Bread, answering questions & Etsy...

 TEA

Nana loved a cup of tea with her bread.

In fact it was her nightly ritual to serve Pop and I a slice of fresh bread, thickly buttered and covered in honey or jam, with a pot of steaming black tea for 'afters'. 

'Afters' was our supper, served in that final hour before switching off the lights and heading to bed. 

Nana also served bread, butter, jam and tea on Saturday afternoons, and that's what inspired the Saturday design for "Days of the Week".

To be honest, her tea pot was not a pretty one like the pot I've stitched above, but I do know she would have loved this one to have graced her kitchen table, so in my heart of hearts this is Nana's Pot - my gift to her memory, and the wonderful afternoons we spent together, simple afternoons with bread, tea, Pop and each other. 

 BREAD

A couple of weeks ago after I showed you a yummy loaf of light rye bread and some bread rolls I'd made when Blossom came to lunch, many people emailed asking for the recipe. 

 It was in one of my three favourite bread books...

 I didn't bake it in the breadmaker as I prefer bread to be baked in a normal bread tin or free form, but I do use the breadmaker for kneading and the first prove of the dough. 

After that I punch down the dough, divide into one loaf and four rolls, then leave to prove a second time before baking in the oven at 190C.

If you're going to bake the Light Rye Loaf in your breadmaker it will make one large loaf.

The recipe below is in metric Australian measures so just to clarify:

one teaspoon = 5 grams 

one tablespoon = 20 grams (or 4 teaspoons)

NOTE: a US tablespoon is only 15g or 3 teaspoons

ENGLISH PROGRAMMES

Another question asked this week was from Debra who wanted to know which Jane Austen movie I was watching as I stitched the other day.

Well I've been through a few lately but my favourite is always Persuasion. 

In fact I watched it again as I began stitching the Sunday design for May's Stitchery Club...

Once this block is completed I have more stitching ready and waiting.  

First I'll begin work on a stitchery to be published in next January's issue of Australia Homespun Magazine, and I'll stay with the English movie/tv theme by watching Poldark. 

I've just discovered this new version of the series (based on the Poldark books) and after watching the first two episodes I'm hooked!

Mr E and I couldn't work out where we'd seen the main character before yet he looked so familiar! Then the penny dropped and I remembered him as Kili the dwarf from The Hobbit. 

Even Mr E is enjoying this series too. Win win!

NEWS:

I've received a lot of correspondence from fellow Australians about the cost of patterns purchased through my Craftsy shop.

As Craftsy only allow sellers to list patterns in US dollars it means a $3 pattern becomes closer to $4 when converted to Australian currency. 

After reformatting a number of my favourite patterns I asked Blossom to update my long empty Etsy Shop and list them over there in Australian $. 

The patterns are still instant downloads, but they're not saved to a pattern library (as they are with Craftsy) so you need to download and save to your computer when you make the purchase.

Over coming weeks I'll make time to reformat more patterns and Blossom will then add them to my Etsy shelves.

So now you have two pattern shops to choose from!

HERE for Craftsy in US Dollars

and

HERE for Etsy in Australian Dollars.

I'm a small home business and can't do everything, but this is one change I could make which benefits those whose currency is taking a hit against the US dollar.

Have a blessed weekend!

Bread and soup...

Though we're patiently waiting for Autumn to arrive, it still hasn't.

And that's a shame because to me Autumn is about bowls of soup, cool evenings, and fresh baked bread - three things I love. 

On Monday Blossom and I decided to go ahead and create a soup and bread lunch, pretending the 24C air flowing from the air conditioner was our cool Autumn evening. Desperate? Us? You bet.

Bloss brought a pot of her freshly made chicken noodle soup over to my place, and I baked yummy light rye bread and a few rolls. 

My sweet pregnant girl has had a tough time with her health these past few months, and in answer to those beautiful emails arriving in my inbox asking how she's going, the news is that she must rest a lot and take life much slower over the next 14 weeks until her little cherub arrives. 

As I heated her delicious soup on the stove Blossom rested on her daddy's sofa, waiting to watch the first episode of Poldark (which was wonderful!)....

 ...then we sat around the coffee table and feasted 'Autumn style'.

