My Life in a Nutshell: Reminiscing

I am getting some photo-related Christmas gifts together right now. For the past several days, I have been trolling through our family pictures from the last year. My inevitable conclusion on this cold gray wet day is that I - general welcomer of snow and cold weather - miss the summer. We live in Michigan and I enjoy having ALL the seasons, but today my fingers are cold as I type and I'm not interested in walking to the bus stop and donning all the weather-appropriate clothing that will require. Nope. Not today.


Oh for a picnic birthday party! Summer, you're only 6 months away...

From the Kitchen: Paperhill's Beautiful Bread

I have been obsessed with this delicious and hearty bread recipe ever since it was shared with me by Susan of Paperhill. It has a moist crumb and chewy crust that make it the perfect accompaniment to a thick stew. I made a double batch yesterday and just had to pass it on. It's for the good of the world. I don't know where Susan found this delightful recipe, but I'm going to call it:

Paperhill's Artisan Bread

3 cups of flour
1/4 tsp. instant yeast
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups of water

Mix into shaggy dough, cover, and let it sit for 12-18 hours. Fold dough twice to deflate on well floured surface then let it rest 15 minutes. Form dough into saggy ball and let sit on floured surface for 1 -2 hours.


Really saggy... this floury mass was about 2" tall, at most.

Meanwhile heat oven and large oven-safe cast-iron/enameled/glass pot and lid to 450 degrees for at least 30 minutes. Drop dough into heated pot, cover, bake 30 minutes, remove lid; bake uncovered for 10-20 minutes longer to a golden color.


Do not cut until completely cool. Bread should be used within 24 hours (ours never survives that long!), store in plastic once cut or paper bag uncut.

Feature Friday: Etsy Black Friday

It's Black Friday 2009 and I'm avoiding the brick and mortar stores, big and small alike. It's just not my year for that sort of thing. I've done a very little bit of Christmas shopping already, but there's a lot going on around the Etsy community this year for the biggest of all shopping days. If you search for "EtsyFreeShipping" or "EtsyHolidaySale", you're sure to turn up a whole sleighful of savings around Etsy. Admittedly, I am not taking part in those sales since I already offer free US shipping and business has been going well without added incentives, but I'll scope the deals for my own Christmas purposes and I hope you find some nice things too.



So here's to Etsy in general, with high hopes for a very nice Cyber Monday for all it's sellers this year!

From the Kitchen: Thanksgiving, Before the Fact

Every year we have one BIG party (and lots of smaller, informal ones). We call the party the Pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving Dinner. We invite loads of people over to watch the Michigan-Ohio State football game and eat a potluck-style Thanksgiving dinner. This always occurs on the Saturday before Thanksgiving, and it gives us younger folks a chance to make all our family favorites to share with our friends. We're still in the generation that is never asked to bring food to family gatherings because either we're still in school (not me), unpredicable in our schedules (also not me) or we have so many little kids we couldn't possibly handle it (ME!!!). Except that we can handle it. Shhhh... don't tell! I'll employ that excuse while it lasts...

So, wait a sec... that's today! But by the miracle of blog scheduling, I am writing this on Thursday night and, at the time this is actually published, at 10 AM on Saturday, I will likely be busily preparing a 26 lb turkey and cleaning up before our 60+ guests arrive. But I've already made the gravy and bread dressing. "You can do that?" you ask? Oh yes... you can! I have a cookbook by Cooks Illustrated called The Best Make-Ahead Recipe and it deals with just such events and how to save time and eliminate the stress without sacrificing flavor. I'm a fan! It won't clean your house before company arives, but it might just save you enough time to do it yourself!

On Friday I'll make a couple batches of bread-machine butter rolls and possibly a dessert if I just can't help myself. I'll still have that turkey and a large spiral sliced ham to cook on the big day, but I've successfully farmed out the responsibility for the rest of the dishes and football appetizers to my guests, so it's looking more manageable than any of the previous 6 years we've hosted this event. Wish me luck! Go Blue!