Totally Random Tuesday

• I didn't get up a Mini-Post Monday because I was too busy getting ready to go see Joanna!!!  Woo-Hoo!  I leave Thursday morning, and I cannot wait!
• My middle son turned five last week.  It just isn't possible! 

Ethan got to open two small gifts first thing on his birthday morning.  And, yes, Joanna, he is wearing an Ohio State shirt.  I didn't plan it that way, he just really likes this shirt! 

• The key to a successful 5 year old boy's birthday party is to over plan.  Otherwise, much wrestling ensues.

Notice how neither of the girls that were invited to the party participated in this activity...I let them be a bit more rowdy than our normal house rules allow since it was a birthday party and all.  And look at the smiles - they had a blast.
• My big boys now have the nicest floors in the house.  Jerry finished putting down Hickory hard wood floors in their room since we had to throw out the carpet after the melting snow leaked in and caused mold to grow everywhere.  I wish I could put it everywhere - it is so beautiful!!!  They love it because they can slip and slide across the floor now.  Hours of entertainment, I tell you!

Ooh, aah!  Isn't it lovely?
• It is ant swarm season.  I hate ant swarm season.  Since none of our windows actually fit well enough to keep ants out, we kill tons of ants every day.  These are huge winged ants, too.  During the height of it, the one window they prefer to swarm will have hundreds of them each day.  We spray around the inside of that window, so they're dead as soon as they come in, but still!  I don't really like vacuuming up hundreds of huge, winged ants every day.
• Joanna asked what the asterisks marks by some of the books in my reading list were, so I thought I'd post that just in case anyone else was wondering.  Toward the end of last year, I challenged myself to break out of the reading mold I am most comfortable in and start reading more noteworthy books.  I rarely read non-fiction, and I want to read more classic literature so I can be better prepared to go back to school for my Master's degree someday (big dream...may not happen, but a girl can dream, right?).  I decided it might motivate me if I could actually see the distinction in my list, so each book with asterisks is either non-fiction or of some literary significance.  I am interested in pursuing a children's literature degree so I am trying to read through all the Newberry award winners, and then the others are considered "classics" by the powers that be.  There.  Now you all know.  Don't you feel better?

Andrew gets this super smile every time I give him an oatmeal cookie.  I think I'm packing 10 of  these for the plane ride to Joanna's house...
• I prefer peanut butter with chocolate over any other chocolate combination I can think of.
• I need some coffee.  Strong coffee.
• I need some ideas for how to celebrate my birthday next month.  How does one celebrate the big 33?  Send any and all ideas to my sweet husband, okay?
• Our allergies make birthday cakes pretty much out of the question, but it turns out that as long as the birthday "cake" item has some frosting and a candle, no one cares!  By the way, these allergy friendly oatmeal cookies are the best oatmeal cookies I've ever had!  Not all allergy foods are gross.

Mini Post Monday

• I cannot begin to speak of anything before mentioning the news from this last week that is the most exciting to me - I am going to Florida!!  Most would be excited to go to Florida primarily to see Micky & Co., but I am going for something much, much better - to see Joanna & Co.!
• I love my husband!  When I asked Jerry to help me one day by dividing up a huge 50 pound bag of rice into gallon bags for the freezer, he took the time to look up a different translation for "white rice" to write on each bag.  So when I pulled out a new bag of rice from the freezer, I saw this (below) on the bag.  It brought a nice smile to my face while doing something as mundane as fixing dinner!

• The Olympics have inspired a surge of athleticism in my boys.  Aaron decided to make skis out of pieces of a cereal box and yarn and ski poles from Tinker Toys!  He and Ethan have been participating in cross country events, ski jumping, and speed skating all through the house!

• Ethan's get-up is a bit more difficult to place to an Olympic event...He was speed skating with this on, I believe!

• And of course, I cannot put a picture of Aaron and Ethan without including an image of Andrew!  Isn't he still just so adorable?  I need to look at how adorable he is more often to make up for the hours of screaming and crying he is doing lately due to cutting 5 teeth at once and getting a strange rash and fever.

