Don't Buy Brown and Serve

As promised...the homemade bread recipe...I will be making this recipe into rolls for Thanksgiving instead of the usual brown and serve or rolls of that type because it is so worth the very small effort that it takes to make....Mr. Holiday aka AH will be swooning again....

Amish White Bread

• 2 c.of warm water
• 1/3 c. of white sugar
• 1 1/2 T active dry yeast
• 1 1/2 tsp of salt
• 1/4 c. of vegtable oil
• 6 c. of bread flour ( I didn't have bread flour...and all purpose still made awesome bread)
  

In a large bowl mix the warm water and sugar until sugar is disolved. ( it really only took a couple of minutes, it wasn't completely disolved and it was ok because the yeast still needed to proof which took about another 5 min.)
Add in yeast and allow to proof ( which basically means it will get foamy and have air bubbles.)

Mix in salt and oil into the yeast mixture.

Add in flour one cup at a time. Knead dough lightly... (at this point I wasn't feeling well enough and AH did it for me...he only kneaded the dough for maybe five minutes at the most.)

Place in a well oiled bowl and cover with a damp cloth in a warm place until doubled in size...( mine took about 45 min.) Punch down, knead lightly, form into your loafs or rolls, place in your oiled pans and let rise approx. 30 min. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Minus the time for it to rise, which really doesn't count because it's not like you stand there and watch it, this recipe really only took about 15 minutes max to put together and it's really worth the effort.... I hope you'll try it and see just how easy and yummy it is... it has really encouraged me to try other bread recipes and I'm a huge foody so I'm not sure why I never did before...probably because of the myth that making bread is too much work...it's really not true, at least in this case and as I move to try to put more natural food into my body for health reasons this is one more thing that I can pretty easily do... :) Not to mention there's just something so comforting and satisfying about having bread baking in your oven that didn't come from the freezer section.... The original recipe called for 2/3 c. of sugar, I cut it down to 1/3 and for my Thanksgiving rolls I think I'm going to try omitting it all together. I'm working on cutting out all white food from my diet....now thats a daunting task!!

Changing gears...I would like to introduce you to blueberry...he's the latest newborn to come to our family.... He's a gracious little pony, but he is a little melancholy because he doesn't have stripes ( he thinks he's a zebra) and he's worried that blue makes his butt look big....I've tried to explain that he's beautifully and wonderfully made but I don't think he's come to full acceptance of this yet. Poor blueberry, I hope that he will be able to love himself for who he truly is soon... it's so hard to watch him struggle with self acceptance.

In the pic above Blueberry and Ms. Itty Bitty was enjoying a little quiet time to themselves...

Oh....and the Mad Christmas Hare is more out of control than ever....I've stopped counting how many times he's moved his tree....I've given up and wonder if he's just high strung and has nothing better to do with his energy....he is sort of nervous and jittery all the time....

Above is another family picture with the newest members...oh how they all seem to enjoy each other and get along so well, considering their vast individual personality traits...

So funny....while getting together for a family picture, MJ couldn't help herself and decided to get in the picture...she is such a naughty kitty most of the time that I thought she was jumping on the stool to grab one of them...instead she laid perfectly behind as you can see in the pic above.

And I just had to post this pic of MJ that Mr. Holiday had taken, she's all tuckered out and sleeping with her pet flea.... I don't know if I told you, MJ is Mr. Holiday's third child...seriously! I think it's a 'Godfather' thing...(you know, the movie), none the less I'm sure she is the most spoiled pet on the planet!

I have so much more I wanted to tell you...but I'm too pooped out right now so I'll have to save it for morning...Until then...I just want to say I am so thankful for you and I hope you are blessed beyond anything our minds could concieve!

XOXO Keke

P.S. It is only 30 degrees outside tonight and we are all on 'snow' watch... so much for 'Sunny CA!!!)