A day in the life

I love bread. I'm not too discriminatory, either. Sweet bread, white bread, savory bread, wheat bread. I like them all. Those women over at Our Best Bites are just simply amazing. This morning I whipped up a batch of their Almond Poppy Seed Bread to enjoy with friends (I like friends about as much as I like bread; old friends, new friends..I like them all). Unfortunately, I had a few factors conspiring against me: I was rushing to get the bread in the oven before I needed to get Sam to school, Natey wanted breakfast, and Paul chose that moment to discuss life-changing decisions with me. Thus, I forgot to add one VERY important ingredient at the appropriate time. Once I had poured the batter into the pans and was placing them in the oven, I realized I had not added any sugar! So, I poured the batter back into the bowl, stirred in the sugar, and then poured the batter back into the pans. And this is what your bread will look like if you do as I did, and don't take the time to rinse and regrease the pans:
Oh well, they look like mice (or Natey) nibbled the edges and the texture was assuredly not quite right, but when something has 2+ cups of sugar in it, can you really mess it up? Some of them came out not too terrible looking, and I can't stop snacking on it. Thankfully I sent most of them home with others.

Almond Poppyseed Bread

3 c. all-purpose flour
2 1/2 c. sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/8 c. canola oil
3 eggs
1 1/2 c. milk
2 tsp. poppy seeds
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 tsp. butter flavoring
1 1/2 tsp. almond flavoring

GLAZE

3/4 c. white granulated sugar
1/4 c. orange juice
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. butter flavoring
1/2 tsp. almond flavoring

Preheat oven to 350. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, salt, and baking powder. In a large mixing bowl, combine eggs, oil, sugar, and flavorings and beat for 2 minutes. Alternate adding in flour mixture and milk and then mix until just combined. Add poppyseeds and mix until just combined. Pour into prepared pans (5 mini pans or 2 regular loaf pans) and bake (35-40 minutes for mini pans, 1 hour for large pans; keep an eye on them). When done, place on a cooling rack for 10 minutes and then remove from pans and allow to cool completely on a cooling rack. While cooling, prepare glaze by combining all glaze ingredients. Drizzle over loaves and allow to harden.




Today's blog post is made possible by Hung Le, temporarily known as Henry. He's spending the afternoon with us, and thus the boys are playing without any need of me to entertain them.
Earlier in the week, I wouldn't have thought we would have been able to socialize this week. On Sunday, while headed to church, Sam vomited into the diaper bag. I was sure our whole family was headed for pukeville, but instead, after about 4 hours and 4 pukes, Sam recovered. Sam's main concern while being cleaned up from his first round of puking was that he was going to be late for class; he, indeed, did not make it to church at all. After puking some more he told Paul, "I don't think my body wants me to grow." Poor, sweet little guy.
On Saturday, the boys got to spend the entire day with Daddy, while I took a photography class downtown (complete waste of a day and $90, by the way). Paul thought it would be a good idea to do yard work while the boys played inside. I think he came to recognize the error in his judgement when he came back inside to find green rice covering the entire kitchen, a broken mug of which a piece was found in Natey's mouth, along with an orange button. Natey, upon hearing Paul coming, went to hide under the dining room table, leaving a trail of green rice in his wake. (I guess he could have left much worse in his wake....is this even for real?)
And while I'm on funny Nathanael stories, I have one more in closing. Every night we pray together as a family. Occasionally Nathanael will sit still long enough to take his turn. Of course this requires our assistance. When we tell him to say "thank you for...", he invariably says "thank you five..." I don't know what he has against for/four.