no-knead bread

Yesterday I performed a bread experiment that turned out very nicely. I made tasty, beautiful no-knead bread in a total of about 5 hours. I got the idea to do this because a few weeks ago when we had attempted to make no-knead bread, we ran into some problems. The dough ended up way too gooey, didn't hold together, didn't rise properly, and took waaaaay to long to cook. When I was looking up something about bread online, someone mentioned not to let the bread over-rise. My theory is that in our hot, humid climate the traditional n0-knead bread recipe allows too much time for rising. So last Friday I mixed some up the night before, let it sit in the fridge all night (to slow down the working yeast) and brought it out mid-morning to sit in the warmer air. It turned out pretty good.


This time I decided to see if I could get the same delicious product in just one day. So here's what I did. I doubled the yeast (from 1/4 tsp to 1/2 tsp). I also had to add a bit more water because my flour was very absorbant. You want the bread to be in sort of a sticky ball/mass, but you don't want clumps of dry flour everywhere...that's too dry. Here's what I did.


12:00pm- mix up 3 cups flour, 2 cups water, 1/2 tsp yeast, 1 1/4 tsp salt. Cover on counter.
~3:45pm-mixture has grown substantially and I see bubbles on the top. I dump it out on a floured surface and fold it on itself a few times. Let it sit for a few minutes.
~4:00pm- preheat oven to 450F with cast-iron pan in it (you cook the bread on a hot pan...kind of a pseudo stone-oven) and shape bread into a rough ball (it's pretty sticky, so it oozes out of shape a bit. I let it rise in a oiled and floured pie plate, so that I can easily flip it into the hot cast-iron pan when it comes time to transfer it. The traditional recipe says to let it rise on a well-floured towel, I think.)
~4:30-ish transfer loaf into very hot cast-iron pan. Put it back in the oven and cook it for 40 minutes. Remove and let cool on cookie rack.

The result: Very tasty bread with a crunchy crust and a very moist, chewy crumb. It may sound shocking to bake it for so long in such a hot oven, but it works...really well. This bread isn't the slightest bit crumbly or dry. The flavour might not be so distinct as when it sits for 12-18 hours to rise, but the whole make-bread-in-one-afternoon is a major bonus, and most people won't note a difference, if there is one. The result was very satisfying.

Nice crackly crust

Beautiful big bubbles on the inside...

In P-town and other places up in the cold north, you might have to either add more yeast or let it rise longer... I think the rising time depends largely on the climate. It might take a bit of experimenting. I haven't tried a whole-wheat mixture yet, but I hope to soon. I also want to try a sour-dough no-knead bread...

The Bay

Recently I was on a walk with Megan and Aurelia (and Blaise in the stroller), and we came upon this lovely dock in a condo area not far from our house. It's a gated area, but the gate is almost always open. They have a sidewalk in there, so we thought it would be a good place to walk. The water is shallow for a long way, and sometimes you can see interesting things in the water. The first time we went there we had a dolphin swim up (chasing a fish) quite close to the dock. It was really cool!

So Tim and I decided to go down there. We spotted some interesting things in the water and Tim went to check them out and explore. (Tim actually saw a stingray once, and he spotted baby one again when we went the other day...)

Tim found some hermit crabs. He was also careful to shuffle his feet in order to avoid stepping on a stingray, which would be quite painful.

I was watching from the dock, and seeing if I could spot interesting things for Tim to check out. Some of the hermit crabs were in interesting shells. We've heard and seen that people go fishing around where we live. We've even seen fish jumping out of the water not too far from the dock.

It's great to have a place like this just a short walk from our house!

Running

10 reasons why becoming a runner/consistent exerciser is good for you (me), mind and body.

*There is no particular order and this list is not comprehensive...


1.your overall health increases

2.your perspective is changed for the better

3.you find out that your body can do a lot more than you ever thought possible

4.you learn self-control. No one is going to make you do it. No team. Nobody. You learn to follow through despite feelings/excuses.

5.physical training provides very applicable lessons/analogies for spiritual training (Paul mentions this in the New Testament)

6. your general energy level increases

7. you (generally) get a lot more done

8.you get a hearty appetite :-)

9.you (usually) sleep better

10.there's nothing like going from being the person who was a panting heap after 15 minutes jogging ("running is terrible, why am I doing this?") to running 8 solid miles and feeling invigorated afterwards.

