Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Homemade Sourdough Bread

Sourdough bread is my absolute favorite type of bread. I don't know why but there is nothing quite like the zing of sourdough bread to push the yum factor of whatever I'm eating plum over (ya like that? Plum over?) the edge. My favorite way to eat sourdough is to cut a hole in the middle of a slice and fry an egg inside the hole. You wanna talk about yummy? That's yummy. (You can get this at Cracker Barrel, it's called "Eggs in a Basket.")

Buuuut it's an expensive bread to buy, so I never, and I mean, NEVER, buy it. Plus, it's hard to find in my local grocery stores. I'm not driving 30 minutes away to the next big town so that I can buy one loaf of bread. That's not money saving at all.


My sweet hubby got me a bread maker for Christmas. It's what I wanted, even though he tried to push jewelry off on me. I wasn't having any of that. Ever since I started staying home and not working, I've become super practical.... in a lot of ways (I'm not gonna lie, I've still got a ways to go.) and so after I drug him into Bed, Bath & Beyond and pointed out the bread machine and handed him a coupon for 20% off, he got the point.

Up to this point though, I've only been making white bread. Just whenever we needed it , either to tide us over until we can buy a loaf of "sandwich" bread or to have with a meal (that homemade white bread turns into amazing garlic bread-- just spread a little butter on top, sprinkle some Italian Seasoning and Parmesan Cheese and broil it until it's toasted. Boom! Insta-Garlic Bread!) But about a week ago I got a craving for eggs in a basket and frankly wheat toast just didn't taste the same.

So I went in search of a recipe that I could use in my bread machine. (Sourdough Bread is completely omitted in my little recipe booklet that came with my machine.) And I found it on unsophisticatedcook.com.


First things first, you've gotta have a "starter." Be sure you put your starter in a medium/large bowl to allow the starter to rise and fall. Don't be like the UnsphisticatedCook and try and put it in a mason jar. Or like me, in the beginning, and try to put it in a 2 cup measuring cup. Take our words for it, go with a medium/large bowl. This recipe made about 2 cups of starter, which made 2 loaves of bread. (Below is also the do's and don't's of maintaining your starter, so you could potentially keep it going, or keep it "fed" for months to come, but I was in a hurry when making both loaves of bread so I used all my starter.)

Ingredients:
  • 1 package active dry yeast
  • 2 c. warm water (105-115 degrees)
  • 2 c. all-purpose flour
  • 1 T. sugar or honey (I used honey because I love honey.)
Instructions:
  1. Gather your ingredients. You'll need yeast, flour, water, and either sugar or honey to feed the starter.
  2. Dissolve the yeast in 1/2 cup of the warm water. (I gave mine a little stir just to be sure it was all mixed together.)
  3. Whisk together the remaining warm water, flour, sugar or honey, and dissolved yeast mixture.
  4. Cover the sourdough starter (I used a thin drying towel, but you could use plastic wrap or cheesecloth) and let stand at room temperature for 3-5 days, stirring three times daily. The starter is ready for use when it smells fermented and the vigorous bubbling ceases. (And it will smell fermented.)
  5. When your sourdough starter is done fermenting, you may store it in the refrigerator in a covered plastic container.
  6. Maintenance and Use of Sourdough Starter:
  7. To use your starter, first stir it up. Then measure out the amount of cold starter that you need, and then let it stand at room temperature for 30 minutes before proceeding with your recipe.
  8. Replenish your starter by adding 3/4 c. all-purpose flour, 3/4 c. water, and 1 t. sugar or honey to remaining starter. Let stand at room temperature for a day, and then you can cover and place it back in the refrigerator.
  9. If you don't use your starter within 10 days, remove one cup of starter and add 1 cup of flour and 1/2 cup lukewarm water and stir well. You can then refrigerate it again immediately.

5 days later....
Ok, so your starter is ready!  Pull out your bread machine and let's get started!


