Monthly Archives: February 2012

Tuesdays with Dorie – White Loaves

I have been all over the southwest (or so it seems) since I joined the Tuesdays With Dorie baking group and got the book we will be using, Baking with Julia.

Our first assignment was White Loaves. I’m pretty good at baking bread and I love to do it so I figured I’d swoop in at the last minute, bake my bread and make my post. 🙂

So, bringing up the rear…

The dough is a lot. I had to keep pushing it down while it mixed to make sure the flour was all incorporated. The butter went into the dough really easily, leaving me with a beautifully smooth lump of dough.

I am a little limited here in Arkansas in the mixing/baking/utensil department so I raised the dough in my soup pot. LOL!

It got huge!

Then I patted it out and rolled it according to the instructions for the second rising.

Then I baked it for 35 minutes and got two of the most beautiful loaves of bread!

Like my makeshift “rack”? hee hee

Now I need to go out and buy a serrated knife to cut the bread with! 🙂

If you’d like to bake these gorgeous loaves for yourself, you can find the recipe at this link.

Happy baking! And eating. Oooh and breathing. It smells divine! 🙂

Glammie Boot Camp

I spent this last week in Texas at, what we dubbed, Glammie Boot Camp. My best friend Denise and her husband both had to go to meetings out of state on the same week and I went to help them watch their four month old twins “Lauri” and “Laurence”.

You know that I’m going to be Glammie very soon (February 13!) to little Aniston Lee. But it’s been many, many years since I’ve hung out with and taken care of a baby. I was up for the challenge.

The babies are so sweet and snuggly and I enjoyed every last minute I got to play with and take care of them.

My first confusion came in the area of bottles. They don’t make bottles like they did when I had babies.  I mostly breastfed anyway so I looked at this multi-pieced contraption with much confusion. I tried this way, then that way. Finally, doh!, I looked at a used bottle that hadn’t been disassembled and was able to figure out how to put the bottle together.

I was down on the floor with the babies and playing with them, entertaining them, coaching them to roll over which they each did for the first time!

The first night, I laid down in bed. Early. I thought I would die. I hurt everywhere. I felt like I used to feel after pageant weekend was over and I’d been on my feet in heels for days.  I slept well! I heard the babies in the night but knew the night nanny had them and went back to sleep.

Fortunately, during the days, the babies’ Grande was there and there were two of us taking care of them. I’m not sure I could have done it alone even if I were younger. 😉

I was able to check out the cool toys for Aniston.

I purchased the monkey ball yesterday. Wee hoo wheeeeeeeeee!

He’s currently in the back of my car having a high time. I’ll leave him with Nikki today.

I still need to get the Baby Einstein jumper.

“Laurence” loves that thing and spends hours in it running and spinning the tunes. “Lauri” is still such a tiny thing that she is almost swallowed up by it. She does like it, just not for as long.

I scoped out the cute clothes.

Glitter socks! I’ve already ordered these and they are on their way. I KNOW Aniston must have them. 🙂

All in all, it was a fun and special week. I love those little guys so much and feel so honored that Denise and Jason would let me take care of them.

It was hard to leave them. But I’ll be back to visit in a couple of weeks. I can’t wait! I think I’m going to bring them balloons. 🙂

I’m an Arkansas Woman Blogger!

I was hanging out in twitter the other day when I saw this:

Oh! Well, actually I DO live in Arkansas a lot of the time now so I clicked the link to check it out.

I wasn’t sure if I could join because we are only in Little Rock temporarily so I sent an email to see if I could join. Julie responded back that I was welcome and to fill out the application form at the website which I did.

I just got my notification yesterday that I have been accepted as a member of the Arkansas Women Bloggers!

Arkansas Women Bloggers

I’m excited because I don’t really know anyone there except for David and his guys.

I’ve been back and forth between Oklahoma and Arkansas with a little Texas thrown in since the project began in Little Rock last December. I feel kind of like a rolling stone. Hmmm. Does that mean I’ve got moves like Jagger?

I digress. 😉

Anyway, I’m super excited to have found this group and look forward to a meet up next month in Little Rock. I hope to meet some new friends! 🙂