Foodie « Bebellyboo

Pretzels and Bananas and bean-shaped Pigs

By Joanne, on August 24th, 2008

I did some baking today.

Pretzels! Soft. Chewy. Salty. Yay! I used our new standing mixer and it was awesome. It kneaded the dough perfectly. It was satiny smooth! And I boiled the pretzels briefly before baking. I thought it would be all annoying and hard and pretzels would be getting lost in the water and I would be all, “Hone, the pretzels were a disaster”. But it was super fun and easy. For me the consistancy was perfect for a bagel, though I am no bagel expert so maybe others would disagree. They were chewy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. I am not a dense bagel fan so I liked the fluffy. Next week I may try making the pretzel dough bagel-shaped and see what happens.

Pretzels:

Fluffy inside:

Then I made banana bread. Banana. Bread. In the mixer. It was like having kitchen help or something. The mixer did all the work. While it mixed I was able to wash dishes and grease a loaf pan. All the tasks in half the time. Awesome.

Finally, many many moons ago (or maybe just a month) I made a little pig for Baby D’s friendy Baby G. Her birthday was in early August but due to illness and grandparent visits and general schedule incompatibility, Baby G’s mom and I were unable to hang out until just last week. Thus, her giftie was given way late. AND I did not want to post pics until she had gotten it. So, here it is:

It’s a way different shape than the last pigs. Doesn’t it look like a bean?

Stripey material was a repurposed pajama top and the main body was a repurposed shirt of Baby D. All repurposed! Woo!

With the other pigs. Suddenly the original pigs look like they are alien pigs or something.

OMG! I almost forgot there are babies everywhere! One of my oldest friends (D) just had her second baby boy. He was a little early at 32 weeks but is doing great. AND one of Hone’s oldest friends (T) just had a baby boy too! Awwwwwwwwwww! Babies!

Brot

By Joanne, on August 9th, 2008

Today I baked my first loaf of homemade bread. Oh yes I did!

Okay, it wasn’t actually a loaf. It was three small baguettes but you know. French bread. The simplest recipe for bread.

So I did the whole preparing the starter dough last night and then mixing the rest in this morning and then letting it rise, kneading it (by hand!), letting it rise again, folding it, letting it rise again, shaping it, letting it rise again and finally, baking it. It sounds all involved and crazy time consuming and I know you are all like, “What about Baby D? Where was he all this time?”

But really, bread doesn’t take that long to work on. I mean, it takes all day to make but the actual work time adds up to about 20 minutes. Most of the time it is just sitting in a bowl being all risey and stuff.

ANYWAY, I really thought, by the end, that it was going to be a disaster. I mean, the kneading part was a mess (sticky dough everywhere) and nothing seemed to be happening quite right and I didn’t really know what it was supposed to look like at each stage (what the hell does “bread will become supple and elastic” really mean?). At the last rise, the baguettes nowhere near doubled in size and I was all, “Oh this bread is going to be awful.”

But it totally worked. Like, we totally had baguettes that tasted like bread and everything. The flavor was stronger than store bought baguettes but very yummy.

The baguettes (there were three but the third one was scrawny and eaten fresh out of the oven):