Bread!

I've been making my own bread for awhile now. We have a 12 grain bread recipe that my husband makes every so often, but this bread is my every day go to recipe. It's super simple and you can adjust it to your own preference for white/brown ratio. I make it 50% whole wheat. This way my kids still eat it and I feel a bit better that it's healthier. 

We really like bread in this house. We go through a loaf per week at least! This recipe makes 2 loaves so I freeze the 2nd one until we need it.

Ingredients:

- 6 cups flour (3 whole wheat, 3 white)

- 2 1/2 cups hot water (from the tap)

- 1 1/2 Tbsp instant yeast

- 1/3 cup honey

- 1/3 cup oil (I like Olive oil)

- 2 1/2 tsp salt

Directions:

Combine water, yeast & 2 cups flour.

 Let sit 15 minutes to sponge.

 Add honey, oil, salt & 4 cups flour. Mix until dough starts to clean the sides of the bowl. Knead 6 to 7 minutes.

 Form into 2 loaves and place into greased 9x5" pans.

 Allow to rise in a warm place for 60 minutes. Dough should be 1/2 to  1" above pans. (I preheat my oven to 175F then shut it off and let dough rise in the oven)

 Bake for 30 minutes in 350F oven.

 Immediately remove from pans to cool on a rack.

This bread smells amazing and tastes great! If you don't have a mixer, go ahead and make it by hand. You will just need to increase your kneading time by a few minutes.  

Enjoy!

DIY Picture Frame Update

I bought these pictures roughly 11 years ago. While I still like the actual pictures themselves, they don't go with the style I'm trying to decorate our house with. I decided to experiment a bit to see if I could give them a more rustic charm.

It's not the best before picture. Sun was shining through the blinds, but you get the idea. They were black frames. 

I put two coats of white paint on, not worrying too much about brush strokes or uneven areas as the next step is distressing the paint.

I used a medium grit sand paper and scuffed up the edges of the frame and some of the flat areas.

Now I really have to get the walls painted so they don't blend in so much!

I will eventually find them a new wall to live on because I have another plan for where they are currently. But for now, I'm happy with the switch from modern to rustic. 

I'm Baaaaaaaaaack!

The title to this post has two meanings. First, I'm back to the blogging world after a very long break!! We had a super busy year with a job change, house Reno, new baby and move to a new province. I am just finally feeling settled in our new house (though we haven't finished decorating and have a basement to finish still) so I decided it was time to get back to this little blog project of mine!

The second meaning for the title is that we just got back home from a trip to Arizona! We spent 12 days visiting my husband's parents. We mostly just relaxed, swam in their pool or took the kids to the nearby park. We did make a day trip to the mini Legoland in Phoenix and my husband took in a baseball game . It was spring training.

Here are some pictures I snapped through the car window during our travels.

These pictures are some of my favorite plants I saw while walking around the neighborhood. Lots of different types of cacti!

 A few yards had their cacti dressed up in sun glasses.

View from the plane on the way there. Snowy mountains.

The Grand Canon seen from the plane window.

Our flights went really well. All the kids did great! We came home to a forecast of snow for 2 days straight. So far today the weatherman was right! Lol

Now that I'm back to blogging I hope to write some posts as I finish up decorating parts of our house! I hope you all have been well since my last post! 

Have a great weekend everyone!