Baking Day

Above: Two designs for birthday cards, just finished and printed (not baked).

Above: Fresh out of the oven, this bread is the easiest bread you can ever bake. The recipe is from Farmgirl Fare blog and she offers many variations, which I've been trying out over the past year or so. I haven't tried one yet that I didn't like. I typically bake a loaf of bread per week and I now substitute honey for the sugar. Thank you, Farmgirl, Susan! See her recipe copied below:

Farmgirl Susan's Beyond Easy Dill & Cheddar Beer Bread Recipe

Makes One Loaf

The optional egg glaze gives the top a beautiful, dark golden color.
As always, Susan encourages you to use locally produced and/or organic ingredients whenever possible.

Basic Beer Bread

Mix:

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 Tablespoon granulated sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 Tablespoon baking powder (make sure it's fresh!)

2 Tablespoons chopped fresh dill (or 2 teaspoons dried)

1 cup finely grated sharp cheddar cheese

12 ounces beer

Optional glaze: 1 egg & 2 teaspoons water, beaten

Heat oven to 375 degrees.

-Combine flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, dill, and cheddar in a large mixing bowl.

-Slowly stir in beer and mix just until combined. Batter will be thick.

-Spread in a greased 8-inch loaf pan, brush with egg glaze if desired, and bake until golden brown and a toothpick stuck in the center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. (In our SLC high-altitude, I bake the loaf for 50 minutes.)

-Cool in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes.

-Remove from pan and cool 10 more minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

-Flavor Variations:

Garlic & Herb: Add 1 teaspoon dried rosemary, 1 teaspoon dried oregano, 1 teaspoon dried thyme, and 2 minced garlic cloves (or 1 teaspoon garlic flakes) to the basic mix. For fresh herbs, use 1 chopped Tablespoon of each.

Dill & Chive: Add 2 Tablespoons chopped fresh dill (or 2 teaspoons dried dill) and 1/4 cup chopped fresh chives to the basic mix.

Rosemary & Feta (courtesy of my bread baking pal, Beth): Add 2 Tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary and 3/4 cup crumbled feta cheese (about 4 ounces) to the basic mix.

Italian: Add 1 teaspoon each dried basil and oregano (or 1 Tablespoon each chopped fresh basil and oregano), 2 minced cloves of garlic, and 1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan or Romano cheese to the basic mix.

Other Additions: Any dried or fresh herbs; 1/2 cup freshly grated Asiago (or other hard cheese); 1/2 cup finely chopped onion, 1/2 cup chopped scallions; 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley, 1/2 cup whole wheat flour or 1/2 cup oats in place of 1/2 cup of the all-purpose flour. Or practically anything else you can think of--just use your imagination.

More Farmgirl Fare posts for bread lovers:

Ten Tips For Better Bread

Whole Wheat Beer Bread

Onion Rye Beer Bread

Three Onion & Three Cheese PizzaTomato Pesto Pizza & My Favorite Basil Pesto Recipe

Carrot Herb Rolls & A Bargain Bread Book For Beginners

Fresh Tomato & Basil Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread

No-Knead Crusty Freeform Bread

Oatmeal Toasting Bread

Four Hour Parisian Daily Baguettes

Italian Black Olive Cheek Rolls

The Pita Project: My Search For The Perfect Pita Bread Recipe

Savory Cheese & Scallion Scones

Cranberry Christmas Scones

Spicy Pumpkin Pecan Raisin MuffinsBest Blueberry Bran Muffins & Other Bran Muffin Variations

Julius Schulman - Architectural Photographer

Above: Julius Schulman, perhaps the most well-known of architectural photographers, who had the good fortune to launch his career in the midst of the era of optimism and growth of the modernist movement in architecture. His photographs present icons of the period in architecture and have become icons in themselves. Part of the recent free flowing resurgence of interest in Mid-Century Modern architecture and furnishings has been enabled by the splendid photographic documentation Schulman's work provides. An anecdotal aside, Schulman loaded up his station wagon with appropriate modern furnishings to place in the buildings he was to photograph and often had people posed in them---he wanted to show the buildings as they could best be seen and "lived in".

Photo by Julius Schulman, Case Study House #22 - Stahl House in Los Angeles, California - designed by architect Pierre Koenig 1960.

Photo by Juilius Schulman: Kaufmann House in Palm Springs by architect, Richard Neutra in 1946 (The Kaufmann's also commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to design Fallingwater for them near Mill Run, Pennsylvania about a decade earlier.)

Friends and I attended the screening of the film Visual Acoustics , the Modernism of Julius Schlulman by Eric Bricker, last night at the downtown library. Eric Bricker was at the screening and spoke about the making of the film, as well as his friendship with Schulman. Visual Acoustics will be available on DVD in late May.

