Basic White Bread

  Low on bread, I made three loaves the other day. The recipe was in mom's Mennonite Community  Cookbook (1950). I won't post the recipe here because the book is still available. Look on page 3.

 Mom made notes on the recipe and I wish I had read  them before starting. She mentioned making half a recipe. Good idea since the recipe "makes 3 large or 4 medium loaves". That's way too much dough to work with, plus I only have three standard bread pans.

 But once I started I kept going and the result was delicious bread, although a bit too much (Tom doesn't eat it). The loaves are a bit crusty and  even tough, but that's what I like. Something I  can sink my teeth into!

A finished loaf

 Wow! Did that dough ever rise well! My largest mixing bowl almost failed to contain it.

 Here's my three loaves. I made two in my metal bread pans and used a Corning glass pan for the third.

 Look how the largest loaf spilled over the pan during baking. I probably didn't  do a great job of dividing the dough but the result was wonderful.

 Here's a side view of the largest loaf. I've been having it for breakfast each morning this week. It's great with blueberry preserves.

 I couldn't live without bread, especially homemade. If I ever become gluten intolerant, just shoot me. My life will be over anyway.

We Visit Stockslager's

  It might even be a little late for us but Tom suggested our annual trip to Stockslager's last weekend and I suggested waiting for a weekday when things wouldn't be quite so busy. And it worked out perfectly. There were few cars and a spattering of rain drops probably convinced others to stay away.

 My goal was to buy the vegetable plants we'd need for this season. We bought tomatoes, peppers, zucchini and butternut squash. We don't have room in our garden for more.

 It's always a joy to shop there. The colors are almost blinding. Tom brought home several large potted plants for his house, too. So now the garden is tilled and soon our vegetables will be underway.

Mug Cake (One Minute)

  I saw a recipe on Facebook for a 1-Minute Mug Cake and saved it. Today I had for myself a slice of pineapple pie but nothing for Tom (he doesn't care for cream pies). I made the mug cake in a ramekin.

There's just six ingredients:

4 tbsp flour
4 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp baking powder
3 tbsp milk
2 tbsp oil
a few drops of vanilla extract

 I just mixed everything (thoroughly!) in the ramekin and microwaved it for 1-1/2 minutes, I placed a paper plate over the top to prevent splattering but it was both unneeded and prevented the top of the cake from billowing up properly.

But in that time it was perfectly risen and done.

 Tom thought it was a little bland and suggested the addition of fresh blueberries to the batter. Why not? Or a few chocolate morsels? I think it could be improved visually with a dusting of powdered sugar.

 In any case, it's an almost-instant recipe for a dessert.