Cookbook Challenge/Creative Output - more fixing/Warning for Dog Lovers

COOKBOOK CHALLENGE!

Did I mention that part of of my overflowing recipe collection also had to do with too many cookbooks?!  This is just a portion - and I haven't even cracked that Cooking Light one yet!

With the herb garden still going in full steam, I chose to make an herb cheese bread this weekend.  It's from a cookbook I've had a while called

The Bread Machine Gourmet by Shea MacKenzie and the recipe is Cottage Dilly Bread - it was good!

We didn't turn our slices into sandwiches like the picture suggests, we ate it warm from the oven!

Bread machines will bake your bread for you, of course, but it comes out with a thick crust on three sides.  I let the machine do all the heavy lifting of mixing and punching and timed rising, and then popped it into a conventional oven.

We will keep this recipe and make it again!

Cottage Dilly Bread

    1 1/2 pound loaf

3 cups bread flour

snipped dill - 6 Tbsp fresh or 3 Tbsp dried

2 Tbsp dry milk

1 1/2 tsp sea salt

3/4 cup water 

1/2 cup low fat cottage cheese

2 Tbsp canola, safflower or sunflower oil

2 tsp honey

1 package active dry yeast

2-3 chopped green onions through the green (I added this)

I place all the wet ingredients in the pan first, top with the dry - making a well in the flour to hold the yeast.  The recipe calls for "the whole wheat setting" if you are going to use the bread machine all the way through.  I use the "dough" setting and then bake in a bread loaf at 350 for 35-40 mins.


Creative Output - Fall Quilt almost done!

But first to size things up -

that's not right!  Somehow, with everything else in the right place, one row didn't add up.

trimming the other "correct" rows would just make the whole block short, not the 12 inches it's suppose to be.

Time to patch the patchwork!

I save scraps for just such an emergency.  Simply take apart the edges with my trusty seam ripper (which I've used a lot  for this quilt!)

It's complicated!

Anyway, peel away the top and bottom rows from the short needy row

 sew your scrap on to make the row longer, press and then sew the rows peeled away back on.  You don't need to peel back more than a 1/2 inch.

Then trim your sewed in scrap to be uniform with the block - and you've patched your patchwork!

 Voila! 

With all the pieces that go into just one block, I really don't think anyone will notice - sure beats starting all over on this tree of life block - 36 half square triangles, oh yeah!

A Word of Warning for Dog Owners!

My youngest drinks a lot of hot cocoa - at least a mug a day. We make our own - unsweetened dark cocoa power, powdered milk and powdered sugar - so much better and better for her.  She had used the last of the dark chocolate powder - and my trash loving dog got a hold of the container in the middle of the night.

Chocolate is poison for dogs

We woke up to a house full of diarrhea and vomit - by the front door, at the top of the stairs, in the dining room.  The good news is that we woke up to our dog still with us.  He had a fever!  He was panting and shaking.  I have never seen a dog with a fever before.

We kept the doors open for him all day Saturday and Sunday so he could run outside when he needed too, and he already better on Sunday. As of Monday he is about past it. So scary. The other thing to remember is that the container was empty!  Thank heavens he didn't get more that he did.  These doggies, they become family!

The carpets cleaned and the house scrubbed down, we are all feeling better.

The cat says she didn't do it.

Pam