Wednesday, October 31, 2012

My first loaf

Growing up in Germany gave me an acquired taste for homemade, European bread. The bread I love is crusty on the outside and soft in the inside. Bread that does not come in a plastic bag that lasts for weeks.Thankfully, Seattle is a city in the US, that this kind of bread can be bought, even at the grocery store...but at a price. I hate to even admit it but $3.69 is the cheapest I have found a loaf of this good bread, and it can go upwards to $5.00 a loaf.
I have thought of for a long time making my own, but I have not had the time, energy, etc. to pull it off. Till today! I am going to attribute my success for Luca's preschool (bus pick up at 8:45am and drop off at 12:15 pm- M-Th) and then this super easy "No-knead bread" recipe.
Well, here it is...my first loaf. I haven't tasted it yet so hopefully it is a good as it looks. I hope this is the first of many. (it is a bread you let sit overnight, so I just think, ya, every other day I will just make the dough) I am sure I won't make it every other day but hopefully more than I have in the past. The recipe is below in case you want to try it!


Recipe: No-Knead Bread

Published: November 8, 2006
Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery
Time: About 1½ hours plus 14 to 20 hours’ rising
3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.
1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.
2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.
3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.
4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.
Yield: One 1½-pound loaf.

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Juliette 8.5 months

Here is a few recent pictures of Juliette. My highlight from yesterday with her, I was getting her undressed for a bath and I pulled her arms out of her shirt and started to lift it over her head, she grasped the shirt and lifted it off HERSELF! Yay Juliette!


She has also started to pull herself up at the crib so she fights going down to sleep a lot harder now. She just stands there at the crib and cries, eventually she lets go and lays down.

Friday, October 26, 2012

Harvest Party!

Tonight is the Harvest Party at Bethany! Here is a photo from the Fall Fest at Bethany North last weekend.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Balancing Act


During rest time Luca balanced all of these bowls on his bed. He is very creative with this time. And likes to do lots of "magic tricks" like this, as he calls them!

Here comes trouble:)





Juliette is ALL over the place these days. She can crawl all around the house and pulls herself to standing on just about anything! She especially likes to get into the fireplace (no fire in there but lots of dirt and pull open the DVD player) It is such a crazy experience for us. Luca wasn't ever doing this and we are celebrating her mobility but is is also crazy!

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Playing around this morning




 Luca took this picture of Juliette looking like she is saying "uh-oh"


Juliette and Luca



Juliette ate her first solid meal yesterday. She looks so cute in the big chair. Here is a side by side of her and Luca when he was about her age in that chair.

Butterfly House

We went to the Science center and to the Butterfly house yesterday. Luca thought it was beautiful! Luca also like seeing the dinosaur exhibit and loved the show about fire (combustion). Luca said the presenter was a good fireman!



Monday, October 15, 2012

sleeping baby and teeth!

 Juliette fell asleep feeding while we were waiting to go somewhere. So sweet as she rarely falls asleep in my arms these days!



Do you see those top two teeth? She has to on the bottom too! so cute and she is loving to eat already!

Friday, October 12, 2012

pumpkin patch








We went on a birthday party field trip with the buddy school this morning. Naomi was the birthday girl and all the kids had fun picking out a pumpkin (Luca's is 17 pounds because he wanted a giant one), jumping in the bouncy house, (thanks to my 39 week pregnant  friend Jamie who went in the bounce house with Luca and the other kids), 2 hay rides, and a pumpkin cupcake muffins.
The bummer of the day was we had to go to Children's hospital afterwards because an essential clip on Luca's AFO broke off last night. He wore his old Tweety bird boot at the pumpkin patch on his right foot but his jungle boot had to get fixed today! Anyway, that added 2 hours to our day and I got home exhausted at 3 pm.

pumpkin patch

Thursday, October 11, 2012

8 month Juliette

Sweet Juliette turned 8 months old a few days ago. She is growing and changing so fast. She can now crawl all over the house and is pulling herself up to try to stand. She has four teeth. She sleeps soundly through most nights and likes to eat bananas, yogurt, mum-mums, and pears.
Luca has learned quickly to run away if she comes near him because she likes to grab clothes, faces, and hair! She loves climbing all over people too!
Luca cheers for her nearly every time she crawls and seems to be as surprised and we are that she can do it. He says, "she is crawling...good job Juliette, come here Juliette!"
She has also acquired the nickname, Juju. But  she is still called Juliette more often than not. She defiantly knows her name! We are all loving her big smile, social nature, and her laugh! We are getting more comments that she is looking a lot like her daddy! Certainly her blue blue eyes!
Luca continues to love school and the school bus ride! John and I are soaking in the rest and quietness it brings 4 mornings a week! He told me today that they had a fire drill, sang songs, hear a story about a not so scary monster, and had kixs and goldfish for snack. We are so grateful for this positive school experience!







Sunday, October 7, 2012

Betsy and Sophia









Betsy and Sophia  came to visit this last week. They left on Sat. and it was a great time together. Here are a few pictures.