A Bread Story.

My poor front lawn is going for GOLD. It has long been yellow and crispy, thirsty and dead. This summer has been sooooo hot. I hate to complain about it...I mean, who doesn't love sunshine...but if you look at the facts (From July 27th on the local weather station):

• 35 days in a row that we have been at or above our normal high 52 of the past 56 days (since June 1st) have been at our above our average high 
• We have hit 100 degrees 16 times this summer (that ties us for 4 place all time) 
• Only a trace of rain at the Joplin airport for July(2nd driest all time) 
• Since June 1st only 1.26″ of rain For the year 20.69″ (average = 27.11″) 
• We are behind by 6.42″ of rain
• the average temperature for the past year has been 61.7 degrees. That is 2 degrees higher than the average for the calendar year 2006, and is comparable to the Dust Bowl year of 1934 (according to the Joplin Globe)

The heat has been relentless. Just a trace of rain in the city means that its been just enough to turn my car from black to leopard print with dust spots.
 
I remember the last time I saw real rain. It was on June 21st.

The gutters haven't been full, and there haven't been any puddles to jump for weeks.

I remember this day because it was cooler. Much cooler. For a few hours at least.

The morning was absolutely beautiful. I turned on a jazz station on the t.v. satellite and got out a book about baking bread. One of my goals this year is to learn to bake bread.

The book is wonderful because it explains how to use a food processor to mix up the ingredients. I burned up my food processor that day. Oops.

I remember the rain on the windows in the dining room as I kneaded the bread. I really felt like I was  making something living. By making a loaf of bread from scratch, I was digging into an art form that has been explored by nearly every civilization for 10,000 years.

Sure, you can buy a loaf of delicious bread at a local bakery or grocery store for a dollar....but actually going through all of the steps, and getting covered in flour...Yes, it is time consuming, I think I spent 5 hours on the two loaves of bread, but it's worth every minute. It's extremely gratifying to mold and knead the dough with your bare hands. It's a very basic, earth-connecting experience.

The suspense is exhilarating waiting to see if the dough will rise. Then the best part is the aroma. There is absolutely nothing that smells better from the oven than fresh baked bread. That afternoon, I took the honey-oat bread from the oven just before rushing out the door to a hair appointment. I remember sitting in the salon chair, practically salivating for the warm bread that I knew was waiting on the counter at home.

One loaf was eaten within a matter of days. A few slices were consumed warm, immediately after baking, covered with butter...and honey....

A couple of slices were used for BLTs- the tomatoes home grown in the backyard.

Two slices were turned into french toast. 

At least one piece was covered in peanut butter and topped with raspberries.

The end of the loaf was sliced, and toasted and served with fresh bruschetta.

The other loaf is in the freezer....waiting for cooler weather. Once it thaws, it will either become a sandwich loaf like this one, or enjoyed a little at a time with chicken and noodles, or toasted and covered in cheese.

I cannot wait for the summer to end, so I can heat up my kitchen baking more bread. (While it rains outside.)

Red Velvet Cake Mix Cookie + Tuxedo Brownie

Okay so you know how sometimes you have an idea and you want to use what you have on hand to make something special so you combine two recipes? Well I decided to combine the Pampered Chef (R) Tuxedo Brownies with the Cake Mix Red Velvet Cookies and top it with a fresh blackberry.

I used my mini muffin pan sprayed with cooking spray and dropped a scoop of the cookie mix into bake. After about 8 or nine minutes, I took it out of the oven and pressed an indention into the top. After they had cooled a few minutes, I used a knife around the edges to help me loosen them out. I only baked six at first to make sure it would work. I tasted one. It was a little bland so I threw in some chocolate chips. YUM! (white chocolate chips would've been good too). I'm calling them red velvet brownie bites, but if you want to get technical, they are really just cookies masquerading as brownies. If you want to get a real red velvet brownie recipe, I'm sure one exists....I just wanted to use up a boxed cake mix.

After baking the rest of the cookie mix, I let them cool completely. Before the event, I made up the tuxedo brownie topping and let it chill in a big zip lock in the fridge for a few hours. Then I piped it into the red velvet brownie cups and topped everything with a fresh blackberry. A raspberry would've been pretty too, but I had been blackberry picking that morning!

I took this beautiful plate of delicious treats to a Pinterest(R) Anonymous class and realized that it wasn't actually from Pinterest....and everyone loved them so much, I decided to make a blog post about it, just so I could share it with the crowd. 

Follow me on Pinterest for other recipes from the event: http://pinterest.com/nellie_mitchell/

 Ingredient list:
For cookie/brownie mix:

• 1 (18.25 ounce) package Red Velvet cake mix
• 2 large eggs
•  1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Bake in preheated oven for 8-9 minutes at 350 degrees in well-greased mini muffin pan.

For cream filling:

2	square white chocolate for baking
2	tbsp milk

8	oz  cream cheese, softened
1/4	cup  powdered sugar
1	cup thawed, frozen whipped topping
1	pint berries

Combine white chocolate and milk in large microwave-safe bowl; microwave on HIGH 1 minute. Stir until smooth; cool slightly. In large mixing bowl, combine cream cheese and sugar; mix well. Gradually stir in white chocolate mixture until smooth. Fold in whipped topping.
Pipe cream cheese mixture into brownie cups; top with strawberries. Refrigerate 1-3 hours before serving.

That one time, when I baked a peach pie and it tasted like summer.

Last week I went to the local farmer's market and got a big bunch of fresh peaches. I have a hard time buying fresh fruit because it never gets eaten before it goes bad. But all I could think about was making the perfect peach pie. And that is just what I did.

I was actually a little obsessed with making a pie. All because of pie week and this story. After I bought the peaches, I had to run all kinds of other errands, but I could not wait to get home and bake. I don't know if I was more enthralled with the idea of eating the delicious and beautiful dessert or the process of baking the pie and being proud of the finished product.

First, I looked up a recipe. I pretty much always use allrecipes.com I read in one of the reader's comments that I should blanch the peaches to remove the skin. It worked perfectly. Then I sliced up the peaches. Then I added the cinnamon, flour and sugar.

I had intended to make my own crust, just like in the story above, but I just didn't have time that day so I used a pillsbury crust (shhhhhhh). After pouring the pie filling into the crust and sliding it into the oven, the whole house smelled like warm peaches.

I had just a little bit of filling and a little bit of crust leftover so I made a mini pie in a dish to enjoy hot and fresh since I was saving the pie for the 4th of July.

The hot, fresh mini pie was the perfect.

The next day my friend Martha came over and we spent the day working on new art projects for her shop and for some classes. We ate lunch. And then it was pie time.

But since I only used 10 of my peaches peaches for the pie.....

I also made peach sun tea.

And ate fresh juicy peaches.

The peaches were also used in a special hot sauce concoction with peppers from the garden.

One very special peach even made its way to a park bench in front of the Nelson Atkins for a special nutella and iced tea picnic on Sunday. But half of it got dropped and was quickly overtaken by ants.

And last night, I ate the very last peach, in a bowl with some home-whipped cream, topped with cinnamon and sugar, and mixed with fresh blackberries.

Summer is my new favorite.