Ingredients:
  • 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast (use the whole little paper packet)
  • 3/4 cup milk, warmed
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons butter, softened
  • 1 cup sourdough starter
Instructions:
    Bread Machine Directions - dark crust, 2 lb. loaf
  1. Add 1 cup flour, sugar, salt, and yeast to your bread pan. If your bread machine has a warming cycle, turn it off and start a basic bread cycle to stir these ingredients together.
  2. Slowly add warm milk and softened butter to dry mixture while the bread machine is still stirring. Then do the same with the sourdough starter. The mixture will be extremely liquidy, but don't worry. Step 3 will solve that problem.
  3. Add the remaining 2-1/2 cups of flour slowly to the wet mixture. It may seem like too much flour, the dough will get very crumbly, but it will all get kneaded into the bread. I've found that it helps to press down on the dough as the machine is still kneading to get it to pick up all of the bits of dough, or use a rubber spatula (a "scraper" some people call them) and encourage the mixing along.
  4. Close the top of the bread machine and let it finish out its cycle. When the bread is done baking, remove it from the pan immediately and let it cool on a rack to prevent it from getting soggy.
  5.  But Missy, I don't have a bread machine, and I want to try this recipe. NEVER FEAR! For I have included the directions for baking this scrumptious loaf of bread in a regular oven!
    Oven Directions
  6. Add 1 cup flour, sugar, salt, and yeast to a mixing bowl.
  7. Slowly stir in warm milk and softened butter to dry mixture. Then do the same with the sourdough starter.
  8. Mix remaining 2-1/2 cups of flour slowly into the wet mixture. Then turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 8-10 minutes.
  9. Place dough in an oiled bowl, turning to make sure it's coated, and let rise for one hour.
  10. Punch down and let rest for 15 minutes. Then shape into a loaf and place in a greased 2-lb. loaf pan. Allow to rise for another hour.
  11. Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes or until done.

And there ya have it! I would have included photos in this post but we basically inhaled that bread, there's not even a crumb left. It's so beyond good. You've got to give this recipe a try. It's heavenly, and on top of it all, it makes your house smell amazing when it's baking!

Hope you guys like this as much as we did! Let me know in the comments below if you do!


Monday, July 21, 2014

Easy Parmesean Chicken

Hello faithful readers! I know I've been M.I.A. for a while. And someone was kind enough to bring my attention to it, shout out to my cousin Belinda! *waving* Thanks for keeping me on my toes and laying the guilt trip on me!

So to tide everyone over until I can get back in the real swing of blogging after such a extended hiatus, I thought I'd share my most recent addition to my recipe book. It was a huge hit tonight at suppertime and my husband loooooved it.



Here's what you're gonna need:

  • 4 (I used 5) chicken breasts - I also pounded mine out flat with a kitchen mallet
  • Bread Crumbs - I toasted 4 pieces of wheat bread and chopped them up in the food processor
  • Mrs. Dash Garlic Seasoning 
  • 1 jar of your favorite tomato-based pasta sauce
  • Shredded Mozzarella Cheese (I actually only had colby-jack on hand, so that's what I used)
  • Grated Parmesan Cheese
  • 1 egg, beaten with some milk
  • vegetable oil
  1. Start by preheating your oven to 375 degrees.
  2. Heat up your oil in a large skillet (I used my huge saute pan by Cuisinart, it's my go-to pan, I love it.)
  3. Take your Mrs. Dash Garlic Seasoning (not the original, the garlic specifically) and eyeball however much you want into your food processor. Rip up your toast into pieces small enough to fit into the processor. 
  4. Dump your breadcrumbs into a bowl or dish and mix with a spoon, just to make sure everything is mixed properly.
  5. Beat your egg with a few tablespoons of milk (I eyeballed this too. I added as much milk as I normally do when I'm beating eggs)
  6. Dip your chicken breast into the egg and milk, and then into your breadcrumbs. Coat each side well.
  7. Fry your chicken until it's golden brown on each side. Don't worry about whether it's cooked through or not, it really doesn't matter, you're just going to bake it anyway.
  8. Put your chicken in a lightly greased casserole dish and top it with your pasta sauce. 
  9. Top the sauce with your cheeses, the more the better in my opinion.
  10. Bake for 30-40 minutes. Watch it and pull it out whenever the cheese is is melted and it and the sauce are bubbling.
And, of course, you serve this over spaghetti or linguine noodles. Oh, and Mama's Sweet Tea, of course!


