by jltitus on September 12, 2008
Ingredients:
- 3 cups white sugar
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 3 cups milk
- ⅔ cup vegetable oil
- 3 eggs
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions:
To make Amish batter: DO NOT refrigerate – DO NOT use a metal spoon – Cover with plastic wrap.
Mix together: 1-cup sugar, 1-cup flour, and 1-cup milk. Stir.
Day 1 – Do nothing; it has been stirred
Day 2 – Stir (use wooden spoon or plastic)
Day 3 & 4- Stir
Day 5 – Add 1 cup milk, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup flour
Day 6 to Day 9- Stir (use wooden spoon or plastic)
Day 10 – Add 1 cup milk, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup flour
Stir, then pour 1 cup into 4 large plastic Baggies, these are now starters.
Give 3 away (let them know which “day” they’re on so they can add ingredients and knead the bag) and keep
To make Friendship Bread:
Combine the remainder of the Amish batter with vegetable oil, eggs, 2 cups flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, Ω teaspoon salt, Ω teaspoon baking soda, 1 º teaspoons baking powder, and 1 teaspoon vanilla.
Mix. Pour in 2 greased loaf pans.
Bake at 350 ∞ for 50-60 minutes. For variations, add your favorite fruits and/or nuts!
(Serves –)
Tagged as:
baking,
friendship_bread
by jltitus on August 28, 2006
Things are looking up! I’ve been down in the dumps lately due to a lot of things but I think I’ve turned the corner, so to speak.
First, I’ve elected to stay at the company I work for. There are many reasons to consider leaving but truth be told you never know if the grass is really greener on the other side. I’m inclined to stay here and work through this downsizing. I have invested many years in this company and don’t think I should give up so soon. I would hate to “cut my nose to spite my face”. I’m just going to work like crazy and get the work done, meet my commits and do the best job I can.
Second, I’m tapping into my creativity again. I’ve sort of be on again, off again with scrapbooking, Right now I’m sort of off again but I’ve found something equally creative and rewarding….. sewing. I’m just about done with my good friends wedding dress. Just a little hand stitching and it’s done, pictures to come soon. I’ve been making a few simple quilts for people at work that are going to have babies soon. I finished one last week and handed it off to the recipient. It was nice when they said thanks and that I’d inspired them to make their daughters room bunnies (note the fabric I used was bunnies). I’m working on another one, this one for my boss. I’m making another quilt that got 12 of the cars from the movie CARS. I think it’s going to look pretty cool. It will be the first time I do appliqué but I’m pretty sure it’s going to look fantastic. I can’t wait to give it to Ethan for his birthday/Christmas gift.
Third, I’m trying to read more. I love reading and just don’t take enough time for it. I’m making myself take the time to read. Right now I’m making my way through “The Tipping Point”. I haven’t read much of it yet but I really like it. I love reading these sorts of books. I find them very insightful and inspiring. I wish I could remember them really well after I’ve read them. I’m thinking that I need to include in my blogs my thoughts and comments about books I read; not for anyone else but for me to review later.
Fourth, I’m going to bake more. I love baking and cooking pastries, desserts and things, I just don’t do it enough. I’m going to do more but make things a little different. Like I love chocolate chip cookies, I want to make them the healthiest, but still wonderful as possible then I won’t feel so guilty when I have one.
Fifth, I’m going to get myself to the gym 5 days a week and get this weight off. If I just take the time to make me a priority I can do it. So we’ll see how that goes. I feel great after working out but it’s the getting there that I can make a million reasons not to go. I just need to. I would feel so great if I could loose about 20-30lbs before the end of the year.
So for those of you that may have been a little worried, don’t. I’m doing well, refreshed and working my way to feeling great!
Tagged as:
baking,
creativity,
daily_life,
job,
reading
by jltitus on January 31, 2006
I just realized it’s been a while since I posted so pardon me for the most boring post ever. My life 
Actually things have been going pretty good lately. Had the Lasik done and love being able to see. I go back here in a couple of weeks for another check up. Let me just say I’m tired of putting drops in my eyes every few hours. It’s been just about two weeks since my procedure so it means another two to three weeks of drops. I’m still glad I did it. I was at the gym last night and made comment to my trainer that I could read the closed caption on the TV’s upstairs from downstairs where before I couldn’t even read it when I was 10 feet away.
Work is proceeding well. I’ll be off to Boston again here in another month. This time I’ll be there for a week and a half. I don’t know what Eric’s going to do with himself all alone. I’m sure he’ll do fine. This project I’m working on for work is pretty cool and means several trips back east. Since I’m there longer this time I’m going to plan to go all over the weekend that I’m there. I’ve been to all of the 50 states but the New England ones, Florida, Alaska and Hawaii. My goal is to hit as many states as I can before I’m 40. I figure I have a good shot of hitting just about all of them. SO naturally, I’m going to try that weekend to do the NH, RI, CN trip and just have a fun weekend sight seeing and things. I think after this trip I’ll have enough miles that Eric will be able to fly out for free when I’m back out in the late summer, early fall. I think it would be fun and nice for him to come out for a weekend or something while I’m there. I think I’m going back out again in June and then August/September time so that will be a lot of miles, and a lot of time away from home but I sort of like the travel and things.
