Bread Machine

Here's number 3 (although the list is in no particular order). This is a good one too. One of My Favorite Things is my Bread Machine. My sister has a bread machine and she uses it often. I wanted one too so I could make fresh bread and pizza dough. As a wedding gift, I finally got my bread machine, from my sister. It is a very good bread machine, according to consumer reviews. And, I LOVE it. I've only made bread in it two times and it was yummy. But, I regularly make pizza dough in it. I'm sure you know by now that we make pizza almost every Saturday. Yup, we do and we make the crust in my bread machine. It works wonderfully. It takes 5 minutes (or less) to throw all the ingredients in and then the machine does the rest (just set it, and forget it). It mixes and kneads and rises and mixes some more (it will also bake, but not the pizza dough). When I come back, the dough is ready...just add ingredients and bake. Yummy! I also make bread sticks from the pizza dough and they are tasty too. I love my bread machine. I have a whole cookbook of bread machine recipes and I'm excited to try them all (at least most of them). I'm planning to start making more bread so I can use my bread machine to its full potential. Quick, easy, and delicious. Oh, how I love my bread machine?!?!

pizza dough

Pizza

The day after Thanksgiving - most people are eating turkey and green bean casserole and pumpkin pie. Not us (well, I did finish off the pumpkin pie), oh no, we are having an even better "leftover" meal. Because I didn't make the turkey yesterday, I didn't have any leftover for turkey sandwiches or turkey pot pie or any other creative uses. Instead, I had ham. I love ham, so its easy for me to think of unique and different ways to eat it. Today, I impressed even myself! This was not your typical Thanksgiving leftover meal. Nope, we went all out! Using my leftover ham and my new bread machine and my sister's recipe, we made pizza. Oh my goodness, it was so delicious! My sister makes pizza every Friday night with her bread machine and since my goal in life is to be just like her, I've started my own pizza tradition. I used her recipe and made the dough in my bread machine. It was amazing - so easy and so yummy (the smell is great!). Then, we made a ham and cheese pizza (my personal favorite) - a Pizza Americana, as they call it in Peru. We even made bread sticks, just like big sis. It was the most amazing meal ever. I ate so much pizza, I'm uncomfortably full again. Almost as good as Thanksgiving itself! I will definitely be making pizza again. And next time we're going to experiment and make different flavors. It promises to be a fun tradition (though, we might change it to Saturday night). I will have to invite each one of you for pizza some day. It really is THAT good!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to one and all. I hope you all had a wonderful and delicious thanksgiving. Since most of my family is celebrating thanksgiving on a different day (yes, they have good reasons), I have to share my pictures of our feast today! We had 30 people for our big event and we had plenty of food...in fact, we had too much. But, that's expected on Thanksgiving! Of course, I ate way too much and I feel uncomfortably full, but it was totally worth it! I was only the co-host of this shindig, we had it at Bonnie's house, but I made a bunch of food. I was responsible for the ham, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, rolls, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, dressing, pumpkin pie, pecan pie and a pumpkin trifle. It was a lot of cooking - but it was fun and I enjoyed it. Here are some pictures of our delicious meal.

Our beautiful table

Ham

Sweet Potato Casserole

Green Bean Casserole

Fresh Baked Rolls (they were SO delicious)

Pumpkin Trifle (I've never made this before, but people liked it)

Pumpkin Pie (I had two pieces, they were small)

I am very thankful for the wonderful food we had today. I am also thankful for my family and friends - I am blessed to have each and every one of you in my life. I hope everyone remembers how much they have to be thankful for this year. Happy Thanksgiving!

And now...since it is technically tomorrow (yes, I stayed up late cleaning the kitchen), I can start the excitement. That's right, it is officially permissible to start preparing for (and celebrating) Christmas. I am now going to listen to my Christmas music and, this weekend, we are putting up our tree!!! I can't wait...I LOVE Christmas!

Cereal and Bread for Dinner

I wanted something sweet for dinner tonight - and I wanted something easy. I thought about having cereal for dinner - but since I don't have to actually make that, I had to think of something else. Obviously, I didn't look very far because I settled on Rice Cereal. A favorite childhood breakfast...yum! And, with a rice cooker, it was super easy. It was delicious and good...and sweet.

In addition to cereal for dinner tonight, I made bread. That's right - I used my new bread maker to make some dinner rolls. I'm supposed to make rolls for Thanksgiving and I wanted to practice. It was AMAZING! It was the first time I used my bread maker and I love it! I am going to make bread every day (well, maybe not every day - but often). The machine does all the work and I just rolled it and baked it. The smell of fresh baked bread is the smell of happiness! I can't wait to make more bread. I think our Thanksgiving bread will be great!