Ingredients:

• 24 fluid ounces warm water
• 1 1/2 teaspoons fast rising yeast (I use Fleischmann’s RadpidRise)
• 2 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 6 1/2 cups bread flour

What to do:

Pour warm (not hot) water into a large mixing bowl. Add the yeast to the water mix well.  Add salt and stir until it dissolves.

Add all the flour and mix thoroughly with a wooden spoon until ingredients are mixed. Do not over knead. Leave the bread dough in the mixing bowl and cover loosely. Allow to rise for 2 hours, or until doubled in size.

Tear the dough in half and knead each half  for about 1 minute with floured hands on floured surface.  Loosely shape into a ball and place dough, with folded side up, on a greased and floured baking sheet.  Allow to rise for another 20 to 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.  Reshape dough balls if needed.  Bake for 30 minutes or until well-risen and browned. Remove the bread and cool on a cooling rack or slice immediately for that nummy warm bread taste!

It makes two regular sized loaves that serves 4-6 people each loaf.

Even though I live in Denver and baking can often be a challenge, this bread turned out beautifully without any additional alterations.

This recipe was adapted from one that I found on: http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/10-easy-bread-recipes8.htm

If you download your music for “free” are you willing to accept that there will be fewer options, fewer bands, fewer choices in the future?  Consider how you get your music and how that affects an entire industry.

“Artists can make money on the road (or its variant “Artists are rich”). The average income of a musician that files taxes is something like 35k a year w/o benefits. The vast majority of artists do not make significant money on the road. Until recently, most touring activity was a money losing operation. The idea was the artists would make up the loss through recorded music sales. This has been reversed by the financial logic of file-sharing and streaming. You now tour to support making albums if you are very, very lucky. Otherwise, you pay for making albums out of your own pocket. Only the very top tier of musicians make ANY money on the road. And only the 1% of the 1% makes significant money on the road. (For now.)

Over the last 12 years I’ve watched revenue flowing to artists collapse.

Recorded music revenue is down 64% since 1999.

Per capita spending on music is 47% lower than it was in 1973!!

The number of professional musicians has fallen 25% since 2000.

Of the 75,000 albums released in 2010 only 2,000 sold more than 5,000 copies. Only 1,000 sold more than 10,000 copies. Without going into details, 10,000 albums is about the point where independent artists begin to go into the black on professional album production, marketing and promotion.”
Written by David Lowery

Read his full article/response here:

http://thetrichordist.wordpress.com/2012/06/18/letter-to-emily-white-at-npr-all-songs-considered/

http://www.bettycrocker.com/menus-holidays-parties/seasonal-ideas/fall-gatherings/fanfare

Zinfandel Cupcakes

Batter
1 box Betty Crocker SuperMoist devil’s food cake mix
¾ cup water
½ cup Zinfandel wine
½ cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips

Frosting
6 cups powdered sugar
½ cup butter, softened
½ cup unsweetened baking cocoa
½ tsp salt
½ cup Zinfandel wine

Garnish
Chocolate curls

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees (325 degrees for dark or nonstick pan). Place paper baking cup in each of 24 regular-size muffin cups. Make cake batter as directed on box, using cake mix, water, ½ cup wine, oil and eggs. Stir in chocolate chips. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups (about ½ full).

2. Bake 20 to 22 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes; remove from pans to cooling rack. Cool completely, about 30 minutes.

3. In large bowl, beat powdered sugar, butter, cocoa and salt with electric mixer on low speed until blended. Beat in ½ cup wine. If frosting is too thick, beat in more wine a few drops at a time. Frost cupcakes. Garnish with chocolate curls.

Ingredients

• spray olive oil
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 1-2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 14-oz. crushed tomatoes, with juice (I like the one that has basil in it!)
• 3/4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 1/4 cup fat-free half and half, warmed
• Salt and pepper

Spray bottom of large saucepan with olive oil and heat over medium-high heat. Add onion and cook, stirring often, until softened, 3 to 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook until slightly softened and fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir in flour to blend, about 1 minute.

