Bread Baking Fiend

Friday I went on a bread baking binge! Total count: 2 loaves of English muffin bread, 4 loaves of my family's famous bread, 1 loaf of Challah bread (pictured above), 2 pizzas and 10 caramel rolls. I am rather proud of myself. I froze a lot of it for future use. We ate one of the pizzas last night (the other will make great lunches this week). Half of the Challah bread was used to make French toast for our breakfast this morning. Our house smelled wonderful yesterday! There is something very homey and fall about the smell of fresh baked bread. What are some of your favorite fall smells? One I don't get much of out here in OH is when people fire up the wood burning stoves in MN. That was always a fun fall scent!

And The Baking Continues

I have not cured my craving for cupcakes. Last night I made Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting. The cake recipe came from here and the frosting from here. They were really good. I think I will make all four types of cupcakes. I am in a huge baking mood right now! Too bad I have to work all weekend.
Dinner last night was wonderful! It a "Weight Wathchers" meal. I wish I had taken a picture before we started eating. It was so colorful! It looked just like a healthy meal should. We had "Broild Tuna with Corn Relish." Here's the recipe if anyone is interested.

Makes 4 servings

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
1/2-1 tsp crushed red pepper
1/4 tsp salte
1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons water
1 1/4 lb tuna steaks, cut into 4 pieces
2 cups cooked corn kernels
1 cup chopped roasted red pepper
2 cups torn curly endive or chicory

1. To prepare the marinade, in a large aip-close plastic bag, combine the vinegar, mustard, red pepper, salt and pepper with the water; reserve 2 T of the mixture in a medium bowl.
2. Add the tuna to the bag and seal, squeezing out the air; turn to coat the tuna. Refrigerate, turning the bag occaisionally, 1 hour.
3. Spray a nonstick baking sheet and the broiler rack with nonstick spray; preheat the broiler. Arrange the corn in a thin layer on the baking sheet. Broil 6 inches from the heat, stirring often, until the corn begins to brown, 2-4 minutes. Add the corn and roasted red pepper to the reserved marinade in the bowl; set aside.
4. Drain and discard the marinade in the zip-close bag; place the tuna on the broiler rack. Broil 6 inches from the heat, turning once, until browned on the outside but still juicy inside, 6-7 minutes on each side.
5. Divide the endive among 4 plates; top with the corn relish and tuna.

from "Weight Watchers New Complete Cookbook"

We used romaine lettuce instead of endive and I omitted the water from the marinade. We both really liked it! We are trying to add more fish to our diet. We both love seafood but it rarely occurs to us to cook it at home. Do you have any favorite seafood recipes?

Dishes, Dog Training and Cupcakes

Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer is having a Spur-Of-The-Moment-Dish-Carnival. Since I love dishes, I had to join. The first set is the set we received for our wedding. It's a four place setting of Pottery Barn's Sausalito Collection. We love these dishes and would like to add place settings in another color.The next set was my husband's when we got married. Someone a long time ago had given him a four place setting of Pfaltzgraff's Heritage Collection. We added a lot of plates from various second hand stores to have enough to serve dinner at house church each week. Then we found out that the grandmother I'm named after (middle name), had a complete 8 place setting complete with serving pieces. She recently gifted the whole set to me!The third set are my "winter dishes" that parents gave us for Christmas one year. They are from Kohl's, the "Lodge". I have 8 place settings but very few of the serving pieces so I am always on the look-out for some to add to my collection.

Does anyone have any great ideas for teaching a dog to roll over? I don't think I'm going about this the right way. I taught her to sit and lay within half-an-hour. I think stay and come are ongoing. ;-p Anyway, we started to work on rolling over yesterday and she.RAN.AWAY.from.TREATS! This does not bode well for me and teaching her to roll over. I had her sit. I had her lay. I said "Roll over" and used the hand signal I had decided to use. Then I "helped" her to roll over. Then I gave her a treat. I don't think she was having much fun because she started to run away when we got to the roll over part--despite my handful of treats. Normally, she won't be more than a nose away from a handful of treats. This is not going well.

Last night I finally gave in to the craving I had been having--I made cupcakes. I made these cupcakes and frosted them using this frosting. I got the idea from this new favorite blog. I'm not sure what is wrong with me! I love to cook and bake and am always looking for new recipes. However, until recently, it has never occurred to me to check out food blogs! Seriously! Anyway, they are delicious!!! I'm thinking about eating one now with some espresso. Yum mm.