not your usual sunday dinner.

 a shame we didn't have tomatoes, but like those chic square plates i'm convinced those buns could make anything look appetizing.

it really was delicious though.

&look what the cat dragged in!

STRAWBERRIES!

STRAWBERRIES!!

our very own! they finally survived. look at the cute baby in the middle.

(the peas &lettuce also came from our garden &are also delicious.)

i love fresh homegrown food!

&strawberries!

&homemade!

&cute buns!

&health!

&Sunday!

well... the eating part at least. :}

one time i made this sandwich.

Strawberries are my favourite (you must know this).

I'll do anything with a strawberry.

I'll do anything for a strawberry.

etc...

I'm very glad PG has Strawberry Days.

This year it made me a little sad, but lately I'm always a little sad. I'll get over it. Probably. Maybe. Hopefully.

Yeah, it's taking a while this time...

I could never hate strawberries though.

they never fail to cheer me up.

Even if only for a small moment.

PS

Two things 

(you may have noticed)

I am terrible at:

1. blogging

2. consistency

Crackly. Get excited, I have LOADS of instructional photographs for you!

I made bread today. It's Wednesday &I had nothing to do since I wasn't scheduled to work &I got all the other Wednesday stuff out of the way a day early. So I finally got down to making my bread for the week.
I feel safe sharing this recipe since I messed with it a bit, but it's mostly the Pantry Secrets recipe {I pretty much swear by that one} &even though I mixed &matched, it turned out reeeeal good!
Trevor went home with a loaf today &tomorrow I'll be bringing Pam her well-deserved loaf.

So here's the jist:

I used this mix ^

which had this recipe on it >

but...

I did it

my way, {of course.}

11 cups of that mix

{which I decided not to sift after I remembered I was doing cracked wheat...}

&mixed it all up after I added 3 rounded tablespoons of saf-instant yeast.

then the wet stuff...

squirt liquid lecithin in there so it looks like this:

{relatively.}

next, 4 cups hot tap water &I also added a 4oz. package of apple sauce, just to make it look a little nastier.

{Just kidding. But really, do the apple sauce when you're doing wheat bread.}

Mix it all for 1 minute, then check it &add whatever it needs- water or flour- then mix for another 10.

Meanwhile you can clean up your little mess &sanitize the counter &spray the pans &counter with pam.

BUT REMEMBER

to watch your pretty little mixer carefully. It WILL jump off the table. &your mother won't be happy.

{even though it may have happened to her before...} The thing will likely break.

{moving on.}

When the dough is finished mixing, roll it all into a ball

&let it raise until it's...

you know, bigger.

then make the topping by means of 2 teaspoons water &1/2 teaspoon salt &using the previously learned method,

obtain some cracked wheat &perhaps some oatmeal or some kind of seeds. {Be creative.}

Pinch the dough into 4 separate balls

&throw them hard on the table to get out the air bubbles.

Roll them up all nice &dip the top of each loaf into either the water &salt mixture or into the cooking spray that's in the pans, put them in their beds &sprinkle the cracked wheat on top.

Now set a timer for 25 minutes- so they can raise- with a light-weight towel over them. You'll also bake them for 25 minutes

at 350 degrees F.

When you take them out, let them dry for a while on their sides {I've noticed my bread tends to get a little wet on the bottom if I don't.}

THEN you can cut it &enjoy it.

{mmmmm}

&don't lose too much crackles, now, but have fun. {It's super easy.}

&here's what we missed from the rest of my blogging history:

before the bread was blessed.

I know. MIA, where's my food, it's Tuesday &there's no fresh bread, etc. {this is terribly casual}

It's been a little rough around here getting used to the kitchen again.

I have no idea why, though, because our trip was only four days long...

This is all the bread we had this week. I swear my parents don't believe me when I say I'm making bread EVERY week because they try to buy bread still EVERY week.

I have a story for why I didn't start sending loafs out the door to all those well-deserving people.

Here goes. I'll make it short.

