Tuesday, March 21, 2023

New Video! Make No Knead Bread with Me ~

 


Hello again!

There's a new video on my TJ's Sweet Home YouTube channel, titled:

Make No Knead Bread with Me

If you'd like to pay me a visit over there, I would love to have you!

Here's a summary...

"I planned on doing a voice over but it just didn't work out🙄 I appreciate your patience as I try figuring out all this technology.

{It isn't easy making bread while looking through the lens! I was nervous, lol.😆}

I'm not a professional baker or bread maker, just an everyday home cook. I don't follow the bread making rules but the results always turn out fine.

My breadmaking story:
I began my bread making journey many years ago, first using a bread machine and the boxed bread mixes sold at grocery store. Then I ventured into trying out bread recipes in the machine. We quickly became spoiled to homemade bread! In the next gew years, I went through two bread machines, always declaring that I would NEVER knead bread dough and if for some reason we found ourselves without a bread maker, we would be eating store bought bread. When the second bread machine finally gave up the ghost, I researched the possibility of a "no knead" recipe. Fast forward to now. Fresh hot bread is made at least once a week around here, no bread machine needed.

(Full disclosure: since my son gifted us a KitchenAid mixer, that is what I use to make this dough these days but I made many loaves for a few years without the machine.)

Easy No Knead Bread

2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
1 1/2 cups warm/"blood temperature " water (I use the hottest water from our tap)
1 tbsp sugar or honey
1 tbsp oil (a light tasting cooking oil of your choice)
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour (plus more as needed to achieve desired dough texture)
2 tsp salt

Place ingredients (I rarely take the time to "proof" my yeast🫣) into a large bowl in order listed then mix until the ingredients are well incorporated and has a "shaggy" appearance. Using hands, form the dough into a ball (try to get any stray flour and dough pieces at the bottom of the mixing bowl added to the dough ball. If dough is sticky, add small amounts of flour until, when you handle the dough, it is no longer sticky.). Work the dough ball into an oval shape and until it as smooth as possible. Place dough into a bread pan that's been oiled or sprayed with a baking spray. (No bread pan? No problem! Just shape the dough into a baguette-or two-OR one round shape and bake on a sheet pan that has been lined with parchment paper OR sprayed with a bakers spray OR oiled and sprinkled with cornmeal.) You can leave the dough as is but I usually press mine in.

Now...it's time to let the dough rise (I only do one rise. Again...🫣🤫) to about twice it's size (mine usually takes 1 to 1 1/2 hours). I use my oven that I have warmed up for about a minute but you can place your dough in a warm area covered with a tea towel while it rises.

When the dough has risen, I heat my oven to 375°F (while it is still in the oven) and set the timer for 35 minutes (ovens vary so you may want to start checking at around 20-25 minutes). Your bread is done when it is golden brown and sounds hollow if you tap on it.

Remove from the oven and let sit in the pan for about ten minutes covered with a tea towel before turning the loaf out to cool (I turn my pan on it's side since hubby said that's what his grandma used to do.😊)

Enjoy your bread! (If you can't wait until it's cool...no shame! We've been known to cut into a hot loaf and slather with butter...SO GOOD!. The only down fall is, it doesn't cut as easily/cleanly when it's hot.

*a good serrated bread knife makes cutting easier.

🌹🐞While my dough was rising, I went outside and to my surprise, had a wonderful unexpected visit from a little ladybug. I was also excited to see a few fragrant roses on on our rose bush!"


I suppose I practice a "lazy girl" method of bread baking but if the results turn out well, why bother with extra time-taking steps? I know I could (and do sometimes) make extra special (read: pretty) loaves, but as I stated, I'm a home cook and my main objective each day is to get tasty food prepared for us, all while juggling the other tasks of the day. And I only have so much energy to spare. At the end of the day, the "rustic"😜 looking loaves taste the same as the "pretty" loaves.

I hope you enjoy the video, and as always...

thanks for stopping by! 

xo,

TJ

Thursday, March 16, 2023

Welcome Back~

 

no matter what life brings...MUST. KEEP. A. SENSE. OF. HUMOR!🤣

Welcome back!

Things have begun to improve, freeing me up to get back to enjoyable endeavors. Despite life's challenges lately, I have (mostly) been able to keep up with my #dailyselfie2023 over on my TJ's Sweet Home Instagram and Facebook accounts. 

Also, there's a new video over on my YouTube channel. I'd love for you to visit there soon!

Thank you for hanging in there with me and once again stopping by!

xo,

TJ

Sunday, February 19, 2023

I'm Still Here ~


 I wanted to pop in and let you know I haven't given up on blogging. I have just been dealing with circumstances related to the spouse's disability, which takes up a lot of my time, physical and mental energy and emotional stores at times. So, if the blog gets quiet, just know that that is most likely the reason.

I love this little space where I share and am able to indulge the writer in me but sometimes that can't be the priority in my life. I know you will understand.

I will see you as soon as I can spare some pieces of me again.

Thanks for understanding and stopping by.

xo,

TJ

Sunday, January 29, 2023

A Little Catch Up~


cheery daffodils are abloom in the garden

Hello friends!

