potato bread

As I sit here and type I can smell the bread I just took out of the oven.  I love the way bread tastes, but the smell is even better.  I love how it lingers in the air long after its gone.  The smell - takes me back to those days - among my favorite of childhood - when my mother used to make bread.   Whenever my mom made bread it was inevitable that she would say "don't eat it all in one day."  Not deterred, my brother and I would take turns all day long sneaking into the kitchen, to retrieve another piece of bread to share.

My mom used to make all kinds of different breads, but my favorite was when she made my grandma's potato bread.  Well today - as summer fades into fall - I thought some potato bread was in order.

Recipe:

Ingredients

• 1 Cup Mash Potatoes
• 1 Package Yeast
• 1 ½ cups water
• 2/3 Cups Sugar
• 1 1/2 Teaspoon Salt
• 2/3 Cups Shortening
• 2 eggs
• 7 to 7 ½ cups flour

Dissolve yeast in water, stir in sugar, salt, shortening, eggs, and mashed potatoes.  Gradually mix in 6 cups of the flour, when the dough starts to pull away from the side of the mixer, turn the dough out onto a floured counter top, and then knead the last cup and 1/2 into the dough by hand.

Roll dough into a ball, and put in a greased bowl.  Cover, let rise, and then punch down.  Roll the dough into dinner roll sized shape, and then place in greased pan.  Place  in 400 degree oven and bake for 20 minutes.

Try it, they are pretty much spectacular!

pictures of the day

When I was back in Iowa, I took these pictures of my niece and nephews, and I thought they were so cute I just had to share.

did you know . . .

I love pan-seared scallops.  I often get them when M and I go to dinner, and I have tried to make them at home on different occasions. A couple of times they turned out well, and on one occasion I had to throw them all out because they had this metallic awful taste to them.  I honestly thought they were rotten.  Since that occasion I haven't tried to make scallops at home, and I didn't give it too much more thought until . . . .

Recently, I was watching an episode of (my favorite) America's Test Kitchen and learned the most interesting thing.  There are two different kinds of scallops - "dry" and "wet."

What is the difference?  The so called "wet" scallops are actually treated with phosphates.  The phosphate acts like a preservative, but they also make the scallops weigh more because they retain water.  The "wet" scallops also have a metallic taste to them, which can only really be covered up with some sort of strong acidic taste like lemon or lime.  Also, "wet" scallops do not caramelize as well because they are retaining all that liquid.

On the other hand dry scallops are not treated with any type of chemical or preservative.  So they are often more fresh than "wet" scallops, caramelize better, weigh less, and taste so much better.

So how do you tell the difference?  You could ask - although most the time the person behind the seafood counter at the supermarket is a 17-year-old, and has no idea what you are talking about.  Or, you could try to figure it out for yourself.  One way to differentiate between the two is their color: "Dry" scallops are a pearl color and "wet" scallops are white.

Good luck.

before and after - dining room chairs

About 4 1/2 years ago, my mother-in-law gave us these wonderful dining room chairs.  At the time she recovered them with a lovely cream material.  However, now they are starting to show the passage of time, so I thought ... its time for a lil makeover :)

This time I tried my hand at mixing patterns.  HGTV has a nice little post on mixing patterns here.  

The three patterns I picked:

And of course -- the after.

I even have some left over material for another project :)

Congrats Abby and Ian

the new addition to the family .... my nephew is such a cutie

our grand finale

It has been awhile since I have posted on our trip to Hawaii.  And I am kind of going out of order, but what the heck.  Here are the pictures from our last night in Hawaii having dinner at Azure.

a wonderful weekend

This weekend was packed full of fun and excitement, and I have to say I am pretty tuckered out (right now I am sitting on my couch, with my feet up, sipping Perrier pamplemousse rose).

 



Here are the highlights:

Friday ~ M and I started the weekend out right with cocktails at the Palm.  We had a gift card, from a silent auction we went to over a year ago, and I am proud to say the gift card is now gone :). 

Next, we hit up one of my favorite locations: the monsieur marcel gourmet market & restaurants  located in the LA Farmer's Market. 

As a side note: On our way through the Grove to the Farmers Market we saw the host of "Dancing with the Stars," Tom Bergeron, dining with some friends.

Okay back to dinner... My favourite dish at Monsieur Marcel is the moules & coques marinières which is mussels & clams steamed in a traditional white wine broth with cream served with french fries.

Dinner is rather casual at Monsiuer's and different parties often share the same table.  We shared our table with one of the actors from "Titanic," Billy Zane. 

After dinner M and I decided we would try seeing a movie, nothing really tickled our fancy, but we decided on "Cowboys and Aliens." As it turns out there was nothing about this movie that we found to be the least bit entertaining nor enjoyable.  It was pretty much a waste of our hard earned money.  Awe well, we had fun I guess, being there together.

Saturday ~ was a very delightful day for me.  I spent the morning at Whole Foods.  On Saturday mornings, I just love to go to Whole Foods:  I walk in and get a regular cup of coffee and then spend hours wondering the isles eating samples of cheese and fruit.  It is so pleasant.

Anyway, I went to Whole Foods to compile our picnic for the Hollywood Bowl that evening (I lucked out and got the company tickets to use). 

The menu for our little picnic ended up being:

• Potato Pancakes with Greek yogurt capers and caviar. Step 1 - grate a Yukon gold potato, Step 2 - season pan with bacon, Step 3 - mix potato with one egg, Step 4 - fry in vegetable oil, and Step 5 - top with your favorite toppings.

• Basil, mozzarella, sun dried tomato, and prosciutto sandwiches

• Chicken Curry Sandwiches
• Cranberry Spinach Salad
• Strawberry Shortcake

Our Table Setting:

At dusk the show began.  The highlight of the show for me was when Dick Van Dyke rapped "A Spoonful of Sugar."  It was really something, the man still has some moves. :)  You can hear a lil bit of the rap here.

Sunday ~ M and I hosted lunch after church for some friends.  Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures so the menu will have to do.

Asian Fusion Carnitas - mango, sweet chili sauce, red onions, and cilantro
Chipotle Rice
Chips and Guacamole
Key Lime Cupcakes