Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Pumpkin Time

It's that time of year again. The time where you pick out the perfect pumpkin, get the perfect design and create a not so perfect carved pumpkin. Dan and I had a hardest time figuring out what we wanted to do for our pumpkins this year. We sat for about an hour looking at different things on google. This is what we came up with.

Destruction zone 

Best pumpkin ever!?!? I think yes.

Megamind! This pumpkin cracks me up. :)
Also this weekend, Dan's mom and sister came and visited Sunday afternoon to Monday afternoon. We love having family come visit us. We feel like we don't see family enough even though we see our family more than some people we know. We got some pretty cool stuff for our food storage and she even got me the book I've been wanting. It's called Symbols In Stone: Symbolism on the Early Temples of the Restoration. I'm really excited to read it. 


Thursday, October 13, 2011

Food Adventures: Whole Wheat Pita Bread

Ok, I am convinced that Pinterest is the greatest thing ever. I got this whole wheat pita bread recipe from there. I just had to try it. 
P.S. I love when people put up pictures of the process. Sorry for the quality (came from my phone) but you get the idea. Also I made little notes on the recipe so that's what the blue is.

Wheat Pita Bread
Ingredients:
2¼ tsp. instant yeast
1 tbsp. honey (could use sugar, but honey is healthier)
1¼ cups warm water (105˚-115˚ F), divided
1½ cups bread flour, divided
1½ cups whole wheat flour, divided
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 tsp. salt
Cornmeal, for sprinkling

Directions:
In the bowl of a stand mixer*, combine the yeast, honey and ½ cup of the water.  Stir gently to blend.  Whisk ¼ cup of the bread flour and ¼ cup of the whole wheat flour into the yeast mixture until smooth.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside until doubled in bulk and bubbly, about 45 minutes.
Note: I had mine covered for only about 25 minutes and it was bubbling away. So I just started the next step. 
After mixing and before the bulk and bubbly.

Remove the plastic wrap and return the bowl to the mixer stand, fitted with the dough hook.  Add in the remaining ¾ cup of warm water, 1¼ cups bread flour, 1¼ cups whole wheat flour, olive oil and salt.  Knead on low speed until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes.  Transfer the ball of dough to a lightly oiled bowl, turning once to coat, and let rise in a warm draft-free place, about 1 hour, until doubled in bulk. 
After rising
Place an oven rack in the middle position.  Place a baking stone in the oven (if using) and preheat to 500˚ F. I don't have a baking stone. I used a cookie sheet and flipped it upside-down in the oven. Make sure you put it in the oven while it's preheating.

Once the dough has risen, transfer to a lightly floured work surface, punch down the dough and divide into 8 equal pieces. 

Form each piece into a ball.  Flatten one ball at a time into a disk, then stretch out into a 6½-7 inch circle. Transfer the rounds to a baking sheet or other work surface lightly sprinkled with cornmeal.  

Once all the rounds have been shaped, loosely cover with clean kitchen towels.  Let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes, until slightly puffy. I had them sit out for about 10-15  minutes.

Transfer 4 pitas, 1 at a time, onto the baking surface.  (Note: These can be baked on a baking stone or directly on the oven racks.  I use a pizza stone, but either method is fine.) I read some reviews and some said putting directly in the oven rack didn't work. That's why I used the baking sheet. Bake 2 minutes, until puffed and pale golden.  Gently flip the pitas over using tongs and bake 1 minute more.  Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely.  Repeat with the remaining pitas.  Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

*As always, anything mixed in a stand mixer can be mixed and kneaded by hand.



I love this recipe. The bread turned out great and you can used it for so much. I hope you enjoy. :)

Here is the direct link to the website: http://annies-eats.net/2010/04/20/whole-wheat-pita-bread/

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Livin' On a Prayer

I had a little Bon Jovi music morning and the song title is perfect for how crazy life is right now. Ok we'll start with the good news. I finally got my Kapoosh! You're probably thinking to yourself, "What on Earth is a Kapoosh?" Well it's the most amazing kitchen appliance ever. Back story: this last Christmas Dan and I got a lot of knives that we so desperately needed. Our only problem was we didn't have a knife holder to fit them in. They were all different sizes and shapes. Well one day, as I was strolling through Bed, Bath & Beyond (my new favorite store), I found the Kapoosh. It's a knife holder with no set slots. I was so excited but the only ones they had in the store were light wood ones. That was not going to match with our kitchen. So we talked to a guy, who turned out to be the store manager, and he helped us order a nice stainless steel one. As we got to talking, we found out the guy used to live in Bremerton (where Dan is from) and worked at the Silverdale Bed, Bath & Beyond. Small world. Here is a picture for your visual pleasure of my Kapoosh:




Ok, now for some bad news but had some good consequences. It snowed!!! Yes, I understand it's Rexburg. Yes, I understand it's October and it snows in October here but COME ON! I want my fall season. I want cool, crisp air with hot chocolate at night. I want cardigans, boots and scarves (although I get that on winter as well). I want colorful leaves. Snow does not fit in there. Alright, it only snowed for 2 days and it all melted away. I just know if it snowed that early then what's stopping it form coming again and again and again. The good that came out of it... I pulled out my hoodies, our hot chocolate, bought coffee creamer for our hot chocolate and pulled out my boots. :) Also it makes me excited for Christmas.
Not the best of pictures but this is what it looked like as it started to stick the 1st day.
Ok now for the bad news. As you all know, Dan is a very active person but has some problems with his knees. He decided to play flag football with some guys in our ward this semester. It was their first game 2 weeks ago on Wednesday and of course I had to work. I told Dan not to hurt himself so I could see him in his future games. Well, what does my husband do? Hurts himself. I come home to an iced knee. I think I jinxed him. He got side swept (which is illegal) and hurt his good knee pretty badly (they did however win their game and his injury helped with that). Luckily, one of the guys on his team is the student director of Sports Medicine and helped him there on the field. He went to the doctors the next day and they told him he probably has an MCL tear. They set up an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon here in Rexburg and gave him crutches. Fast forward to this last Saturday. We went down to Pocatello to see my dad and to have him check out Dan's knee (my dad is a sports medicine guy and also does some physical therapy). After about 15 minutes he was 100% sure that Dan tore his ACL. He referred us to a surgeon he works with and told us he was really good. So we decided to meet with him instead of the one in Rexburg. Long story short, Dan needs surgery. We will find out in a couple weeks if he'll need it now or if he can wait until December for the break. They want the stiffness in his knee to go away. Now we have to wait and see what our crazy future holds. 
Dan at the doctor today.
Like I said, livin' on a prayer in the Fry house. :)