I think I understand why the rich like this. A life of leisure is pretty nice. No hard thinking. Nothing frustrating. Note to self: Look into becoming rich.
That's not to say I was a lump all day... ate breakfast, worked out, showered, ran errands, made lunch (grilled cheese... something that does not translate to a brown bag lunch) and started cleaning.
Not the general, "make it look nice" cleaning... the things I just never seem to get around to.
Dusted upstairs, cleaned all the windows, washed/changed all the bed linens, washed the window treatment in the bedroom (holy crap! That this is actually WHITE, not ivory!).
I'd already planned a pretty laid-back dinner... jambalaya fromabox. Hey. It's good. And easy. I don't argue.
But... since I'd be home in the afternoon... bring on the No-Knead Bread!
(And I will admit, one thing that kept me running up & down the stairs cleaning was knowing that as long as I kept it up, I was good with having two big slices of bread, slathered with butter, with my dinner. Apparently buttered fresh bread is a very good motivator for me)
Uh... ok... that flopped into my dish kinda lumpy-like...
There... a little shake of the dish.... that is better.....
(And yes, I do see that odd line that looks like it might be cooked residue from the tape that held the lid onto the dish from when I bought this dish. I have no idea why it's decided to appear the fourth time I've used this dish, so I'm ignoring it. Try it with me. It's fun.)
45 minutes later.... pretty, pretty homemade bread....
That little dip in the center isn't a problem with the bread.... it's where the lid of the dish left an impression. Oops. I was afraid this dish was going to be a little small. And I did get a lot more rise out of this batch of dough than the last couple times I made it. It was also not as wet as it's been in the past. But it still turned out very nicely.
I did also stop at the market today... um, twice. First when I was out running errands to get some fresh okra, and then an emergency run at about 4pm when I realized I had no Zatarain's jambalaya mix in the house.
I have some polish sausage in the freezer, but when I was at the market on my first run.....
Sometimes a girl just can't pass up a sausage that beautiful. I'm just sayin'.
I like to start out and brown my sausage slices a little.....
When they've got some browned spots and there is a little fond in the bottom of the pot, then add your water and start the "bring to boil" stage....
When the water starts boiling, add your chopped okra (or even frozen works very well).....
The picture of adding the rice mixture didn't turn out well. But, it's not very exciting anyway.
Slap on the lid, cook for 20 minutes, and then I had some chicken breast and shrimp to add....
Lid back on, another 5 minutes on the heat, and it'll keep off heat for a bit...
Yum.
And in these frugal times, $2.50 for the sausage, $2 for the rice mix, about $1.50 for the okra. I'd guess $1 worth of chicken. Not sure about the amount for the shrimp. I buy cheap shrimp, and usually don't pay more than $5 a pound.
That and the bread made for a very nice meal.
3 comments:
I stock up on both the jambalaya mix and gumbo mix at the store. Makes for a good pantry meal. Since I ahve never seen fresh okra in my neck of the woods, I stick with frozen. I had horrible luck with the first time I made that bread. (Over cooked before time was close to being up.) I shall try again next week.
I wish I had this energy! With a new baby, I am grateful to get through the day and the work.
Care - I forget if you're high up or not... maybe it's elevation issues? I usually muck up most things yeast-related, but I've had nothing but success with no-knead bread.
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