A Challenge: Part I and II

I've FINALLY! decided on my theme for this year..One big theme for the year, and a "focus" for each month. (You might recall the focuses I tried out last year) This year's theme is:

"Every day an Adventure"

This includes but is not limited to one adventure per day. It's time to shake it up! So I will be posting each day...ok every other day...ok as often as possible on the adventures of that day. Let's begin!

Day 1

Adventure challenge: Become a French baker by baking the perfect loaf of French bread.

With the assistance of Sisterscafe.com for recipe and following pics


Goal:


Soundtrack: Edith Pilaf -La Vie en Rose, La Foule etc..
Garou- Les Cloches
Lara Fabien Je t aime
Notre Dame de Paris (Garou...) or Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame soundtrack
Vanessa Paradis

1 1/2 cups warm water
1 1/2 Tbs. (2 packages) dry yeast
2 tsp. sugar
3 1/4 cups flour
2 tsp. salt

In a small bowl mix the warm water with the yeast and sugar. Let it sit for about 5 minutes - foam should form on the top.

In a large mixing bowl combine the flour and salt. Gradually add the yeast mixture. Mix until the dough becomes a smooth ball and knead for 5 minutes. ( Kitchen Aid with the dough hook)

Cut in half and then shape into 2 baguettes. To make them smooth and pretty, roll each half of dough into rectangle and roll up lengthwise. Pinch the edges to seal and place on lightly greased cookie sheet (or silpat) with seam down. Cover and let it rise for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. With a very sharp knife gently make a slash down the length of each baguette. This will give it that authentic look. Pour water in a cookie sheet and place it on the bottom rack of the oven. Bake the bread for 15 minutes. Half way through, brush the bread with melted butter.


Results: Instead of gourmet French bread, I ended up with Italian flatbread sans herbs...

On the right, I folded the loaf over to add some 'omph'
and body..you can tell it had about as much body as a limp noodle.

I guess I should confess that I also forgot the pan of steaming water underneath. I've tried this before with the pan and the results were not much better than this:

I purposefully stacked them to give them some height ::snickers:: I also used wheat flour in mine although that doesn't account for the pasty white sunless look my loaves artfully achieved.

Flavor: 9/10. If you're a Salty Dog you'll love how much salt this packs in but for the rest of us, I'd use less salt since the butter also adds some.

Overall, I still think I will be saving up for a bread machine. Ha! I will continue to admire the recipes on Sisters Cafe as it is one of my favorites, and keep working on this flatbread-I mean baguette!

GRATITUDE!

I came across this comment made by someone on another blog where readers were invited to share things they were thankful about:

"I am thankful for housework. It means I have a home to clean and that I’m physically able to do so. Bring on the mopping!"


Isn't that such an awesome attitude to have? It really opened my eyes to be thankful for the everyday things that I take for granted. Things like a roof over my head and good health. I hope I can take this view on other things as well!

January...a lovely month!

Ooh-la-la! I'll take a cup of this to go! This is the first picture/page on my new 2011 wall calendar. I do love a good calendar.

The New Year brings refreshment and a breath of fresh air into my life. I feel invigorated and rejuvenated...not by anything that I am doing specifically, but, simply by the fact that a New Year has once again rolled around. The old year is out and the New Year is in! A fresh slate with nothing on it! A new day to carry on and live life to it's fullest. I am curious as to what the New Year will bring...the adventures, the joys, the sorrows, the trials, the triumphs...such a mixed bag.



My husband bought and hauled home a new bed. He assembled the bed as I gathered fresh linens, a blanket and quilts. As I hauled myself up into the bed (ha---really, don't laugh, but, I really had to make effort to get up and onto our bed), I sat with pillows at my back, I felt very regal and somewhat like "The Princess and the Pea"...finagling for comfort in this new nice bed---failing to fight off peels of laughter caused by our new "much to tall" bed, we finally did settle down and began to talk about our life together...past, present and future. We don't set goals each New Year. I wondered about this little fact. And, then it came to me....every birthday celebrated, every wedding anniversary that comes and goes, every change of season, every World Wide General Conference for our church each October and April---these are check points in my life. I give myself a lot of chances to do, redo, try again, accomplish, reset, move forward, move backward, etc. It works for me.