Add tomatoes with juice and broth to saucepan, increase heat to high and bring to a boil. Stir or whisk constantly until slightly thickened, about 3 minutes.

Working in batches, carefully transfer soup to a blender and puree until smooth. Return soup to saucepan, stir in cream and cook over low heat for 3 to 5 minutes, until heated through. Do not boil. Season with salt and pepper.  Serve hot in warmed cups.

• Linguini pasta (enough for 4-6 servings)
• Olive Oil Spray
• 1 lbs Italian Seasoned Ground Turkey (you could also use Italian Turkey Sausages)
• 3 large garlic cloves chopped (I prefer to press mine)
• 1/2 pint cherry or grape tomatoes cut in half
• 3-4 cups fresh arugula
• 1 Tbls Red chili pepper flakes (more for spicier, less for a milder taste)
• 1/4 cup Fat-Free Half and half
• 1/8 Cup Parmesan Cheese

Prepare pasta according to directions on box.  Spray large skillet with olive oil. Add turkey and saute until cooked through, about 5-10 minutes. Add red pepper flakes (to taste and spice preference), tomatoes, arugula and salt and pepper; cook another 3-4 minutes until arugula is cooked down. Add half and half and cook for 2 more minutes.  Toss with hot pasta in serving bowl. Serve with Parmesan on top.

Until this year, our cats have never clawed at our furniture, but after buying a new couch, our youngest cat has been treating it like a scratching post.  He also has a habit of scratching doors and mirrors at night.  Our slightly older cat has never really taken well to strangers and will swat when she sees fit.  Short of sending them to a kitty psychologist I thought I’d try a product to cap their nails.

Cat nail caps are amazing!  You just glue them on to the cats existing nails (after giving them a trim) and it covers their sharp little claws.  I thought this would be problematic from my cats chewing them off to the caps themselves falling off.  I haven’t had these problems at all!  My cats had no adverse reaction to the caps.  In fact, I’m not even sure they know they have them on.  They did try to chew them off after a few hours, but have since given up since the caps wouldn’t budge.

The two brands I know of are Kitty Cap Nail Caps and Soft Claws.  While I have used the former, I’m sure both are great!  I highly recommend these caps for anyone with cats who still have their claws!

Chicken-A-La-King Recipe

• 2 oz can mushrooms
• 1/4 c. peas
• 1/4 c. butter
• 1/4 c. flour
• 1    c. chicken broth
• 1    c. half-and-half
• 1    c. diced chicken
• 1/4 c. pimentos
• 4-6 servings rice (I like jasmine rice)
• Pepperidge Farms pastry shells
• salt and pepper

Cook rice according to package directions.

Cook chicken in water on stove top.

Sauté mushrooms in butter; blend in flour, salt and pepper until well bended.

Slowly stir in chicken broth and cream, bring to a boil over low heat, stirring constantly.  Boil 1-2 minutes.  Add chicken, peas and pimientos, heat through.  Serve in Pepperidge Farms pastry shells.

4-6 servings.

This post is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

Password:

This post is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

Password:

Perfect Brown Rice

brown rice (whichever type you prefer)
water – use at least four cups of water for every one cup of rice
salt – to taste

• Rinse rice in a strainer under cold running water for 30 seconds, swirling the rice around with your hand.
• Meanwhile, bring water to a boil in a large pot over high heat.  When water boils, add the rice, stir it once.
• Turn heat to medium and boil, uncovered, for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• After 30 minutes, pour the rice into a strainer over the sink.  Let the rice drain for 10 seconds, then return it to the pot, off the heat.
• Immediately cover the pot with a tight-fitting lid and set it aside to allow the rice to steam for 10 minutes (if your pot lid isn’t extremely tight, place a piece of aluminum foil over pot then place the lid on top of foil for a tighter seal).
• After ten minutes, uncover rice, fluff with a fork, and season with salt to taste.

This recipe is from:

http://pinchmysalt.com/2009/04/06/how-to-cook-perfect-brown-rice/