• I am making this Baked Fudge tonight for dessert.  I am really looking forward to trying it.  Since it is our day to rotate milk, eggs, and gluten, the only substitution I have to make is using spelt flour instead of wheat.  From my experience with spelt, I'm sure it will make an equal substitution.  I'll have to let you know how it turned out.  It seems that it would be hard for it to come out poorly given the list of ingredients!
• Jerry is getting so close to completing the bathroom!  He finished tiling the shower this weekend.  It looks incredible!  I think it looks completely professional.  He still has to add the shower fixtures, a mirror, and seal the grout, but then the bathroom will be complete!  I do need to find some decorative touches for it still, too.  I am so pleased with how it has come together. 

Mini Post Monday

Here are some more of my thoughts from this past week:

• The wheels are definitely turning in Andrew's head!  I was playing with him with a football, and I repeated the word "football" several times before handing him the ball.  Once he had the ball, he looked at it and then promptly put it on his foot!

What is it about the dishwasher that no kid on earth can resist?
• I now know why shoving a piece of wood under someone's fingernail is a form of torture.  Let's just say that I have a bleeding bruise extending 1/8 inch past the quick of my nail.  I think 1/8 inch doesn't sound like much until it is measuring how far a piece of wood shoved up under my fingernail.  Then it sounds really, really long.
• I'm going to go on a fast from TV.  I watch way, way too much TV and it gets in the way of doing things that are actually important.  Marie, do you still want to do it with me?  Anyone else want to join?  I know for sure I am going to do it for a week, but I think I will actually extend it until Thanksgiving.  I just went through and deleted shows from my DVR that I knew I could do without.  I may go insane.  Hopefully I won't.
• Ethan read his first real words this week: at, am, an, and ad.  He was so happy to be able to say he actually read something!

Ethan displaying the page in our reading book that he read for me.  Don't you love that look of accomplishment on his face?  Now that's why I homeschool.
• This past Thursday, we marked one full year since our dossier was logged in at the CCAA (China's Central Adoption Agency).  It seems that we are no closer to actually getting our baby girl than we were a year ago.  Our immigration approval expires in December and we are just going to let it lapse because we need a new home study since we had another baby since our last one and there just isn't time.  We'll renew again when we're closer to actually getting our baby.  Right now, our best estimate is another two years, but there is no way to truly know.  I try not to think about it, because honestly, thinking about how far away that is makes me want to cry sometimes.

One of the things that keeps me from crying when I think about the long wait for Hannah, and what keeps me praying for those people who are adopting as their only means of growing their families.  May your wait be shorter than short.
• I found a great recipe for chocolate icing this week.  I'm serious when I tell you that this icing will make you roll your eyes into the back of you head while whispering the words, "Oh, mama!"  It may also cause you to eat large quantities of icing right out of a bowl, for which I will claim no responsibility!  Oh, and it's really cool that this recipe doesn't use powdered sugar for those times that you are out of powdered sugar and for the fact that powdered sugar has cornstarch added and we are allergic to corn.

Okay, so this picture has nothing to do with the posts above or below it, but really, who doesn't want to see a picture of a six year old in a playpen?
• Wanna take a guess at what I'm doing right now while adding the finishing touches to this post?  Nope.  Nuh-uh.  Ooh, you in the back - did you just say making pancakes?  You're right!  I'm making my pancakes for tomorrow morning's breakfast now, at 9:23 PM so that I can go to the gym tomorrow morning rather than stand over a griddle and still have breakfast on the table by 6:45 AM.  You heard it here first, folks.

I Dream of Vita-Mix

You are looking at a picture of my newest big-ticket wish item: the Vita-Mix Super 5200. This is not just a blender or a smoothie maker. This puppy can grind or blend anything! Wet stuff like a normal blender, or dry stuff like grains, nuts, and beans!! That is why I really dream of it. My grain mill is working well for us and I have been able to make flours out of various grains, but I cannot use it for beans or nuts, which I use almost as much as grains in my new allergy baking and cooking. Check out all the stuff this can do! It even comes in red... Other than the $550 price tag, I can think of no reason not to get one right now!

Is it wrong to dream about kitchen appliances?

Strawberry Rhubarb Bars

I had a ton of fun looking through all the rhubarb recipes you linked for me. In the end, I decided to go with something with strawberries in it, too, since I had strawberries in the fridge that needed to be eaten along with the rhubarb. But I am saving all the other recipes because in the end, I was a bit disappointed that the rhubarb flavor didn't come through more. In this recipe, there is so much sugar and strawberry flavor that the rhubarb is more of a subtle tone, not the star!

I found this exact same recipe over and over on the web, so I feel okay reproducing it here. The end result is really yummy, even if it isn't overly rhubarb-y. It makes a super yummy breakfast treat, too!

