Bread!

So I said I would do bread for the next recipe. Every week or so, depending on how often we need it, I make bread. I don't buy it at the store. I now have the time to make it at home, and it saves money. And it's super tasty.

The recipe I use is also my mother-in-laws, same as the cookies. It makes 4 loaves, but I only have 2 loaf pans, so I get 3 huge loaves!

Bread:
7 cups flour
2 Tbsp powdered milk
2/3 cup sugar
2 Tbsp salt
2 Tbsp yeast.

Mix



5 1/2 cups hot water
6 Tbsp oil
mix again









Add 6 more cups of flour, mix and then put dough into well-oiled bowl.







Let rise until doubled (about 45 mins.)








Punch down and let rise 40 mins.








(This may be gross, but I put a bit of oil on my hands every time I punch the dough down. Less of it gets on my hands.) Punch down, let rise 20 mins. Punch down, let rise 15 mins (this is when I turn on the oven-350 degrees). Place dough on clean surface, cut into 4 pieces and place in loaf pans. (Like I said I only do 3.) Place in oven and bake 30 mins. Take out of oven and place on wire baking sheet to cool, about 10 mins. Take out of pans and enjoy! (I keep one loaf out and put the other's in gallon sized bags and freeze them)


And then I make awesome grilled cheese!

Cookies!

As promised, I will be giving you a food post. I decided I wanted cookies today, so I made chocolate chip. Its a staple and we always eat them and about every person I know likes them. So here goes!

Chocolate Chip Cookies
(my mother-in-laws recipe with a few of my modifications)

2 cups butter (instead of shortening. Yuck!)
3 cups brown sugar
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
6 eggs

Mix

3 tsp baking soda
3tsp salt
3 tsp vanilla
6 cups flour
(I put 5 1/2 in and then add little by little to get the right consistency)

Add chocolate chips. There isn't a specific amount, so what I do is keep my chocolate chips in a quart size jar, for snacking whatever, and when I make this recipe I dump the whole thing in. Just the right amount, but if you like more, or less, do what you want.

This is a lot of cookies. Like I said, it's my mother -in-laws recipe, and she has 9 kids. But I just make the whole thing and then bake 2 dozen and then put the rest in 2 quart freezer bags and save them for later in the freezer, so when I have a craving I can just take the dough out and I don't have to make the recipe all over again. So, do what you want. You can half it, third it, whatever. It's easier with my Bosch mixer (which I love!) than when I used to do it by hand. You can make the larger recipe much easier.

Step 1: Butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, and eggs mixed together.

Step 2: Mix in baking powder, salt, vanilla, flour and chocolate chips.

Step 3: Place on pan and bake at 375 for 10 mins.
(Remember to preheat the oven while mixing all the ingredients)

And the beautiful end resultSO GOOD!

Next time, I show you how to make bread. I don't buy store bought, I make my own.

A more productive day

I've been thinking about doing something fun and productive with my blog. I love to cook and bake and experiment so maybe when I do these I will post it on here with a recipe, some pictures, and maybe a video if you're really lucky. It'll give me something to do and maybe I'll get some more followers! So, look for those updates :)

Free movie!

They're showing UP! tomorrow night at WSU-Davis 9 PM. You should go! I'll be there

Giveaway!

My friend is going to have a giveaway once she hits 50 followers, so since I am so anxious I'm telling everyone to become a follower of her blog so we all have a better chance of winning. And no worries, she's awesome, so you should be following her blog anyway, right? Here's the link to her blog

Updated player!

I decided that after the post on the top 10 albums, I should add some of that music to my player on here. So, if you want to take a listen to some of my favorite music, it's all yours :). Not all the songs are off the favorite albums, because they didn't necessarily have them. But, still good, all the same.

Enjoy!