bread

i love the smell of freshly baked bread.  it makes your home feel more cozy, am i right?  below is the recipe that i use as my "skeleton" recipe.  i am always doing something different to mix it up and keep it fresh.  to be honest i don't know where the recipe came from other than my mom obtained it somehow (you can see her note at the top, "very good!"  this bread is kid-tested, mother-approved.)  i always do some combo of bread flour and wheat flour.  now if we are being honest, and i think we are, this ratio is dependent upon how healthy i feel like being at that very moment.  lately, i have also been adding a tablespoon of wheat germ.  it makes the bread a bit more dense but adds some health benefits and a slight nutty taste.  this recipe is for bread-making machines...i don't mean like you are a beast at turning out bread, i do mean an actual machine.  i cheat at being domestic, i hope you do too.

here's a brief update on other happenings in the coco plum kitchen: as you might remember tuesday was cauliflower and leek soup.  i had first tried this when i was in morocco last october and it was love at first taste.  i recreated the soup when i first got home and it was so tasty.  since i knew we were going to have a mean storm come through i thought this would be the perfect warm-me-up soup.  wrong.  it was a disaster!  not as bad as spi11 but it was bad.  i blame white asaparagus.  at the last minute i thought it might be a nice addition.  nope.  cauliflower and white asparagus are apparently from rival vegetable gangs.  the long (asaparagus) and short (cauliflower) of it was that they do not get along.  the soup tasted and looked like gravy.  the locksmith not only ate a whole bowl but went back for seconds...it wasn't because it tasted good.  this was his sweet way of saying it, "the ingredients you used taste good"  let me translate, "separately they are tasty but pureed into a gravy they make me want to gag".  i love him for going back for seconds and putting the leftovers into tupperware to eat later...by himself.  that soup is no longer my cross to bare.  

how is the weather where you are?  today, in nm, it is one degree!  just one.  it is true that one is the loneliest number. 

in case you can't read the tiny print from the bread recipe here it is:

honey oatmeal bread

1 and 1/2 pound loaf

• 1 cup + 3 tablespoons water (80 degrees f)
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 1/3 cup bread flour (or a combo or wheat and bread flour)
• 1 cup oats (quick or old-fashioned)
• 2 tablespoons dry milk (i use non-fat)
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt (i usually just do 1 teaspoon)
• 1 1/2 teaspoon bread machine/fast rise yeast

1. add liquid ingredients and butter to pan.
2. add dry ingredients, except yeast, to pan.  tap pan to settle ingredients.  push some ingredients to corner of the pan to form a well.
3. pour yeast into well.
4. bake according to your bread machine's instructions.