Strawberry Rhubarb Bars

1 1/2 cups rhubarb pieces (cut to 1 inch slices)

1 1/2 cups strawberry slices

1 tbsp lemon juice

1/2 cup sugar

2 tbsp cornstarch

1 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 cups quick cooking oats

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

3/4 cup butter

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

Combine rhubarb, strawberries and lemon juice in 2-quart saucepan. Cover; cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until fruit is tender (8 to 12 minutes).

Combine 1/2 cup sugar and cornstarch in small bowl. Stir into fruit mixture. Continue cooking, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a boil (about 1 minute). Continue boiling until thickened (1 minute). Remove from heat. Set aside.

Heat oven to 350°F. Combine all crust ingredients in large bowl. Beat at low speed, scraping bowl often, until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Reserve 1 1/2 cups crumb mixture. Press remaining crumb mixture onto bottom of greased 13x9-inch baking pan. Spread filling over crust. Sprinkle with reserved crumb mixture.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until golden brown. Cool completely.

I actually used my food processor to make quick work of making the crust, and it worked beautifully. If you have some extra strawberries and rhubarb hanging around your kitchen, this is a great treat!

Rhubarb

At the beginning of the spring, I saw all sorts of posts and recipes all over blog-land highlighting rhubarb. They all looked so very wonderful and I thought I bookmarked quite a few of them to try. Now I have a big bag of beautiful rhubarb in my fridge and I cannot find any recipes for the life of me. So - help me out! What's your favorite rhubarb recipe?

Allergies Are Stupid

The title pretty much sums it up. Yep.


Aaron, Ethan, and I are all getting allergy tested. These poor boys have both been on allergy medication daily since they were one year old and have a multitude of symptoms. Ethan also has asthma. I don't have too many of the typical allergy symptoms, but because I have struggled for ten years now with unexplained fatigue, digestive problem, joint pain, and other frustrating symptoms, the allergist is testing me for a multitude of problems - plain old allergies being one of them.


We have some interesting results already. So far, Aaron tests allergic to baker's yeast, banana, brewer's yeast, corn, milk, orange, potato, soy, tomato, and wheat. We are done testing him for foods now and have moved on to inhalants. Of those, only brewer's yeast and tomato are strong enough of a reaction to really look at eliminating the food. The others he reacts to, but could have more of a rotational diet plan or other treatment.



Ethan has much more food allergy. His is not complete yet, but he is reacting to potato, apple, milk, egg, chicken, tomato, wheat, peanut, soy, brewer's yeast, corn, and baker's yeast. What is this boy going to eat?? Of these, we already know that brewer's yeast, baker's yeast, corn, and peanut are pretty strong allergies, and soy, wheat and tomato are borderline strong. The others we haven't found his end-point (the level of allergen he can have with no reaction) yet, so I don't know where he'll be on it. He still has some foods to test, too. Our doctor uses a treatment called LDA, which I haven't found much good information on yet so I don't really want to link it with anything. Basically it is a shot that gives very small amounts of the things you are allergic to in order to build your bodies immunity to them. It is very effective. Seventy to eighty percent of people who take it can eat all their allergic foods again after two years of treatment. I'll see the doctor in a few weeks when they are completely done with the testing to get an actual plan of treatment. As of now, the only change we have made is to get him off peanuts because it was his strongest reaction. Baker's yeast is close though, so I should look at that.


Because this is all so depressing, I'll add something fun here. We grow a small patch of blackberries in our backyard. I decided to make something extra yummy with the berries we got this year and made a great blackberry cobbler from a recipe I got off the Pioneer Woman blog. Ree, my mouth loves you, but my hips? Well, I cannot tell you what my hips think of you.



Mmmmm.... You should really try this. Your mouth will thank you.

