Bread, Cutting & Quilting

I guess that about covers my day yesterday – throw in laundry and exercise and you have my day!  I found a recipe I wanted to try from King Arthur but I always tend to adapt (change) a recipe to suit what grains I want to use or have on hand – so I am calling this one

Mixed Grain Oat Bread

2 cups white flour + 1/2 cup estimate to add in when kneading
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup rye flour
1 cup old fashioned oats
1 package dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons?)
1 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons melted butter
3 tablespoons honey
1 1/2 cups lukewarm water

Combine all ingredients and mix a little until all are combined (yes combine all ingredients at once) dough will be a little sticky.  Turn out onto a floured board and knead the dough.  Place the dough in a greased bowl and let rise until doubled about one hour.

After it has doubled, punch down and knead a couple times and form a loaf and put in your greased bread pan.  Let it double again – about 30 minutes or so and then bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.  Let cool on a rack and then eat to your hearts delight.  Here I have it spread with butter and Rhubarb Raspberry spread that my Wisconsin daughter brought me (us) for Christmas – I’m the one eating it!  — I would say mix in the grains you have – experiment – maybe 1 cup of whole wheat and the rye would have been good too  – just make sure to stick with 3 to 3 1/2 cups total of flour – if you add a lot of whole wheat flour you might need to add more liquid as it seems to need more – I find too much whole wheat gives me a dryer loaf so I am experimenting a little until I find a good mixture – this combination gave me a nice full soft  loaf.

Diamonds are Forever is reaching the half way point – when I get done with this stretch all the way across I will be half way done. I am linking to Confessions of a Fabric Addict today.  There is a give away of a PDF applique quilt pattern by Michele Hill at her blog William Morris in Quilting.  Michele designs wonderful quilts – I am not putting in for this giveaway as she had just sent me several patterns – but I hope some of you that enjoy applique will put your names in – go to her blog and check it out.  I am also linking to Crazy Mom Quilts.

In between other things I continued to cut with the Go – I found a lot of long strips that I could fan fold and got a lot done – I think – it definitely goes faster if you are not working with small pieces.

Of course my basket still looks like nothing has been done!  I have been digging through it looking for wide enough pieces and long pieces – maybe if it was all packed nice and neat again it would look like progress was made?  At this rate I will be cutting for a month before this box is empty – and there are two more that are bigger to go –

Well digging around in the box I found these red strips that I know gave me trouble in quilts so I set them to soak in hot water and planned on draining it and then soak over night again – maybe the water well be clear in this morning – we will see!