Happy 100th

This is the 100th post of Today is the Day!

Weird factoid, I had a dream that my mom told me that I needed to lose 30lbs. It was such a crazy dream! I was incredulous when my dream-mom looked me in the eyes and told me that, yep, 30lbs would do the trick. I woke up in a panic, wondering just where are the celery sticks and mountain water, breaking out into a rash when I thought about giving up chocolate (blasphemy). Crisis averted, however, when I snapped out of fantasy-quasi-unconscious-dream mode and realized that was just a dream. A ridiculous dream because if I lost 30lbs I would weigh...30lbs less...

My sister and I cooked together the other night, just like old times. She made a great chicken noodle soup because she is the best cook that we have! I, however, made the bread because for whatever reason I have not fully grasped the concept of cooking. Anyways, we made this feast for our mommy dearest because she has developed a nasty cold. The bread that I made is an old world rye bread and has said to be the best bread that I have made so far, what a compliment! I was really astounded when I saw what the bread looked like after baking it, like it belonged in a Panera Bread or something.

Swirly bread with cornmeal and flour sprinkled on top.

Crusty!

Crusty Rye Bread 

(for bread machines)

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2/3 cup water at 105-110 degrees F

2 Tbsp vegetable oil

2/3 cup of buttermilk

1.25 cup of bread flour

1 cup rye flour

1/3 cup mashed potato mix, dry variety

2 Tbsp brown sugar, packed

1.25 tsp salt

2 tsp bread machine yeast

Place all ingredients in bread machine, starting with the liquids and ending with the yeast. Be sure to keep the yeast out of contact with the liquids or salt. Select dough/manual cycle and let it rip!

Remove dough and place on a lightly floured surface, cover, and let rest for ten minutes.

On a greased cookie sheet, sprinkle cornmeal.

Roll dough with hands into a 25inch rope. Curl the rope into a coil shape and tuck the end underneath the dough. Place on cookie sheet and let rise 45 minutes, meanwhile heat oven to 400 degrees F.

Brush water on top of dough, and sprinkle with cornmeal and a tad bit of flour. 

Bake 25 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pan and onto cooling rack.

Well the answers to my prayers have been answered. Hallelujah! It rained today! Since it looked like this:

There was not much to do today except chores, reading, watching the Casey Anthony trial, and (drum roll please!) baking. Today I decided to make white chocolate, cranberry, walnut scones. Can you say yum? The house smells so good! So comfy! Factor in the rain and I may just not get up off of the couch in the near future (and by near I mean ten years). Yes. But, scones were made, thunder was clapped, and rain was poured. 

Decadent White Chocolate Cranberry Scones

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2 cups all purpose flour

1/3 cup light brown sugar, packed

1.5 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

6 Tbsp unsalted butter, cold

1/2 cup buttermilk*

1 egg

1/2 tsp almond extract

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup white chocolate chips

1/4 cup craisins

1/4 cup walnuts, chopped

Heat oven to 400 degrees F

In a large bowl mix in the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Cut butter into flour mixture using two knives until butter is well dispersed.

Mix in the buttermilk, egg, and extracts.

Finally, add in your treats! (chocolate chips, dried fruit, and walnuts)

Lightly grease a cookie sheet and spread the scone dough onto the center of the sheet. Flatten into a circular shape and cut 8 wedges with a serrated knife. Bake for 17 minutes. Let stand for 1 minute.

Once out of the oven, cut scones with pizza cutter along the same lines that you made when cutting with the knife. Remove from cookie tray and place on a cooling rack.

Enjoy!

Since the weather continued to rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain the whole day through, dinner was super easy difficult. Oven ready pizzas are just so dang complicated these days. I swear I broke a sweat.

Just kidding :)

Oh my goodness that picture is blurry!

Now to enjoy a rainy evening with a good book, nameste my friends.