I'm home.  I'm sitting in my house.  I am on my couch.  I am typing on my couch.  I am in my living room.  I'm not going anywhere outside of my own house for the rest of the day.  The whole rest of the day.  It feels... foreign.
For all my bitching about May and how it's all crazy and busy and overwhelming, June has been just as bad and maybe even worse.  Worse not really because it's worse but just because the expectation was that it would be better and it hasn't been.  That makes no sense when I look at the words but it totally made sense in my head.  Combine the 'crazy' with a heat wave in Toronto and you've got two kids living on cereal and toast.  Fortunately, that's done and we're back to absolute gorgeous summer weather.  Now that I'm still - as in not moving - I'm looking at the kitchen and wondering where to begin.


I have to admit that I almost didn't post this.  I think that the bread looks awful.  I look at other food blogs and the pictures are so awesome and everything just looks perfect.  The bread always rises exactly the way bread should rise.  It's always the right shade of golden/brown.  The cookies are never a little over-baked on the bottom.  There is never too much liquid in the stew.  You know?  The colours are perfect and the cakes look just right.  It's intimidating because almost nothing I make looks like that. It's taken me years to get over that my cooking and baking is best when it looks like crap.  So, I'm swallowing my pride and putting this bread recipe out there... crappy looking bread and all.
It tasted good.  And when we'd used it all up for sandwiches and it was starting to get stale... we made strata.  It was good.  And good for you.  And it was more than just a little ugly.


Whole Wheat and Red Fife Bread adapted from 'King Arthur Flour'
makes 1 loaf

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup red fife flour
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
1/4 cup dry milk powder
1 1/4 cup warm water
2 1/4 tsp dry yeast
1 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp melted butter

Grease a stainless steel or glass bowl and have a clean dish towel handy.
Combine the warm water, yeast and 1 tbsp sugar together.  Stir just to mix and set aside in a draft-free spot for a few minutes (just to make sure that it starts to get foamy and bubbly).
Combine the all purpose flour, whole wheat flour and red fife flour together with the salt, sugar and dry milk powder.  Mix and set aside.
Once the yeast mixture is foamy (about 5 - 7 minutes should be enough) add it to the flour mixture.
Add in the melted butter and stir together until the mixture can form a rough dough ball.  Turn out onto a very lightly floured surface and knead for just a few minutes until the dough ball looks uniform and smooth.
Place the dough in the greased bowl.  Cover with the clean cloth.  Place in a draft free spot for an hour. The dough won't quite be doubled.
Gently remove the dough from the bowl and knead just enough to release the air and form into a rough loaf shape.
Place in a greased loaf pan.  Cover again with clean cloth and place in a draft free spot until the dough gets about 1 inch over the top of the pan (took about an hour for me but could take up to 1 1/2 hrs).
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Bake the bread for about 35 minutes or until the crust sounds hollow when you knock on it.