I found this recipe on Pinterest, after Aaron said he wanted something different for supper. We tend to get in a real rut when it comes to our meals, the same things over and over and over again, this was a welcome change. He took the first bite and his eyes, literally, rolled back in his head. 10 points for the wifey! :)

You can find the original recipe for this on the Working Mom's Against Guilt blog HERE. Thank you, Sara, for sharing this wonderful recipe with us! My husband thanks you, too!


Thanks for stopping by The Simple Life today! I will try to do better about posting now that life has calmed down just a little bit. I've got a couple of What I'm Watching's ready to go and then the ever elusive Kitchen Evolution post that I am still working on. Plus I have a DIY I'm wanting to try, and I'll share it with you when I get it done! Thank you so much for hanging in here with me!



Friday, July 11, 2014

Donnie Beauchamp: Remembering Donnie

Hello, everyone.

If you follow me personally on Facebook, you will have seen some of my posts regarding this already. But I feel the need to "talk it out." I'll hope you'll bear with me as I try and wrap my mind around this tragedy.

I've written and re-written this so many times, I honestly don't even know where to start.

It's funny how sometimes you don't realize how big of an impact a certain person has had on your life until they're gone. I had no idea just what a big effect this man had on me until I heard he was gone. And now, the saddest part, is I'll never have the opportunity to tell Donnie just how special he was to me. :(


I attended Nossi College of Art in Nashville, TN for 2 1/2 years starting in 2007. I like to joke that I went to Nossi during the "pre-historic" age, before they built the fancy new campus in Nashville, when the "campus" was spread out across three different buildings in Goodlettsville, TN.

Those were the days, the days of fighting with the Social Security building for parking :)


My time at Nossi was difficult, to say the least. I won't go into everything, but I was dealing with some major internal battles during my time there (namely my Dad's illness and passing), and therefore my studies didn't quite get the attention they deserved. I graduated with pretty good grades (B average) but looking back I could have given my schoolwork more attention. 


Ever since hearing the final news last night, I've been very out-of-it. I've struggled to accept this news harder than I ever imagined I would. I read the news on Facebook as I was cooking supper and immediately lost my appetite. It was a battle just to get the kitchen cleaned up. I was in bed by 8pm, crying.

"You don't know whatcha got till it's gone..."

The man in the photo is Donnie Beauchamp - "I know it's spelled like 'bow-shamp' but it's 'beechump,' trust me, it's my name." he would always say. He was everyone's favorite teacher. He was everyone's first teacher. He's been working for Nossi, in the photography department for years. "Forever!" he used to joke.

Donnie was not afraid to hurt your feelings. If your picture was a piece of crap, he would tell you, but he would tell you in a way that made you laugh, and made you realize that, yeah, it really was crap. The thing about Donnie was that he was teaching you when you didn't even realize it. His favorite thing was to tell you that your photo was good, but that it would be so much better if there was a model in a bright red dress with a fan blowing on her.



The fun part of being one of Donnie's students was the possibility that you might laugh till you peed on yourself. Donnie had an incredible sense of humor. He was quick witted and always had a snappy come back on the ready. Of course there was also the possibility that Donnie might be in the mood to set something on fire. :) We set off the smoke alarms in the old Cude Lane studio more than once. He was always up for a little fire. He taught us all how to photograph a drop of water, and a bullet in mid air. He let us create chaos and always managed to help us find the art in it.


There were three of us girls in the same class with the middle name of Nicole. So we started calling ourselves "The Nicole Club." One afternoon, Donnie turned us loose early, we'd finished all of our important stuff for the day early and he told us that we could use the time to do anything we wanted. So the three of us girls decide we are going to take the chalk, go outside and create a mock crime scene. We called it "The Nicole Club Massacre."

