Sleepy Sunday

But not in this house!  Sleep is an ever elusive thing, but it does make us very productive.

A busy weekend in Santa Monica and I had a blast being Mommy's little taster - oops, I mean helper.  The truth is, I've never met a carb I didn't like.

But before we speak of breads, we must speak of cookies, brownies and cakes and by that I mean to say I made three new friends today.  No, not dogs, silly - human friends!  Ross and Melanie Canter of Cookie Good who make cookies and brownies that are seriously amazing, including creations like caramel-pretzel-chocolate chunk cookies, smores cookies and heath bar brownies.   And that's the least of it - you have to check out their website at www.cookiegood.com.  Happily, they ship anywhere so all of you out there can slobber over the sweets I snarfed on the car ride home today.  Yep, not a morsel made it into the house.  Trust me, you'll be drooling over these goodies even more than I did.  

And let's not forget my new friend Kimberly Bailey from Butter End Bakery, who makes the most amazing cakes and not cakes ever!  I saw some of Kimberly's cakes today, including one with a dragon winding its way up a three layer cake.  OMG, I want to play with that dragon!  Sadly, you must live near Santa Monica to partake in Kimberly's cakes but everyone can go check them out online at www.thebutterend.com.

Did I mention the really really cool thing about today is that Kimberly, Melanie and Mommy all had this thing called cancer, and all three of them turned to baking... and all three of them are doing really well!  That's sweeter than any cake or cookie.

And now back to bread!  Saturday we made our steccas, which is Italian for sticks.  What, you think English bulldogs can't speak Italian?  As the day progressed, we got more and more adventurous.  We prepped our first attempt at Pumpernickel Rye Bread and tried Potato Roasted Onion Bread.  The pumpernickel has organic rye flour, which looks a little too healthy for this young lady, though things did pick up when Mommy took out the molasses.  Sadly, it was unsweetened, a/k/a unsulphered.  Boring.  I think I'll tell Mommy to take it to her doctor tomorrow - he likes tasteless food.

But the Potato Roasted Onion Bread - now we're talking!  First we baked yukon gold potatoes and mashed them up with the skins on to add color to the dough.  While the potatoes were baking, we very lightly drizzled a cup of thinly sliced onions with olive oil and pan sauteed them until they were wilted and caramelized.  I'm thinking Mommy could have put a little sage or thyme in with those onions, but she never listens to me.  The plight of a teenager.  When everything cooled, we mixed the potatoes and onions with the flour, salt and yeast, and then we added the cold water.  This morning, we proofed our dough (don't we sound professional - hehe) and then baked up the loaves.  And what did our favorite taste tester, a/k/a Daddy, have to say - well, his mouth is full so we're not really sure but it sounds like, "dats dewishus" so we think he likes it.  We love when he loves our breads!

I'm off to lick the flour off the floor - then I must take a nap.
Hugs and licks to all, especially to my new friends
Bellalicious