yes, more bread. I know i'm crazy.

Honestly, I do things other than baking bread; in fact, I haven't made much in the way of bread for the past month (I wonder if that's why I haven't posted much in the past month, as well? Huh.). This newly acquired ability to easily bake fresh bread is still just so fun and exciting for me, exciting enough that I primarily post photos of the finished product, loaves that magically work perfectly every time. It's still so astounding.



This loaf is made of olive oil dough and because Matthew's favorite type of bread is artisan style olive bread, I tossed in a few shriveling olives that we needed to use up. I supplemented two unrecognizably old castelvetrano olives and five sun-dried, herbed olives with pimento stuffed cocktail olives. Perhaps this was an odd combination, but I liked it and could have eaten the entire loaf of bread for dinner, if not for the vegetarian chili that I made to go with the bread.


Close up of the juicy olives and nice crumb

I really liked the extra moist, fine crumb from this particular bread and assume that the olive oil helps provide the extra moisture. This bread holds up very well to slicing and because of that fact, along with the addition of olives, this is great sandwich bread. Or, at least I hope so, since Matthew has a ham and smoked gouda sandwich on freshly baked olive bread for lunch tomorrow.

And, I promise I'll take a good long break from posting bread photos.

tiny felt roses

A selection of darling little hand-crafted felt and pearl bead roses that my friend Clare made for a baby shower. She gave me a couple handfuls of them and I just adore them. What shall I do with them? I don't know. Tumble them atop old books and take photos of them? sounds good!

Visiting Friends

Matthew and I took a short little trip to Las Vegas this weekend and, I have to say, it's kind of funny that when ever I tell people "I'm going to Las Vegas this weekend," they get that little gleam in their eyes and say "oh, wow, have fun!" Of course, the closest we got to partying was eating giant bowls of Chocolate Mousse with friends and hanging out with some of the cutest kids I've ever met.


Lynnea on the hike at Red Rock.


We thought it was the children's discovery trail but it turned out to be quite a strenuous hike. The Kids did amazingly on a much longer than expected hike.

We had such an easy, relaxing time; my friend Clare cooked amazing meals and her husband, Ray, was so kind to drive us up to Red Rock for a beautiful hike. They just took such great care of us during our stay.


It was like a cozy little hotel. Clare had a whole selection of toiletries for us. So cute!

they were delicious

And they were delicious. Very juicy little sausages in a perfectly baked roll with just a tiny crispness to the crust. Just to add on a few more calories, we dipped them in a sour cream mustard dip.

bitty sausage rolls

Recently Matthew and I were lured into purchasing teeny, plump sausages from the Japanese market. They were so short, and irresistibly sausagy and cute. Now, before you say "what? Japanese sausage? are you crazy?" All the sausages we've bought from the Japanese grocery store have been really good and made of very high quality meat. These particular sausages are made of beef and look a bit darker because of that.



With bread dough in the fridge and these little guys just waiting to be eaten, it seemed perfectly logical to think of making sausage rolls. I'm honestly not entirely sure that this will work, but I've got to try it because the whole concept is just too yummy and cute. They might fall apart while baking but if nothing else, we can pull out the sausages and eat them all on their own. I'm sure they will be delicious!

past due cupcake post

A valentine gift from my sweet and slightly crazy neighbor. It made my day when he knocked on the door and presented me with this little treat all packaged in an individual cupcake carrier. It was all just too cute.



I know it's been over a month since valentine's day but I still wanted to post this darling little treat(Please know that I did in fact eat it a timely manner, the posting just took a bit longer than it should have. But one never knows with me; I do love to save food).



And below is a photo of the cake we split on valentine's day. Yes we did actually split it and therefore just the two of us ate the entire thing. why? how? it was from the sheer force of our cake-eating will!

pretty in pink and red bows

Just a pretty little picture of some homemade caramels all wrapped up in pretty bows. These sea salt and coaco nib caramels were a gift from my employer for valentine's day. They are incredibly rich and delicious, hence the reason I still have a handfull left three full weeks after valentine's day.