This whole time, Donnie has been standing up by the building, lurking, watching us with this silly grin on his face.

Finally he comes running down to the parking space with a bottle of water and starts splashing it everywhere. We shout at him not to mess it up, that we haven't finished the set up yet, but he's laughing and still splashing water. "Edit this in black and white and it will look like blood!"


Donnie was a fun guy, he was always coming up with things to make us laugh. Like this photo below. It was taken during a maternity shoot. Nossi student Anika Kennedy was expecting and was the subject of the shoot, Donnie, always the prankster, decided to wear her pretty blue belly bow on his head. He was also a fashionista. :)


Donnie was the teacher that was always pushing you to do better. After an afternoon in the darkroom I'd thought I'd printed an image about as perfect as anyone could. I rushed out of the darkroom to show Donnie and he said, plainly. "Yep, it's pretty good. It's not the best it could be though." He gave me a few instructions on adjustments to make and sure enough, he was right. In the end my photo came out of the darkroom pristine perfect. I had never been more proud.

He was always right up in the middle of whatever his students were doing, pushing us to our limits, showing us just how far our talents could take us.


During my Photojournalism class I struggled. Hard. In fact, I failed it. The first day of class when I came back to take it again, he pulled me aside and said "Missy, I know you. You're talented, and you can pass this class with flying colors if you just apply yourself. You can do this." And I did. :) Donnie believed in me, even when I didn't.

I have so many stories, I hardly know where to stop and where to start. He could always make me smile.


Donnie was caring. My favorite story to tell about Donnie has nothing to do with his artistic talents, of which he had many. It's about the character of the man himself.

One afternoon during our Product class (essentially advertising) I was getting prepared for an awesome Coca-Cola shoot. Donnie had been helping me plan for weeks. We were going to use dry ice and fun lights and water and maybe, if I was a good girl, some fire. Who was I kidding? He was going to set something on fire regardless lol! Anyway, there was a "prop closet" set up there on Cude Lane that was full of fun stuff, and I was doing a dry run of my set up inside the closet waiting for my turn in the studio. I was just arranging my glass blocks and bottles when all of a sudden CRACK! My back went out. And when I say went out, I mean it left the planet. I fell to my knees in agony instantly, crying and hollering for help. Donnie and two of my friends come running in and find me there in the floor, essentially paralyzed. After about a good 15 minutes Donnie and my friend Haley managed to get  me up out of the floor. Donnie offered me his roll around office chair to sit in and called off the coke shoot.

I didn't want to go home. I didn't want to miss a class. Donnie begged me to go home the entire morning. I refused, and instead worked on some edits on an old shoot on my laptop. I kept busy.

When lunchtime came, I couldn't move. So Donnie offered to stay with me while my friends went out and got me something. Lindsey brought me Taco Bell. Bless her. Donnie wheeled me down the sidewalk into my next class, but by then I was crying again with how badly my back was hurting. (It's the sciatic nerve, still bugs me to this day.) Donnie crouched down on his legs, got eye to eye with me and asked me again. "Missy will you PLEASE go home? You need to see a doctor." I told him no, I didn't want to miss a class. He finally told he he would arrange it so that I wouldn't be penalized for missing the class, but only if I went home to see a doctor immediately. "Please, please go home and see a doctor." He kept saying. After some more prodding, Donnie won, as he usually did.

Here's the part I always like telling, because of the goodness of Donnie's heart. I couldn't walk. My legs were basically jell-o. It hurt to even attempt a step. Donnie picked me up, in his arms, and carried me, like a baby, to my SUV, where he put me in the drivers seat and fastened my seat belt for me. He closed the door and motioned for me to roll down the window. "Get a bite to eat on your way home, and call me after you see the doctor, let me know what he says." I was laid up in the bed for 4 days after that, and every day Donnie would text me to see how I was doing. When I finally came back, he hugged me and joked that I would never ever get to sit my butt in his comfy office chair ever again, that the next time my back went out, I would just be "s-o-l."