So, here's to January where I will continue to enjoy lots of cups of cocoa. This cocoa was sent to us by our daughter who is serving a Spanish speaking mission for our church. The chocolate looks somewhat like a hockey puck. You drop it into milk. It slowly dissolves as the milk heats up on the stove.

And, to winter snow and new friends in our yard. This little deer has found refuge in our yard for the past week or so. Love seeing her wandering around or seeing her from my kitchen window in the early morning light, still asleep under our huge pine trees.



I love January...come what may!

FOCUS: Do

Achieve can be such a scary word. It signifies something done, something reached for and achieved. It's the end of the 'do' process.

The hubster and I were talking the other night and I was wondering out loud why it seemed I had such a hard time finishing projects...getting that letter into the mail...uploading those photos I promised someone...baking the recipe I'd been dying to try. This isn't just being too busy, or forgetting something once in a while, but constant negligence. And he said it was because I wasn't a do-er.

I heartily concurred..I'm a dreamer. If I can imagine it, I feel just as accomplished as though I had done it in real life.

Are you a dreamer? Or a doer? On a Saturday morning, are you the type to finish 5-6 things before lunch? Or read a book and curl up in bed all morning?

I told him a few of my dreams for the future, things I hope to accomplish. I asked him, "Do you think I can do it?"

He said, "Yes."

I said, "But do you think I WILL do it?"

The answer was debatable. So for a few weeks I've been pondering that idea..how much can people change? If you want something badly, can you change enough of your fundamental character to be that kind of person? Can a dreamer become a do-er? Or could a do-er ever slow down to the pace of a dreamer?

The dreams and goals I have for the future require a lot of do-er persona so for the month of October, my focus is DO. It's not achieve (yet!) but the steps up to it.


What's your focus for October?

FOCUS: GRATITUDE

Instead of New Year Resolutions, I know a lot of people who instead adapted a specific word as their mantra for the year. Words like "focus", "discipline", or "compassion". It's a good idea, really, because focusing on one word and all its meanings seems so much more do-able than the standard list. 1. Loose __lbs. 2. Get back in touch with friends I haven't talked to in monthes 3. Finish that project gathering dust in the garage. Blah.

I thought it would be a good idea to take this method one step further. I've decided to adapt one focus word per month to work on.

I read an article that garnered this inspiration on http://www.mormonwomen.com/ titled "The Person Inside the Mom" and found a lot of what she had to say can be applied to women in any situation, mother or not yet. Here's an excerpt:

"A lot of the happiness we feel in life comes when we’re progressing; the gospel teaches us this, but it’s true in any walk of life, whether you’re religious or not. And when we feel like we’re in a rut and we’re not progressing, when we’re sad or feeling useless, then we get down about everything in our lives.....

.....what do I want to improve? Who do I want to be? What aspects of my personality should I be developing? What talents should I be developing? What can I do with my kids? How can I do those in conjunction with what I’m doing as a mom?
....Motherhood is taking all these wonderful things the gospel teaches us about love and our role as nurturers and the role of eternal progression in our own lives and then putting it into daily practice. We hear all these great talks, but the how tos . . . the daily practice is often the mystery.
I still have big ideas, but my idea of what is big and what really matters have fundamentally changed.I think that what I’m trying to do is what every mom is trying to do: better herself, take care of her family, plus do a little beyond. We want to take care of ourselves, we want to take care of our families, and then we want to take it a little step beyond that and feel like we’re leaving a little print in other people’s lives, that we’re being a “light to the world” in our own way."


I like the idea of bettering myself, my family and beyond. I can remember feeling at a very young age the desire to "do a little beyond". To "leave a little print in other people's lives" and in this world. I think it's a common human desire. What a better way to do this than a little at a time, one word a month at a time.

That said, my word for the month is.. GRATITUDE.

When the going gets tough..the whining/complaining/crying/lamenting/Laman and Lemueling gets going with me. I forget that life is supposed to be hard sometimes and yes I CAN do it. When this happens it's easy for me to loose sight on the things I have instead of focusing on the have-nots. So for this month every time I think "she's never going to sleep, she is so much work" Or "why can't this apartment stay clean on its own" I'll be GRATEFUL that I have a daughter, that I have a place to sleep and live in that is so much cleaner than the shelters many others have to sleep under. When that doesn't work, I always have these moments:

And I feel grateful.