Girls night

We had dinner with our friend Louan.  Ryan is in Taiwan and Bishop teaches class until 9:30, so it was just us girls.  A fun way to spend an evening! Thanks Louan!

Love at Home

Rachael drew this for her daddy during church.

I guess someone misses their dad.

Pinkariffic

We bought these cherry yogurt covered pretzels at Bob Evans, after we had breakfast there this morning.  Rachael tasted one and proclaimed them, "Pinkariffic!"

(Which makes them totally worth the $0.50 I paid!)

Safe Harbor

Did you know that the floor is made of molten HOT LAVA?

It is today!

Krispy Kreme

I had a conference for work in Lexington today, so of course I stopped by Krispy Kreme on the way home.  Twice in one month! It's an embarrassment of riches!

Sunrise

Almost Spring!

I can't wait for my little daffodils to bloom!!

New Dance Space

The dance studio where Rachael takes ballet/tap has recently expanded their studio, so Rachael got to break in a new floor at dance class today.

Sweater dresses

I love this new sweater dress Rachael's grandma sent for her birthday!

Jenny's Homemade Bread

Jenny makes some very delicious homemade bread, complete with wheat she grinds herself.  She was nice enough to give a demonstration to a group of about 13 of us, and I took notes.  Well, pictures rather.  The recipe follows at the end.

Grinding the wheat: You will need a grinder. The Kitchen Mill grinder will hold about three cups of wheat in the hopper and about nine cups of ground wheat.  If you grind  more than you will use, keep the extra in the freezer or it will lose much of its nutritional value.

Next, prepare your ingredients.

Begin by proofing the yeast.  Add the five cups hot water, 3 tablespoons yeast and 3 tablespoons sugar to a large mixer equipped with a dough hook.  Jenny uses a Bosch, but any large mixer should work.

Let the yeast proof for about five minutes.  When it looks bubbly and smells "yeasty," it is ready for the rest of the ingredients.

Add: 1/3 cup oil, 1/3 cup honey, 2 tablespoons salt, one egg, and 8 cups flour.  (Note: egg is a binder, and will help the loaves from being too crumbly.) Mix until it reaches the consistency of bread dough.  Incorporate an additional 2-4 cups of flour in one cup at a time.  Jenny uses 9 cups of wheat flour and 3 cups of white.  Knead the dough in the mixer until it starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl.  Helpful hint: grease your bowl where the dough will rise NOW, before you take the dough out of the mixer.

Remove the dough from the bowl and fold into a large ball.  Place in a greased bowl and cover.  Allow to rise until double, approximately one hour.

Allow to rise until double in size.  Grease up your work surface - cooking spray works wonders! Punch down and turn out onto a greased work surface.  Divide the dough into four equal pieces; using a sharp knife makes quick work of the task.

Shape each section into a loaf by gently rolling and tucking the dough on the work surface.

Now it's time to grease your pans! Then place each formed loaf into a greased pan to rise until double.

After the loaves have risen to twice their size they are ready to bake in the oven.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Right before you put the pans in the oven, turn the oven down to 325 degrees.  This helps the crust to form quickly but keeps it from over-browning.  Bake for 35 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 180 degrees.

The loaves should look beautiful and smell even better at this point - but you're not finished yet! Spray the tops with cooking spray to make them gorgeous. Then, turn the loaves out onto a towel or cooling rack.  Rotate the loaves every fifteen minutes or so to keep condensation from forming on any one side.

If you can resist breaking into one of those as soon as they come out of the oven, you are a better person than I am.  On the bright side, Jenny says your home will smell heavenly for hours afterward.  After the loaves have cooled completely you can bag them for storage and even freeze them. 

Or slice them up and serve them to your friends!

Jenny's Homemade Bread

Yields four loaves

5 cups hot water (100-115°)

3 Tbsp yeast

3 Tbsp sugar

1/3 cup oil

1/3 cup honey

2 Tbsp salt

1 egg (optional)

10-12 cups flour

In a mixer with a dough hook, combine water, yeast, and sugar. Let sit 5 minutes. Add oil, honey, salt, egg, and 8 cups flour. Put lid on mixer and mix well. Gradually add 2-4 more cups of flour until correct consistency is reached. Mix/knead for 8 minutes. Pour/pull dough out of mixer and onto a greased surface. Fold into a smooth loaf and place in greased bowl. Cover; let sit for 1 hour or until double in size. Pound fist into dough and turn out onto greased surface. Cut into 4 equal parts. Knead dough into loaves. Place in greased bread pans, cover, and let rise 1 hour or until double in size. Preheat oven to 400°. Put loaves into oven, turn oven down to 335°, and bake for 25-35 minutes or until internal temperature of 180° is reached. Remove from oven. Spray tops of loaves with cooking spray or rub with butter. Turn loaves out of pans. Let cool on their sides on a dish towel to prevent sweating.

The First Date

Seventeen years ago on Friday, February 18 we had our first date.

We celebrated the anniversary tonight at the Bonefish Grill.

There are no pictures of that evening, but I don't think we have aged a BIT.

Missed one

Ah... February 17... the day I thought was Wednesday.  I missed a picture today.  And I forgot to help Rachael pack her sound box today.  Too bad it wasn't really a repeat of Wednesday.

Fall down seven times, get up eight.

Cupcake Carrier

Today I'm most thankful for my super 6-year-old, but I documented it all pretty well over on our family blog.  This little gem didn't make the cut over there, but it was a lifesaver for school today.  

It's my cupcake courier that Santa brought me!

Red Tailed Hawk

The Giant Cupcake

Rachael's birthday cake this year.  I knew that giant cupcake pan would come in handy!

Favorite Dinner

I have always thought one of the perks of having your birthday is choosing what you want for dinner.  Since we had plans to take Rachael out for dinner to a restaurant for her her birthday, I let her choose the menu for Sunday dinner.  She picked parmesan chicken, cheese potatoes (which is open to a lot of interpretation, so these are twice-baked) and pink fruit salad.  And she was thrilled when she found out you don't have to do the dishes on your birthday, either!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie

I found the recipe here:

http://www.ourbestbites.com/2011/02/chocolate-chip-cookie-pie.html

Seriously, how is it I have never made something like this before?? 

It's definitely going in the regular rotation.

Girlfriends

Some of Rachael's school friends

L-R: Madi, Gwen, Kali, the princess, Savanna and Emily

Diamonds in Winter

We have glorious sunrises looking out the back of our house.

Even in the icy, snowy winter.
(Seriously, click on this image and look at it full size.  Spectacular.)

Rachael especially loved the way the sun makes the snow look like diamonds.

Birds

February is a cold, snowy, unforgiving month in Kentucky.  Besides Rachael's birthday, there is one other thing we can count on to make it feel better: birds looking for nesting sites.  Even the snow doesn't seem to deter pairs of cardinals from searching for the ideal home spot.  Their bright red coloring is a cheerful welcome on otherwise cloudy, gray days.

My Valentine

She picked one out especially for me today!

Showmanship

Tap class has been perfect for our little superstar!

Homemade Rolls

I'm pretty sure somewhere in heaven there will always be fresh homemade rolls.

Wild Weather

We had rain, sun, wind, rain, hail, sun and more wind today. 

I think this might have been Rachael's first hail storm; she was excited to get to hold some of it.

Until she realized it was made of ice.

Puzzles

Sometimes we just like to spend a week working on a 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle.

(We finished it today!)

The Dollar Store

I love it when we find a deal at the dollar store!

Bean Soup Scoop

And fun with Photoshop...