Since I helped Paula make her cinnamon buns I have decided that I should go back to making bread. When we were in Wagga Wagga, Brian made a loaf of whole grain bread every time we finished a loaf. So I dediced when I got home I would dig out my bread maker and make bread. The first loaf I made I used whole wheat flour and multi grain bread flour and it turned out great. The recipe called for 2 tablespoons of yogurt and we just don't buy yogurt, so I had french onion chip dip in the fridge, so I used that and it turned out beautiful. The load rose and was plenty for my sandwiches for the week last week for my lunch.

I am looking for a bread slicing guide. If anyone comes across one in your travels, please let me know where I can buy one. What it is, is a box you place your newly baked bread in and it has guides to slice the whole loaf at once and then place the cut pieces in a bag or a bread keeper. I have found some on the net but am liary about buying off EBay. I called a bunch of stores around Calgary who I thought would carry them, and they just are not a popular item in kitchen wares any more. A couple of clerks at least knew what I was talking about.

Then today I decided to make a loaf of bread with flax, oat meal and rye flour and guess what??? It flopped. I don't think the yeast even rose a bit and it is hard as a rock. I think the birds will be thankful for that loaf. Then I started a new loaf after dinner tonight and it is smelling sooooooooo goood right now. I can hardly wait for the cycle to finish so I can have a slice of hot bread and butter.

If any of you want a real good recipe, I have one now for you to try. It has whole wheat flour, multi grain, and 10 grains in it. It is really good. I think I will stick to one recipe for now, now that I know it works. I love the more grains I can get in a loaf of bread. To go back to eating white bread is like eating paper now. Why I even have Paula eating grainy bread too, and I thought that would never happen.

I called Marvelle today, just because I haven't heard from them for a long time. The Nobles are all coming to Calgary tonight for Adam's home coming tomorrow at church. It sure doesn't seem like it has been 2 years since Adadm left on his mission. So WELCOME HOME ADAM. Marvelle is going to try to come and visit with us tommorrow on their way back home.

We bought a new lazy boy chair for Ardell today, so now I want to rearrange the furniture in the living room and put the couch over to the other wall and put our two lazy boy chairs in front of the TV for watching TV. Today is Appreciate Husband day, so I bought my husband a new chair for just being so nice. I really appreciate him. He is wanting to do so much around the house and gardens this year. We just bought a new garden arch to try to get the climatis to grow up and around. We bought some upside down tomato planters, we are going to try any plant some tomatoes this year. We want to make more garden planters in the back yard. Ardell built one in the front yard last year and has fall bulbs planted in it. We are going to start a compost and use the compost on the gardens. So all our kitchen waste is going to go into the compost now.

Hope this finds all the family well and if you are ever in Calgary and need a bed come and see us for sure.

Love to all.

Shirley

Our fun Weekend

On Saturday Paula called me and asked me to come and help her make cinnamon buns. I haven't made them for a while so I thought it would be fun for the kids to do. Well Christopher was quite interested. First of all, I said, we would put the yeast in some warm water with sugar to get it to rise. He wanted to know what was yeast? So I told him it made your bread dough rise, and we were going to start it in a small bowl on the table and he could sit and watch it rise. I used the fast rising yeast so it rose quite fast and got real big. Then I said we would mix it with some flour and let it rise again for an hour. So we did that, we mixed it with the 5 cups of flour and some lard and some water and some salt, and some sugar. We got it all mixed in together and made a big ball of dough and put a dish towel over the pan while it rose for an hour. When it was ready to knead down, I called Christopher and told him he had to wash his hand to punch down the bread. So he went and washed his hands and then he came to punch the bread. He really didn't think I was serious about punching it. So I showed him how to punch it a little and he wanted to do it. So I let him go to it. He kept saying" Bring it on bread!! Bring it on!! Well he had it flatter than a pancake. So then we took the ball of dough and rolled it out and slathered butter all over the rolled out dough. Then we spread brown sugar all over the circle of dough and then sprinkled cinnamon all over it. He was really interested on how we were going to make the cinnamon buns. When we got all the butter, sugar and cinnamon spread all over it, then I rolled it up and cut off the cinnamon buns. He was intreagued with the whole process. I told Paula from now on, she should have Christopher take out all his frustrations on some bread dough for her, when he needed to get rid of some steam, instead of punching another little boy.

Then we sent swimming for two hours and got back home and the buns had risen again and we baked the two cookie sheets of buns in the oven. As soon as they come out of the oven both Ashley and Christopher wanted one. So they ate one each. Then after they had their supper Ashley ate three more and wanted more. She thought they were so delicous.

It is amazing to watch the grandkids watch you do something they have never seen done before and be so interested in the making of Grandma's Cinnamon buns. We just had to tell the whole family about of experience. It turned out to be a fun day with the grandkids.

Shirley