Welcome

For a long time I've been thinking about writing a blog, mainly about food. My husband Justin and I began cooking in college in a tiny kitchen down the hall from my dorm room, and never looked back. What began as experimentation with curdled cream sauce and overcooked chicken has become a life-enriching passion. If you gotta eat, you might as well eat well.

In our junior year of college, Justin and I studied abroad in Rome, Italy, where we truly started to learn what good food was all about. Italians have a saying, "buono come il pane," meaning "as good as bread." It more or less translates to "as good as it gets." That's how I feel about my life — it's as good as it gets.

Life starts with the basics — food, fun, fashion, flavor, whatever makes you happy. This blog is about all that and everything in between.

That's why the first recipe I'm going to share here is as good as bread, because that's exactly what it is. I tried looking for a bread recipe without too much fuss and that was healthy while still being tasty. I tweaked around a bit and came up with this:

(Almost) Whole Wheat Bread


Ingredients
1 package dry active yeast
1 cup warm water
3 tablespoons sugar
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup white flour
1.5 teaspoons salt
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 tsp butter

Special Equipment
Bread Machine

Instructions
Mix the yeast, warm water, and sugar in a measuring cup or small bowl. Let it sit while you prepare the other ingredients until it gets bubbly.

Smear the bit o' butter around the inside of the pan of your bread machine, making sure to get the paddle that kneads the bread really well (it makes it easier to dig out of the loaf later).

Toss in the flours, salt, olive oil, and bubbled yeast mixture into the pan. Set your bread machine to "Basic" bread, 1.5 lb loaf, on whichever color you like (I prefer "medium").

Presto - the machine does the work for you, and there's no proofing, kneading, or self-rising flour needed.

Makes for some amazing sandwiches, toad-in-a-hole, or even breadcrumbs ... but that's another post.