Feb 22 | Recipes
I’m back with an update on my February DIY project! For this month, I decided I wanted to try my hand at making a loaf of bread from the book, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day
. I have been hearing so many good things about the 5 minute bread lately that I knew I had to try it, as the bread I normally make (if I make any at all) is less than spectacular!
I’m going to make a bold statement… this bread is Amazing! It turned out really well. (See picture above, that’s my loaf!) I brought it to my parents for our weekly Sunday dinner and the bread was nearly all eaten before dinner was even started! It was that good! And I didn’t fail like last month 🙂
I made the basic Master Recipe, Boule (Artisan Free-Form Loaf). But since my husband and I like some texture to our bread, I replaced two cups of all-purpose flour for 2 cups whole wheat flour. It was very nice! The loaf I made was quite small, I’m not sure if it was supposed to be that small, but it was a perfect size for us.
The book says to use a pizza peel to transfer your dough onto the pizza stone in the oven, but since I don’t have one, I used parchment paper instead. It worked okay, but I think if I continue making this bread on a regular basis, I’ll invest in a pizza peel to get a better bottom crust and make life easier.
Here’s the link to the Master Recipe I used as well as a great tutorial found on ArtisanBreadinFive.com. So…do you think you’d give it a try? It’s so simple and delicious!
Here’s my list of 2011 projects if you missed them:
January: Make homemade pasta. I received a pasta maker attachment for my Kitchenaid a while ago and I’d love to try it out finally!
February: Learn to make 5 minute artisan bread. (Borrow book from library)
March: Create a headboard for our bed. I’ve been meaning to do this for years! The fabric is waiting in my drawer.
April: Sew pillow covers (with no buttons/zippers) to go with the new headboard
May: Make cupcakes from scratch (like the ones you can buy from a cake shop with all that icing! )
June: Make homemade Febreze (to test out on my husband’s soccer gear!)
July: Make homemade deodorant.
August: Make homemade vanilla extract (make for gifts)
September: Can some tomato sauce
October: Make homemade oatmeal. Have you got a good recipe for me to try?
November: Make homemade mayonnaise.
December: Make hard lotion bars for gifts
Jan 31 | Cleaning, Easy DIY, Household Tips, Recipes
Mandy wrote in and gave me a recipe for homemade stain remover that she'd love to share with everyone! She says it works wonderfully but remains economical and environmentally friendly! Love That! Here's the recipe:
Homemade Stain Remover
Mix it up and put the mixture in spray bottles. Spray it on a stain, then wash as usual.
Have you got a DIY project or recipe that you'd love to share? Send you idea or post to me here.
Jan 25 | Recipes
It’s time for my update on how my first DIY project of 2011 went!
Let me start out by saying that the above picture is not the pasta I made. Unfortunately I’m not off to a great start in my projects as my pasta failed! I think I chose the wrong pasta recipe. It would not feed through my Kitchenaid pasta attachment! I wasn’t about to give up so I tried rolling it out with a rolling pin. Even then, it was so tough, I couldn’t get it thin. Sigh…
But I’m not defeated and I will be attempting it again in the future with a different pasta recipe. I’ll make sure to do another post once I’ve succeeded!
I did manage to make a good pasta dish though. Here’s the recipe I made up:
Creamy Pesto Veggie Pasta
- Pasta of your choice
- cooked chicken (enough for your family)
- carrots
- Zucchini
- Broccoli
- Green pepper
Cook the chicken. Cut vegetables into nice bite sized pieces. Saute all the vegetables in a bit of olive oil. Meanwhile, cook your pasta of choice. Make the sauce while everything is cooking:
- 1 cup milk
- heaping teaspoon of prepared pesto
- teaspoon of flour
- fresh ground pepper
Combine the chicken and vegetables. Pour the sauce over top. Heat just before boiling. Serve the chicken and vegetables over pasta. Enjoy!
In case you missed my list of DIY projects I’d like to try in 2011, here’s my list! Have you had any failed experiments lately?
image source here
Jan 7 | Easy DIY
Do you remember last year when I made that homemade coffee creamer? And I said I was going to make a regular feature out of making something from scratch, which I can easily buy from the store? ha! Obviously didn’t happen. I still love the idea but I think I set myself up for failure when I said it was going to be a regular, perhaps bi-weekly feature!
I was re-inspired to get something going again, by Money Saving Mom, when she came up with a list of 12 different DIY projects she’d like to attempt through the year. One project a month. Now that I can do!
I thought it was a perfect excuse to try some things I’ve been wanting to try for quite a while! Years even! I made sure they were simple enough to make or do in only hours (or less). I’ll post about each month’s project on the fourth Tuesday of every month to let you know how it went. Here’s my list of projects:
January: Make homemade pasta. I received a pasta maker attachment for my Kitchenaid a while ago and I’d love to try it out finally!
February: Learn to make 5 minute artisan bread. (Borrow book from library)
March: Create a headboard for our bed. I’ve been meaning to do this for years! The fabric is waiting in my drawer.
April: Sew pillow covers (with no buttons/zippers) to go with the new headboard
May: Make cupcakes from scratch (like the ones you can buy from a cake shop will all that icing! :))
June: Make homemade Febreze (to test out on my husband’s soccer gear!)
July: Make homemade deodorant.
August: Make homemade vanilla extract (make for gifts)
September: Can some tomato sauce
October: Make homemade oatmeal. Have you got a good recipe for me to try?
November: Make homemade mayonnaise.
December: Make hard lotion bars for gifts
Have you got any projects you’d like to try out this year?
. I have been hearing so many good things about the 5 minute bread lately that I knew I had to try it, as the bread I normally make (if I make any at all) is less than spectacular!