A Work In Progress

Thank you all for the well wishes with the job situation. It will be good (fingers crossed).

This is what we did over the weekend.

Before

Before

After
After

Still a lot to be done. Notice the ugly brick backsplash is now gone. YEAH! But I do so love the new sink and countertop!

This is my last day off before returning to work for the long stretch. I have managed to make a dinner tonight, it is in the oven. Pot Roast, plain and simple. Actually plain and simple is what I have been striving for in my cooking lately. Not too adventurous. I think part of it is because I would rather be doing this.

Yes I have found a new love, knitting. I learned to knit when I was about 10 but I never really got into it. I liked crochet better because it was quicker and easier (so I thought at the time). Now I am ready to move on to the hipper and trendier knitting. Oh why have I forsaken you for so long my knitting side! What a remarkable stress reliever! And so challenging! This lovely work is the first of a pair of socks. Hand knitted socks! My feet cannot wait to be in these warm beauties!

Where is Patti?

I know that I am not a regular poster to this blog. I also know that I have been very scarce lately.

I have a lot on my mind. The hospital I work for has privatized the dialysis services. As of Jan 31, I will no longer be working for the hospital. The new company has offered to hire all of us, but that still is a big change and can have some major issues as far as benefits and such. Please bear with me for a while. My heart is just not in to cooking and blogging at this time. I hope you understand.

First Baking from New Cookbook!

As promised, a review of the first recipe I have tried from King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking.

Whenever we eat out at chain steakhouses, DH loves the dark loaves of bread they bring to the table. I have seen copycat recipes for these before and never tried them. One thing they all seem to have in common is cocoa. The cocoa gives the bread the deep dark color and just a hint of flavor. When I spied this recipe in my new cookbook, I knew I had to try it (because I trust King Arthur Flour recipes). This came together quickly in my KA stand mixer and the loaves baked up beautifully (even though a little misshapen). The addition of honey and a small amount of sugar gives these just a hint of sweetness.

I opted to form the dough into 4 mini loaves. The actual recipe recommends 10 dinner rolls. This could easily take any form that you wish to shape it in. The dough is a little soft, so the smaller rolls would probably hold their shape better. My loaves spread out a bit instead of holding the loaf shape as I would have liked. Maybe it is time to invest in some of those mini loaf pans!

Recipe
Dark, Soft Dinner Loaves