Spring Has Sprung

It looks like “Spring has sprung”, to quote my Mom. Western NY has lost almost all of its snow and we have some rain today. This morning at 6 am it was 50 degrees outside. If it hasn’t sprung, we are getting there at least. My thoughts are turning to bike riding, container gardening on my deck, yard clean up (YUCK), and SUNSHINE!

Thinking about container gardening at this point is a little premature but I am getting excited to try it! I imagine mid May might be the right time for that and I intend to take you along on my first ever experience with it! Stay tuned.

I want to share a recipe with you that I have tried several times. It is for bread made in a cast iron skillet. Thank you Wendy for giving me your recipe and the handy hints you had due to your experience with it. First of all, I am all about the iron skillet cooking. When I was growing up my Mom used her trusty skillets all the time. We had a little one that was just big enough to do an egg and then what was probably a 10″ one that was used all the time. (Fried potatoes are great in an iron skillet.) For many years I got out of using mine but when my brother-in-law gave me a super, well-seasoned one that had been his mother’s, I was back into it again.

IRON SKILLET BREAD

1 pkg. dry yeast

2 cups lukewarm water

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 1/3 cups flour

olive oil

Combine yeast and water in a bowl. Using a wooden spoon add in 1 cup of the flour and the salt. Mix until combined. Continue adding the rest of the flour one cup at a time until completely incorporated. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise for 1 hour. Do not punch down the dough. Lightly oil the bottom of a 10″ skillet (or 12″ inch but I like the bread higher so I stuck with the smaller skillet). Sprinkle flour on top of the dough and then flour your hands. Take all of the dough and form it into a disk. It will be sticky. Place the disk in the skillet. Cover it with a towel and allow to rise for 1/2 hour.    Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Drizzle olive oil on top of the bread and using a knife score the top of the bread in an X shape. Sprinkle with coarse salt and rosemary.

The adjustments I made were not to add the salt and the rosemary on top. If you want to freeze half of the loaf, as I did, the salt will cause the bread to “weep” and make it soggy. I am not a huge rosemary fan and left that off as well.

Doesn’t this look yummo!!!

If anyone happens to try this recipe let me know how you like it!

One of my favorite things to do is to decorate my home for the seasons and holidays. You can decorate with the most simple things. Sometimes it is just a matter of picking the right colors or displaying a collection in a seasonally appropriate way.  You don’t need to spend money on expensive decorations or items create a decoration. It is possible to use items that you already have around the house.

One of the things I collect are old sewing items. I have many old wooden thread spools. I pulled out all the Spring/Easter type colors and made this little item to sit on a shelf. I also used a little green grass from a gift basket I had received. I glued burlap on the lid of a glass jar that was in my recycle bin and got into my ribbon box for a small piece of pink ribbon. Ta-da! Easter decoration! The bonus is I get to look at some of my collection in a new way.

I would like to introduce to a product that I have been using for several months now. I first discovered it in a hardware/lumber store where my nephew, Brad, works. The product is a powder called, “Anti Monkey Butt” powder. The first thing I did was laugh at the name. I mean, who wouldn’t? Then Brad told me that my niece uses it and that they had used the baby product for their son and he had never had a diaper rash. That recommendation, the cute name and the fact that I use powder every day when I get dressed had me buy one of the lady Anti Monkey Butt powders. I LOVE it. I think the secret is that it has calamine in the powder and it is so silky soft. The powder just happens to be pink too!

 

They have a full line of powders for men, women and babies. There is even a diaper rash cream for babies and a hand lotion. You can order from their site, http://www.antimonkeybutt.com/ and online retailers like Amazon have it too. I read the background info and it was developed by two dirt bike riders to combat “monkey butt”.  Hey, I like to know the history of things! It is the Social Studies major in me.

Be sure to let me know if you try the bread recipe and any crafty decorating ideas that you may have. See you next week!