Wordless Wednesday #15

"High Steppin' Kitty"

Garden Stragglers

Found a few stragglers in the garden this morning. Our carrots were slow growing, and we'd pretty much figured the garden was done before they really started shooting up. Then the deer and rabbits found the garden and ate most of the tops off the carrots, so we only got a few. This morning I stepped into the garden to see if I could spy anything of interest. Some of the carrot tops had sprouted again.

And I learned a couple more things about gardening-
1. It's really hard to pull carrots out of the ground without the benefit of their big bushy tops.
2. Your fingernails probably won't thank you for scrabbling them out of the dirt with your bare hands...But your kids might.

We have a winner!

Congratulations!
Email me if you see this because there isn't an email address with your profile that I could see!

Just a note to say...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/daisybliss/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Tomorrow I'll announce the winner of my giveaway! Today was sort of busy and I didn't get a chance to pull a name, but the comments are closed as of early this morning.

HBinFive: Pumpkin Pie Brioche

I'd been wanting to get the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day co-authored by Zoe François and Jeff Hertzberg for a while. Then I noticed that a new book was coming also, Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day. Recently, I got a great deal on both of them from a book club I belong to. You know how sometimes you want something for a while and finally get around to getting it for yourself, and then it is sort of anti-climatic because you spent so long building it up and you're let down and wish you hadn't spent the money on it? Well, I certainly know that feeling, but I'm happy to say that wasn't the case at all with these books. I'm so happy with them! I look through them and want to try nearly every recipe. Then I came across a group called HBinFive that has been organized to cook its way through Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day. Every two weeks they are going to pick a recipe to try out, and everyone can share their yummy creations. So what else was there to do but join in? Although the group isn't officially starting baking until January, there are going to be recipes posted for November and December. I figured I'd give this a test run along with the others who are getting their feet wet early. As usual, I had an eager helper for my bread-making efforts. He liked the picture on the front of the "Healthy Breads" book because he saw that the lady on the front also has a "helper" but said, "It's not Finn."

The Pumpkin Pie Brioche recipe has been posted as a bonus recipe on the Big Black Dog blog (where the HBinFive group is originating from). This recipe had caught my eye in the book, and I was going to make it as one of my first recipes anyhow. So this worked out well for me. Unfortunately, Paul doesn't like pumpkin! So he'll have to suffer through this one, but I'm sure he'll be completely on board by the time we get around to the chocolate espresso whole wheat bread.

I was able to get some white wheat flour from Kroger's yesterday when we took a little shopping trip out of town--can't get it locally. I've been wanting to try this white wheat flour since I heard about it, but lack of local availability had hindered me. I was pleased to find Kroger had several brands to choose from and even has their own store label of it. That and some canned pumpkin were the only ingredients I didn't already have on hand.

Yesterday, my parents picked up some 6 quart covered tubs for me from Sam's Club that I can mix and store my dough in. They were a steal compared to what some of the baking supply sites charge. Amazon is offering a set of two for $16.95, but they are a pre-order, and the page says they may not ship for 7-10 weeks. I saw several posts on different boards from folks who said they found containers at Sam's Club. So I was more than happy when my parents picked these up for me at the incredible deal of 3 tubs with covers for $12! Now I just need a bigger fridge, so I can get multiple batches of dough going at the same time.

Before I could get my pumpkin pie brioche groove on, I had to bake the dough that I put in the fridge the other day--Soft whole wheat sandwich bread. The recipe makes enough dough for two loaves and considering the way my family can tear through a loaf of fresh bread, I just put them both in the oven today to free up the space in my fridge so I could get the other dough going. The only problem I'm having so far with the book is that you are supposed to wait until the bread has completely cooled before slicing--so not happening! I like that the wheat bread is made using honey instead of sugar, and it's got a lovely crust for cutting up for sandwiches. And the taste? Delicious! Tested and approved by each member of the quality control team family.

I haven't baked the pumpkin pie brioche dough yet, but I'm really looking forward to trying it. The dough is finishing its rise right now and then I will stick it in the fridge overnight and hopefully make a loaf tomorrow. The recipe is supposed to make two 2lb loaves.

Ps. Don't forget that my one year blogiversary giveaway ends tonight. Enter here if you haven't already!

Edited to add:
I got up before everyone else today to make a loaf of the pumpkin pie brioche. I didn't have any raw sugar like it called for as a topping, so I just used sugar and some pumpkin pie spice and sprinkled it liberally over the top of the bread. It smelled delicious as it was baking. As usual, I couldn't wait for it to cool and had to cut myself off a slice while it was toasty warm and slap some butter on it. Yummy! The sugar and spice topping made a crunchy sweet crust on the top of the bread that is my favorite part. Would anyone miss the top if I just cut it off to eat first? As several others had mentioned the pumpkin flavor not coming through very strongly, I talked Paul into trying it. He said it was good tasting, but I think the thought of eating pumpkin still bothered him because he didn't tuck into it like he would have another loaf of bread.

And because I got a lot of comments about the containers I got from Sam's Club, here's a better picture of the container showing the dough right before it went into the fridge. Don't count on the employees at Sam's to know what you are looking for because my parents asked about them and couldn't get any help. Eventually they located them in the restaurant supplies area. Made by Rubbermaid in three sizes--the six quart size happens to be the medium size. There are markings on the side showing the quarts.

Wordless Wednesday #14

I'm not hedging around anymore

So here's the promised little cutie. She told me she wants to live with you. I think she's scared of the grabby little hands that tried to claim her as their own when she made her debut from my sewing room. I followed the tutorial at matsutake to make this. I thought she needed ears when she was done so she had something to wear her bow on. Do hedgehogs have ears? I have to admit that she's probably going to be the only one of her kind that issues from my sewing room. The tutorial was great, but I'm not a fan of hand sewing. My fingertips are still sensitive from the amount of sewing required to get her ruffles attached to her little hedgie body. I won a giveaway a few months back from Bit of Whimsy Dolls for a set of fat quarters. So I finally cut into those for the fabric, and I think she's the prettiest little pastel hedgehog I've ever met. Like I already mentioned, she's a bit shy and might not be the best playmate for young children. But I think you'll find her quiet and very easy to take care of. She even comes with her own nibbles. A pair of sweet strawberries made from a tutorial found over here at Embroideroo. (If you visit her blog, be sure to check out the pictures of the birds she feeds. She has parrots come to her bird feeders. I'm so jealous! But she's also never seen a humming bird in person, so I do have that. But I really want wild parrots...*sigh*)

So there you have it. That's my one year blogiversary gift I'm offering to one lucky reader. Because I've been so tardy in posting pictures, I've decided to extend the deadline for entering by just a couple days. So I'll leave it open until Saturday evening on the 14th. Enter by commenting on my previous post. It's not a big thing, but I hope she will bring a little bright spot to whomever gets to claim her just like your comments bring a bright spot to my day!