June Furlough, Week 3

Let's skip the part about me not blogging for a year, shall we? I will just pick up where I left off and pretend my new job hasn't been consuming all my time. The bright side is that I love it. Another perk? This year I got all of June off. Here's what I was up to last week - week 3 - of my June time off.

1. BAKING

I have been baking up a storm! Although not documented in photos, my belly remembers it well. Last week I baked...

Peter Reinhart's Transitional Whole Wheat Cinnamon Raisin Bread.
Here's an article about the bread, and includes the recipe. I recently bought Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads book, where this recipe originates, and have been slowly trying my hand in different kinds of whole wheat baking. Despite the beautiful starter doughs (pictured below), I found the end product almost unedible. In fact, the loaf went into the garbage. If I'm going to consume a couple hundred calories for a slice of bread, it better be damned good. And this was not.


My pre-doughs for the Transitional Cinnamon Raisin bread. The raisins go into the whole wheat starter dough, which sits out for at least 12 hours. Unfortunately, they didn't hold up in the kneading process. After 10 minutes they were all smooshed up in the dough and only little raisin skin flecks were left.



Peter Reinhart's Cinnamon Raisin Bread
Mere hours after pulling out the whole wheat version out of the oven, I got started on the cinnamon raisin bread recipe found in Reinhart's Bread Bakers Apprentice book. I've used this recipe a lot and each time it turns out simply divine. This was no exception. Unfortunately, the bread was eaten faster than I could get a picture of it, but Nicole at Pinch My Salt has a great tutorial from the BBA Challenge.


Light Wheat Bread
I have been making a lot of 100% whole wheat, nutty breads lately. When I get home sick I crave certain foods, namely sunflower seed bread and wheat beer (is beer a food?), so I had been consuming a lot of both. For a change of pace, I made Reinhart's Light Wheat Bread. I know it's only 33% whole wheat, so I don't know if it can be considered "healthy", but it really is delicious. Smitten Kitchen has a blog post that includes lots of pictures and the recipe.


My light whole wheat loaf, waiting to be sliced.


Last but not least - Garlic Herb Focaccia
Again, this was eaten before the camera could come out. It was that good, if not really oily. In the recipe, Reinhart (who else?) claims that the dough will soak up the 1/2 cup of olive oil that is poured on before baking. This is true I suppose, but I still felt like it was way too much. Here's an article Reinhart did for Fine Cooking, with the recipe.



2. DECOPAGING

I love to decopage! It's a fun and quick craft that can transform any plain-old-thing into a thing-of-beauty. I finished a couple of decopaging projects this week.


Kitchen Frame for Unit Conversions
It is not uncommon for me to stop in the middle of a recipe, run to the stairs with my hands covered in flour, and yell up to Beth "how many cups are in a liter?". But now that problem is solved! I decopaged a $3 frame from Michaels, and printed out some basic unit conversions. Now I have a pretty chart hanging in my kitchen whenever I need it.









Bathroom Boxes
Our kitchen has no storage at all. Ok, there are two little shelves, which just does not cut it. To help keep all those little bathroom things tidy - clippers, cue-tips, nail polish, bobby pins - I decopaged these cheap-o Ikea boxes. I think they are so pretty.







3. BEACHING

For San Diegans, Beth and I go to the Beach a sad few times a year. But this week we went two times in two days! What a perfect end to this vacation week.