Monthly Update...39º

I have a feeling that I will be very irritated at myself for not writing in my blog more often...I love looking back at my old posts as they bring back memories that would be forever lost, if I had not written them down...So be it drivel, blathering, nonsense or photos, I aim to do better!

With the imminent arrival of our family this week, I got in the baking mood...Nothing puts me in the baking mood like cleaning, sorting and rearranging dust upstairs, like I did last week...I would much rather cook than clean...So this week I baked molasses cookies, oatmeal raisin/chocolate chip cookies, ate two (that's a record for me) and froze 6 dozen...After reading the book "Stir," that has many Jewish recipes, Challah (hallah) bread jumped out at me...The basic dough ingredients are very similar to my dinner roll recipe but with a different outcome...I actually followed the recipe almost to the letter, mixed the ingredients, let it "rest 30 minutes, then "folded" (not kneaded) it 8 times," repeated this step four more times...Covered it tightly and refrigerated it overnight...Yesterday morning I divided the cold lump of dough into 6 even pieces, rolled them into 14" long rolls and braided 3 strands (rolls) each, into two loaves...Let them rise for about 3 hours, before baking.

Second Braid

                      My first braid                                                    

My first loaf seemed loosely braided, so I tightened the second one that I thought made a prettier loaf, but in the end they both looked lovely and tasted sublime...Herb and I devoured 1/2 loaf in record time...I have no idea what Challah is supposed to taste like and think mine needs to be a bit lighter, maybe, maybe not...I'm thinking that day old it would make incredible french toast.

Since I was on a "roll" I mixed a batch of my basic dinner rolls, added flax meal and made 24 slider buns...I weighed each one, keeping them at about 2 ounces per roll, they raised nicely and looked perfect, maybe just a bit larger than the ones in the store...Since I had been busy all morning and not given a thought to what we might eat for dinner (besides Challah) I cooked a couple of hamburger patties, sliced onion, tomato, dill pickle, slathered the buns with blue cheese dressing and we dined on gourmet hamburgers for dinner!

Slider rolls (different dough)

Now we have added 1 and 1/2 loaf of Challah and 22 slider buns to the cookies in the freezer...Let the festivities begin...Bobi and Cienna arrive tomorrow, Rusty on Wednesday...Looks like we have a snowy week ahead, so more cooking, sewing, laughing, eating is on the agenda...I will keep you posted...Hugs To All...OWAV:)