Week in View

What a busy week we've had, the LA County Fair is in town and Donovan Boys' class took a field trip there to see the prize winning animals, sheep shearing and some old-timey crafts. The wool they saw sheared there, will be washed, carded, dyed and spun into yarn by the 3rd graders too as part of the fiber arts section of this years' curriculum!

"Can we get one Mum?"

I managed to get some bread baking in this week on top of sowing some carrot seed and watching the broccalli plants get very confused next to the still flowering and fruiting tomatoes while the weather flip flops between 70-80 degrees!

Here's the recipe for this lovely high rise oat bread - the kids loved taking the mini loaves to school for lunch...
3 cups unbleached flour
1 cup rolled oats
2 tablespoons butter/margarine
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3 tablespoons brown sugar or honey
2 teaspoons yeast ( dissolve in warm milk first)
1 14 cups warm milk
3/4 cup rasins or currants ( optional)

In a large mixing bowl combine all the ingredients, mixing into a shaggy dough. Knead dough by hand ( 10 mins) or by mixer ( 5 mins) until it's smooth. Place dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover and allow to proof/rest for about 1 hour; it'll become quite puffy, though it may not double in bulk. Shape as you wish into a loaf pan and allow to rise further until it's crested 1-2 inches over the rim. Bake in pre-heated oven at 350 for 35-30 minutes. I spinkled some extra oats on top for fun. If it browns too quickly tent it with some foil for the last 10 minutes of baking.
Makes one delicious loaf or 8 mini loaves!

The Hairy One's birthday (25th) is on the horizon so we'll watch the post carefully for some freshly baked awesome cookies from The Mac Annie..yum!

Bye for now....Happy Autumn!