Dinner and Dessert Bread

Ingredients:

4-5 cups bread flour

1 tablespoon salt

2 cups warm water

1-1/2 tablespoons yeast

1 garlic clove

1 teaspoon molasses

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1/4 cup cold water

1 tablespoon sugar

honey

While you can make this recipe entirely by hand, I recommend using an electric mixer for combining ingredients and kneading the dough. A typical KitchenAid mid-range mixer can handle three loaves worth of dough. This recipe makes two loaves.

Begin by adding the yeast to the warm water in your stand mixer's bowl. I prefer to aim for 95-105 degrees though a little warmer or cooler should be fine. Let the yeast soften for a few minutes.

Add 4 cups of bread flour and the salt and mix with the beater attachment (the one used to make cookie dough) until the dough mostly has stopped sticking to the bowl. Add more flour a little bit at a time if needed. If you live in a humid area, you may find yourself adding another 1-2 cups. Don't let it get too dry. It's totally okay for it to be sticky.

Switch to the dough hook and run at low speed for 12-15 minutes. Grease a really big bowl. Gently shape the dough into a ball and put in the bowl. Roll it around to make the entire surface somewhat slick, so it won't stick much as it rises. Cover with a cloth and let it rise in a warm area for an hour.

After the dough has risen, "punch" it down. If you haven't done this before, make a fist and press into the dough over and over. The goal is to get the built up gasses out. Split it into two pieces and shape each into a ball. Put one back into the bowl you just used and the other in a new bowl and cover both. Let them relax for 15 minutes. Mince a glove of garlic while you're waiting.

Take out one of the dough balls (the "dinner" loaf) and put it on a floured cutting board or countertop. Roll it out with a rolling pin, working those bubbles out. It won't become completely flat and doesn't need to be any specific shape. Sprinkle the garlic over the dough and then roll it into a pan loaf. Jan's Dough blog gives an illustrated guide to the quick way to make a pan loaf. When I roll, I use a baguette technique, pressing the roll as I go to make sure it stays tight. Unlike a baguette, I then tuck the ends like Jan recommends. It's personal preference.

After you've shaped the loaf, put it into a greased loaf pan and cover with a cloth until doubled in size, 30-60 minutes depending on how warm your house is.

The second ball of dough will be your "dessert" loaf. Roll it out like you did with the first one. Drizzle honey on the dough and then roll it up. It will be wetter and less cooperative so do the best you can. Place it in a loaf pan and let it rise until doubled.

When ready, put a broiling pan or brownie pan on the bottom rack of the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Slash the top of each loaf. For the ones I posted on Facebook, I did a crosshatch pattern. Three shallow slashes is enough though.

Dissolve cornstarch in cold water. Lightly brush on the garlic loaf. Add sugar and molasses to the remaining cornstarch mixture and lightly brush on the honey loaf.

Place both loaves on the middle rack of the oven and toss 7-8 ice cubes in the pan on the bottom rack. Quickly close the oven door and do not open it for at least 30 minutes.

Let the loaves bake about 40 minutes then take them out of the pan and set them directly on the middle rack in the oven. Let bake another 10 minutes or so. It's not an exact science. I've learned timing by trial and error.

Pull out the loaves, drizzle honey on the honey loaf (do nothing to the garlic loaf) and let them cool on a wire rack or wooden cutting board for at least 30 minutes before cutting. If you cut too soon, they'll cave in or smoosh, especially toward the middle of the loaf. It's hard to wait but the longer you wait, the better the result.

When you can't wait any longer, enjoy the garlic loaf with butter. The honey loaf is quite sweet on its own but a sprinkling of confectioner's sugar is a nice treat.

This isn't as complicated as I made it sound. I just didn't want to miss any of the steps as I wrote it. I made the recipe up as I went along this afternoon and got lucky that it was a hit with my family.

Dollar Store Finds

My daughter's school has theme days, during which we send her in dressed in some sort of crazy way. Sometimes it's easy like Pajama Day, but this week we were faced with 80s day, Hawaii day, and St. Patty's Day. We lucked out at Target for 80s day with an awesome Harajuku Mini dress paired with funky leg warmers I crafted from ladies tube socks and by chance there was an adorable, colorful dress at a consignment shop in Northfield that actually had "Hawaii" printed on it. We're a bit lazy for the holiday theme, sending the sweetie pie in a hippie style greenish shirt we found on sale (another Target find). No funky hats or beads. Keeping it simple.

