Making Bread Without a Bread Maker

I wanted to experience what it means to make bread without a bread maker or stand mixer. It really make you appreciate modern life. Here's my story in pictures.

The Baseball Themed, Baby Boy, Baby Shower

As I posted a few weeks ago, I hosted a baby shower for my friend who is having her first baby, a boy, in September. I didn't want the usual theme of Baby Boy Blue. Inspired by my southern view of the stadium the White Sox play in, the fact that it's baseball season, and that my friend and her husband are die hard Sox fans, I decided on a black and white baseball theme. I made the decorations myself, mostly just a simple pennant design I created on the computer. I had a large banner of the flags which read "BABY BOY MAS" (short for their last name, and what they are calling him for now). I had welcome pennants on my door so guests knew they were in the right place. Finally, I made small flags to stick in food and to wrap on straws.

I found the perfect plates and napkins at Michaels, plus a cute deck of baseball playing cards. You can see them under the glasses. I scattered them all around like giant confetti. 

After I got home from the big shopping trip for food the night before, I realized I had forgotten to buy flowers, so I made a ballon bouquet. 

We had baseball themed food: nachos, peanuts, homemade soft pretzels, hotdogs, and cupcakes decorated like baseballs. Even the specialty drink shared the theme; it was a lemon chill slushy. 

I used a tall cylinder vase as a stand for the hotdog buns. Can you see the little ducky floating in it? It's a cute baseball themed ducky from the same section of Michaels. I mean it's like my theme was meant to be!

I used Alton Brown's recipe for homemade soft pretzels. I had never done anything like it before. Not necessarily hard, just very different from any other baking I had done. The boiling water part with baking soda sure makes a mess. Here's a link to the recipe.

I used some techniques and ideas I found in the book Hello Cupcake that my friend gave me for Christmas. I softened the frosting in the microwave for like 10 seconds and then dipped the cupcakes face down in it to create a smooth surface. I did give it a layer of icing first before dipping so that there was a good amount on the finished cupcake. For some reason, the nearest cupcake in this picture doesn't look like it got dipped. Then I cut strips of Twizzlers (make sure it's the kind you can peel) to form the red laces. Simple design, but effective.

Best Online Recipe Organizers

While I was growing up and still today, my mom keeps her collection of recipes on hand written cards in a big recipe box. I remember pulling it out and searching in the cookies section for what I wanted to make and pulling out a well worn, spotted card. For the majority of her dinner recipes, she just had them memorized. Weekly meal planning involved her deciding on dishes, writing them down, looking through the pantry, and writing out a shopping list.

 Flash forward 10+ years and I’m trying to find a system that works for me, a newly married girl who likes everything digital (because I loose little papers), tends to stop by the store on the way home, never plans ahead, and will buy doubles of things because I didn’t know it was at home in the pantry. Oh, and I’m trying to build my own recipe repertoire that is dairy-free for my husband.

 I decided I needed something digital that I could access from anywhere. None of the iphone apps seemed to be the answer, so I turned to the internet. After much searching, signing up for sites, and evaluating, I decided that two sites were the winning choices to use and recommend. Below are the ins and outs of the sites: One tsp and Tasty Planner.

 What I was looking for: Most important was the ease of entering recipes. Most recipes I have been using are ones I’ve found online and I wanted an easy way to transfer them into an organizer. Many of the organizers had a line by line ingredient entry system, meaning it was impossible to just copy the whole ingredient list and paste. You would have to type each in and sometimes also use drop down menus for measurement selections. So basically not saving any time over hand written, old school ways.

If you want complete simplicity and a very clutter-free interface, then One tsp is for you. It is a pleasing white and blue design with orange accents. The only pictures you see are ones you add yourself (optional) for the recipe. This site also requires the fewest amount of fields to be completed. Sometimes you don’t want to or need to put a description, prep or cook time, or yield; this site doesn’t force you. It’s a great thing when you are concerned with saving time. You can add recipes to a shopping list that is easily viewable on a smart phone and loads quickly because of the uncluttered site. When at the store, it’s easy to check off items and you can also add other items to your list. Update for One tsp: I wrote this article originally 9 months ago, recently One tsp added a "clip it" button that works like the "pin it" button. It lives in my bookmarks bar and when I'm on one of the many supported sites like Food Network I can just click this button and it pulls all the info and saves it for me. LOVE IT! I also forgot to mention that they have an iphone app as well. The downsides of One tsp are that there are fewer features than Tasty Planner, such as no meal planner. Also, the only way to sort through recipes is with the tags you have created for each. But if you are like me who doesn’t cook every night, then this might be the site for you.

If you want complete simplicity and a very clutter-free interface, then One tsp is for you. It is a pleasing white and blue design with orange accents. The only pictures you see are ones you add yourself (optional) for the recipe. This site also requires the fewest amount of fields to be completed. Sometimes you don’t want to or need to put a description, prep or cook time, or yield; this site doesn’t force you. It’s a great thing when you are concerned with saving time. You can add recipes to a shopping list that is easily viewable on a smart phone and loads quickly because of the uncluttered site. When at the store, it’s easy to check off items and you can also add other items to your list. 

Update for One tsp: I wrote this article originally 9 months ago, recently One tsp added a "clip it" button that works like the "pin it" button. It lives in my bookmarks bar and when I'm on one of the many supported sites like Food Network I can just click this button and it pulls all the info and saves it for me. LOVE IT! I also forgot to mention that they have an iPhone app as well. 

The downsides of One tsp are that there are fewer features than Tasty Planner, such as no meal planner. Also, the only way to sort through recipes is with the tags you have created for each. But if you are like me who doesn’t cook every night, then this might be the site for you.

If you want the same ease of recipe entry but want more features, then try out Tasty Planner. This site is an online community for sharing recipes. It allows you to search for other peoples recipes and add it to your recipe box. Just like One tsp, it is easy to copy and paste ingredients and directions from other recipe sites. Unlike One tsp, you have more required fields, such as description, time, and yield. You also have the addition of a check box for keeping your recipe private if you wish. (Personally, I’m not interested in the community aspect so having to remember to check this each time is a con for me.) Now after recipes are in, is when this site gets fun. You can add recipes to a weekly meal planner where you drag and drop each to the day you want to make it. The meal planner can be added to your calendar on your computer. From the meal planner, the shopping list is generated. In the shopping list, you can rearrange the order of the items and add more. The list can be viewed on a smart phone, emailed, or printed. As far as organization goes, recipes in your box are broken down by categories such as main course.

 Aside from having more required entry fields for recipes, I like what you can do on this site, but feel that some tasks take too many clicks. For instance, if I want to make a shopping list, I have to open a recipe, add it to the planner, drag and drop it to a day and then you can generate a list. Your own recipes aren’t added automatically to your recipe box where there is organization and adding to the planner is easier. You have to open your recipe and click “add to recipe box.” But how much can you really complain about a site that lets you do it all does for free.

 My conclusion: 

 For easy entry and storage of recipes for the occasional cook: One tsp
 For the person who does weekly meal planning and wants it all: Tasty Planner

-Home Sweet Loft