Be Baked Bread

A few years ago I started baking bread with my friend Valerie and she introduced me to the amazing Bosch mixer where you can make 5 loaves of bread at once and NEVER have to knead it once. The mixer does all of the work. It is simply amazing. This started from me going to her house frequently and baking bread with our babies in backpacks or playing on the floor.


Then one day my sister's fiance found the steal.of.the.century. A Bosch mixer, in perfect working condition, at Deseret Industries for....12 dollars. I don't think this deal has ever before or since been heard of. Mind you these things sell for $400 brand new! Soon I was happily mixing up my own batches of whole wheat bread with store bought flour or borrowing friends' grinders.


Not so anymore with the acquisition of this bad boy! After much research, this tiny little miracle is deceptively simple. It has a part that attaches directly onto my Bosch motor (I have to lay the motor on its side) and then grinds away fresh milled flour. Then if I found after starting the dough that I don't have enough flour- no problem! I just whip this grinder back on and throw some more wheat in the hopper. Very cool. Its called Family Grain Mill and its made in Germany which sealed the deal for me.

One of my family's recent favorites has been cinnamon bread- cinnamon, sugar, butter...you can't go wrong.

The above left loaf is onion & herb. Sunflower seed bread has also been really yummy. I've also been experimenting with soaking the flour before I mix in all the ingredients and use the recipe found here. It is identical to the basic Bosch whole wheat bread recipe except you soak the flour in an acid the night before. Let me know what you think if you give it a try.

Modern homemakers unite!

A Crowning Event!

Dear Calvin: Happy Birthday!

You are now 4. You are a big boy. You used to show how old you were with 3 fingers, now you are an expert at showing it with 4 fingers. You have not been shy about telling people when your birthday was and how old you were turning. You even struck up a conversation with the fabric cutter when we bought your crown material and told her this. By the way you chose the lizard material on the inside of your crown. Your mom found the pattern to this cute keepsake here.

She, always has and always will love your beaming smile and bright, blue eyes.


Here are a few factoids about your life right now:

• Your stated favorite food is bacon and shrimp. This is after your aunt Nedda fed you such food and you then denounced broccoli as your favorite food and replaced with this number.
• A few times I have caught you reading Calvin and Hobbes. You weren't named after that Calvin but you are remarkably similar to him :) You love to prowl around on all fours like you ARE a tiger and are quite good at it. Fast too.

• One of the gifts your mom and dad got your for your birthday was Woody and Buzz bed sheets. You love Woody and Buzz.

• Your favorite toy is a sword. You are always watching out for bad guys. Often we are supposed to be the bad guys while you are Spiderman or Batman or Robin with his boomer-hang, or a Knight saving the Princess from the Dragon. You always know which pants and shorts have a sword pocket to put the sword into, and if that fails, it can always tuck in the neck of your shirt. Once, when you made a noodle necklace, you were delighted to discover that it also could be used to hold your sword.
• 
• You love to run in the sand and play at the beach with such an enthusiasm that it is a delight to watch your play at work.

• Once you ate 2 bites out of a bunch of strawberries and then lined them up neatly along the table as you ate them.

• In Primary at church, you are very good at answering questions and are always eager to participate. You know that Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist and that we can be baptized when we are 8 years old, among many other things.

This is but a small sampling of your current life, but oh we love you SO much and always will!!!

Sometimes I think of blog posts while I'm driving in my car.

Things I need to update to the blog-o-sphere.

Like how I finally got a wheat grinder and am loving it. Or the smorgasbord of random art projects we've been doing (toilet paper roll art, fabric birthday crowns). Or how Calvin, if you add "I'll beat you!" to anything, will race as fast as he can to do whatever he didn't want to 2 seconds ago. (it works like magic) Or how Mira, much to my amazement, clearly said "chocolate cereal" the other day while point to the box above the fridge. Or how she can resourcefully pull out a bottom kitchen drawer to stand on its ledge and get up to the counter or a higher drawer, all with a little cheesy/mischievous grin on her face. So this is the best I can do for now, at 11:42 pm on a Wednesday night, with a Chemistry final in the morning. Wish me luck.

Mira at the beach

-and Calvin getting ready for church