My friend, Andrea, has an energetic daughter that loves to be creative with her personal style, so we met up at Dollar Tree tonight to find a few things for the remaining theme days. She lucked out with some funky flowers to tuck in her daughter's hair and a colorful flower lei, all for just $1 each. I rarely go in a dollar type store, so this experience was pretty cool. Andrea showed me some unique finds, and steered me away from hair dye that costs a dollar. Hehe.

Nothing I brought home has anything to do with theme day, but for less than $10, the fun I'll have with my daughter is priceless.

Penny loves the Itsy Bitsy Spider song. We change it up. She'll say, "green spider" or "purple kitty" (imagine... "the little purple kitty climbs up..". My favorite is the fish. After the sun dries the rain, he grows legs and climbs the spout. Anyhow, Dollar Tree had a spider book. She's going to love it since she'll know the words. It'll feel like she's really reading, a great way to get her inspired to love books.

There's also a Thomas puzzle. Thomas is like her best friend. I've been wanting to paint suncatchers with Penny for a while and this was the perfect time since it was only $1 for four suncatchers and a set of six paints. Some cupcake tissue paper will come in handy next time there's a gift to be given (Penny's favorite dessert) and this odd toy - a flamingo that grows in water. Maybe it's a sponge? Regardless, we'll use it as a science lesson.

Woot for the Dollar Tree!

The Experience of Moving

I am unpacking from a move. Last week, my family moved two hours from our old home using our favorite moving service after a last minute decision to pack up and live in another city. Moving is tiresome and confusing. There's so much to do, especially as "stuff" is accumulated, jobs are more demanding, kids growing up, and the sheer pandemonium is frustrating.


We used Local Motion, a small company that provides borrowed moving boxes at no charge (you pay a deposit that is refunded if boxes are returned within 30 days). The movers work so hard that I'm always impressed they can have me living in one place in the morning and another by the early afternoon.


We have two weeks left to unpack and only about 10 boxes left, which is very good. I think we moved 80 of them. Thank goodness we now have a basement for all that "stuff." We did donate three car loads of clothes, shoes, and household goods to Goodwill, sold some furniture, and recycled electronics at Best Buy. And yes, still all those boxes. You wouldn't believe us if you saw our house. It's not a lot of stuff, really. I'm just a cautious packer.


Some thoughts of the experience of moving:


Recycled boxes are super. No need to spend money on expensive, brand new boxes or use dirty and broken ones from the grocery store. The problem is that after two or three moves, they are so marked up that the movers struggle to know what I wrote. This led to several boxes slated for the office in the basement and some meant for the kitchen in the upstairs hall. The current design has three pre-printed sections for indicating the room and contents. Since several boxes had been used long after three moves, it seems like a sticker system might work better. Each customer gets a series of labels with their name and a place for the room and contents. Each new customer can place the new sticker over the old one. No confusion for the movers.


There's always something to fix. Walking through our new house, there were a couple minor things to fix but nothing serious, at least from what I could see (this is a rental, so no home inspection). After moving in, we realized the water had been off for a long time. Our water was a very unnatural color. No way I was taking a bath in that. The microhood is broken. And even though we're on the edge of nowhere, there's traffic at 5am. Honestly, I don't care about the traffic. It isn't noisy or excessive. The microhood will be replaced soon and the water is finally normal. I just wish there was a checklist of obscure things to look for during a walkthrough inspection.


So that's where the pacis are. Moving is a good way to find lost pacifiers. Enough said.


The important stuff will always go missing. We planned well and set aside our "important stuff" like medications, sheets, some clothing, basic food items, diapers, wipes, and the critical stuffed animals, essential bedtime stories, and the car keys. Even still, I couldn't find more than one change of clothes for three days and I never thought to set aside some soap or hand sanitizer. Again with the checklist. I'm sure there's one on the internet. I should have Googled.


