Amish White Bread

This bread takes about 65 minutes from start to finish including rising and baking.  It's definitely one of my faves.  

With every batch (25 pound bag of flour) that I buy, I have to do a bit of adjustment to the amount of flour I use and I'm sure you will have to as well.  Other factors also include altitude and what kind of yeast you use as well.   5 1/2 cups of flour 1 1/2 tsp salt  2-4 Tbsp yeast  1 1/2 - 2 Tbsp Oil  2 cups water at 120 degrees 

In glass bowl add the warm water.  Sprinkle yeast in water and let proof for 10 minutes.  I've got to be honest and say I never let my yeast proof.  Add oil, salt and about half the flour and stir with a wire whisk till mixture is glue like.  Spread the remainder of flour on counter and pour mixture in center.  Work the flour bit by bit until dough starts becoming tacky and flour is incorporated.   Spray two bread loaf pans with Pam spray.  Cut loaf in half and form into a loaf.  Press loaves in glass pan, coating the dough with oil and turn over greased side up.   Let rise for 30 minutes.   Half way through rising (at the 15 minute mark) I turn my oven on to 350 degrees so it's good and warm.   Place in top shelf of hot oven for exactly 25 minutes.  You might need a few more minutes cooking depending on your preference and how dark you like your loaves.  

If you would like your bread larger and more sandwich~like then increase your rise time.  Baking time will remain the same.

The Country Cook

Grilled Zucchini

If you've seen any of the recipes that go around on Pinterest or Facebook and tried any of them,  many times it's a given that they NEVER turn out like the picture or taste palatable.  Today's experiment was to try and make zucchini chips.  They didn't turn out like chips but they were still delicious. Cut up 2 zucchini into thin slices.  

 Season with your choice of seasoning.  I used a sea salt grinder  pepper grinder with other spices as well.  I tossed them in Sesame Oil.  

Bake at 200 degrees until nice and brown about 20ish minutes on top rack.  Some of my smaller pieces were getting pretty brown so I pulled them out of the oven before the whole batch did the same thing.

I would definitely make this again.  Definitely.

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How To add a Matte Finish in Levels and Curves

The foundation of a good photograph is getting it right in camera as well as a good clean edit.  After that foundation is layed then there is room for creative editing.  I must admit that I'm not a fan of matte edits but I thought to blog about it because it's just good info to know!

Open up you image in Photoshop.  

 Click on Levels

 Make sure your properties for curves is visible.

 Move the left hand side of the output slider from the left over to the right until you have the desired amount of matte in your image.  

 If you'd like to do the adjustment in Curves: 

Open up your document:

 

Add a Curves Adjustment Layer and bring up the right side of the curve up to add haze.

Depending on how much haze you want you can bring the slider up for more haze and down for less.

Save your PSD!  Voila!

Of Grafitti, Korean food, Date nights and Eggs.

The hubs and I have been doing our rounds around town lately~  

From downtown Chicago...

...to a Korean grocery store where we ate a late dinner of bibimbap...

...to a date at an Italian Restaurant over in North West Indiana with a gift certificate from a friend...

I also did a few re~edits of previously shot images.  

Last year I visited the Pacific Science Center in Seattle and the butterfly garden was incredible.  

And this was taken in our backyard last Spring. 

And lately I did a study in 3/4 lighting in my dining room right using window light. 

It might seem silly but I LOVE this image!  

What about you?  What have you been up to lately?

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Happy Valentines Day!

Wishing you a wonderful Valentines Day spent with the ones you love.  

This morning I took out the tripod and some thrifted lace and played around with this sweet little Valentine motif on the floor of the living room.  You can tell I didn't pull out the iron.  ha! 

Love isn't the big things that people do... the hearts, the greeting cards or the chocolate.  It's the little things that go unnoticed day to day...the small favors and acts of kindness that make the day worthwhile and bring a smile to my face.  

Do all things in love!

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 Chic on a Shoestring Decorating~  but I can't find her button!  

Thrifty Groove

The LONG Winter.

It's been a long winter here in Chicagoland and we are officially at the 3rd worst winter in history.  I think everyone is longing for spring thaw and warmer days!  

Getting out as frequently hasn't happened as much as I'd like it to and time has been spent mostly indoors finding ways to be creative with a daily shot or edit.   When you see things every day it's easy to not look at things with a creative eye so I've been trying to look at things a little differently to stir up my creative side.

We've had a bit of melting recently and have 6 foot icicles hanging off of the rain gutters.  The sun was shining through them one day from the front porch and I grabbed my camera. 

Someone was SO kind to give us a gift card for an Italian Restaurant over in Indiana recently so the hubs and I had an official date night.   

I've been taking an online course in photoshop and have been doing quite the bit of tweaking with contrast as you can see from the remainder of my images posted today in black and white.  

This one was taken in the corner of our living room where the light streams in wonderfully. 

This was from a trip to our local library, once again a study/edit in contrasts.  

And here's the before and after side by side.  

Those are some of the images I've taken recently!  

Hope you are staying warm in your part of the world 

Until next time!

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No Knead Butter Rolls

Oh me oh my~  these are good.  Very good.  I can eat these for breakfast, lunch and dinner!  The dough can be mixed together and kept covered in the refrigerator, and pulled off as needed, let it sit to rise, and bake.  But that NEVER happens.  I usually make the entire recipe.  

A quick word about flour~ 

I've noticed that in the bag of flour that I am currently using I am using 6 cups of recipe for this recipe.  I think it depends on the brand, settling, etc.  

3 cups warm water 

2 Tbsp Yeast 

1/2 cups sugar 

1/2 cup vegetable oil 

2 tsp salt 

6-7 cups white flour 

1 stick butter 

Measure out water in a large mixing bowl.  Sprinkle the yeast on top of the water.  Add the sugar and salt and whisk together.  Someone commented that I shouldn't add the salt at this time since it will affect the rising of the dough but I've never had a problem.  You can always add it later with the flour.  Let the dough sit for a few minutes to make sure yeast is activated.  Add enough flour till dough is moistened and incorporated.

  Dough will be sick and not dry like traditional bread doughs. 

Cover and let rise till double about an hour or so~  but I usually don't wait that long.   Melt the butter in microwave till barely melted.  If you melt it too long it will seperate.  Grease cookie sheet and hands (I use a muffin tin)  and pull of a piece of dough, dip it in butter and place on cookie sheet or in muffin tin.  This recipe makes about 26 rolls per recipe and are pretty large in size.  

Let rise for 20 minutes.  I tried cooking two trays at one time but the oven heat needs to be well circulated to cook them properly and so they don't get too brown on the bottom.  

If you make these on a cookie sheet they tend to spread out.  I really prefer the muffin tins.  

Bake for 20 minutes in a preheated 375 degree oven.  

You can't eat just one.  :)

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Frugally Sustainable