Adventures in bread making

As we speak dinner is in the Crock-pot and It smells divine. A spicy roast Fiance loves. Round roast rubbed with dry italian dressing mix with a whole jar of pepperchini's and their juices, slow cooked until it falls apart. Place it on a roll or hoagie bun and dip it in the juice its made for an unbelievable "french dip."
Wait...
Where are the hoagie buns!? Oh no I forgot to buy some during the monthly shopping trip. Crap! Now what do i do?

The easy solution would be to go to the store and buy some but when do I ever do things the easy way? I'll make some...yes, that sounds like a fabulous idea! Only theres one little catch:

I've never made homemade bread before.

Ok I lied, I made banana bread once but that doesn't count. Making bread is intimidating, scary, and time consuming. I'd have to use Yeast. Yeast is the scary part. What if it doesn't activate? What if I kill it? What if my bread doesn't rise? What if the yeast explodes!?

Does yeast explode? I don't know but it was in the realm of possibility this morning when I went to the grocery store.

Upon arriving in the baking aisle and looking at the top self I see: Dry active yeast, instant yeast, rapid-rise yeast, quick-rise instant dry yeast, yeast in jars, yeast in tiny packages...

Initial response?
GAHHH!! RUN AWAY!!

Thank goodness I didn't do that. I think I would've received some pretty odd stares from Lil E and Miss Priss and the rest of the store would've wondered what drugs I was on.
After calmly consulting the recipe I bought Dry active yeast in the little packages (less commitment that way) and quick-rise instant dry yeast (just in case). I could've at this point gone to the bakery and bought some rolls or buns or french bread as back-up in case this little adventure into baking failed but I did not. I live on the wild side like that. I have no back-up plan so this HAS TO WORK.

I followed the directions, set it out to rise, and crossed my fingers I didn't mess up the yeast part because everything else was stupidly easy up to that point. After an hour (and to my complete astonishment) it had doubled in size. I seriously wanted to jump up and down yelling "I did it, I did it!" WOO!
Now to form loaves or buns or rolls or whatever and...
Let it rise for another 40 min.
What!? You've got to be kidding me. This is more stress then this mamma can take. Ok, I can so totally do this. Cross fingers, pray to the kitchen gods (s), and wait...

While we wait why don't I show you a little project I did 2 weeks ago

That, my friends is a can of formula. Ok, it WAS a can of formula. I have a ton of these things floating around due to Lil E's growing appetite so I decided to recycle one of them into a coffee holder. I pulled out some craft paper and my handy-dandy Modge Podge and voila! Instant makeover. Do you have these tubs lying around too? What did you do with yours? I need some crafty ideas to transform these into something spectacular.
....
ok time to check on the bread.
O.M.G It's like magic. My mini loaves of bread have once again doubled in size (mainly width). Baking bread is kinda cool. Chemistry can be fun! Now time to bake these suckers and hope they don't turn out dense or hard as a rock or doughy in the center. Or God forbid after all this work (when I say work, I mean sitting around drinking coffee and blogging) I burn them!
Praying to the kitchen gods again.

25 minuets later we have SUCCESS! I have officially made bread. Ok, well, technically I made Sandwich rolls but whatever. They aren't perfect but I'd say today was a successful day.

The Culinary Master (ok not so much)

This week I've been thinking a lot about food and how to make EASY meals for my family on a budget. I scoured the Internet (and the oh-so-handy Epicurious app for my Kindle) and came across a real gem. Fiance is known for loving (seriously LOVING) hot wings but they are very messy to make and eat and the battering and frying of chicken parts isn't all that healthy. What I stumbled across was Buffalo Chicken meatballs. PERFECT for a packed work lunch, appetizer, or quick snack. Cook these puppies up and refrigerate (or freeze) until ready to eat then just pop them in the microwave. They smell pretty dang delicious but I'm not a fan of hot sauce. Fiance and Miss Priss give them an enthusiastic 2 thumbs up.



My next cooking experiment is dinner this week. I'm making Pork Carnitas. I got an extra large pork shoulder for this recipe so I can freeze the leftovers (assuming Fiance and Miss Priss don't go all out and devour the whole thing) to use as the stuffing for enchiladas later in the month. Killing 2 birds with 1 stone is a super time saver and I'm all about making things easier in the long run.

Update: Busy Crafting Week

This past week has been super busy with crafty things. Ive made Mother's Day gifts for my mom and grandma, and my fiances mom and grandma. The post for this is already created. I'm just waiting until after Sunday to hit "publish" so I don't ruin their surprise. On top of that I made a gift for a bridal shower coming up in the next few weeks and hand painted some glasses.

I may or may not have tested my glasses out already
with a wine cocktail...or two

Miss Priss and Lil E have both been challenging this past week mainly because we all have crazy stupid allergies. Miss Priss has been quietly (mostly...between the sniffles and nose blowing) playing her computer games this week and Lil E has been taking lots of naps, giving this mama some much needed time to get these little projects done. I thought this week would be much worse then it has been due to Fiance being out of town on business but honestly, the allergy season ripping through our household has been a blessing. Am I a bad mom for being glad the kids are drowsy and drugged up on allergy medicine?

I'm hoping everyone gets better before Sunday because this will be the first time (ever) we will host a holidy at our house. Mother's Day BBQ with 20 people in our little, cozy home.
It should be interesting to say the least.