Dulce de Leche

Last year I made a Dulce de Leche Cheesecake for myself for my birthday. I was almost nearly sugar free at that point and used this recipe. It was really, really good. Apparently, even my now six year old son found it to be incredibly good, because this year for his birthday he requested Dulce de Leche Cheesecake for his cake at his birthday party! (Yeah, because all six year olds request cheesecake over regular cake with frosting, right?) Anyway, I love cheesecake, so I was only more than happy to oblige. This year, I am not so much sugar free. :) So I decided to use Alton Brown's cheesecake recipe and add dulce de leche swirls in myself by mixing about a cup of dulce de leche with about 1/2 cup of batter and swirling it in before baking. However, this year I was unable to find prepared dulce de leche in the store like I did last year. But I'm pretty handy in the kitchen, so undaunted I set out to make my own. I searched for recipes and found that making dulce de leche is a lengthy process! This is the standard recipe. I didn't really want to spend three hours monitoring the stove, nor did I want to shell out big bucks for a vanilla bean. Those things are pricey! Then I remembered that after I bragged about my cheesecake last year, Joanna made one too, only she made her dulce de leche by boiling a can of sweetened condensed milk. I looked up recipes for this "cheaters" version of dulce de leche and found some that said to just pull the label off a can, stick it in a pot of water, and boil away for about 1-2 hours. Others said to poke a couple holes in the top of the can first so that the can won't explode during the boiling process. I thought this would make a fun experiment! Since I needed to make two cheesecakes, I needed two cans of the sweet stuff. I thought I'd boil one with the holes and one without and see what difference, if any there was!

You need some fancy equipment for this one folks!

By this point in the process, I was beginning to doubt the wisdom of this experiment. The can with holes was oozing under the water and I was concerned for the outcome of the final product. And let's face it - a sealed can in boiling water is a bit scary. I kept seeing visions of said can shooting out of the water as it exploded all over the kitchen, marring the face of my beautiful baby in the process. As the visions became more and more vivid for me, I began to break out into a bit of a nervous sweat. I also started reading more and more recipes online during this time and saw the almost all of them had warnings saying things like, "Never boil the can without holes!" and "Caution! Boiling the can without holes can lead to explosions." Needless to say, I totally chickened out and turned off the heat before it ever got really hot!

That's when I found this site that had all sorts of different methods for making a can of dulce de leche out of a can of sweetened condensed milk! I was happy, because none of them called for putting a can in boiling water as is! I decided to try two different methods: using a double boiler to cook the milk and filling a pot with water up to 1/2 inch from the top of the can (with holes poked in the top) and boiling the milk in the can.

Doesn't it look so much safer? :) I liked doing it this way because I could see the process happening with the double boiler! It took about 1 hour 45 minutes on the double boiler, and about 2 1/2 hours in the can.

In the end, the two methods produced similar results. You can see below that the color of the dulce de leche was about the same. The bowl on the left was still hot, which is why it looks thinner than the other. There were a few differences: The double boiler method produced a smoother texture. If you were going to eat it straight or as a topping for something, this is the better method. The can had parts that were a bit grainy because the milk that was over the water line never fully cooks and just mixes in with the rest, while the milk at the bottom of the can closest to the heat gets more done. If you are baking it into something (like my cheesecake), this is just fine. The flavor of the one in the can was a bit stronger. I liked the overall flavor better from boiling the can, but I imagine that if I had cooked the one in the double boiler longer, I could have achieved the same depth of flavor this way, too.

I mixed the two together and used them both to make two absolutely delicious cheesecakes. I wanted to take a picture of a piece of the cheesecake all dressed up and perfect, but it was always just too hard to wait to get that first bite!

Remember that cream cheese?

I thought I'd let you in on what I did with all that wonderful homemade cream cheese! I decided to experiment with it by making a recipe where cream cheese takes center stage and can really shine. I thought the recipe was good, but my kids really didn't like it, so next time I'll make some changes, which I'll outline at the end of the post.

Start with 1/2 cup butter (softened), 1 cup homemade cream cheese, and 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (the recipe just calls for whole wheat, spelt, or kamut, but I had this pastry flour and decided to use it), 1/2 cup Rapadura (pictured below), 1 tbsp. vanilla extract, and 1 tsp. salt.

Mix these ingredients together to form a ball. At this point, the recipe says to allow this mixture to rest in a warm place for 12-24 hours. This resting allows the phytates in the wheat to break down, which is helpful for those who have a hard time digesting grains. It also allows the flavor of the cream cheese to "ripen." If a more sour pastry appeals to you (think sourdough bread), let it rest. I let it rest for 24 hours.

The next day, assemble the remaining ingredients:

You'll need: 1/4 cup melted butter, 2 tsp. cinnamon, and 1/4 cup chopped pecans (I used walnuts). Also pictured here are the ingredients used yesterday but not pictured above: 1/2 cup Rapadura (sucanat), 1 tbsp. vanilla extract, and 1 tsp. salt.