Moving, working, parenting, living, and holidays don't mix. In general, moving is a pain. It wasn't always this way. The older I get, the more annoying this gets. I actually don't want to move again, for real. I said this every time. This time, I do mean it. Four days off from work doesn't make a move any easier. A month would be better.


There's so much more but one of the biggest moving experiences that bugs me is getting used to sleeping in a new place. That's why I'm writing this instead of sleeping.


Oh and I apologize but I'm sure I'll miss a few people with holiday cards this year. I was organized, prepared, and then I moved. The first pre-move batch went out successfully but I'm sure I'll lose the stamps, the cards, forget who got a card already, or forget people I should send a card to. If you get two cards from me, please pass it along to someone who could use a holiday pick-me-up. LOL

Seeking Participants for a Quick Study

I'm hoping to speak with people who have used an online messaging system to send a note to a medical provider (MD, nurse, general care team, etc) within the past 6-8 months. If you have some time in the next two weeks, I'd love to hear about your experience!

Details:

• Seeking 10-12 men and women between 18-60 years old who have messaged a provider (or care team) using the internet within the past 6-8 months
• Meet by phone for 30-45 minutes to talk about the messaging experience
• The focus is completely on the experience of using the online system - you will not be asked to share anything about medical conditions, health, or other private and personal details

For more information, or to schedule a time to talk, please email me.

The Inevitable Truth

I have a long list of drafted blog posts. They're all just sitting waiting for me to finish writing and posting but life takes priority sometimes. That and I know that each time I get back to blogging, something bad happens that puts it on hold again. This time I have already planned to have surgery next week and knowing this, I'll try to combat the inevitable disaster that delays active posting (I've heard I'm cursed) by having posts ready and scheduled for several months. I can't go wrong with this plan, unless I get a bit lazy and don't really finish this plan. 

So hopefully you'll finally hear more from me. Perhaps about my experience at the Web App Masters Tour in June, dealing with ridiculous marketing emails from a local pizzeria, and the wonderful experience of taking my daughter for care at Children's Hospital in Minneapolis.

Help with a mobile research study!

Now recruiting for a mobile user experience study!

I'm working on a super cool study looking at how people use mobile devices for making donations. Remember the disasters in Haiti and Japan? Many people gave a few bucks using their mobile device, and those small donations added up to a significant total. I want to know more about the experience of making a mobile donation.

What or who influenced the donation?

How do people decide how much to give?

How long does it take to make a mobile gift?

There's many more questions I want answered but this gives you an idea. My hope is to speak with 5-7 people who have made a mobile donation within the last year (or longer if it was a highly memorable experience), preferably who own a smartphone, iPhone, or iPad, and between 25-40 years old, and have at least a Bachelor's degree. I can be flexible on some of these demographics depending on your mobile phone usage. What matters more is how active you are with your phone (twitter, facebook, gmail, etc).

Spend 30 minutes on the phone with me in the next couple of weeks to help shape the direction of a fresh online giving experience for a major nonprofit research hospital!

If you are interested in seeing what this is all about, email me!

Copyright and Google

Recently, I discovered someone is republishing my entire blog on another website. I was pretty miffed and did some homework, finding that Google owns the blog app the offender uses. I reported this problem and received a response:


Hello,

We have received your DMCA complaint regarding
http://botanyfree.appspot.com/www.perfecttuna.com/ dated 2/6/2011. In
order for us to investigate the appropriate content and take further
action, please provide us with the specific URLs of the posts where the
infringing content is located. You can obtain the post URL by clicking on
the title of the post or the time-stamp found at the bottom of the
allegedly infringing post(s).

Thank you for your cooperation in this regard.

Sincerely,

The Blogger Team


Apparently, it wasn't clear that every single post and the look and feel of my site is copied. I wrote back and explained this.


Another response:


Hello,

We have received your DMCA complaint dated 2/6/2011. Upon recent review of
the website(s) mentioned in your complaint, we were unable to locate the
allegedly infringing content on the page(s) in question. If this matter is
still a concern, please reply to this email with detailed information to
enable us to locate the allegedly infringing content.

Sincerely,

The Blogger Team

Once again, I have asked them to compare the two sites and see the obvious problem. What am I doing wrong here? Any suggestions?