Fun Weekend

Friday almost everyone headed to Iowa where my sisters and sister in-laws were having a combined shower for our youngest son and his fiancée and our youngest daughter and her fiancé. P left mid morning on Friday and the other 4 left around 6:30 that evening.

Of course, as always, when everyone has left me someone must come to stay here. So our second son J drove down from his work to stay here this weekend. Now son J. not only loves to cook, he also is an excellent cook. Soon after he arrived Friday evening he started a No-Knead pizza dough, which requires 12 to 24 hours of rise time.

Saturday morning J started loads and loads of laundry. He told me it is more convenient to do laundry here rather in the laundry room in the basement of his apartment building where he has to share the washer and dryer with the other three tenants. After that he went to the grocery store for the rest of the groceries we would need. When he returned he started marinating the chicken for Sunday’s Tandoori Chicken.

Early Saturday afternoon we made Chex-Mix. Then he took my laptop apart in order to replace the CD/DVD drive and the Mouse Touch Pad. For Saturday supper we made the pizza using the No-Knead dough and placing thinly sliced tomato, fresh basil and fresh mozzarella cheese. It was so simple and yet so fresh and delicious. After supper J started a batch of No-Knead bread and Sunday’s breakfast, a batch of overnight yeast waffles.

Sunday morning we had a GREAT breakfast of home made, not store bought, waffles. They were so light I thought they might fly from my plate and fly around the room. Lunch was Tandoori chicken done on the grill, along with grilled mushrooms, zucchini squash, cherry tomatoes, red pepper, and red onion, and bulgar wheat fixed like couscous with a couple cloves of garlic, ½ a red onion and ¼ cup of diced red pepper. We are now both trying to stay awake until it is time to bake the No-Knead bread.

The two couples arrived home from Iowa late this afternoon just as J was baking the bread. After a supper of hamburgers done on the grill everyone headed to their homes to get ready for another week of normal activity. P is staying in Iowa over Sunday night and coming home Monday.

So my fun weekend comes to an end. Well not exactly to a complete end, I will be having some delicious bread with cheese for breakfast.

P.S. This past weekend reminded me of the one week a year I would spend at my parents. Before my mother was in a nursing home, I would spend a week at home with both of them. After Mom was in a nursing home I would spend a week with my dad. We would spend our days doing the same thing that J and I did this weekend. Of course our days would always include visiting mom in the nursing home, but when Dad and I were at home we would spend time on his computer, in the yard, visiting with each other and doing things together. We would decide what we wanted to eat, make a shopping list, go to the store and then make the meals together. I think there is something in our human nature that draws people together when preparing food.

The Golden Goodness of Bread

Last night I asked P to start some No-Knead whole-wheat Bread, using a recipe from my sister G. She started the bread just before she went to bed. When making whole-wheat breads, we like using whole wheat flour that my brother D buys for me when he and his wife visit their daughter in Michigan.

When he and his wife travel to Michigan they often spend the night with us. Then when in Michigan they like to shop at a country store that sells stone ground flours. I really like the stone ground whole-wheat flour because it has more texture then the store bought whole-wheat flour we can buy in the grocery stores. I also think this flour has a nice subtle nutty flavor. So I usually ask them to buy 10 – 15 pounds and drop it off on their return trip.

This morning when I rolled into the kitchen at 6 AM to make some coffee I discovered a delicious yeasty bread dough odor. After P left for work, daughter K punched down the bread dough, divided it into 2 halves and placed it into 2 bread pans I had taken out of the cupboard and greased. I have made this bread enough to know that one must have the bread pans well greased. We covered the bread pans and left them to do their business of rising to double their size.

About one hour ago, I went to check on the bread and discovered the time had arrived to bake the bread. After the oven had reached the correct temperature I placed the bread pans in the oven, set the timer and returned the den. As I sat in the den the delicious smell of fresh baked bread wafted around the door filling the room.

The timer went off, I removed two golden brown loafs of bread from the oven, took them out of the bread pans and put them on the cooling rack. They are now waiting for me to use some for my lunch. I think today’s lunch will be a chicken salad sandwich, small salad and a piece of fruit.

In my opinion homemade bread is always so much better than grocery store purchased bread. After reading this, I am reminded of the children’s story about the little red hen who asks everyone to help her make the bread and no one wanted to help make the bread. However, everyone was willing to help her eat the bread. At our house everyone helps make the bread and eat it. Oh and here is the bread recipe.

Overnight No-Knead Whole Wheat Bread

4 c. bread flour
2 ½ c whole wheat flour
1 tsp. yeast
½ c. warm water (110-115 degrees)
2 ¼ c warm water
2/3 c dry milk
¼ c sugar or honey
¼ c melted shortening or 1/3 c oil
1 TBSP salt or less (I use 2 tsp.)

Start bread in the evening. Dissolve yeast in ½ c water. Add remaining ingredients. Mix well. This will be rather moist dough. Place in lightly greased bowl and let rise overnight. Punch dough down every hour until you go to bed. In the morning shape into loaves (8 ½ X 4 ½ or 9 X 5) and let rise until doubled. Bake at 400 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until bread sounds hollow when tapped. Remove from pans. Cool on wire rack.

*Use potato water or add a couple TBSP potato flakes for a very light bread