A Birthday & Bread Adventure Weekend

The Birthday Part of the Adventure-
I'm recalling the fun from celebrating my sister's birthday on Saturday and already enjoying the memories. My youngest sister - my "twin separated by birth" (not at birth) is an amazing woman. She is 10 years younger than me and yet we connect in a way that erases the years. Her birthday was this past week and Saturday was our day to celebrate, just the two of us. We started the day enjoying coffee on the deck and soaking up some sunshine. We caught up on our latest ideas and endeavors and then headed out.

First stop, a yarn store. We both had new project patterns in hand and we cruised the store looking for the perfect fiber to bring our patterns to life. I struck out but my sister found just the right weight of yarn and it came in a myriad of colors - a palette had exploded! She talked me into making the same project she had selected (or was it MY idea? I don't recall) and we were drawn into the display to find our colors. We're making lace ribbed tank tops for summer! On Sunday we'll discover we bought hanks of yarn, not skeins. More on that later.

We had planned to go to lunch and then to the movies to see 3D Alice in Wonderland but our yarn foray cut our lunch time short. She had taken me to see 3D Christmas Carol in December and we had perfect seats and a great experience so good seats were high on our agenda for this movie. Move to Plan B: lots of popcorn and movie hot dogs while we staked out our perfect seats a half hour before the start time. Let me tell you, according to the marquee in the theater, these were no ordinary hot dogs. No sir, they were "Black Angus Hot Dogs", quite the fine dining experience after we dressed them with the fancy little packets of ketchup, mustard and sweet relish. We enjoyed the movie a lot, along with the popcorn!

We traded the lunch experience for an early dinner after the movie. We spotted a restaurant called "McGrath's Fish House" that was new to both of us and decided to give it a try. The menu had me changing my mind every time I read a new entry. We eventually both settled on a dish with blackened fish in a Cajun sauce with red sweet pepper strips, shrimp, mushrooms, and ham. I think there were a couple small scallops in there, too. After devouring the onion rings appetizer, we both had to request that our dinners be packaged to go... could have something to do with all the popcorn at the movies, huh?

And now to the bread part of the adventure-
I mill grain on Friday or Saturday and bake bread on Sundays. I've been experimenting with fruits and nuts. I've been using my favorite bread recipe, not a sweet bread, and I like the subtle sweetness with the extra flavor and texture of the fruit and nuts. This week I added dried pears and walnuts and it's yummy!

So by now, we've both discovered we bought hanks of yarn, not skeins, and we would need to wind the yarn into skeins. I got out the yarn swift and winder and dispatched one hank of my yarn. Knowing that my sister wouldn't be far behind once she discovered this little chink, I left the swift and winder out for her. Sure enough, she stopped by in the early afternoon and came into the kitchen saying "so, guess what? we bought hanks of yarn, not skeins!" She worked on her winding while we visited and I finished getting ready a batch of sandwich buns to go in the oven.

I decided I also had a taste for some non-fruit & nut rolls for sandwiches and I found a new recipe online. I used my milled whole wheat and kamut and made them up with sesame seeds on the top. They turned out looking like I know a lot more than I really do about bun making. I haven't tried one yet so I can't vouch for the quality. I sent half a dozen home with my sister and I'm looking forward to that feedback so I know if I need to tinker with the recipe for our high altitude. Here's how they turned out - eye candy to make the mouth water!