Tired of spending $5 a loaf for the stuff, I decided to make it myself. I bake. It can’t be too difficult, right? Wrong. I tried to make a loaf and it turned out horribly. Dry. Almost crumbly. It was so bad that I didn’t even note which recipe I used. It was then that my quest for a decent recipe began.

I’m still working my way through recipes, but I thought I should keep you posted in case you, like me, are on a quest for The Perfect Brioche. This recipe wasn’t bad. I would actually consider trying it again on a day when I had more time because I rushed it a little and that could have affected the final product. The texture was right, but it was dry. How can ANYTHING with almost a pound of butter in it be dry??  As a dinner roll, the bread was okay. It fared much better as toast, but its real redeeming quality was that it made the best french toast ever. Another plus? This recipe doesn’t require the shaping of loaves, you just dump the dough into a pan or muffin tins and let it rise.

This recipe is from Emeril Lagasse’s Lousiana Real and Rustic.

Brioche

Starter
3 envelopes (6 3/4 tsp.) yeast
1/2 C. warm milk (about 110°)
1 C. flour

Combine the yeast and milk.
Stir to dissolve the yeast.
Add flour; mix well.
Let sit in a warm, draft-free place 2 hours.

Dough

4 C. flour
6 eggs
1/2 C. warm water (about 110°)
3 T. sugar
2 t. salt
3 sticks butter at room temperature plus extra for greasing pans
1 egg yolk, beaten

1. Put 2 cups of flour into a large mixing bowl. Add 4 eggs, one at a time beating thorougly with a wooden spoon after each.
2. Add water, sugar and salt. Mix well.
3. Add three sticks of butter and mix in with your hands until it is well blended.
4. Add remaining two eggs and mix well.
5. Add remaining flour. Mix well and break up any clumps of flour.
6. Knead the starter into the dough with your hands. Continue kneading until well mixed; about 5 minutes. The dough will be sticky and moist.
7. Cover with a clean damp cloth and let rise in a warm, draft-free place 2 hours.
8. Butter two 9″ x 5″ x 3″ loaf pans or two standard 12-muffin pans.
9. Punch dough down lightly and divide into baking pans.
10. Brush tops with egg yolk.
11. Cover and let rise until double, about an hour.
12. Preheat oven to 400°F.
13. Bake loaves 25-30 minutes or muffins 20 minutes until tops are golden.

Enter: Homemade Buttermilk, a How-To

Warm about three cups of milk to 85°.

Stir about a cup of cultured butermilk into the warmed milk.

Let rest, covered, on the counter or other suitable warm-ish place overnight.

Once the buttermilk has cultured, store in the refrigerator for up to two weeks (if it lasts that long).

Expensive!

Culturing buttermilk is super easy and saves a ton of money.  Good quality buttermilk costs $4.99 a quart while unhomogenized milk from the same dairy costs only $3.49 a half gallon. So, for $3.49 I can make what would cost me $10 to buy.

Donuts

2 C. flour
1/2 C. sugar
1 t. salt
1 T. baking powder
1 t. cinnamon
2 T. melted butter
1/2 cup milk
1 egg

Extra sugar and cinnamon for coating. I don’t measure. Just dump some sugar in a bowl and add cinnamon until you get the flavor you want.

Combine dry ingredients.
Stir in melted butter.
Add milk and egg; mix well.
Transfer dough to a well-floured counter.
Knead until smooth.
Roll dough out to 1/4″ thickness.

Using a donut hole cutter or, the cap from your last growler, cut out donuts.

Fry a few at a time in 375° oil until golden, flipping half way through.

Let drain momentarily before dumping into a bowl of cinnamon sugar.

Toss until coated.

Let cool long enough so that you don’t melt the inside of your mouth and eat.

I’m actually saving a couple dozen cut-out donuts in a container in the freezer. I’ll let you know if it works but I’m hoping to be able to have freezer-to-fryer donuts for quick treats whenever we want them without having to drag out the mixer AND the fryer.

Cover via Amazon

I started this post last year shortly after I started  my 101 in 1001.  Recently I wrote about how my 101 was going.  I briefly discussed my weight loss, but here are the deets:In December 2010 I wrote a post about the start of this weight-loss journey.  This post is the record of my progress and my diet/exercise plan for anybody that cares.  It’s not my usual fodder so I’ll keep it brief.  My diet plan is based on Jorge Cruise’s 8 Minutes in the Morning.  I don’t follow his plan exactly but I recommend the book if you need some help getting motivated on your own weight-loss journey.  It’s been my go-to diet for years.  It helps me stay on track and provides self-control which I have little of on my own.   Remember Richard Simmons’ Deal a Meal?  It’s similar.  Basically I print up little slips of paper with boxes on them.  When the boxes are full, I’m done eating.  I started using my boxes religously on December 28th, 2010, the same morning I weighed in and saw this:

The camera weighs .2 lbs. but this is where I'm starting.