:

The recipe calls for 10 1/2 cups of flour. I like to use the sifter to measure &that takes 3 cups. Usually I fill that up 3 times and then I take a half cup measurer and dumb that in 3 times. So I started to do that &my bucket of flour got down to the bottom &for some reason I thought that I had got just a perfect amount when I poured in the last of it. I was wrong, of course. I checked it after the first minute of mixing &it was completely... juicy. Turns out it was 7 1/2 instead of 10 1/2. Which doesn't quite cut it. Woops. So I added a bunch more flour to it &mixed it for the remaining time because I didn't think it would be good to mix it for another minute &then 5 more. So to sum up, it was a little dry. Not too bad, but it wasn't the best bread I've ever made, to say the least.

Obviously, I was a little nervous to go handing it around on account of it could affect my "reputation" or something, but there were a few people who deserved to be breadwinners last week.

First of all, Pam gave me this book:

To go along with this table, I guess?

Second, Mallory S, that cutie started talking to me again kind of out of the blue &she gave me a hug when she saw me at school. I got really close to giving her some bread last Tuesday, but she was out with her mother getting fuchsia in her hair.

After a faulty promise that she would come visit me at my house the next day and neglecting to tell me that Thursday was her day of birth she's left me again.

Haven't heard of her since. Yeah, that one passed fast...

There was a couple that actually did get bread after that photo was taken though.

Jessica gets some every week, of course...

{I've really got to make some wheat for her one of these days; she says she likes that better.}

&then Tyler appeared in my life once again the other day, also, during an assembly.

He got some and shared it at school... which probably wasn't good for my "reputation" as I mentioned I was trying to protect before, but he said they liked it{they are boys after all. They'll eat anything, right?} &they've probably forgotten all about it by now anyway.

In other news of the rustiness in our kitchen...

On sunday my mom planned to make roast because it's easy and I wasn't going to make bread or anything since my nephew was over while the bro and his wifey were in Mesquite. {which was fabulous, by the way.}

The problem was, old Jules forgot to turn on the crockpot.

&since we don't have a lot of time with church now ending at 4 in the afternoon, we had to give up the roast and act fast. I recommended Mom's "famous" chicken encheladas. They were always my favorite as a kid.

I started to cook the tortillas...

{this particular one is in the process of shrivelling up &burning... rust.}

&Mom boiled some chicken.

&we mixed up the sauce stuff... {which we accidentally mixed ALL the chicken in- you're supposed to leave some plain to pour over the top} &honestly I can't remember what's all in it,- sour cream &cream of chicken soup &olives or something- but I'm sure it's all pretty unhealthy. {No wonder I liked it as a kid.}

Then you add cheese &roll 'em up all nice and everything &throw 'em in the oven for a while.

I'll have to post the real recipe sometime if I ever feel like it, but it's easier than pie, really.

{&we still found rusty little ways to mess it up somehow.}

Overall it turned out pretty good though. ESPECIALLY for short notice.

&we got the Wendell stamp of approval, which is always good.

{it's probably because we sliced his mushrooms for his salad for him.}

&we had a super tastey strawberry dessert. Which NEVER fails.

mmmm.

feeding is easier with feedback!

Really, does no one read? I'm SO ready for a good recipe suggestion. The kitchen should not be a lonely place! &I would very much like to feed you.

After I got that wretched research paper out of the way, I've finally had the extra time I've been looking forward to this semester &... well, here's the bittersweet news:

I've used a huge chunk of that time on other hobbies, but I haven't done any real cooking in the past 7 days.

What about Sunday dinner you ask?

t'was brought in a great white van to us on several fancy platters! By Brits, no less!

This originally caused quite a stir in the Francis household, {just for future reference, if you are a family in need in any way, the last thing you should think of doing is bringing dinner to the bishop's family...} but I have to admit I was pretty freakin impressed. Apparantly this accented guy is a chef.

In the front there is Yorkshire Pudding &I guess you're supposed to put your meat &potatoes inside. {I just ate them plain.} Then there's home-made cheesecake with really tasty fancy cut strawberries & their special mashed potato blend {they put onions and cauliflower and something else in there}, &you can pretty much guess the rest.

It was goooooood.

So despite the twisting of our family ties, I proudly present them as this week's lucky breadwinners! {although you can imagine how small my little bread seemed after they hauled in that FEAST...} Congrats to them anyhow! &remember,

that could be YOU next week {SO SEND ME A STINKIN RECIPE!} :]

&that's that!

by the way {cough, cough} slackers...

this week's breadwinners.

I sensed they needed a little pick-me-up. Those poor souls...