Five Things For Friday

I'm just going to start this blog off by saying NEW CAMERA!  That's right, as a birthday gift to myself I splurged and bought a new camera!  I've been toying with doing this for some time now but finally pulled the plug.  Lucky you!  No more camera phone photos!  Instead my new Nikon D3300 24.2 MP CMOS Digital SLR Camera with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR II Zoom Lens + 2x Professional Lens +HD Wide Angle Lens + UV Filter Kit with 24GB Deluxe Accessory Bundle (Certified Refurbished) will be used! Seriously, what an upgrade!  Look at those vases!  They are one of my favorite things this week since they were one of my first photographs with my new camera!  Unfortunately, I can't refer you to the site where you can get them as I picked them up at a craft market a few years ago, but appreciate the photo.

Did I mention my birthday?!  That's right, I celebrated my birthday this week.  My son and I made this awesome Refrigerator Cake.  We used skim milk to make the pudding and substituted lite whipped topping.  After refrigerating it for a day, I cut it into squares and froze it!  

It's like an ice cream sandwich, or a pudding cream sandwich!  It's great and makes a nice low fat dessert. 

Last week one of my favorite things was online grocery shopping.  Don't worry, it's still a favorite of mine, but here's a funny little artifact from it.  Basically, online grocery shopping works by you filling out your grocery list online and paying someone $5 to shop for you.   That someone, at least in our town, is usually a teenager. They take your list and walk around the store and pick up the items on your list.  This works great for most items, it gets a little murky when you ask for 2 onions, small sized or a piece of ginger, medium size. Even then, it works most of the time.  A few weeks ago though, I asked for one ginger root, medium size and came home with the largest piece of ginger I've ever seen!  It was obvious the teenager who was filling my order had no idea what a ginger root was.  Anyway, I'm not complaining, I still love online grocery shopping and it's almost like Christmas when you get home and see what amount of produce you have!  With my copious amount of ginger, I've been making fresh ginger tea.  It's a great bedtime drink!  I just slice a few (5-6) pieces of ginger, add a teaspoon of raw sugar, pour hot water over it, and let it steep for 10 minutes. 

I discovered this little bud on my Haworthia Attenuata, Zebra Zebrina Exotic Rare Succulent Cactus Plant Cacti 2"this week.  Can't wait to see it bloom!  Has kind of got me in the mood to force some bulbs inside.

These Red Ceramic Ziva Paperwhite Holiday Gift Growing Kit, Deluxe Edition. Includes a Rustic Red Ceramic Pot, 3 Large Paperwhite Bulbs, and Professional Growing Medium would work great!  Paperwhites are the only bulbs I've had much luck in forcing.

I hope you have a great weekend!  I plan to take some awesome photos of my soap!  Check the online store for the new photos!

Sunday Morning Bread

I managed to get a biga (bread starter) made on Saturday, so Sunday morning we had homemade Italian bread!

This bread takes two days to make because once the biga is created (right) then it needs to be refrigerated overnight.

Early Sunday morning the biga is removed from the refrigerator, allowed to rest at room temperature for an hour, then is mixed with the the rest of the flour, yeast, honey, salt, and water.

The final product, after a few more hours of rising, makes for a very tasty bread!  It also makes two decent sized loafs.  One I gave to a friend for his birthday and one we devoured before dinner!  I actually had to buy bread in the evening so we'd have some with our soup for dinner.

Five Things for Friday

We're in for a rainy weekend but it's still a WEEKEND and to kick it off, here of some of my favorite things from this week.

•  I got my first whiff of Spring this week as I was riding to work.  I love this plant and it's fragrance.  It smells a lot like a daphne, but dare I say, stronger....  I also love the fact that it blooms in the dreary, dead of Winter, just when you've given up all hope of ever seeing Spring.  If you don't have one of these plants in your yard and you live in zones 6-9, get one.  You'll thank me next Winter.  Himalayan Sweet Box (Sarcococca hookeriana var. humilis)

Norpro 18 Inch Aluminum Magnetic Knife Bar  I'm loving my new magnetic knife holder.  Just getting the knife block off my counter top has freed up so much more space.  I have room for a lamp now!  Yes, a lamp in the kitchen!  That could be a blog post all on it's own or a great band name!

DecoBros Wall Door Mount Kitchen Wrap Organizer Rack, White  On that same note, I finally found a good spot for all the various types of wrap I have.  Why do I have so many boxes of wrap!?  Anyway, I used to put these in the lazy susan cupboard, which was probably not my finest idea.  Quite often a box would wedge itself behind the rolling table and you'd be unable to move the lazy susan.  Naturally, this was bothersome but I kept it like that for many, many years not realizing there was an easy fix!

