I found this recipe on line after searching for a recipe that only made one loaf.  Since I mix the bread by hand, one loaf is easier to make, plus it tastes great right out of the oven.  I made some changes to the recipe adapted it to ingredients I have on hand! I haven't been able to find sour cream here in India but I can purchase the richest fresh cream, so thick and heavy like sour cream, so that's what I use and the bread tastes wonderful. I also like to add vital wheat gluten and potato starch ( either powdered or I save the water from boiling potatoes, both work very well.  The flour available here seems to have a lower protein than what I am use to so these are the adjustments I have made.  We will be having the bread tonight with Bruschetta, I can't wait! 

Yummy Bread Recipe

2/3 cups cold water

½ cup boiling water

1 tablespoon vital wheat gluten (optional)

1 tablespoon potato starch (optional)

2 Tablespoons orange juice

2 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons sugar

½ cup sour cream (I use heavy cream instead)

2 teaspoons instant yeast

4 ½ cups flour

Stir in waters, salt and sugar in a bowl, add sour cream then yeast, vital gluten, and potato starch.  Stir in flour.  Let dough rest ten minutes, Knead dough, let rest 10 minutes (repeat 2 more times)

Cover and let rise 1 hour. Bake @ 375 degrees 

As an added idea, we took a small piece of the dough, rolled it, coated it lightly with mustard, place a piece of gouda cheese in the center, wrapped it up and baked it until the bread was golden.  It was a delicious taste treat!

All Bran Muffins

All Bran Muffins Recipe

I have a wonderful recipe to share with you today.  It is a variation of the original recipe featured on the Kellogg’s All Bran box of cereal. My mom use to make these for us when I was a little girl, they are a great source of fiber and delicious to eat!

1-¼ cups flour

½ cup brown sugar

1-tablespoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt  

2 cups of All Bran Cereal

1 ¼ cup milk

1 egg

¼ cup vegetable oil (or ¼ cup applesauce)

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

Raisins (I used mixed dried fruit like blueberries, cranberries etc)

Nuts

To begin, place the cereal in a bowl, cover with milk and let stand while you assemble the other ingredients.  Combine the rest of the ingredients except the raisins and nuts.  Stir in the cereal mixture.  Once all the mixture is moist add the fruit and nuts.  You’ll notice I didn’t specify amounts on the fruit and that’s because I mix in what looks good to me (most recipes call for 1 cup but I find that sometimes that’s too much fruit) also it greatly depends on what I have on hand.

Place in a greased muffin tin (or use the handy muffin papers to save on washing difficulties)

Bake in an oven preheated 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until the muffins spring back to the touch.

I like using the applesauce because it cuts down on the cholesterol and as we are always looking for ways to cut the fat it’s one of my favorite ways to do so.  Enjoy!

Now for the latest update on our new addition, she continues to wiggle her way into our hearts, particularly Dave’s! She now bounces to the door when he arrives home from work and nothing will satisfy her except he stop to pick her up! 

She also loves lying at Tim’s feet when he is playing “Minecraft “ on the computer.  It’s quite fun to see how he has stepped up to help and train the Chloe’.

Of course I am coming to think of her as the pesky little puppy, she must have attention, and she must have it now!  Seriously, I love cuddling with her on the couch, she keeps me very warm during the cold Indian winter.  Although winter here is not cold compared to Utah standards, it is still quite cold especially when you consider the fact that there is no heat!  Everyone I have asked about it states, "It's only cold for 2 months, it's not worth it to put in heat."  To which I reply, "Tell that to my feet!"  

Because it has been so cold I haven't been in the mood to sew much, however, I have been in the mood to knit and crochet.  I have been able to complete  2 rosey earflap hats, the pattern for which can be found here: 

http://suzies-yarnie-stuff.blogspot.com/2010/11/rosy-earflap-cap.html 

I loved this pattern it worked up quickly (an hour per cap!) If your looking for a cute last minute Christmas gift this could be your answer!

Because these worked up so quickly I was also able to knit up a pair of socks for Dave in a nice comfortable wool! He will love them and with the marble floors here they will go a long way towards helping keep him warm this winter!

I used yarn from Light Brown Hare which fortunately ships internationally! The yarn knitted up wonderfully! I really enjoyed working with it.  You can find her yarn here:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/lightbrownhare

Have a great day everyone!

                     Our New Puppy Chloe’

The world’s cutest Lhasa Apso!

As you can see from the pictures we have a new addition to our family!  Chloe' can to our house December 11, 2010.  She was 42 days old at the time.  Dave bought her back from Mumbai, when he was there on business.  She is a Lhasa Apso.  A totally new breed to me, I don't I'd ever had the opportunity to see them before except in pictures.  They are a popular breed here in India and we wanted a dog that would stay small as we live in an apartment and I just couldn't do that to a golden retriever.  In fact, this is the first time since I was 8 years old that I have been without a Golden!  Technically, I still have my golden but she is half a world away living with my daughters as she was too old to make the journey to India.  The vet did not think she would be able to survive the trip.

Gabby

I sure miss her, she is the smartest Golden I have owned and at 50 I owned a few in my life!

Chloe is the smallest puppy.  And for such a small puppy she has quite the ferocious personally!  She wants what she wants now!  But already she loves to just be near us and when we work at the computer she lays on her blanket at our feet.

When Dave arrives home from work these days, the first words out of his mouth are, "Where's my puppy!"  She is definitely Daddy's girl.  She is also very attached to Tim! Hmmm, but then she really just loves to have attention.

Like a baby she eats four times a day.  And not surprisingly she has worms. I am concerned about taking her to the vet as she hasn't had any shots yet and I don't want to expose her to whats out there in the world but we will be doing that next week as soon as she is old enough to have them. We had a pound puppy that we adopted that died of Parvo once and I never want to have that happen again.  Despite the fact that we gave her the shot, it was too late she had already been exposed to the  virus. We are looking forward to many happy years with this pup.

Hey happy 9th day of december, only 15 more days until Christmas!  I have a table runner that I have been designing that I must finish this week, hopefully I can get back into sewing.  It has been so cold here and there is no heat so I spend my days curled up with knitting watching classic television and old movies.  I am told it will be even colder in January.  I have a space heater on my Christmas list but since the electrical here is so poor it wouldn't be as safe to have one as I'd like.  I also have a puppy on my Christmas list.  We will see what Santa brings me!

I thought I would talk a little about marking quilts.  I use an old stand by.  I use shards of soap.  We use Dial soap, my husband loves it's antibacterial properties and as it gets down to the end I save the slivers and they are wonderful for marking darker fabrics, I haven't had a problem with them leaving stains yet.  I also like the price!  I also use a soft lead pencil for marking applique work, it rubs off and I usually turn it under when I am sewing.

I took a look at "Go" advertised on the Quilt Show, I couldn't believe they wanted $1200 for the thing.  Then you still have to buy more dies.  Does anyone have one of these. Is it worth the money?   I still like to preserve my money for fabric (I just buy less and have to love what I buy) so anything that would make that big of a hit in my budget would have to be a real time saver.

I found a nice blog this week that I thought I would share with you.  You can find it here:
http://www.crazyshortcutquilts.com/margueritas-blog/

She has a nice videos some nice crazy quilt patterns which are always a great way to use up fabric!  Have a great week everyone and I'll see you next week.