The Orchardmama Blog

easter egg dyeing

I'm getting a little post-happy these days, I feel like I've been blogging non-stop lately.  I think it's partly because we got a new desktop with a huge screen, and it's super fast so Lightroom & Photoshop run at lightning speed so it takes very little time to get a post ready.  

Anyway, Milo & I dyed eggs together on Saturday while Nick took a nap.  That night we made Empty Tomb cookies.  It was a really fun activity.  Each ingredient signifies something in the crucifixion story. We followed this recipe: http://westerntractmission.org/KK/craft/EasterTombCookies.shtml. It was a lot of fun!

Sunday morning we got up and went to church at 8 am.  That was a very early morning for us.  The boys (mostly Milo) were excited to check out their Easter baskets before then!

Artisan Italian Bread

This bread is delicious and addicting, so if your trying to follow the Paleo diet, or anything remotely low-carb, walk away from your computer/smartphone/tablet RIGHT NOW!

I started baking this type of bread about a year ago.  I found the original recipe here, but have since made a few tweaks, making it more to my liking.  I'll outline the recipe for you, and I promise, it's super easy and if you have any time at all and no shortage of flour, you can have delicious hot bread in less than 3 hours from now.  Ready?

First gather your ingredients:

6 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 Tbsp Yeast

1 1/2 Tbsp Sea Salt + additional sea salt for sprinkling on top

3 Cups Lukewarm water

1 Tbsp Italian Seasoning

Olive Oil for brushing on the tops of the loaves

Baking temp-450 Baking time-35 minutes

Next Measure all of your dry ingredients into a large bowl.  You'll need a bowl with a lid, and the lid should not be super air tight, so if you buy your bowls at grocery outlet like I do, this shouldn't be a problem:)

Add the 3 cups of lukewarm water & start stirring until it looks messy and unappealing.  

Put your lid on and let it sit somewhere relatively warm for 2 hours.  We usually have our house somewhere between 70-74 this time of year thanks to the woodstove, & that temp works just fine for letting this bread rise.

2 hours later, it's spread out a bit, risen and is ready to be made into a loaf or loaves, depending on how many you want to make!

Take 1/3 of the dough and shape it.  You don't knead it, and it definitely doesn't have to be & shouldn't be, looking perfect.  The beauty of this bread is in it's roughness and irregularities.

Next, take a serrated knife and make 3 fairly deep cuts on the top of the loaf, diagonally.  Then brush the loaf with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt.

Time to transfer to your oven, which has been pre-heated to 450, and set up to function like a little steam oven.  I use a pizza stone for cooking this bread on, it makes a delicious crust.  Also, you will need some sort of pan to put in a few inches of water to create steam in the oven.  I use a round cake pan.  Place it on the rack below the pizza stone.

I do not have a pizza slide, that is on my wish list.  So for now, I use 2 pancake turners to transfer my loaf onto the hot pizza stone.

it's in!

35 minutes later, the house smells beyond delicious, and we have a loaf of bread that is just the perfect size to have with dinner for our family of 4.

Blue Velvet Cake pops...for a cause!

My friend Whitney's husband is getting involved with a very worthwhile cause.  He will be biking across the country this coming summer, to help raise awareness for human trafficking.  You can learn more here http://ridingamerica4hope.wordpress.com/

To help raise funds for this, they have been doing all kinds of events.  Tonight, New Year's Eve, they are having a Decadent Desserts Auction in Leavenworth.  Whitney asked if I could make some cake pops for the event, and of course I said yes!  I always love an excuse to bake, especially when I get to do it for something so awesome!

I had never made blue velvet cake pops before, but I did get some help from this blog.  I followed the red velvet recipe found here.  They turned out great!

I made a couple of amendments to the recipe, I didn't use cake flour, just all purpose flour.  I also only used 1/2 cup of butter rather than 1 cup.  I didn't have buttermilk and couldn't find any at Safeway the night before, so I used my trusty substitute of 1 Tbsp Lemon juice, plus enough milk to make enough a full cup.  I usually do that because I never just have buttermilk in my fridge.  

Also, I used Wilton icing tint, so I wouldn't have to use ounces and ounces of blue food coloring.  I probably used about a teaspoon of the gel.

Don't wipe too much off of the beater, or your designated beater cleaner will get upset:)

All of these went to the auction, but I had a smidge of the cake/frosting combo left, so I made mini cake balls on toothpicks for Milo & Nick, and here is one of those: