2009 never smelled so good!

I'm back from my unintentional blogging hiatus and ready to renew and redirect my blogging efforts. Part of this will be getting back to the basics of running a home, now and 1950's style! I have a wonderful resource at my fingertips with a great collection of vintage home, cooking and etiquette books that I hope to share with you!

But for now I'll leave you with a taste of one of my resolutions. Bread making! I love making bread but do it seldom enough that it still holds a lot of mystery for me. It really is such a magical process. And my most favorite scent in the whole world...fresh baked yeasty bread!

This week I tried Sourdough for the first time. I made my started and watched it over several days like a kid watches a fishbowl. Finally it was time to play with it. I love my Kitchen Aid for kneading, especially since I don't have a proper spot in my kitchen to do it by hand.

I loved watching it rise. Both times! I've never made a round loaf before and purely enjoyed shaping that wonderful dough into the right shape.

I've known for a while that my oven is a little on the hot side but didn't account for it well enough, thus the loaf is a little darker than I like. But the texture...to die for! And while it wasn't nearly as sour as I'd hoped (new starter already a-bubbling!) it made for an excellent artisan bread. Yay! Isn't it perdy!

How many of you make your own bread? What's your favorite?

Mmmmm...Pie

I'm not much of a baker. I love baked goods but since there are only two of us to cook for and we're not really dessert people, I just don't bake.

All these older cookbooks are going to change my mind. Sure a majority of the recipes are dated and unhealthy but the baking hasn't really changed. It's the fat and heavy cream and loads of sugar that makes baked goods so delectable!

And the smell! I honestly don't think there is anything more wonderful than the smell of something baking. Fresh bread, hot cookies, gooey pies, buttery pastries...mmm, can't you smell it?

Well the previous owner of one of my cookbooks certainly could because she stashed many, many pages of cake and pie recipes inside. This is one of two magazine segments she kept, each from a consecutive year of the same magazine.


For a change the photography is stunning. It's no wonder she saved these. I wish you were able to see them full size!

Garlic & Bananas

Since I've been working so hard the last few days I gave myself the afternoon off. What that really meant was cooking and cleaning. I've been reading a lot of cookbooks lately so I was really looking forward to baking something. But what?

When I walked into the kitchen I was greeted with the scent of very ripe bananas. Aha! Banana bread coming right up! I can't stand the smell of bananas and I can only eat half of one before I gag. But throw a banana into a baked good and I'm in love. I mashed and mixed and popped it in the oven. Because it's such a wet, heavy batter it takes forever to bake. It was torture! And hour of delicious, warm, vanilla-banana scented joy wafting up the stairs while I cleaned. Even worse is that the recipe calls for an hour cooling time before eating. What?! I had it slathered in butter and popped in my mouth as soon as I could handle the loaf. Heaven.

But I wasn't finished yet! I wanted to bake more! I eye-balled the big fresh loaf of french bread on the counter and remembered I saw a recipe for making your own croutons. Why the hell not? Sounds like fun. Mix a little olive oil, salt, fresh garlic, fresh grated Parmesan and the cubed bread. Bake for about 25 minutes.

More heavenly smells! I adore garlic and again, I was eating my crunchy cubes of baked yumminess as soon as it was cool enough to handle. And later again on my salad. Mmmmmm, perfection.

I just wish I hadn't baked them both within a few hours of each other. When tell people I just baked banana bread and garlic croutons the first reaction is, well...eewww. Two tasty but very disparate flavors that would do well to have their own day of glory.

Wow, I'm hungry now. Think I need a slice of warm banana bread. And no croutons :)