An amazing way to bake bread!

I thought it might be possible, but couldn't find much out about it online (therefore it must not be possible, right?).  I've lately had a dubious flirtation with cast iron and lately have acquired a dutch oven (5 quart cast iron pot with lid).  I found plenty of articles on bread in the crockpot or no-knead recipes for the dutch oven, but what about a regular yeast bread recipe?  I finally found this article, that actually made it sound possible so I gave it a chance.  I followed the directions using an oatmeal honey bread I haven't made in quite awhile, plopped the dough straight from the bread machine into the preheated dutch oven, put the lid back on and tossed it in the super hot over for 30 minutes.  It sure didn't look like much when that sorry little blob of dough sort of oozed/globbed into the pot, but I hoped for the best.  The results were amazing!  I tend to make French loaves when I make loaf type bread as I can never get it cooked on the inside without over browning the crust, or the crust looks great but it is still doughy in the middle, ugh!  This rectifies that little problem beautifully, besides for that, the crust is crunchy, the loaf is beautifully artisan, and the bread itself is super soft and moist.  I love it!

Can you change a tire and other dangerous logic

I'm getting tired of those advertisements on the radio about adopting kids out of foster care, don't get me wrong, they are funny, catchy, memorable and certainly get your attention: truly a successful ad campaign.  What rubs me the wrong way is the message that if you can change a tire or bake a cake or have any other basic life skills, then you too have what it takes to adopt and parent a teen out of the foster system.  It is a grand and noble sentiment, truly, and I love getting the idea out there, perhaps to people who have never considered it and might make great foster parents, and these kids certainly do deserve loving, stable homes and families, none of that is wrong or bad.  What I abhor is the suggestion that anybody can do it, everybody is ready, it's easy as getting out of bed in the morning.  There are ad campaigns urging folks not to buy puppies as spontaneous Christmas gifts because dogs are a serious commitment, how much more so a child, especially one who has literally lived through Hell and has serious emotional damage.  But anybody can do it!  No, they can't.  It will destroy both the parent and the child if the parent goes into this thinking it will be easy as pie when it is all out war, war against the rage, frustration, abuse, abandonment, neglect, fear, shame, hatred that have been aimed at that child since he first was aware of anything.  Normal parenting is often difficult, these kids take it to a whole new level.

I am not saying it cannot be done, that it is impossible, that it isn't worthwhile, that it isn't necessary, but it is hard, very hard, and people need to know that before getting involved.  The commercial makes it sound so easy, easier than a puppy even (already housebroken!), but in reality it is the hardest thing you'll ever do, probably the most worthwhile, but also the most heartbreaking and frustrating, for progress will come slowly and there are some things that will haunt these kids (and their parents) for the rest of their lives.  You don't send a soldier out thinking he's going to have a squirt gun fight on a sunny afternoon and then he can be home for tea when in truth you send him into the trenches for months, if not years, and think he'll make it, why then do they sugar coat this issue?  It isn't fair or healthy to either the kids or the parents, because both are soldiers in a lifelong war against the horrors that led to them being in this situation in the first place and they need to know that going in, not thinking it will be a walk in the park, a piece of cake.  Worthwhile?, absolutely, easy?, absolutely not.  Certainly consider it, by all means, but know what you are getting yourself and that child into before you take the plunge.  The system itself is broken, they are doing the best they can, I understand that, but lying about how easy it is to parent these equally broken kids isn't going to help anybody, most especially the kids.

Baked Donut Recipe 6.0

I continue the search for the perfect baked donut, I ran across this recipe for vanilla muffins and I think it is the best so far!

What's your reading level?

I found a treasure at the local thrift store a few months back and it not only brought back a bit of nostalgia but it spawned an obsession.  When I was a kid in elementary school, it was a BIG deal to bring home the latest collection of Garfield comics in one of those soft cover, brightly colored books from the library.  My husband and son were so excited the former hopped on the interweb to see if he could find a few more.  We now own 19 volumes (of 30) and my son is just tickled, so instead of reading sensible things like 'Goodnight Moon' or 'Green Eggs and Ham,' we are reading Garfield cartoons, and as the word count per strip is about equal to one of those horrid little books he brings home from school, not to mention it is a lot more interesting, I suppose it isn't a bad thing (that and I haven't been this excited about story time in a long time!).   I wonder if they have Shakespeare in comic form?

Of mice and...mice!

Yep, I have a snake, not exactly the first pet I thought we'd have as a family but that's life, and as it happens, this particular reptile is even more picky than my five year old when it comes to the gastronomical side of things: he doesn't eat vegetables either, or dead rodents for that matter, which necessitates live rodentia, and as I live 100 miles from the nearest purveyor of fine rodent specimens, the easiest thing to do is breed my own.  So now I have a snake and mice, but my rodent breeding attempt got off to a bad start, namely my original foursome of mice all turned into gentlemen mice, and as progressive as our modern world has become, it has not yet made any impact on the rodent world.  It took several weeks to figure that out and a grand trip to town to procure female vermin, it also meant that my population dynamics were very much behind schedule, as the snake had to eat in the interim, but not to fear, we had a plan.

But as with all brilliant and diabolical plans, something went wrong, namely my dear hubby decided not to make the journey into town the other day to procure more rodentia to tide over said snake until our mouse population is self sustaining, it was only a blizzard after all and now the poor snake will have to go hungry for a bit.  But that's the weird thing about snakes: they don't have to eat like us mammals.  The books says this particular species has been known to go months and up to a year without eating and still does fine, so I suppose he can survive a few days until we again can make the grand trek to town.  If only you could buy live mice on amazon!

From utter terror to laissez faire

I remember bringing our son home from the hospital and wondering what I was supposed to do now, I'm in charge of a life!  I called a friend who had also recently brought her first child home for moral support and we survived the first few hours and then an entire night and then an entire day...  Then you bring your second one home and casually hop on a plane two weeks later, child in tow!  With the first you observe all the 'rules' be they pediatrician guidelines or governmental regulations, with the second you can't remember what the rules are, except they aren't supposed to have tomatoes until they are twenty three or was the thirty, and I think egg whites?  I've found myself adding a little salt to those mashed up carrots and even resorted to letting her cry instead of getting up three times a night (she's now sleeping through the night after only 2 weeks of gradually cutting back on night time excursions on my part).  A friend (with 2 kids at the time, now up to 4 and expecting 2 more!) told me once that she 'hadn't slept through the night in 4 years,' and I really didn't want that to be me.  So at six months of age and twenty plus pounds, I decided she could at least cut back to once or twice a night and as it was going so well we pulled an all nighter and she does just fine.  Sleep, my old friend, how I have missed you!  Parenting does get easier with experience, but I'll never be an expert, as there's always a new phase or personality quirk!

New Year's Resolution Breaker

If your new year's resolution is to lose weight/eat better, run away, run away fast, because this recipe for cheese sticks (in your waffle maker) is amazing and even better than the restaurant appetizer.  So if you are still here, enjoy!