Amish White Bread

I've never made bread before, but it's always something I've wanted to do. I found this recipe a while back (on allrecipes.com) and thought it'd be a good one to try for my very first time. It didn't seem very complicated and didn't require a bread machine. I'd been holding on to it for a while, waiting for the perfect moment to make it. Yeah, for whatever reason I thought it'd be a good idea to bake it in the middle of the afternoon on a hot summer day. LOL.

All in all it was a fairly easy recipe and really didn't take a crazy amount of effort. The majority of time was spent waiting for the yeast to foam, and then waiting for the dough to rise. Rick even got in on the fun and helped me to knead the bread. I enjoyed a small piece straight from the oven with a little butter, and made plenty of sandwiches for Rick. The recipe made two loaves and I was able to freeze the second one and give it to my parents a few weeks later. They both really enjoyed it as well :)

Ingredients

• 2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 2/3 cup white sugar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons active dry yeast
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 6 cups bread flour

Directions

1. In a large bowl, dissolve the sugar in warm water, and then stir in yeast. Allow to proof until yeast resembles a creamy foam.
2. Mix salt and oil into the yeast. Mix in flour one cup at a time. Knead dough on a lightly floured surface until smooth. Place in a well oiled bowl, and turn dough to coat. Cover with a damp cloth. Allow to rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.
3. Punch dough down. Knead for a few minutes, and divide in half. Shape into loaves, and place into two well oiled 9x5 inch loaf pans. Allow to rise for 30 minutes, or until dough has risen 1 inch above pans.
4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 30 minutes.

Nutritional Information

Amount Per Serving Calories: 168 | Total Fat: 2.9g | Cholesterol: 0mg

August's Us Photo

#79 Join a bookclub

This is something I've wanted to do for a long, long time. Ideally I'd make my own bookclub group with some of my close friends. Unfortunately not all of my friends here in San Diego share my absolute love of reading, and those that do are busy with school, life, and other commitments.

I had started hearing a lot of good things about www.meetup.com as a means of finding other people who share your interests. So I went on and found a book club that appealed to me. It had a lot of different meetings to meet everyone's schedules. The books that were chosen were varied so you were bound to find something that interested you. And best of all it was just for women. I had signed up for two prior meetups with this book club over the last several months, but they just never worked out with my schedule. Now that I'm no longer working though I decided to go for it.

I signed up for a day time meeting to discuss "A Wrinkle in Time" at a local restaurant. I had never read the book, and while it wasn't my most favorite read ever it was good. The easy part was done. The part that took a whole lot of effort was stepping outside my comfort zone to go to a restaurant and meet a bunch of strangers to have lunch and discuss this book. Even while getting ready I dealt with the strange mix of excitement and nerves. It was tempting to not go. But that would have been the easy thing to do. However, life isn't all about easy and sometimes you really do just have to force yourself to try new things, to meet new people, and to do things that make you feel a little uncomfortable. In my mind these truly are the experiences that help us to grow.

Overall the meeting went well. I got there a few minutes early and chatted with a few of the girls while we waited for the others to be seated. For me that was probably the best part as far as conversation went. Once we were seated it was actually a bit overwhelming. They had never met as a group at that restaurant and normally most places provide them with a secluded area for the meeting. Not at this place. It was crowded with the brunch rush and we were right smack dab in the middle of it. By nature I'm not a loud person so I kind of just took a step back, tried to enjoy my food (which didn't taste as good as I'd hoped, and was late to come out), and mostly listened in on the discussion.

Would I attend another meetup? Absolutely. The "daytime" book doesn't really appeal to me so I'll probably sit out that meeting. But I do plan on attending again very soon.

July's "us" photo

I would have posted this sooner (like in July) but I was pretty nervous. I gotta admit, I'm still nervous. But we are taking this blessing a day at a time and enjoying every moment of it that we can.

This was taken on July 2 and baby was just shy of 6 weeks at the time. I honestly can't think of a better "us" photo than this...

60. Buy a bedroom set!!!

It took us a bit to finally get it, but we LOVE it! Especially since we saved for it so that we could pay cash-- so worth it though. Rick got a great deal on the bed, mattress, and dresser. Totally worth the wait! Now to finish decorating the bedroom...

52. Match 50% of my current savings and put it into savings

Rick and I have been in a bit of a savings kick lately. Especially with the fact that I won't be working much longer we've been trying more than ever to really get that nice cushion built up in our emergency fund. My last few paychecks I've managed to put any extra money after bills into savings, and Rick has also set up an automatic allotment from his paycheck to go into our savings. Because of these efforts we've not only matched what was in our there, but have exceeded that goal :)

I've always gotten that "high" from shopping, but who knew I could get it from saving too???

June's "Us" photo

Late again. I know I've been slacking on my blog, but I have a pretty good reason :) Hopefully I'll get back on track here soon.

For now this is June's "Us" photo from Rick's best friend's wedding which was on June 18th. We were so honored to be a part of Cy's special day. And Rick's best man speech was so touching. I'm so thankful he has such a close friend in Cy.