I’m sure a points system or something similar would work just as well but I really think Jorge’s plan makes me eat better.  The hardest part of being on a diet is not gorging myself on things like homemade pasta or the baked good of the week.  Jorge’s eating plan helps me remember that moderation is the key to weight loss.  He allocates space for a treat every day and even though pasta isn’t on the “preferred” grains box, I can make it fit into my box system.  Even if I eat sugar cookies for breakfast (and I did, more than once), I still have to eat six servings of vegetables.

Aside from changing my atrocious eating habits, I started exercising consistently.  I ran or skated at least three times a week every week.   I also started doing push-ups and sit-ups regularly.  Drinking lots of water helps too, but I’ve never been a big water drinker.  In the summer, I drink lots but now, when it is cold out I really don’t like drinking it so I drank a lot of coffee (with milk, which I count) or unsweetened hot tea.  If I drink them with my food I feel full longer and sipping hot beverages all day gives me something to do besides eat.  I know caffeinated beverages are usually frowned upon for dieters, but it works for me.

Now that I have reached my more-or-less goal weight and am skating “competetively”, I have modified my boxes but I sttill use them most of the time. After a lot of online research I discovered that even though protein is necessary for muscle growth, Jorge’s plan includes more than I need even though I am very active so I include more fruit than Jorge does, less protein, and more fat.

Our breeding stock, Fiona and Nibbler have been old enough to breed since January 2011.  However, January in Northern Michigan can be pretty harsh and I wasn’t ready to start my breeding endeavor then only to have it result in frozen litters of baby bunnies.  I waited until March.  The air had warmed sufficiently and I deemed it safe to start.  I took Fiona to Nibbler’s pen just like the books/internet said I should.  I left her there for a while, checked back and returned her to her cage.  A few hours later I let her visit again, left them alone for a bit and then put her back in her cage.  I documented the date, marked the calendar and started counting down the days until she would need a nesting box.  I Googled different types of nesting boxes.  I waited.  And waited.  And waited.  A week after the due date I gave up waiting.

I tried again.  No luck.

I tried again.  I decided that once again the pregnancy hadn’t taken. In June I asked my friend Joan from Olds’ Farm if I could bring my doe out and put her with one of the bucks they keep.  Joan agreed and I planned to take Fiona to the farm next time I went.

Imagine my surprise when I awoke the next morning to find Fiona pulling her fur out and spreading it around her hutch.  I needed to pick Dylan and some friends up from a sleepover and take them to a 10:00 movie. I didn’t have time to set up a real nest box before I got the boys so I put out a makeshift nest and went about my business.  I intended to come home and set up a real nest box before Fiona delivered her babies because rabbits are “supposed” to deliver at night.  Wrong.  I got home at noon to find my husband in the yard announcing the arrival of two kits.  Fiona didn’t like my makeshift box and had delivered them on the floor of the cage.  Mr. Hippie had moved them into my “nest box” with a towel because he didn’t know if he should touch them or not.  When everything was said and done, Fiona had delivered eleven kits.  One was stillborn but we moved the ten surviving kits into the “nest”.  After the horde of boys left, Mr. Hippie and I went out and got the rest of the things we needed to properly accomodate the babies.

I set up the deluxe nesting box and moved the kits into it.  Fiona decided that she would dig a new nest next to the one I made.  She started pulling more fur to line the new nest.  I started panicking, afraid that she was going to deliver another litter of kits.  (Rabbits do that, you know.)  Fiona did not deliver any more kits.  She did however divide her kits into two groups and move half into the new nest.

Once Fiona had completed her second nest, she promptly stopped nursing the front five kits.  Fortunately, rabbits are designed to survive harsh conditions.  Like, for example, your mother not coming back to feed you for a couple days because there is something dangerous lurking about your home.  I moved the five littler kits that she hadn’t been nursing into “her” nest with the five bigger kits.  The next morning I awoke to find two of the kits pushed out.  They weren’t just pushed out of the nest either.  They had somehow managed to be completely evicted from the hutch.  Both were chilly and crawling around on the ground.  I put them back into their nest so they could warm themselves and went on my way.

The next night I went to derby practice and left the kids home with Gwen in charge since Adam was working that night.  After practice I checked my phone and found that I had missed a call.  The kids know that they are only to call me in an emergency, so my heart stopped for a moment while I, without listening to the message, called the house.

Gwen was bawling on the other end of the line, “Mom, one of the rabbits died.” She was panicked, distressed, I’m not sure what else but I tried my best to talk her down.  She didn’t know what to do with the dead kit.  I suggested she add it to the compost heap like I had done with the stillborn kit. This solution was not acceptable to her. When I got home she had already provided funeral and burial services for the kit.

Fiona continued to push the other runty kit out of the nest for a while, but never split the nest again and begrudgingly nursed all the kits.

When all was said and done, we ended up raising nine kits from our very first litter!  It took a while for the rabbits to figure out what they were doing, but in the end it was a successful endeavor.

drumroll please . . .

