Your Opinion, Please

So, my mom and I were talking about how often a person should wash their sheets and wash their bath towels. I did some research on the internet, but didn't find anything conclusive. If you don't mind, please share your opinion about this matter. Thanks! Oh, I wash my sheets usually once a week and my bath towels once every other week...I hope I didn't just gross somebody out!

Playing Catch up!

I have been working on Peter Reinhart breads throughout the last month. Just haven't gotten around to blogging about them! I have even - gasp - forgotten several times to take pictures! So, here are a few tries from Artisan Breads Everyday. There will be more to come!

Warm.Delicious.Chewy.Comforting.Heaveninabun.

This is the Soft Cheese Bread - done in roll form.

We LOVED this bread. I used a black pepper monterey jack cheese from Osceola Cheese.

I hope to make this again - often! We loved it!

I just bought a roasted red pepper cheese from our last visit

to Osceola Cheese specifically for this recipe.

This is the Crusty Cheese Bread.

This was met with warm reception as well (how could it not?)

However, the bottom was on the verge of being burnt,

which didn't add to the overall appeal.

I am having trouble with parchment paper creating that over-browned bottom.

Any suggestions?

This is the Whole Wheat Sourdough Hearth Bread.

I really liked the flavor that came through with this loaf.

It was great to use my starter!

It didn't rise quite as high as I would have liked - the dough seemed to spread out to the sides.

But, it was fluffy and tasty, and really good sliced thin for sandwiches,

and thick for toast.

I have also recently made bagels, which were delicious.

I am hoping to try those again this week.

As well as one of the sandwich breads sometime.

My two attempts with the rye bread have not turned out as well.

Jeni suggested that perhaps it was because my rye flour

is a coarse grind - making the loaf denser.

I'm determined to get a good one sometime!

It's so much fun to experiment and try new things -

Good luck with all your baking endeavors as well!

Soap

Here is a really quick kitchen tip: rather than use hand soap at your kitchen sink and keep the dish soap under the sink...fill the hand soap dispenser with dish soap. Doing this makes washing dishes much faster and easier. You can even get the special dish soap that is good for your hands if you are hesitant to use plain old dish soap to wash your hands (assuming that you allow people to wash their hands at the kitchen sink).

Vegetable Garden

Growing up my family always had a garden and my brothers and I always had help...from tying up tomatoes, picking okra, snapping beans, cutting worms out of the corn, or whatever else needed done! I enjoyed the fresh vegetables, but not all of the work. Well, as soon as my husband and I moved to the country I had to plant my own garden! It's interesting how growing up I hated garden work and then I couldn't wait to have my very own. So, here is a look at my very own vegetable garden:I have planted zucchini,cucumbers, green beans, okra and tomatoes. My garden is not very big...approximately 16' x 22' (that is a guess). I planted my vine plants (zucchini and cucumbers) in hills because that is how my dad always did it. I planted 5 or so seeds and then once they emerged I thinned it to 2 plants per hill.

Here is the zucchini and cucumbers (they are small because I had to replant...no thanks to our dog):

I planted one row of green beans. The only maintenance I have done for this row is to weed. I planted a 2/3 row of okra. If you plant okra make sure and get the seed for dwarf okra plants or else the plants will get over 7 ft tall!!

I planted 8 tomato plants. I waited too long to put cages on them, so I had to stake the tomotoes that were too big for the cages I have (don't laugh at the cages...they were my dad's).

You need to "sucker" the tomato plants, which means to pull the tiny branches/leaves that are growing in between the main stalk and the branch. Here is a picture so you know what I'm talking about.

I tried to mulch the vine plants and the tomato plants. I put newspaper under the grass clippings around the tomato plants and just used grass clippings around the vine plants. I haven't been able to determine that the newspaper helps any more than plain grass.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention...I dust my garden with SEVEN to keep the bugs off of the plants. One bag of dust will go a long way. I put the dust into a pint jar with a lid that I have poked holes in and that makes dusting very easy. The dust gets washed off when it rains, so you will want to reapply after rain.

There you have it. Let me know if you have specific questions about the plants I planted or about other garden vegetables you may have in your garden.

Quick Deal ...

I don't know the diaper preferences of all the ladies out there ... I generally am not stuck on a brand and go with what I can get a good deal one! I prefer Pampers for the tiny infants, but once I reach size 2 with my kiddos, I go for Luvs, generic, etc.

But, there is a coupon on Target.com that is $3 off a regular size (or larger) Huggies diaper package. And Huggies are currently on sale for $8.99 this week at Target. Which puts them down to $5.99, which, for Huggies, is a pretty good deal! Especially if anyone out there IS a Huggies fan ... you technically could print/buy several times this week.