I've generally been someone who kept myself in some form of physical fitness (walk several miles most days to school and back and around...), but up until approximately the end of my sophomore year of college, I would have told you that I really didn't like running. And that was the truth. Running was miserable, painful, and simply not fun. I'm not sure what inspired me to start running. Maybe it was that I ended up having tons of friends who were runners. Or maybe it is because Jane wanted to run a half-marathon with me. Maybe a combination of all things. Also, there's a lot of fun in a challenge (and deciding to run a half-marathon, if you've never done cross-country before, is a big challenge). So whatever got in to me, I don't really know.

So I encourage you: Buy a good book and try it out! (I highly suggest The Non-Runner's Marathon Trainer by Whitsett, Dolgener and Kole...probably also good for those of you who are runners but need a reasonable guideline/structure).

Happy Birthday Noah!

Today is Noah's 7th Birthday! Happy birthday, Noah! You are wonderful blessing from God to our family, and we love you!

Some pictures of That Man (aka Mein Kleiner Man)

one of the youngest highlanders at the games this year...(thanks for the great picture, Jacob)

trying out a air potato gun on Christmas

I am so thankful for Noah. He has brought continuous joy and light to our family (and to many others as well). What a great brother!

What we've been up to lately...

I think we're slowly but surely becoming more used to Panama City Beach...which is easier now that the weather has toned it down a bit. We've been experiencing some beautiful summery weather (warm, sunny days and low humidity). I hear the temperature of the gulf has 'cooled down' (to like the 70's probably), so prime swimming is probably over. Hopefully we'll be able to make it in again before it get's too freezing. (I guess it get's all the way down to like 58 in December. That's a huge temperature range!)

Now for some pictures....

Has anyone ever had their computer show them something that looked like that? I just waited for the computer to catch up with my clicking, and it got out of it by itself. That was bizarre.

Tim and I attended the 235th annual Navy Ball on Saturday night. It was supposed to be a celebration of the beginning of the US Navy I guess. We enjoyed a nice time and a tasty steak dinner. Everyone was quite dressed up, and the military people were in their fancy uniforms. It was really fun to be able to dress up and spend a formal evening with my wonderful husband.

On Friday we made the famous biscuit braid, one of Tim's all-time favourites. He helped me with the biscuit and did a fantastic job.

I also made my first lemon meringue pie using a recipe from Grandma Boothman. It was really simple and very tasty. I'm going to have to make that again!

A while ago I found probably the biggest flake I've ever seen in my raisin bran.

I think I win. (Ok, so we actually did a search and found that someone else had found this huge chunk of cereal in their box, but I would call that a manufacturing mistake, not a flake. I think I still win.)

******
And now the moment you've all been waiting for....

*Week 27*

There's nothing a whole lot new except that the child's movements have become increasingly strong and frequent. Sometimes I think she's dancing (I really wish that I knew what was actually going on in there). I get to see my tummy bobbing around when she really get's going. It's quite amusing. I guess she weighs somewhere around 2 pounds and is approximately 15 inches long.

I also got my first every pedicure. I went with Megan and we had a nice time together and lunch afterwards!

I know that I haven't posted in a while, and unfortunately we haven't been taking any pictures recently. It seems like we just forget to take the camera when we go places...I'll try to remember to take some pictures and post them before too long!

Tim had Monday off for Columbus Day, which was really nice. We had a relaxing time and went to a coffee shop, where we played Boggle, 2-handed Rook, and the scribble-picture game. This all occured after Tim got our water situation figured out.

It looked like this. I open up our water bill from the city. I stare at it in confusion and shock. $513.00 for 27 days of water? Wait. What the hack?!

It said that we had used 64,100 gallons of water from August 19th (we didn't move in until the 23rd) until September 15th. I mean, we didn't even have a washer and dryer until the first weekend in September. So we were pretty baffled. That's comparable to us filling up one of these above ground swimming pools almost every day. Pretty crazy!

So Tim called in and got it figured out. There was an error somewhere. Quite a big error, I'd say! But we're grateful and relieved.

I get to feel the baby kicking around a lot these days. It's pretty exciting! I'm 26 weeks along now, and I'll try to post a picture of the belly before too long...

Varying perceptions of Walmart

Having grown up half of my life in Pullman and the other half in Yakima has given me somewhat of a skewed idea of the general public's opinion of Walmart.

Here's what I mean.

My perceived Pullman/Moscow view of Walmart, in short and maybe slightly exaggerated...mabye not:

Walmart is a corporate beast aimed at sucking the life-blood out of small, local businesses.

My perceived Yakima view of Walmart:

Walmart is a dumpy store, but it's cheap. (The Yakima Walmart is pretty dumpy. So I kind of associated Walmart with dumpy.)