One of the things I wanted to complete was an apron that I had purchased and stashed fabric for in August of 2010. It took me over a year, but I finally managed to complete it. I liked it so much that I made another one for my daughter, Gwen for Christmas.

Gwen's Christmas apron.

She picked out the main fabric and I helped her coordinate the accent pieces. They’re so cute that I decided when I actually finish setting up my etsy account, I should sell aprons.  I actually contemplated selling the apple/pear apron, but One of the straps isn’t set in exactly the righ spot so I don’t feel right selling it.  If however, you are a TCRD derby girl and are attending our white elephant gift exchange/Christmas party tomorrow night, you may be the lucky recipient of this now famous apron.

Financially speaking, 2011 wasn’t the best year for us. We’ve never been wealthy, but most of the time we managed to get by on what we had.  If you read my post about modifying my 101, or this one, you know that as a Christmas gift from his boss, Mr. Hippie got laid off indefinitely for the Christmas 0f 2010.  He was unemployed until April of 2011 so finances were tight around here. Mr. Hippie did find a job last April, but his hourly rate is only 60% of his old rate.  Add to that the fact that he’s only working about 85% of his old hours and you start to see the big picture.

I took a second job from April-June of last year and then all summer, the kids and I added an extra child to our family which added some extra money to our budget, but made doing some ”summer things” more difficult. When school resumed, the extra child no longer needed to spend her days with us, so my extra cash-flow dried up. Add to that a school-employee pay freeze and an increase in both our insurance premiums and our deductible amounts and things are tighter than they’ve ever been.

I have a bad habit of using credit cards to make ends meet when we can’t afford things.  Most of the time, the things are things we actually need like groceries, or gas for the car, but sometimes, they are wants.  Because of this habit and some poor choices we made years ago, Hubby and I have a lot of debt.  Add to that a mortgage that we can’t refinance because the market crashed and our house isn’t worth what we owe on it, and things are pretty grim.

Enter the spending diet. A couple of days ago I popped over to squirrels in wren’s nest and saw her post about resolutions. One of hers, like many peoples’ is to get rid of her credit card debt.   She referenced And Then She Saved.  I checked it out.  I decided right away that I wasn’t ready for a spending fast; primarily because of derby. A fast would mean NO spending which would mean no dues, no bus fare to away bouts, no equipment. . . No derby would make #62 a lot more difficult.  Running helps, but practice three nights a week is a commitment not only to myself and my health but to a whole army of other girls that depend on me; it keeps me accountable.

So, hubby and I started our diet on Monday.  He and I were both given our allowance for the month in cash.  I don’t expect him to keep track of his expenditures, but when he’s out of money, he’s out of money.  As for me, I actually think $100 a month is a lot.  I’ll let you know when it runs out and I change my mind.

The Spending Diet will probably change our lives.  Hopefully for the better.  I think it will be tough in the short-term, but in the long run we’ll all be happier.  Plus, #s 84, 85, 86 and 87 seem a lot more feasible now.

101 in 1001

I do. Just over a year ago, I started my progress on these goals.

I haven’t done the greatest job of #9: Digitally document 101 in 1001 on a regular basis.

While I have been working on some of the goals, I haven’t been “digitally documenting” anything. So, to start off the year, here is a blanket post updating my progress, or lack of it on the 101.

And then, my friend Maureen started a blog: 91 Reasons to Never Own a White Couch.  As I perused her humorous posts I started thinking, “I miss blogging”.  Friends have asked when I was going to write again.  Several months ago my father even mentioned that I hadn’t written anything in a while.  And of course, there’s The List.  I have been working on the list, I promise.  It’s just that with all my life going on around me, I haven’t had as much time as I’d like to actually document anything.

My derby break is finished; practices resume this evening.  I probably will still have limited time.  However, it is a new year. So, my resolution if you can call it that is to keep up with things a little better despite the craziness. Besides, today is a snow day. If you, like me, are a teacher, you know that anything seems possible on a snow day.

Check back soon for a new post or two.

As a farewell to the year gone by I present:

The Top Five Posts of 2011

1. Brined Pork Roast
2. Homemade Fabric Softener
3. Homemade Laundry Detergent
4. Building A Rabbit Hutch
5. Crusty Round Loaves of Homemade Bread

I am surprised that the Brined Pork Roast recipe was number one. Especially because in my opinion, this recipe is much tastier.

I get lots of searches for green cleaning recipes. Pinterest has been especially helpful in promoting them. I’m glad people are being greener and I’ll try to post some more green cleaning recipes this year.

I am excited to see the rabbit hutch plans make the list.  I wonder if that is because more people are interested in rabbits for meat, or if pet owners just need plans? Regardless, I hope to post more rabbit updates soon. Until then, if you’re looking for rabbit information, check out On Breeding Like Rabbits.

Happy New Year,

Angela