagues and use bulk yeast instead of those little packets.)

Let stand 6-12 minutes until it gets bubbly and frothy. (Calvin lives on the wild side and skips this step. He just dumps everything in. However, I find this step usually helps reduce the chances of creating a "brick loaf.")

Add the remaining ingredients. Use bread cycle and hit start.

If you find yourself addicted to making bread you may want to invest in a bucket to hold 25 lbs of flour.
We bought 25 lbs of flour for about 7 bucks.

Some tips:

We are in no way expert bread-makers but we thought we would pass on a few tips.

Some people love using the timer so they have fresh bread when they wake up or come home from work. I find that it is awesome to have fresh bread when you want it, but the longer it sits in the bread machine, usually the denser the loaf. To each their own.

The bread in the picture looks hard as a rock but it is actually very soft on the inside. Never put your bread machine settings to "dark" crust if you can help it. We have never had good results with this.

You don't have to wash the bread pan every time. This sounds gross, but usually the bread is clean and just slips out of the pan. It saves time and effort to wash another thing. Just check the little knob at the bottom of the bread maker to make sure it is free of crumbs.

Bread can be frozen and saved for later.

Bread should be used up in one to two days. Stale bread can be used to make pizza toast, poppers, french toast, or croutons.

Slide a knife over the top of the measuring cup when measuring flour. It helps.

If you are coveting a bread machine but don't have a lot of cash, look at the thrift store. Last time I was there, I saw an entire row of misfit bread machines waiting to be rescued. I didn't test them out, but my guess is many people don't know the value of making bread and tossed the machines because they were taking too much space in the kitchen.

love

True Love

8:18 AM

family

12 weeks

9:47 AM

"One the twelfth week of marriage my true love gave to me.... "

A beautiful bouquet of flowers and my favorite chocolates.

The funny thing is Calvin didn't even realize we had been married for 12 weeks. He wanted to surprise me with flowers and chocolates, "just because." I can't even imagine how he carefully balanced flowers and chocolates while riding his bike in the dark.
I love that man.

A person knows they are fresh if they can measure major life milestones in weeks. 12-week-old braces, a 12-week-old job, a 12-week-old baby. We have a 12-week-old marriage. So far, so good.

Sitting down and talking we both felt like we have been married for a lot longer than three months. (In a good way.) We just fit together. (This is the part where a you imagines a dramatic Jerry MaGuire,"you complete me" scene in your head.)

Now that we are a "seasoned" married couple, I have come to realize a few things about marriage:

Marriage is awesome. Anyone that says being single is better is LYING to you. (This does not mean single people should not enjoy being single. They definitely should. But marriage is in my opinion, better.)
I no longer have to wonder "what will my eternal companion will be like." He is right next to me. I can see his curly ringlets and mega-watt smile.
The first year of marriage is not always a horrible trial in poor communication and power-struggles. Although marriage is life-changing, the first year can actually be amazing.
Sharing the bed is not as easy as it sounds. Before we were married I had imagined we would fall asleep cuddling in each others arms. Truth is this actually happens most nights. But sometimes I get cold and steal all the blankets, which makes Calvin curl up in the fetal position trying to stay warm. Or most nights I come onto "his side" and make it so he is precariously close to the edge of the bed. We thought it was because we sleep on a full-size bed, but the same thing happened even in a King-size bed. I somehow managed to sleep-crawl through all the covers of the King-size bed and curl up next to him, leaving him hanging off the edge again. It takes practice learning to have another human being in bed with you.
Little quirks will pop up that I had no idea about. I cannot stand dirty pillowcases with face-juice stained into them. Calvin cannot stand his peanut butter knife touching the jelly when making a sandwich unless it is absolutely clean. Surprises are just part of married life. I just laugh sometimes.
There's cheaper car insurance.
I will never have to go on a horrible date again.
I am now a BYU football fan.
Marriage is great, even when life kind of sucks. Even if I had a bad day, there is always a man to come home to that will stop what he is doing and give me a hug.
I have an excuse to cook good food. when I was taking a lot of classes I would usually just make a quesadilla or pb&j. Now that I'm married I have a little more time to cook. Plus it's much more inviting for Calvin to come home if there is good food waiting.
My feet never get cold at night anymore.
I love Family Home Evening. We both get off by 7pm, so we have the rest of the night together. It is like an extra date night on Monday.
Inside jokes. We can just say something or even give a look to each other and bust up laughing. It's like our own little language.
It's ok to sing off-tune loudly to songs that pop-up on Pandora. There are no judgers.
We feel like the same people. Except we live together now.