School Chair.

The things you find in your basement that you have long forgotten and can be very useful!
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French Bread

We are planning to have BLT's for dinner so I made some french loaves. This will be special BLT's with special tomatoes, special bacon, and now extra special fresh bread. This recipe is so easy, if you love bread as much as I do, please try it.
Love,
Mon
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Princess hair.

I'm not good at "hair". Just look at my hair :) Hazel Rei (err I mean princess Hazel Rei) requested princess hair. She interpreted her vision in great detail. When I say great detail, I mean GREAT detail. She was happy! It amazes me how particular little girls are, especially this one! So I'm continuing to work on my hair skills! Have a beautiful Tuesday!
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Cookies!!!

This is the second day of what appears to be a baking streak. Yesterday I made a peach pie after purchasing a large amount of peaches at a wholesale produce store. I have eaten a lot of pie since yesterday. I am ashamed :( So I have no idea why I had the desire to bake again today. I looked up a recipe for almond cookies since I love almonds!!! <3 I also have a jar of almond butter and was super excited to find a recipe that incorporated almond butter and maple syrup...double, double yummmmmmmm!!!!!

Maple Almond Butter Cookies

I used this recipe but changed it up a tiny bit.

1/2 cup natural almond butter

1/2 cup maple syrup

3 tablespoons melted butter (the recipe online used vegetable oil)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup unbleached pastry flour (the recipe online used whole wheat pastry flour which I did not have on hand)

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup chopped almonds

I mixed the almond butter, maple syrup, butter, and vanilla extract in the kitchenaid.  In a separate bowl I mixed the dry ingredients. I gradually added the dry ingredients to the almond mixture, then added the chopped almonds.  I baked them at 350 for about 10 minutes. 

The result = delicious!!!!! The house smelled beautifully, you would not believe!!! The girls loved them and I suggest if you love maple syrup and almond butter as I do...try it out.

Lots of love,
Mon <3

Montgomery burger night!

Gourmet burgers we are calling them. I felt ambitious so I decided to try to make buns. I am somewhat addicted and fascinated by bread making. The idea of flour, water, yeast etc combining for wonderfully delicious results makes me happy. Anyhow, back to the brioche buns. As you can see, my sizing is off. Maybe they don't look gorgeous and perfect, but they are really good!! I was nervous and ended up making a variety of sized buns from the big momma on the right to the normal sized ones on the left. I hope they will be prettier next time but I am happy! For my first shot...not bad. I did have some issues with the recipe. For some reason I had to add more milk. I think it was ok though. Mmmmmm I <3 bread! Now for the burger feast!

Love,
Mon

headband.

I made Hazel Rei a little headband that she loves to wear like a hippie. She wanted a flower on it so I tried my hand at knitting a rose.  It mostly came out like a ball but it could be the yarn was maybe a little too thick! It was a fun & super easy project!  Hazel loves it!

I also made Jade one too, except made a little bow.

Love,
Mon

I love...

How my recent loaf of bread came out with these really cool curled ends.

And, I learned something. I ran out of wheat bread flour and decided to visit our local, cute, and funky organic market.  I usually use another brand of flour, but decided to switch things up this time and give their flour a try.  I noticed the flour was in the refrigerator, which seemed interesting to me. What is awesome about this grocery store is that the employees love for you to ask them questions. So I asked...."why is the flour in the fridge?"  I was told that it preserves the nutrients in the flour longer and should be stored in the refrigerator. So now I have my wheat bread flour in our fridge.

 You learn something new everyday.

Love,

MON