Roll the dough into a rectangle to a 1/4 inch thickness. Brush this will the melted butter, and then sprinkle with cinnamon and nuts. Roll up 1 1/2 turns and cut lengthwise. Roll another 1 1/2 turns and cut lengthwise, and then do it one more time. You should now have three long rolls.

Cut these long rolls into 1 to 1 1/2 inch lengths and bake on a buttered cookie sheet at 300 degrees for about 45 minutes.

These are good, but if you are expecting a sweet pastry, you are in for a disappointment. Because they are sweetened with Rapadura and not sugar, they are not as sweet. I made a simple icing with butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk to top these, and they still aren't super sweet. I think if I were to make them again, I would only rest them for 4-6 hours so my kids would enjoy them more. I would also probably use sugar instead of Rapadura. Then I think everyone would like them. These keep in the refrigerator or freezer well.

Challah Braiding

I FINALLY FIGURED IT OUT!

Usually I just braid two braids and put one on top of the other, but I used this video instruction to braid a 6 stranded challah loaf. Woohoo!

Cookies for Cheaters

I think it is way too funny that my first post after my Fitness Friday post in which I admit that my greatest struggle right now is with chocolate is a post about making chocolate cookies! :) But, you know, sometimes you need to make cookies. The day we made these, I actually needed to make cookies. I read If You Give a Mouse a Cookie with my younger son, so we needed to make cookies for school that day. I purposely chose to read that on a Wednesday, too, so that we would make the cookies on the day that we have our church small group over to our house so that they could eat them and expand their hips.

Anyway....I have to give credit for this cookie recipe to my sister-in-law, Stephanie. When I was visiting her in Houston a couple weeks ago, she pulled out a cake mix to make cookies for the ice-cream sandwiches she was letting the kids make. (She's the cool aunt.) Perhaps I've been living under a rock, but I have never seen cookies made with a cake mix before! But it is a great recipe! It is fast, easy, and only has three ingredients. Oh, yeah, it is really tasty, too!

All you need to make these cookies is:

• one cake mix, any flavor
• one stick of butter, softened
• two eggs

Mix all these together, then drop in spoonfuls on a cookie sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes at 350 degrees. That's right, couldn't be easier! That's why I feel like I am cheating when I make these cookies. And just look at the results:

For my cookies, I used a dark chocolate cake mix and then mixed in one bag of Andies Mint chips. My, my, were they good. I was good and only ate two of them, for which my hips thank me!

Just Call Me Martha

Just to show you how smooth I am in the kitchen, I managed to prepare the filling for four pies today. When I went to get out my pie pans I realized that I have ONE pie pan to my name and you know what, it's not even my pie pan. It's my grandma's.

Sigh...I want to go back to bed.

Catching Up

It has been a long time since I really posted anything of value here...Can I pull the, "I have been really busy - feeling overwhelmed, actually - and this new little baby is reeking havoc with my stomach!" card? Will you have sympathy on me then?

So, regardless, I have done a few things lately that are somewhat blogworthy. First of all, I got new spring shoes! That's right, shoes. I loved the ones you posted recently, and mine are the same style. I wear these almost all the time now.

I know some people wouldn't like the second pair because it shows the toe cleavage. I never knew that toes could have "cleavage" per say. It is actually kind of nice to know, because for me, it is the only kind of cleavage I will ever have! I had never thought about this apparently horrifying problem until I shopped for shoes at Target.com and read the comments on some of the shoes available. You wouldn't believe how many people are unable to wear a pair of shoes that shows their toe cleavage. Yet, I imagine that these very same people would wear a pair of open sandals...scandalous, isn't it? (Or should I say "sandalous"?)


I also made a baby buggy cake for a joint baby shower for two of my friends who are both in my Sunday School class. They are due just a couple weeks apart, and both are having baby boys. I think the cake turned out well, but I was so disappointed because almost no one showed up to the shower so we had about 4 times as much cake as we needed. I took it to church the next morning to allow the guys in our class to eat some and still most of it was left. We then moved it down to where the youth group meets. They were done and milling around, heading to the service, but some of them ate it and about half of my cake got eaten. The other half got fed to the trash can. How sad. People said it tasted good, but now I am beginning to wonder.

I did make some really cut gifts for these friends, though. And I know they'll get thoroughly used! I went with some onesies and a burp cloth for each. I also made some washcloths for one of them since I had a separate shower to go to for her since she is also in my Bible Study group. I'll post those on Mothers of Invention.