Eric’s off to Seattle this weekend for a weekend Super Bowl party with friends. It should be a good time for him. Me, I’m going to stay here, give him a weekend “with the guys”. do some shopping, maybe some cleaning but probably a lot of nothing but baking.
Speaking of baking my SanFran Sourdough is AWESOME. I got the starter a week or so ago and I’ve been taking care of it. I made waffles this weekend and they were fantastic. I love SanFrancisco sourdough. I love that tang…SO this weekend I’ll make some bread, rolls and things. I got the King Arthur’s Cookbook and the Classic Sourdough book so I’m set for books. There’s a ton of recipes to make. That, and the killer pumpkin bread I think I’ll make this weekend. I love baking. I’m so glad I’m back into baking. I forgot how much I love it and how relaxing it is. What’s cool too is that I’m adding things to make the breads even more healthy. Like the pumpkin bread I make has regular and whole wheat flour, bran, flax meal and ground nuts. It’s so good for you. Flax meal and flax seed are great for lowering cholesterol. I’m really educating myself on foods and what they bring to the table regarding nutrition. I’d love to be one of those people that doesn’t eat much refined stuff and can know in my head when I eat what it’s going to do for my body.
In other news. We haven’t built the addition to the raised beds. We want to make an herb garden space on the other side of the raised beds but haven’t done it yet. I keep thinking that when the rain stops we’ll do it. Then I think, well, maybe Eric and his dad can do it, because I don’t really want to do it because I won’t do it right, or it won’t be level or something and the engineers of the family will know every time. I do know that this year in the herb garden we’re going to plant herbs so we can blend our own teas. I’ve seen a couple of books about different herbs and what they bring to the party when in a tea and I think I’m pretty interested in that. We’ll see though.
Well, It’s that time for me to head to bed, read a little then off to dream land.
Tagged as:
baking,
boston,
daily_life,
eric,
lasik,
sourdough
by jltitus on January 27, 2006
SO yesterday was my hearing. It was pretty interesting. I got to the hearing room about an hour early so my lawyer could talk to me about the case, show me the room and go over things. I was basically in this little conference room with myself, my lawyer, opposing counsel and the judge. I was surprised at how short the hearing was. The swore me in, my lawyer asked me a bunch of questions. Basically her questions pointed out the fact that I’ve not had a lot of keyboarding and mousing until working at my job and that my job caused the tendonitis as my Dr. says. SO after about 30 minutes of answering her questions it was the opposing counsels turn. He had no questions for me. I thought that was weird and interesting. After that it was closing arguments and statements and then we were done. The whole thing about an hour. I should know in 30 days if my claim is accepted. My lawyer thinks it could go either way. I thought the opposing counsel had an interesting but skewed argument. Basically they came back with the “our expert is better than yours” defense. But what I find interesting about that is that when I was examined by their expert the guy said, “I can’t tell you the cause of the tendonitis, but I can say it’s not work related.” OK what kind of statement is that? and the opposing counsel used that as the premise of why they shouldn’t have to pay. To make that statement implies that the person making the statement can or knows what the cause is. I just figure if I win, then the bills are paid and my lawyer gets some money, if not. I pay the medical bills.
In other news about a week ago I ordered some San Francisco Sourdough starter. I got it on Wednesday and read all about how to start it. On the way home from the hearing yesterday I got all the supplies to make a proofing box so I could start activating the starter. I mixed the starter, water and flour together and put it in the proofing box and let nature do it’s thing. That starter really liked the 85 degree little house it was in and was thriving. I had to keep it in the proofing box for 24 hours before adding to it. Well, I added to it this evening and it’s going gang busters. It’s ready to be made into sourdough waffles tomorrow. I can’t wait. I’ve had sour dough starter before and really liked using it but now I’m on a mission to use it more. Lately the more I cook, and bake the more I realize that I love it. Last weekend it was cinnamon rolls and things, this weekend maybe a baguette or two and who know what else. Oh, and I’ve got to make some more fresh pasta soon.
OH, another stop I made yesterday was to the Powell’s Cookbook and Garden Book store. I guess it’s the largest of it’s kind in the US. I can understand that. It was HUGE. I found every cook book, gardening book known to man there. That’s where I picked up the book Classic Sourdough as recommended by the company I got my starter from. Eric and I are going back tomorrow since he hasn’t’ been there and really wants to go. Then we’ll head to the mall to spend out Christmas gift certificates. Should be a nice day.
Tagged as:
baking,
books,
worker's comp