However, neither of these opinions seems to find it's home here in Panama City Beach. Nope. Normal people shop at Walmart. They are just grateful, probably, that there is somewhere to buy groceries that is not ridiculously over-priced.
There are basically three grocery stores here. Publix, Winn-Dixie, and Walmart (there is at least one small one in Panama City, but we haven't been there.) I'd say Publix and Winn-Dixie are sort of on par with Safeway and then there's Walmart. There's no WinCo (probably the cheapest grocery store...I'll describe it by saying that it's wonderful but they use flourescent light, if you catch my meaning. Ambiance really has nothing to do with it. But they have what you need and have some of the best prices.)
And, there is no Co-Op/Trader Joe's type store (the cool "green" type stores for those environmentally-minded people who also have a large grocery budget, or for those who refuse to submit to the corporate beast or for those who simply prefer to shop in places that are more comfortable and relaxing--and are willing to fork over the cash for this luxury.) Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the Co-Op and appreciate their soft lighting, earth tones and interesting inventory. I'm especially drawn toward the organicky aesthetic but it would just not be practical for my type of every-day shopping.


Oh yeah, I have a question. What is peoples' big deal about monosodium glutamate (aka MSG)? It doesn't seem any freakier than Splenda to me.

So, if you know what the big old deal about MSG is, you can let me know.

October and a hint of Fall in the air

I'm so thrilled. I think I might celebrate by making a pumpkin pie!!!

Here is why: the weather is getting cooler.

Do you want to know something else shocking? Tim used the 'C'-word (Cold) to describe how it felt when he went on his run this morning. He actually said "cold".

Wow. Amazing. Thank you Jesus!



Also, my sister-in-law made a great post about the highland games. That's where I got the picture below. To view it click here



My brother Noah. I wish I could have been there!

Amazing Sweater

I know I already posted today, but I just thought that everyone should take time and admire this handiwork by Rosina. Wow. I feel myself becoming inspired to knit.
http://noteworthyknits.blogspot.com/2010/09/very-small-sweater.html

Where are they hiding the whole-wheat flour?

I'm not sure where the whole wheat flour is. Um. I assumed it was the flour that had brown on the front of the bag. But when I went to make bread today (thinking I had mostly whole-wheat flour on hand) I found that the brown on the package simply meant "unbleached" white flour. So we're having white bread. I like home-made white bread, but now I'm getting to wondering how I missed the whole-wheat flour at the store. I don't know. I'll have to check next time I go to the store.

I had a birthday last week, which was pretty fun!

Megan made this delicious carrot cake. It was moist and had cream-cheese frosting on the top. Yum!

On Sunday, Tim made this very tasty German pancake. It was cooked to perfection. Did I mention that he made me dip-eggs and toast with bacon for my birthday breakfast? (Deliciously cooked Grandma-Boothman-style eggs.) Grandma knows how to cook great breakfast bacon and eggs, and Tim did a fantastic job as well! The yokes were nice and soft, perfect for dipping.

*********

Paula and Josh came to visit for my birthday and we had a really nice time with them. They brought us some fresh bread and fresh produce from the farmer's market in Pensacola. Thanks guys! We were missing fresh produce, and it's been really nice to have tasty veggies around the house.

They even got us some okra. But I've never cooked okra before, so I got busy searching for a do-able recipe for okra and found one for Jambalaya. I modified it to fit, and it turned out really tasty!

Fresh tomatoes-used in vegetable stew


Okra (I thought the twin okra was cool)

The finished Jumbalaya. Sausage, okra, canned tomatoes and tomato sauce, onions, chicken, spices...it's like the creole version of spanish rice, or something. It's more stewy than spanish rice, I think. It was quite tasty!

They also brought us peppers, eggplant and pattypan squash. I made a tasty veggie stew with those the other day. We've really enjoyed the fresh vegetables!

*****

Tim and I went to the beach earlier this week, and it was really great. The water was clear (no more seaweed) and nice. Tim went swimming, and we're hoping to go again this weekend.

I should also mention that the weather has been much better. Wow. I just checked and the temperature was 75.4 F at 51% humidity (10:08am). That's amazing. I went on a walk this morning and it was actually refreshing. It was feeling a bit hot in the sun, but the breeze actually cooled me down. Wonderful. I'm hoping this cooling trend keeps it up!

We also get to feel the baby kicking a lot, which is fun. Sometimes I can see my tummy bumping out when she moves!