Sunday, March 21, 2010

I hate buying...

BREAD.

There. I said it. I do not like to purchase store sandwich bread. I don't really know why. I mean, there are tons of great brands out there. My children love "brown" bread. In fact, the browner and seedier, the better for them. I can practically purchase any kind for whatever diet or life style I desire. No HFCS, no gluten, lots of nuts, whole-grain, whole-wheat, or even "white" whole-wheat! Our new favorite is Dave's Killer Bread from Costco. Try it.

I have decided that it is not really the money that I spend on bread that makes it such a pain to purchase. Chances are that when I go grocery shopping, at lease one brand of bread that we like will be on sale. Most of the time it is 2 loaves for $5. Sometimes I can even get 2 loaves for $4! That is a steal.

Perhaps it is because I love baking. I really do. Lately I have been experimenting with sourdough and I am in love. I have made sourdough pizza dough that is to die for. For about a month now our neighbors and us do "Pizza Friday" together and I am the permanent dough maker. I love it. The other weekend I made sourdough pancakes. I think Levi ate 12-15 just by himself. I have a batch "sponging"right now for either french bread or sticky buns (I can't decide).

But the problem is, whenever I make sandwich bread, it never turns out as good and soft as the store brands. I have pretty much given up with sandwich bread. There are plenty of other things that I have perfected in my kitchen, granola being the one I make at least once a week!

So here is the challenge that I am giving myself: To make/create/steal the perfect sandwich bread recipe. I encourage any words of wisdom from the fellow bakers who read this blog (Christine, that is you!) Once I get something that my kids love, that bakes relatively quick, I will share the recipe.

Other happenings...

My Claire. Ah, she has been such a tom-boy for so long that I had grand hopes of this becoming her true personality. However, lately, she has exhibited some very "feminine" thoughts.

First of all, she about had a breakdown on Thursday when she found out that Diego (Go, Diego, Go from Nickelodeon) was in fact not a girl, but a boy. I found her and Owen (next door neighbor) arguing and I asked what was up. Claire said "Mom, does Diego have chocolate eyes like me and is Diego a girl like me?" I said, no, that he did have chocolate (brown) eyes like she did, but that Diego was a boy. She lost it. Wow.

Claire has been potty trained for a while now. When we started, the only underwear in her size was very princess-y. I was able to find some girl underwear from the movie Madagascar, but otherwise not much. I think it is obvious to everyone that I detest the whole princess thing, so instead, she wore Levi's old undies. Turned out great, since what she liked to play was cars and trains and dinosaurs. That is all the undies that Levi had! Lightning McQueen, Thomas and lots of dinosaurs. Well, tonight after bath when Josh was getting her dressed, he pulled out a pair of dinosaur undies for her. She looked at him and said "Papa, those are boys underwear. I need ones with sparkles."

UGH. What is a mother to do? Just wait it out I guess.

9 comments:

Shauna said...

HAha, you crack me up! "Wait it out!" Claire is still a girl and chances are she will still love girl things, its part of her nature as a woman. I couldn't stand this princess thing but Belize LOVES the disney princesses (I do not buy anything princess, although people give her stuff all the time, I just don't have the heart to throw it away). She still likes bugs and doesn't mind dirt. I figure if she didn't like girly things, I would worry. She also refuses to wear pants as of late (so instead of fighting it, I bought all dresses and skirts for this summer), I mean its not like she'll NEVER wear pants . . . hopefully. :)

Shauna said...

Oh PS America's test kitchen has a fail proof recipe!! I started by perfecting the white bread and then moved on to browner thinsg (my neighbor says its like eating cake!)

Becca said...

I wouldn't worry about the princess thing. By the time she is in Kindergarten princesses aren't "cool" anymore. The kids actually consider princess stuff for "babies." PLEASE post your bread recipe when you get it. I have had the same problem.

Christine said...

I bought Megan some undies at Target--the Circo brand--that are girly colors and have sparkles and flowers, but there is not a princess in sight.

Ah, bread. :) (Thanks for the shout out, by the way). I'll shoot you an email with my sandwich bread recipe.

Christine said...

Recipe is posted on my blog for you. :)

Andrea said...

I put my foot down on painting the bedroom walls pink and embossing my little girl's room or body (through clothes of course) with commercialized characters.

On to the best bread...

http://thetanglednest.com/2009/04/the-best-sandwich-bread-recipe-ever-and-a-little-baking-story/

ta da! Enjoy. I hope this is what you are looking for. Mmmmmm...I think I will make a batch.

The Knight Family said...

Andrea,
I found this blog yesterday just goofing around! I am in love with her already, and now that she has a sandwich bread recipe, I love her even more! I will be baking tomorrow!

Erka said...

Claire is so funny! I had no clue about Disney princesses and stuff myself, but my daughter LOVES them! So, I decided not to fight it and let her have all the princess stuff her little heart desires. It's not that bad, she's only got another one to two years left. And then what's next, do I even want to know?

The Murray's said...

NAOMI! Get the poor girl some sparkle unders!!!! SHE NEEDS THEM! Doesn't have to be any 'princesses'... *sigh* why am I the only frilly one in this family?! haha I'll buy her some princess ones if you don't get her flower/sparkle ones! J/K :P LOL see you in A WEEK AND TWO DAYS!!!!! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!