presents taste good!

Yay! 2 presents in the same day! First, my spices! I have been wanting to find a good, inexpensive, fairly small sized spice company that I can order from and I think I found a great one. Penzey’s spices are delish and inexpensive and, most importantly for me, the come in small containers so I am more likely to replace my spices the recommended every 1-2yrs instead of keeping them so long that the store I bought them from has gone out of business at least 2 decades ago (yes mom, I’m talking to you). So I think I’ve found my source; very reasonable prices, quick shipping (even if you choose their “slow” method which is $1 less), nice containers, great selection, and of course super fresh and delish! Highly recommend you check them out at www.penzeys.com

Now on to bigger things…

We got a huge box in the mail too. A wedding gift from our sister, Sarah! A breadmaker to be precise! And it’s so awesome! Tom and I put it on our registry not thinking someone would get it for us and when we saw that it had been purchased we were really excited! And wow did the house smell great! We started with a simple white bread recipe and it rose a little high but was cooked through and tasted wonderful. Warm, fresh, homebaked bread. So good! So’s here that recipe; nothing special, but a great staple.

Basic White/ French Bread

Add all ingredients to Bread Pan in the order given.

Stuff for a 2lb loaf
1 1/2 cup warm water
2 Tbl vegetable oil
1 1/2 tsp salt
4 cups all purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp. active dry yeast

Baked in our sweet new Breadman Cool Touch Automatic Bread Baker that Weezo got us for a wedding present. Preset #1, Crust Medium.

Just so everyone knows this was the most perfect pb&j ever. Warm, soft bread, some natural pnut butter and strawberry perserves. The best ever! And I was so inspired that I even dug out my mom’s old dak breadmaker cookbook which I used all while I was growing up since we had fresh bread everyday. Just like old times… keep eating!