First ootd of 2013!!

Went out tonight with my awesome mom and some of her friends to celebrate her last day at her job before she goes back to work at Children's hospital. I have not been posting to many outfits because I feel like I wear the same thing all winter. Cardigan, Camisole, Leggings or slacks, and boots. Done and done. Here is a little shoot of moi with the new gorillapod that Alex got for our camera, I spent most of today cleaning and laundry and what not. I had a 4 day weekend and of course left it all to the end!

Andrew showed up at the end with a tooth brush and tooth paste which was hilarious.

Head to toe:
Cardigan: target
Camisole:Target
Belt:Thrifted
Pants:Steinmart
Boots:Gifted from mom.


Lord they make the Margs strong at Hacienda!-MB

Parlez voux french bread?

As I mentioned in my last post, this past Sunday I devoted my day to staying home and baking an Authentic loaf of french bread Ala Julia Child. Following Julia's advice I read the recipe from start to finish, as well as all of her instructions and guidelines totally 17 pages of bread making.

Andrew got me out of bed at 7:30 so I had a decently early start to the morning and project. I made him some oatmeal and a Latte for myself and began my preparations. First I had to get my self ready, Hair out of face. Check. Chicken apron with dish towel. Check. I re read the recipe and pulled out all of the ingredients and accoutrements needed.

Here is my bread making gear!

I like to lay everything I will need for a complicated recipe out before I begin, just to make sure I haven't missed anything. This is especially helpful for MTAFC recipes as they are long and there isn't usually a master list of thing you need.

" my precious...."

If you  like to cook and have a small kitchen like a do, consider getting one of these book stands. Very helpful. See Alex's Macguyver-ing on the coffee grinder in the background. When our friend Kooj watched our house she noticed lots of little rigs like this.

So I was super prepared and optimist! The majority of the recipe seemed really easy, just a lot of kneading and waiting. took a few shots of the begining, but then I needed both my hands to work and rangle Andrew.

I let it set for the recommended 3 hours, and then 2 more, and then 1 more. 

Nothing happened. I enlisted the help of Alex, who worked for a number of years as a baker in a deli in Boulder. He informed me that I had not kept my bread at 70 degrees and had stifled my yeast.

Alex used a trick of the trade and made a "Proof Box" out of our oven, we continued to try and raise the dough this way.

 

Basically he tried to keep the oven at a humid warm temp.  Alas this still did not work. We decided to see the bread through and finish the recipe even though the dough didn't rise. The bread turned out dense and gummy. No Bon. I tried to make garlic bread out of one of the larger rolls it was pretty gross. I didn't get any pictures because it was like 11:00 at night by the time we were done and I was over it. 

I am going to try again this weekend, I have my awesome once monthly 4 day weekend, so my plan is potty training and bread making. What an exciting life! Actually even though I get a spot of cabin fever after a lot of time at home, I love this time of year when there isn't much going on besides football and its perfectly acceptable to spend an entire weekend in Jammies in the house. 

Julia said in her master recipe that you really have to keep trying in order to get the bread recipe right, you may have to make adjustment and tweaks.  I think that my problem was that I used high altitude flour out of habit and didn't adjust the amount of yeast.

Here's to hoping my next batch is somewhat edible. -MB

Goal 1

This weekend I am going to attempt to start one of my New Years goals. I am going to devote Sunday attempting to bake a loaf of authentic french bread Ala Julia Child. It may seem silly that I am planning an entire day to make bread, but this particular recipe is roughly 17 pages long and requires a trip to the hardware store. I figure my first day will mostly be acquainting myself with the recipe. I hope that by the end of the year I can turn out batches of exceptional french bread to serve and bring to dinner parties. I used to do really cute cupcakes but everyone does them now.

I know there are probably bread makers out there who would shake their heads at me, because I do know there are much easier ways to make bread than this authentic artisan practice, but I happen to love Julia Child. My husband gave me Mastering the Art of French Cooking Vol 2 for Christmas and I haven't made anything out of it yet. Mostly I am going to do this for Julia. I really am a big fan of hers, It started when my MIL gave me the Art of French Cooking Vol 1 about 5 years ago, then I saw "Julie and Julia", and then I read her Autobiography, "My Life in France". In the book Julia explains how she considered the French bread recipe her Opus, in fact it took her months of work and research to perfect it, however it seemed that no Americans wanted to make french bread, and the recipe seemed completely overlooked. that alone is a reason for me to tackle the process and give it a try. I'll take some pictures and show my progress with you next week.

 

I am a person who enjoys cooking, not necessarily the day to day demands of healthy dinners and toddler breakfasts, but I like a challenge and feel creative, when time and motivation allows me to do something new. If you are the same type of kitchenista (or kitchenisto) I would highly suggest Vol 1, and also Irma S. Rombauers the Joy of Cooking. Simply because they will both make you better cooks. These cooking bibles were also written, pre crisco, fake butter, splenda and other chemicals you see today.If I read another recipe calling for Cream of something soup, W/O the recipe For the actual soup....

Anywho, please wish me luck on my domestic mission this weekend-MB

Happy New Year!

Hey there birdfriends, I know its been a while since I have updated my blog.

I got bogged down with the holidays, a bout of pneumonia and a little writers block. Ok A lot of writers block. Alas, one of my goals this year is to update this blog more than once a month! I hope to do some new things with it as well. So please stay tuned and bear with me as I try to figure out where to take the Motherbird in 2013.

I hope everyone had a happy and safe new year!
-MB