Tuesday, February 24, 2009

What was I thinking...

This morning when we woke up, we found Anna completely naked in the bathroom trying to get onto the toilet. That in combination with all the other signals she's been giving us must mean that she is ready to be potty trained, right? Oh, I hope that I'm not getting myself in too deep...

Friday, February 6, 2009

White Bread is Evil! (sort of)

Now before you blow me off thinking I'm about to go one a rant about how white bread is causing the decline of civilization, I won't be doing that. I like white bread. I eat white bread. I even let my children eat white bread. So why is white bread evil? BECAUSE IT IS TOO EASY TO MAKE AND TASTES TOO GOOD!

As you may know, I'm obsessed with whole grains and love to make whole grain bread. In fact, other than the test recipes I am doing, I almost never make white bread. Until Anna got diarrhea. She isn't sick, so we are having to battle it with diet rather than meds. That means less fiber, or no whole grains. And since I had very little in the way of white flour baked goods, I made white sandwich bread from the Joy of Cooking. If I say so myself, it turned out perfectly. The texture was incredible: light, fluffy, and perfectly even throughout. So, why can't my whole wheat bread turn out so wonderfully? *Pout, whine*

My beautiful bread, the day after baking:

 

 

The one good thing that this has taught me is that I must have improved considerably since I started making bread a few years ago. All that work trying to get my whole wheat bread to turn out has helped me tremendously to know how bread works. That and bread flour is an amazing thing and should be used instead of the ubiquitous all purpose when making bread. It is called bread flour for a reason!

 

By the way, if any one has any suggestions on how to help a two year old to be "regular", please let me know. So far the "bland food" diet (bananas, applesauce, white bread, etc) hasn't done much. Neither have the probiotics we've been giving her (she's in a no yogurt phase).

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

What's Wrong with This Picture?

The other day in our junk mail, we got lovely advertisement for heaters that just had me laughing (or cringing). Can you figure out why? (Yes, the photo is so very Photoshopped, but that's not what had me laughing. If you know anything about woodworking or the Amish, you'll see what I mean.)

Monday, February 2, 2009

Go do bread, Mommy

Anna loves glue and today she asked to glue pictures to some paper. With a Burpee catalogue and a glue stick, we were ready to go. But as I tried to help her put glue on the pictures and put them on the paper, she shoos me away and says "Go do bread, Mommy". I think I've been making a little too much bread lately...