#FBF Homecooking... (Swore I would never do #FoodPorn)

Since it’s #FBF, I’ve decided to break a little rule and throw some #FoodPorn out there. I’ve taken up making my own bakery goods, including bread. For the last 8 weeks or so, I’ve only eaten my own homemade bread buns and really liking the experience. So last week, I went one step further… and made REAL bread.

I can’t help but flashback to my mom’s kitchen (no matter where that kitchen might have been or how small). I watched her so many times make her bread, yet when I tried her very own recipe, it was never quite the same. I missed the smell of the bread rising, then baking and cooling. Just knowing that there would be fresh, baked goodness with supper was a stomach-grumbling starter. Not ashamed to say I was a ‘Is it ready yet?’ kid as my mom was a good cook. Unfortunately for my mom but fortunately for my neighbours downstairs (unknowing yet welling testers), I tried a Betty Crocker White Bread Recipe (with a couple of tweaks for my taste).

For a first time try last week, the loaves turned out wonderful. I was scared to slice into the full-size loaves, as I wasn’t sure that the bread would withstand such a telltale test of good consistency. Hoorah, it was a perfect slice and so was the next one and so on. Each loaf, including my mini-loaves sliced perfectly, whether thick or thin.



Homemade Betty Crocker Classic White Bread

And the bread itself was excellent for soaking up au jus, gravy and anything you might want to dip it into.

“And how about toasted”, do you ask? Well, it’s some of the best toast I’ve had since grandma’s woodstove toast. The bread crisps nicely and yet the mead stays nice and soft without fall apart when spreading or adding toast toppings.

The healthy side of this bread is the basic ingredients and the fact that it’s made so fast. (I do it by hand, although you can check the website BettyCrocker.com for a machine recipe.) There are no eggs used to make the bread, although there is the basic flour, milk yeast and shortening. There is also a minimal amount of sugar and even less than a teaspoon of salt in the whole recipe. And this recipe makes a lot of dough, trust me.

I used aluminum pans and they worked great and I was inclined to purchase a rolling pin as spreading the dough by hand was just not working for me. The rolling pin is pretty nice for the low budget price and I got it at Walmart

Today, after I tried the same recipe twice, I have enough bread to last me the next 6 to 7 days and as stated before, brought a loaf to the neighbours, just so they know I’m not completely evil, (wink, wink). Hope they enjoyed as much as I did with my supper.



Medium-rare roast beef with mashed potatoes and Betty Crocker Classic White Bread Slices.

And I also hope that this gets you baking your own bread, maybe even this coming week.

As long as you’re breathing, you might as well learn something new every once in a while.

#FBF #Homecooking #BakingJoys #LearnOneThing #SelfTherapy #BasicBaking #OldSchoolCooking

©Dominique Clark 2016



Get The Love Back...(And why your cooking may taste like sh*t.)

       As a teenager, I LOVED to eat. So I enjoyed baking, too. The pleasure of making delicious pies, cream puffs, crepes and so many kinds of puddings. I made some fantastic apple pies from scratch, back then. And I got even more pleasure when my family would enjoy what I had made. I was still learning and more important, I wanted to keep trying even after a failure or two with some new recipe.

As I set off into repetitive, random chaos of choices and compromises that is Adulthood, the love of food became a battle against food and thus started my spiral descent into non-culinary care and fear of delectable exploration. I came to the sad resolve that nothing I would concoct would ever be edible so never presentable to others besides my family, who were also defeated to knowing the meaning of ‘Free-For-All’,  in the torture chamber that became any kitchen that I was standing in. Pizza (or other Take-Out menus) were handy when expecting company. Alcohol was helpful with the hosting or lack thereof.

Then Life shifted, as it does, presenting me with a re-do of opportunities and lots of time to think about all of everything. Since it wasn’t my first time at the rodeo, I had long decided that I would go into this new shift of circumstances using the knowledge of the past, without fear blinding my future possibilities.

I caught myself watching a cooking show now and then. Nothing ever lasted more than 15 mins (or the time of a recipe) and none of the hosts were my kind of teacher – sorry Mr. G. Ramsay. Until I came across Anna& Kristina’s Grocery Bag and I was hooked. I had previous caught some of their shows during their earlier show “The Grocery Bags” (good stuff), I just wasn’t able to appreciate what they were offering to me, at the time. During the first episode of Anna & Kristina’s Grocery Bag, I was enjoying watching them execute a random recipe for their first time and showing that mistakes happen to everybody (even you, Mr. G. Ramsay). And it was okay to try again, or find something else to create that you can accomplish.

The inspiration from Anna & Kristina’s Grocery Bag helped bring the love back for me. I cleaned out my kitchen and started making some bread. It was a re-do, of course. That is why I went for it. And I was rewarded with some pretty delicious dinner rolls. Then came the whole turkey (secret ingredient - Club House Montreal Steak Spice) and started the New Year with a Knock-Your-Socks-Off  Banana Bread, using a variation from the original Betty Crocker recipe.

And when I rocked the French Crepe recipe from King Arthur’s Flour, to the raves of my teenage son, I knew I had brought myself back to a level of contentment that was reflected in the love I infused while I was in the kitchen.

Get your ‘bake’ on, people. It might be the therapy you need.

©Dominique Clark 2016

Cut Off The Cable Today...(WTF!?!?!)

It’s done. I can’t believe I just did it. I cut off my own cable TV today. The decision did not come lightly as I’ve spent the better part of December 2015 and the start of January 2016 thinking about it. I’ve lived in some not so great places and in some not so great conditions but somehow, I don’t remember ever not having some kind of TV program, running in the background of whatever situation I was in. And after spending the last 3 years very much in solitude, I’ve found that the TV is constantly occupying my space, even when I’m doing something else, in another room. If that isn’t a sign of pure, unadulterated addiction, then I need to reread the definition of addiction.

I remember, now more than ever, all those hours spent reading books on all kinds of subjects. Women’s Romance Novels started the cycle when I was a young awkward, confused, angry teenager. Then I found pleasure of Science Fiction such as multi-dimensions worlds, time travel and other undiscovered possibilities. Once I fell in Fantasy fables and tales, I was awakened to ever flexible boundaries of creativity with words. I finally saw the connection between idea, development and actual creation.

I lost all those feelings through Life’s roller-coaster ride of poor choices, compromises and disappointments. I’ve come close, several times, to letting the desperation engulf me to total darkness. Those had to be the darkest of times for me. Yet, here I am, wanting to return the enjoyment of escape while finding balance in the reality of that surrounds me.

By losing the chain that cable TV has become in my life, I want to find the space to fill with more of what is around me personally and globally, without it being scheduled around a pre-scheduled timeline on a TV Guide screen. As almost every minute of TV seems to scream at me, all that I seek is available across the Internet. And I’m going to find out for myself if this true.

As I write this, the TV is running on its last hours of paid subscription and I’m feeling about as nervous as each time I attempt to quit smoking. Sure hope I’m more successful at quitting cable TV.

#cuttingoutcableTV ,#returntoreading, #simplfy, #returntosilence

©DominiqueClark2016