Practice Makes Perfect - Bread!

Here are a few items I thrifted recently from Oxfam. The fabric pieces were in a bag which said they were silk and some of them definitely are but they are all different weights and weaves so it's difficult to tell. The little doilies are quite small and dainty and will be used to embellish projects in the future. I also bagged 2 'new' zips and a large embroidery hoop. The blanket they are laying on is one I crocheted many years ago and sits on the end of the bed as an extra cover-up.

I'm determined to try and make at least one loaf a week in my bread-maker now I've got back into the swing of it. After the success of the wholemeal loaf a couple of weeks ago I decided to try a white one last week. I really should have read all the machine's instructions and not just the recipe. It doesn't always work out when you muddle through and make substitutions even if you think they'll do the same job!! I don't know exactly what the problem was but the loaf (if you could call it that) which came out of the machine was a disgusting mixture of oily crust, uncooked dough and unmixed flour. The whole thing had to go straight in the compost bin.

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This week, I bought new yeast (to replace the out-of-date one), used table salt instead of low-sodium and gave the dough a helping hand at the mixing stage. The result was a perfect, white, tasty loaf. It rose so well that the top stuck to the lid even though I didn't use bread improver (whatever that is!).

While I had the oven on later to make dinner I made a batch of choc-chip cookies from a recipe over at Attic24. They were just my kind of recipe - easy to mix up, no rolling or messing and the choc chips can be substituted to ring the changes.

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This weekend also saw me get a tiny-weeny bit of sewing done. It was mainly mending and household stuff but I think having it hanging around was subconciously preventing me from getting on with the exciting stuff. More on that next time.

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Bye for now

Teresa x