• Online grocery shopping!  Ok, this rocks!  For the past month or two we've been using Fred Meyer's (Kroger) online grocery shopping website, called ClickList (stupid name).  Anyway we order our groceries through the website, select a time and day to pick them up, then drive to the store on that day.  You pay when you get there, use any coupons if you have them (I never do), and the clerks load your groceries in your car and you're finished!  Grocery shopping done!  Love it!  If it's available in your part of the world and you hate grocery shopping as much as I do, then check it out!  
• French Linen Bread Bag.  Do these really keep bread fresh?  Yes definitely.  If you purchase or make a lot of bread that doesn't come in plastic then use these.  They will keep your bread fresher for longer and what a beautiful design!  I have two bread bags and even the most rustic of breads will last days longer in a bread bag.

Lora's Beauty at *I**AM Yoga

Starting this week, you can now purchase Lora's Beauty Goats' Milk or Beer Soap at *I**AM Yoga!   I will be featuring only soaps at this point and the price will remain the same as on my website, $5 each.  In addition, I'm offering a special at the studio where you can get 5 bars for $22!


If you want to look before you buy and happen to be in Portland, visit *I**AM Yoga at 13th and Alberta to view and smell the soaps available.

I'm very proud of the display I put together for the studio.  I was having a hard time deciding on what to use to display my soaps.  I needed something with low sides so people could view the contents from a few feet away.

Thankfully, my significant other made this excellent tray for me.

I painted it using Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint (Boxwood), distressed it a little, and finished it with Miss Mustard Seed's Hemp Oil 250ml.

I created a chalkboard sign using Krylon Chalkboard Paint Special Purpose Brush-On 29 oz. Quart Black.

I love chalkboard paint!  I want to paint everything with chalkboard paint!  Luckily, I've managed to control myself.

Here's a photo of the display at the yoga studio.  As always, you can purchase these all natural artisan soaps on my website as well.

Sunday Bread Making

It seems Sunday has been relegated as my bread making day.
This Sunday found me again with no poolish or biga for an artisan bread so I went to what has become my default bread.

I changed it up a little by adding wheat flour and an egg wash with sesame seeds to the top.

I love this bread because I can start it Sunday at 11 am and have warm homemade bread to eat by 2 pm!

I think we waited all of about 2 minutes this time before we cut it.

If you'd like the recipe, check out this book, The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread

Warm homemade bread > chocolate cake!

Five Things for Friday

Yay!  It's Friday!  Time for another Five Things post.  First though, I want to announce an exciting new partnership.  Starting next week you will find Lora's Beauty goat milk soaps at *I**AM YOGA on Alberta street in Portland, Oregon.  I'll post more on this next week.

With out further ado, here's what I've been using/loving this week:

• My Kickstarter Boncho purchase.  I pulled the plug and went ahead and purchased a bike cape for riding in the rain.  I wrote about my trial with a cheap Women Men Dark Red Cycling Bicycle Bike Raincoat Rain Cape version here.  The kickstarter project was funded so I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of my Boncho sometime in March!
• Another purchase I made last week; Totally Bamboo 14-Inch Ladle  I've used it twice already and it works beautifully.  It is well made and I like that the handle is long.  The ladle part works great at getting every last drop of soup, another plus!  At $10.72 you really can't beat this ladle!
• I'm sure it was my fault, but our previous can opener was driving me crazy!  It would cut into a can for about one turn (3 cm) and then pop off the lid.  I'd then reconnect it to only get 3 more cm of cut when it would pop off.  This continued until I was able to get the lid off or throw the can across the room....Anyway, enter this new can opener:OXO Good Grips Smooth Edge Can Opener So far, it works wonderfully.  I like the way it cuts the can as well.  Unlike most can openers I've used that cut the can from the top, this can opener cuts the can on the side.  Because of this design, the top of the can can be reused to recover the can if you don't use all the contents.  No more mangled pieces of aluminum foil over cans in the refrigerator!
• Last week I finished this book It Was Me All Along: A Memoir It is an interesting insight into a woman's life who lost 135 lbs.  It's a well told and heartwarming story.  Well worth the time, if you've got it.
• Peppermint Ice Goat Milk Soap.    
  

This soap smells so good!  I'ts still curing but the scent is seriously overtaking the whole house!  I can't wait to try it.  It shouldn't be long now!

White Bread

I'm not sure when plain white bread got such a bad reputation.  Sure, the kind you buy in the grocery store may be completely devoid of nutrition, but the kind you make...damn, that's good; especially with a little butter.

I was a little lazy this weekend, actually, last week my bike had 3 flats (three!  No I don't have three wheels, I'd fix one then get another).  So Saturday I spent some time in the bike shop and bought a new tire.  Needless to say I got a late start on bread making.  Sunday morning found me with no biga or poolish to use.  So I consulted my new favorite book, The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread
to find a recipe I could make within one day.

This one may become a staple in my repertoire.  I started it around 10 am and by 1:30 pm we had bread!  Yes we were eating it by 1:45!  Seriously though, the recipe says to wait one to two HOURS before cutting!  Who in the world can sit there and wait one to two HOURS before cutting warm bread!?  My first reading of the recipe I thought it said one to two minutes.  Ok, that's reasonable.  But no!  It was HOURS.  Needless to say, we didn't wait that long.