This is "Spring"? (and Portraits)...

I've already mowed the lawn two weeks in a row, and now it's snowing again!It's made up of those pretty little kernels of corn snow, not unusual in Spring and a perfectly desirable type of snow for skiing (here in Utah, where we have the Greatest Snow on Earth).

Tulips in the garden are out in full blooming glory---now trying to hold their heads up under the new snowfall.

It's really a good day to stay inside and focus on my indoor task of painting pet portraits for a lovely greyhound mom. She commissioned portraits of her three greyhounds. I've sketched out all three poses on canvas and am beginning to lay in the tones and colors with paint on the first one (shown at the bottom).

Gone biking...

Project complete . . . WHEW!

Six tall spindle-back (Windsor-esque) dining chairs I painted robin's egg blue.

The photo below shows my inspiration (from Urban Grace) . . .

I ran across another photo (below) while in the process of painting. With turquoise being "this year's color", it's not surprising to see lots of examples of the color used in furnishings.

Yesterday House of Turquoise posted a dining room with turquoise (what else?) spindle-back chairs. Mine are a bit taller, slender steam-bent back type similar to those above, and were pretty hard to find. I'm happy this project is done---on to dining tables!

Patience is a Virtue...

...that I sometimes lack. I couldn't wait for the back room to be completed, so I moved in and enjoyed it all winter. Below is my new favorite place to curl up with my book and drink coffee. (An extension cord plugged into a kitchen outlet provides electricity for the lamp.)

Below, The room doesn't have walls, but it does have art work hanging.

Below is my new favorite place to have breakfast. There are no finished walls or ceiling, no finished floor, no electricity, but there is good insulation, rugs and drapes and plenty of sunshine and books.

Below photo shows the pups' new favorite place for meals. The bottom shelf of a vintage potting bench makes the perfect raised feeder for my tall greyhounds.

I just heard from my builder today. With winter well on its way out, he's talking about coming back to complete the backroom project---beginning next week. I'm not holding my breath. We won't suffer too much because we are already enjoying "camping out" in relative luxury.

The Paper Rose Club

Authors Jennifer Youngblood and Sandra Poole invite you to check out the latest segment (Twenty-three) of THE PAPER ROSE CLUB just released.

My nephew's wife, Jennifer and her mother, Sandra wrote and published the novel Livin' in High Cotton in 2004. I ordered it from my local Seattle neighborhood bookstore. Inspired by the life of Sandra's grandmother---all these gals are originally from Alabama---Livin' in High Cotton is set during early depression era in Alabama and reveals some intriguing twists in the conflicted racial relations of the deep South. Jennifer and Sandra published their second novel in 2007, Stoney Creek, Alabama set in modern times. The mother and daughter team are currently writing a third novel, The Paper Rose Club, which is available online, as chapters are completed. If you'd like to read The Paper Rose Club online "book" for free, click here and you can sign up!

And, of course you can check your local library or order Livin' in High Cotton and Stoney Creek, Alabama from your local neighborhood bookstore or Amazon. I'm an "Auntie" by marriage, but I'm still proud!

P.S. Below is a post from Jennifer Youngblood's blog on the topic of writing Stoney Creek, Alabama.

Football is alive and well in Stoney Creek, Alabama
10:20 AM PST, January 21, 2008
One thing that our readers love about our work is that it's real. My mom and I are both native Alabamians and are very proud of our southern heritage. In our second novel, Stoney Creek, Alabama, we wrote about football. Football has always been a large part of my life. Many of my friends played high school ball and because I was a majorette, I went to every single football game. And I was not alone; the whole town shut down on Friday night. The years we had a winning season (and we usually did) the games would go on until mid to late November. Sometimes the temperature would drop to the thirties. We must've looked ridiculous in our teenie outfits, trying to smile while catching a frozen baton that hurt like a brick being hurled from a two-storey building when it hit our hands. To say that everything revolved around football was an understatement. It was our way of life--our religion. We lost the state playoffs two years in a row to the same team. And to add insult to injury, the game went into double overtime both years. I remember watching our players as they collapsed on the field and bawled like babies at the end of the game.As passionate as my peers were about football, they paled in comparison to my dad. Not only was he a football hero in his hometown, but he got a scholarship to the University of Alabama where he played under Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant on the famous turn-around team. I believe the year was 1957. It was a good Saturday in our home when Alabama won, and when they lost...the rest of us just stayed out of Dad's way. It was great having an in-house expert when writing Stoney Creek, Alabama. My dad has an incredible wealth of knowledge and interesting stories to share. It was very rewarding to see this portion of our manuscript come together in such a real and vivid way.