I like the top, bottom a little less…

 

Which is probably the story of my life haha… anyway this is a dress I made long time ago and never wore longer than 1 hour. I’m thoroughly in love with the color, it’s a vivid purple, and very satisfied with how the top turned out and fits, but I wasn’t too sure about the rest of the dress. A bit blah, a bit meh and because it’s a solid there’s a lot of purple going on in the bottom area ..

Of course that is exactly why the title of this post is so adequate ;-D. A friend suggested to add a little white crisp to the mix (a white tank and only a hint of white legging peeping out from under the skirt) and I really like it now!

(Knip mode)

Babe goes Buddy on Vienna Bread

Astrid had the Babes following a recipe from Peter Reinhardt in the Bread Baking Apprentice and bake Vienna bread for July.
A regular white bread or so it seems but this one was made with an overnight pre-ferment. I had it started in the days before we left for our holiday thinking I would manage to bake and post in time.

That didn’t happen. Threw out the preferment and went on holiday.. there would be some time left to be still in time to post after our holiday. That didn’t happen either and I should have known I’m always in trouble getting back into rhythm again.

I made the preferment again and had it in the fridge for two days before I managed to bake. And guess what? That prolonged stay in the fridge added just enough depth to make this an interesting not regular white bread! We really liked it. Just a hint of chew, a nice crunch to the crust and a lovely crumb. Nice one Astrid!(I do need to work on the Dutch Crunch crust though, used all potato flour because I was flat out of rice flour and although there were slight spots visible they were not as obvious as I would have liked).

Some of us baked rolls (as we should) following Astrid’s tutorial, or you could try it this way. I made loaves… just because I could. *grins*

Yes, we’re here!

And probably ready to go back again after a week of laundry and cleaning and most of all rain! I’ve had my fun sleeping in my own bed with clean sheets, stand in my own shower having hot water and room to move, cooking with fresh vegetables, eating unsweetened yoghurt, shop for groceries in a supermarket where I’m familiar with prices/brands (takes less time! especially because I’m on my own here and not trailed by 4 family members with their own agenda/shopping list LOL).

We’ve seen the rain, felt the grass in the garden and I already scrubbed two bathrooms and vacuumed the floor. So… can we go back please to days of sun, non-cooking besides grilling burgers, free soda refills, pleasant store people actually willing to help, beautiful scenery and a tent that doesn’t need cleaning/tidying until the day we leave because it’s no use anyway?

This is where we started, indeed we had 3 out of 4 days with an unlimited –clear- view of the bridge!
Onwards to other views and a change of surroundings:

Went on where we experienced this; It even went up to a shocking 115F at one point… Absolutely great to dry your laundry btw, from wet to dry in under 30 minutes. I think you can imagine we welcomed the balmy temperatures of San Diego where we stayed in this tent:

I’m still sorting through our pics, these are from a point and click camera, need to fiddle some with the overload of pics from the bigger camera, stay tuned!

Catching up on Bread Baking Babes: Sliders!

Thought I had it all set up for posting while I was away on vacation.. turns out I had not. So this is a sweet and short one catching up on our July bake; the little square hamburger buns that Sara had us made. They were a huge hit in our house. I doubled the recipe and not at all surprising found myself scrambling for extra sheets to get them all baked. Used a square cookie cutter (2.1/2 inch square or 6 cm) to make sliders.

They rose beautifully and I really did a fore head to the counter slap when I realized I didn’t get any pictures from the heaping basket full of lovely little buns!

Tiny square  hamburgers and onion rings to go with the buns plus tomato and lettuce…Add a handful of fries? 

We didn’t ate them all that day, I planned to have enough left for a little lunch bite the next day for a family gathering to celebrate my parents’ anniversary.

ABC Bakers: chocolate dipped cheese cake balls

Eeerrr… been there, done that and got the pics and blog post to prove it! Back in the days of my Daring Bakers Career I made these:

I think the pictures were more fun than the actual eating and if you read that post you’ll find that Decorating the Dairy, Fickle on a Popsicle and Cream Cheese Crafts are not exactly my favorite pastime. Did have oodles of fun making them though. So.. I’ll leave you with the pictures and send you to my post!