Victorian Milk Bread

I know that many of you know that my new "thing" since I've been in London is bread making. I will admit that I have had a reasonable amount of success, and, admittedly, a few failures. Fortunately, complete failures rarely occur anymore. Now, it is just a matter of tweaking a recipe, or finding a different one entirely because I don’t like something about it.

I’ve learned so much about bread making and I hope to impart some of that information to you here at some point, but for now I just wanted to share this picture with you. It is a picture of my first attempt at Victorian Milk Bread. It was great tasting bread, although the texture was a little too dense for our taste to use it as an “everyday” bread. That being said, I will probably still make it again at some point.

My real joy, well other than eating my efforts of course, is the picture. I mean, isn’t that the most beautiful loaf of bread you’ve ever seen in your life? (Yeah, yeah, I’m prejudiced to my own work, but who isn’t right?)

Buttermilk Biscuits

I know it's been a while since I've posted, but I wanted to let everyone know that the cookbook is coming along nicely. I've been rethinking the size and layout, but I haven't put together any more cover ideas yet.

I have been trying out some new recipes, though, and I wanted to post a rave review of the best buttermilk biscuit recipe ever. I don't remember where I found it, but it is the best biscuit recipe we've found. It's especially good with gravy for breakfast!

Enjoy!

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ cup vegetable shortening, chilled
¾ cup buttermilk, chilled

In a bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda until well mixed. Add the shortening and toss to coat with the flour mixture. Using a pastry blender, 2 knives, or your fingertips, and working quickly, cut or rub in the shortening until the mixture is the consistency of coarse meal.

Make a well in the center of the flour mixture. Pour in the buttermilk all at once, then stir with a fork just until a soft dough forms that pulls away from the sides of the bowl.

Preheat an oven to 450ºF (232ºC).

Gather the dough into a ball and turn out onto a lightly floured work surface. Knead very gently 5 or 6 times just until the dough holds together. Gently pat or roll out the dough about 1/2 inch (12 mm) thick. Using a round biscuit cutter 2 or 2 ½ inches (5 or 6 cm) in diameter, cut out as many rounds as possible, pressing straight down and lifting the cutter straight up without twisting. Place the dough rounds about 1 ½ inches apart on an ungreased baking sheet. Very gently knead the scraps together 2 or 3 times and cut as before. Do not reroll any additional scraps.

Bake until evenly browned, 10-12 minutes. Serve hot from the oven.

Makes 12-14 biscuits (We like thicker bicuits, so I only get about 9)

Voting for the Cover

Billy raised an important issue with voting that I had not considered before. This has now been fixed so that more than one vote can be chosen from the same computer. Thanks Billy!

Also, keep in mind that this is not a difinitive vote! We can change this. I'm already working on some new cover ideas, so once this poll closes, there will be some more options to look at!

Sample Cookbook Covers

Cookbook Covers

I've been so happy about the number of people who have responded to the call for recipes. I have already received several. This is going to be the most fabulous cookbook ever!

I'm planning to create a 5.5 by 8.5 size book. It's a great size to work with, easy to print out on regular-size paper, and one recipe usually fits pretty well on a page.

I've also been working on some options for cookbook covers. Now, please keep in mind that these are only samples. Anything can be changed including font size, color, title, image, layout - anything! But I thought that this would at least give everyone a place to start getting ideas. Of course, I have all of these saved, so if there is one that you're just dying to use for your edition of our family cookbook, then I'm sure we can figure something out.

Just click on the picture above to see all four of the sample covers I've prepared. Then make sure that you come back to the blog and vote for your favorite via the poll on the right! I can't wait to hear your thoughts!

The Best Roast Beef Recipe

I wasn't going to post any of the recipes up on the blog, but when my mother-in-law, Diana, sent this one to me I just couldn't resist!

Roast Beef Recipe (aka Gracie Allen's Classic Recipe for Roast Beef)

1 large Roast of beef
1 small Roast of beef

Take the two roasts and put them in the oven. When the little one burns, the big one is done.

How easy is that! Thanks for the great laugh Diana!

Calling All Cooks!

Ok family, let’s make a cookbook! Notice the title is not "Calling Only Good Cooks", so don’t let any of those excuses start slipping in.

I’ve been considering this for some time, and I’ve finally decided to make it happen. I’ve started to compile all of my favorite recipes so that I have everything I love to make all in one convenient place. I would love it if everyone in the family contributed. You can send your recipes to me via email by typing the recipe directly into the email, or attaching a word document.

Please do not get overwhelmed. I fully expect them to trickle in over the next few months. My goal is to work on this project for at least one hour each week. I worked on typing recipes yesterday and now I’m half finished with all those in my cookbook! Of course there are others in various places that I still need to type up, and Michael has several as well, but I was really surprised at how fast it went.

So, warm up those typing fingers and keep them coming. Even one or two recipes every week will help our cookbook grow!

Now for the not fun part; the deadline is November 30th. I hate to do this, but it’s good for me. And, whether you’re willing to admit it or not, it’s good for you too. We all procrastinate, and I don’t want this project to just fizzle and die. The good news is that this is almost 4 whole months! That’s a lot of time.

So, let me see them! I’m anxiously awaiting the flood of recipes!

My personal blog

Hey everyone! I know that you have all been enjoying reading our Europe blog, but I also wanted an outlet that was a little more personal. A place where we can all connect, ask each other questions, and just talk about general things. This will be the place for everyone to ask questions or post comments as it relates to anything non-Europe related that we want to talk about (i.e. cooking, laundry, books, routines, child care, relaxation techniques, life, or just simply to vent about something).

Thanks for reading and I can't wait for the whole family to be chatting here and sharing experiences and helpful tips.