This was a new bread recipe I found in one of my baking books, and it was so good that Blossom took some rolls home, as well as half the loaf. 

Her DB loved it too, so I guess I'll be baking it again.

On Tuesday, after a morning spent working at the computer, I picked up Bloss and we headed over to the pool for our Tuesday swimming break. The water is so relaxing that it's hard to leave and go back to work, but we do make time for lunch together before I take her home again.

I still had some bread left from the day before and wondered how to use it, which stirred some interesting conversation on the drive back to my place about what can be made from stale bread - not that it was stale, but what would we make if it were.

 We came up with...

* breadcrumbs

* croutons

*  bread and butter baked custard

* French toast

* toad in the hole (cut a hole in the middle of a slice of bread and fry it in butter with an egg in the hole) 

* grilled cheese and avocado on toast

...so for lunch I made French toast and Blossom was so excited because she hadn't had it for years.

It was yummy, and she returned home with a big smile on her face.

Wednesday morning I used the last of the bread to cook 'toad in the hole' with ham and tomatoes for Mr E's breakfast, and he also wore a big smile as I waved him off to work.

Simple things like fresh baked bread and homemade soup create smiles.

Blossom and I thought you might have some stale bread ideas you'd like to share with us 'cause we're going to be baking a lot of bread. 

It might nudge Autumn into finally arriving!

 What do you do with bread that's a few days old?

Bread 'n' Breakfast...

Mr E and I have slipped back into our relaxed morning routine again now the short holiday break is over. Breakfasting together before he picks up his lunch bag and leaves for work is one of my favourite moments of the day...

But not all things in 2016 are the same as last year.

You see, I decided it was time to draw my line in the sand and reduce the workload of Elefantz Designs in order to give more of my day to the gentle domestic life and embracing the slower pace of living in the moment.

 

I'm content with my business as it is and feel no need to expand or grow it further, which meant declining some generous opportunities - but my heart and head knew this full-time homemaker / part-time designer life would be the best and most satisfying path I could choose. 

On Monday morning I sat down after waving Mr E goodbye and wrote a plan to re-structure my business week - freeing up four extra hours each day to keep house, bake, read, garden, connect with my children (face to face or phone calls) and try new things. 

I've created a menu plan that also frees up time because it structures my Monday morning grocery list and removes all those agonising hours I waste wondering what to make for breakfast, lunch and dinner. 

It also saves money which is a relief on the budget.

Most of the menu was taken from one we had used during our decade of homeschooling so all I had to do was remove recipes the kids had liked but my husband did not, and add in things he and I now enjoy. 

I'll do a new menu each Monday for a month and then rotate it, incorporating seasonal produce availability.

 I found THESE free printables online to write my menu on...

Whilst browsing our old menus I remembered we used to have fresh focaccia at least twice a week, but I hadn't baked any in years apart from one rye sour dough version that was delicious but took a lot of prep time.

 Since Mr E and I had to reduce wheat from our diet we've just stopped having bread all together because he simply does not enjoy the gluten free kind. Not sure why, but it didn't occur to me that I could bake with the same spelt flour we use in biscuits and muffins. Until this week.

I used the same focaccia recipe I always had, replacing wholegrain wheat bread flour with the spelt and adding in some sesame seeds, sunflower seeds and flax seeds for fibre. 

It worked SO well. Oh my, you have no idea how good this tasted!

Today I decided to give my old bread recipe a try using spelt.

The result? Brilliant.

I can't wait to make 'normal' corn beef and pickle sandwiches again! 

There was a lesson to be had in all of this.

I was so busy for the last couple of years that I didn't take time to think about suitable alternatives; I didn't experiment. I bought quite a few alternative cookbooks with recipes that required expensive ingredients and was disappointed that many did not taste good at all. My mind was on a 24/7 hamster wheel and it took all of last year to learn where the brake pedal was so I could slow down and think clearly about the path I was traveling and ask myself why.

When the mind is overloaded and overwhelmed, when time never seems to stand still, when you don't stop to appreciate what's right in front of you - the obvious is invisible.

I've found the brake pedal now, and I'm using it. Simple things truly do bring satisfaction and peace of mind.

What about you?

hugs