Donnie carried me when I couldn't walk. How many teachers would do that? Very few. Donnie Beauchamp did it without pause. 


My Dad passed away during my very first semester at Nossi. I started in September, and Daddy passed away in the last week of November. I told Donnie about what was going on at home. He knew about what a struggle it was for me to make it to class every day. When I got home from school the afternoon my Dad passed away, I knew I had to let someone at Nossi know. The only person I knew I could call was Donnie. "Are you alright?" He asked me when he heard the tone in my voice. Of course I wasn't alright. I told him what had happened and he said "Take as much time as you and your family need. I'll handle everything down here on this end for you. Don't make any more phone calls, I'll tell everyone in the morning." And he did. He called aside each one of my close friends and told them what had happened and that if they felt like they needed to leave to go be with me that they could.


There are a million more stories about the 2 1/2 years I spent in the day in, day out company of Donnie Beauchamp. I graduated in April of 2010. It was at the graduation ceremony where I saw Donnie for the last time. I joked with him that I was so happy that I never had to see his face ever again. He laughed and said "What a miracle!" Then he hugged me and congratulated me for keeping my promise to my Dad and graduating college. I thanked him for everything he'd done for me over the past couple of years. After that, his attention was grabbed by other students, and mine was drawn to my family. Had I known it was the last time I'd ever see Donnie, I might have sat him down and truly thanked him for everything he'd done for me.
 


You never know when the "last time" will be. Live every single moment like it is your last and if there is someone special in your life, for the love of all that's holy, tell them! You may not have the chance.

Nossi College of Art lost their greatest teacher yesterday. Not only was he very knowledgeable in the field of Photography, not only did he have a great eye, not only was he everyone's favorite on campus, he was everyone's favorite in our hearts too.




It's hard to believe that his life was ended by such a tragic accident and that Donnie, always into something, has been stilled. I'll never forget Donnie for the things he taught me, the trips he took us on (including one where I came down with the worst bladder infection of my life, ah, memories.) or for the fun we had together creating art in the studio. But mostly, I'll never forget him for his heart.




 The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. 
The great teacher... INSPIRES. 

Thank you, Donnie.





Please remember Donnie's family in your prayers. His passing was so sudden and so tragic. Remember all of his students, current and former, our lives were monumentally influenced by Donnie Beauchamp, and they will never be the same now that he's gone.











ALSO, if any of the photos above belong to you, please leave your credit information in the comments below and I will edit in your name. Thank you!

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

...um.....hi....

I probably should have warned you before I disappeared for a week, huh? Especially considering I knew it was coming.

I've been noticeably absent from The Simple Life for a week.... maybe a titch more. We've been super duper busy this past week with church activities. We've literally got up, gone to church, come home, gone to sleep, got up, went to church, etc. twice a day, every single say since the last Friday in June. So I've barely had time to do laundry, let alone write up a blog post or two. I haven't even made our bed, not one day, this week, because we would literally come in from the morning service, change clothes, get in the bed, get up, get dressed and go to the evening service, then come back and get in the bed again. That's how crazy it's been around here!

My laundry is piled up, my house is a wreck, my fridge is rapidly emptying and I am simply exhausted. Oh, and on top of all of that, Aaron and I woke up this morning to Tabby throwing up all over my shoulder, so today I've had a sickly puppy to deal with. (She's much better now. She's actually standing up on her hind legs, being all cute, trying to get my attention as I type this.)

I haven't even gotten the chance to watch a single television show, so I can't even offer you a "What I'm Watching."

*ashamed face*

Let me just warn ya now that I plan on taking the next few days to get my house back in order before I sit down to blog. And yes, I know, I still have the Home Style Evolution kitchen post to put up, a lot of it is already written, but I need to take current photos to add to the post before I can share it with you all.



So, I'll be seeing ya'll sometime later on in the week, maybe. If not, I'll be back next week!