I love when we spend time together.
I don’t love when there aren’t any stories to share with you.
I live a small, quiet life here in the beautiful mountains of Pennsylvania, and truth be known, I rather like it that way.
I guess not every week needs to be an attention-grabbing, heart-pounding headline. Some weeks are just lived, one cup of coffee, one small chore, one moment at a time.
Life here in the mountains has a way of settling into peacefulness. I stand at the sink, washing dishes, looking out the window, watching the birds at the feeders, and I feel happy. I have a warm house, plenty of dishes — what would life be like if I only had two plates and two spoons and two cups? I mused. I feel grateful.
I made homemade breadsticks this week! They’re on a cookie sheet and yes, they are as huge as they look.
“You only have to eat one instead of two,” my handsome mountain man said.
They were so good that I ate two that day! I love bread. It’s like my favorite food.
They were easy to make. The recipe said it serves twelve, I divided the dough into twelve, and that’s how they ended up so big. After they were baked I brushed them with melted butter and sprinkled with parmesan cheese. I even sprinkled a few with Italian seasoning mix.
Oh my gosh!
What a time of it I had!
I said they were easy, and they were. But the recipe is written out in a funky way. The first step is to proof your yeast.
Speaking of yeast, I have to tell you that proofing your yeast isn’t as necessary today as it was back when our mothers and grandmothers made bread. Our yeast is pretty dependable and I never proof it when I make homemade bread. Proofing does not make the yeast stronger, it doesn’t make it taste any better, and it doesn’t change the rise time. In fact, instant yeast was developed to not need proofing. It was made to add right into the flour and proofing it can actually weaken it a little because it dissolves the protective coating. But this recipe calls for the yeast to be proofed, so I proofed it.
Mix together the water, sugar, and yeast, the recipe said. When you look at the list of ingredients and amounts, the water is at the top, the sugar is in the middle, and the yeast was on the very bottom.
Why?!
Why would you write a recipe like that?!
I mixed the water, yeast, sugar and put it aside.
The next step was to mix the other ingredients and that’s where I got confused. I put the flour in, listed right under the flour is sugar. I put sugar in. Next was garlic. When I found garlic on the list, my eyes traveled to the front of the line to see the amount, and it said four and a half teaspoons. I was scoopin’ in the garlic powder and after four, I got a big whiff of garlic and thought, that’s a lot of garlic powder. I went back to double check the recipe and aye-yi-yi! It was supposed to be one and half teaspoons! I’d read the amount for yeast, which was written directly under it!
Luckily I’d dropped the garlic in different places. That helps me keep track of my count. I took a spoon and lifted out two and a half piles — along with some of my flour. I took the measuring cup from the flour bucket and guessed at how much to add back.
What else did I mess up? I wondered and checked the recipe.
The sugar! Oh my goodness! The sugar was for proofing and wasn’t for the bread! I shrugged my shoulders and thought, no big deal, it’ll just be a little sweeter.
It turned out well despite my flubs. I just hope when I make it the right way that it’ll be just as good — or better!
Speaking of the next time I make them, I’ll divide it into fifteen or maybe eighteen and make them smaller. And the next time I make them, Mike wants me to cook up some sweet Italian sausage and he’s going to use one to make a sandwich.
I shared the breadsticks with the Kipps, giving them six. “They’re wonderful!” Miss Rosie said. “Even after two days they still warmed up nicely,” she told me.
Mine were all gone the next day.
The recipe is called Make Ahead Frozen Breadsticks because you can freeze the dough and bake them later. I wanted them that day and didn’t freeze them, but I’ll freeze some for Miss Rosie, then, when she makes a pot of chili or soup, she can get a couple out, let them sit for an hour or so, and bake them. There’s nothing better than hot, fresh bread right out of the oven, don’cha think?
Raini and I took the garbage out for pickup on Tuesday morning. On the way back I decided to take her for a walk. I let her drag her leash and it left a mark in the snow.
See! I told you it was a quiet week when all I have to show you is drag marks in the snow!
Actually, that’s not quite true. I did take a few other pictures.
The first thing I noticed was we had a tree down by the pond. It wasn’t a very big one but it’s still going to require a cleanup when spring hits.
Dried milkweed pods decorate the landscape.
Bittersweet red pops!
The truck and bus hoods dressed in a layer of snow.
The wind was blowing cold on my face. I turned and headed for the house rather than going past the upper barn.
Raini knows there’s a whistle pig burrow in this mound and she went to sniff it out.
Then, when she saw me coming, ran for home.
Coming back from our shopping trip, I spot flares burning beside the road just before you go down the hill into Meshoppen.
“Uh-oh,” I said.
A semi had turned up the road by the tire place.
“Where’s the truck?” Mike asked.
“They unhooked it. It’s just a little ways up the road.”
I expected to see a wreck but all I saw were these guys fussing with something.
“It looks like he took out whatever was there on the corner,” I said.
“Yeah, but why unhook the truck?”
“Maybe he thought it was going to explode or something.” That was all I could think of. The next time I go past the place I’ll look and see what’s put back.
My friend Jody came and played Quiddler with me for a few hours one afternoon. I do so enjoy her company and the fact that she’ll play Quiddler with me.
Tiger was feeling neglected and laid on top of our cards.
“Didn’t I take a picture?” I asked Jody.
“Nope,” she said.
“I guess that explains why I couldn’t find it.”
Tiger does the same thing when Mike and I play Skip-Bo. In the photo Mike is trying to coax Tiger into sitting on the papers near us rather than on our cards.
“No thanks,” Tiger said and stayed where he was.
I had to pick him up and move him out of the way. Two minutes later he was back. He is persistent, I’ll give him that.
And that, my loves, is all the jibber-jabber for this week.
Done!