Finally, I broke down and bought one of these:

Yes, I bought a Swiffer Wet Jet. I really cannot believe I did, either, because I have always been fundamentally opposed to paying for something that I have to continue to pay for more and more somethings to continue to use. I think it is a great idea for the manufacturer, but not so great for the consumer. But here's the thing - I am sick of pulling out a disgusting mop that looks like it is full of bacteria to "clean" my floor. Every mop I buy breaks, or gets discontinued right about the time I need a replacement head for it. I know that I could regularly bleach the mop head and all of that, but I am lazy. I thought that especially with children crawling on the floor, it would be nice if it was actually clean. And we have a cat...need I say more? So my mom had already gone to the dark side and bought one of these a while back and last week she brought it over so that I could "just try it out." And what do you know? I really liked it. It is fast, easy, and really gets up stuck on dirt. Not that my floor ever has stuck on dirt, but that is what I have been told. So when I saw a $3 off coupon in the paper this last Sunday, I considered it to be divine revelation that I was supposed to buy it. And :::gasp::: I like it. There, I said it.

Cornbread Issues

Alright, here's my problem. For some reason I feel compelled to like cornbread. This is a problem because, actually, I don't like cornbread. It's an even bigger problem because Del doesn't like cornbread. Being as Del is from a soul-food-cooking background, he's quite experienced in the cornbread arena and whenever I make a new recipe, he puts a bit in his mouth and says, "Nope, this isn't right." Do you know how many recipes for cornbread I've tried? It's ridiculous. Here is today's version. Wish me luck.

Wheat Bread

All I can say is, "wow." I mean, "WOW!" It is so good. I took enough off the whole lump of dough to make two dinner rolls and baked those at 350 for 10 minutes and YUMMO!!! This is *the* wheat bread recipe. I think even Del will approve of the wheat. It tastes better than any loaf of bread I ever bought at the store! Now I'm going to have to go buy a bunch of wheat flour.

Yogurtlu Kebab and Bread

Can I just say how much I enjoy Middle Eastern food? I really like it. I mean, they take the oddest ingredients, put them together and it's absolutely delicious. Take dinner tonight: I made the standard hummus, tabbouleh and pita. For the main course I made Yogurtlu Kebab or in English Kofta with Tomato Sauce and Yogurt. Doesn't that sound sort of...icky? You should have seen the look on Del's face when I put this on the table for dinner. I should have taken a picture. Especially with "yogurt???" Oh my lordy, it was hilarious. The were all sort of silent and I could tell they were thinking, "What in the world had Mom put on the table now? What sort of strange culinary experience is she subjecting us to now?"

Basically this dish is some toasted pita pieces covered with a tomato sauce made of diced tomatoes, salt, pepper and oil cooked on the stove until hot and soft (10 minutes?), plain yogurt, a drizzle of paprika oil (olive oil with paprika in it) and the kofta on top. Kofta is ground lamb (you can use beef), onion, salt, pepper and parsley made into little one-inch hamburger patties basically. You broil them. Anyway, it did look strange and different from anything we'd ever had before, but it was delicious! There's supposed to be pine nuts on it but I forgot to put in on the grocery list so they didn't get bought.

Let me know if you'd like the recipe.

AND, I finally was able to make the bread dough tonight. I really should be ironing. But I like making bread better. Plus, Lily won't go to sleep so we're listening to Sara Groves, Del's playing a game on him game machine and entertaining Lily and I'm futzing around in the kitchen. I like it in there, even though it is really small.

I kneaded it for a full 10 minutes I think because you're totally right, the dough is so different. I hope it turns out! Oh and I used 2 cups of white, 2 cups of wheat and it felt alright to me. I proofed the yeast in all the buttermilk and honey, then added everything else and then the flour. For the record.

Some Flatbread of My Own

So I am always envious of your bread making abilities. I look at the mouth-watering pictures that you put up of your bread and just drool. I tried making bread myself a few years ago and the nerve damage I have in my hands made it too hard to knead the bread by hand and I never was satisfied with the results of kneading it in my machine. Well, I tried your recipe and it turned out really nice. I kneaded it by hand and apparently my hands are more healed now than they were then because I could actually do it! The first night my family ate 6 pieces - which really surprised me. They liked it a lot, but it is not so good a couple of days later...I guess we'll just have to eat more right away the next time!