I know it has been a while. The holidays and winter days were relaxing and invigorating for me. I hope yours were just what you needed them to be. 

I have been busier than usual, what with trying to get the BP Challenge figured out, sort out the direction I want this new year to go for me and just trying to keep on top of the everyday business at hand.

The challenge has had me feeling like I'm in a race each day. A race to eat the required six meals spaced 2-3 hours apart. A race to drink the amount of water I need to each day. And juggling all that, plus normal life stuff, with trying to fit in the daily workout. The discipline of it all is unfamiliar territory but that very discipline is much needed in my life. You see, after my husband became disabled and I had to quit my job to care for him full time, I slowly drifted into unscheduled days without the usual routine I was accustomed to. I slowly worked out a new normal, albeit a more relaxed, and dare I say it? A lazy one. Thankfully, the healthy meals and exercise and rivers of water I have been drinking have given me the energy to tackle it all. I posted a YouTube video about it if you are interested.


This past week we had some heavy thunderstorms along with tornadoes that touched down not far from us. Actually, the tornadoes did heavy damage in a city I lived in twenty years ago so I was particularly concerned for those affected. The worst we got of it was a little flooding in our neighborhood and our backyard. 


reflections of a stormy day

The sunset the day before the storm was absolutely gorgeous however!



I hope you are having a wonderful winter season and many beautiful sunsets and sunrises!

I will see you soon.

Thanks for stopping by! 

xo,

TJ


Tuesday, January 10, 2023

Daily Selfie 2023 ~ BFL Challenge

I have officially been accepted into the latest challenge offered by the author of these books! I have had Bill's BFL and EFL books for several years now and refer to them often. To say I am over the moon excited to be included in this team challenge is an understatement! Between losing myself in the midst of a perfect storm of simultaneously navigating the final year of our youngest child's high school years and my spouse's stroke along with the aftermath of it, the ensuing journey of being a caregiver had left me comfortably numb. I turned to food for comfort. (heck, I just plain turned to comfort for comfort!) Add to that, I have always considered myself to be a binge eater and food addict. 

I need to start taking better care of myself and put myself as a priority also. I want to rebuild and regain my health. I recently had surgery to remove cancer and have that healing journey ahead of me now as well.

My goal for the challenge is to lose 25 lbs and gain energy and strength. I have never been a highly energetic person even in my younger days (I've always compared myself to a luxury vehicle...built for comfort, not for speed, lol) I don't have aspirations of looking like a fitness model, I just need the stamina to navigate my daily life, which is sorely lacking for me right now.

This is me on day one of the twelve week challenge. I'm in the middle of enjoying a post walk/"trot"(~entry level jog😉) protein shake. Wish me luck!

Thanks for stopping by! 

xo,

TJ

Saturday, January 7, 2023

Daily Selfie 2023 ~ Dinner Prep

 My daily selfie saga continues, lol. And quite honestly, for this normally camera shy girl, that's no small feat. I'm fluffier than I want to be (working on that!), older than I've ever been (thankful for that!) and living a life that by most people's standards is quite uneventful. So, what is there to post? And who would care to see it? The answer to both of those questions is,  "I don't know." but nevertheless, here we are. As I stated when I said was going to post a selfie a day in 2023, I think it will be interesting to document how my face has worn my life in the upcoming year. And why the heck not? It's for fun. I try to never take myself, or life, too seriously. 

Here's today's selfie with a little commentary...

fridge pov aka how the inside of my fridge sees me 

Dinner prep, fridge POV, 2:56 PM. 

I've been aiming to start dinner early for the past several weeks rather than wait for the dinner hour. Usually by then (around 5PM), our west facing kitchen is at it's warmest and I am just not in the best of moods (tired🥱? hungry😖? HOT🔥? {I'm a lady of a certain age, after all😉😓}. ALL OF THE ABOVE.) to face making much of a dinner. So, I try to be mindful to start early taking steps to get a decent meal ready by 6 PM at the latest. Last night, I plopped all the ingredients for a meat sauce in our mini slow cooker to simmer overnight for our pasta tonight. The meat was cooked the night before THAT and ground up in my old school Ninja blender last night-mama don't have no patience to stand over a hot, steamy stove breaking up ground beef into bitty pieces I'm lazy like that. Today, I boiled the noodles, mixed them in with the meat sauce, topped with some mozz pieces and stuck the whole shebang in our 8 quart slow cooker to heat up for tonight's din. 

Steps. Baby steps.


"Baking" in the slow cooker. Trying to not heat up the kitchen. 78°F with 71% humidity so...NOPE. No oven tonight. I placed a small casserole dish with the pasta inside of it into my 8 quart slow cooker with about an inch of water in the bottom, pressed "slow cook" to heat it up so it will be ready for a nice, warm, tummy filling meal at 6.

What's for dinner at your place?

Thanks for stopping by! 

💋xo, 

TJ


Sunday, January 1, 2023

Daily Selfie 2023 ~ Mapping Out the New Year


How are you spending the first day of January 2023? I spent some extra time dreaming,  planning and goal setting. Now to back it up with action and effort!

Happy New Year! What are your goals, plans and dreams for this new year?

💋xo, 

TJ