Read Any Good Books Lately?

My last posting got me thinking about books and reading. I love to read and never remember not being able to read. Mom and dad set a great example of reading. From my ealiest days, I can still remember going into the living room and seeing both of them reading. Granted, there wasn't much competition coming from our small black & white television set. . .

Back in the days of Smith family vacations (decades before the invention of personal DVD players), we'd take books to entertain ourselves during long drives to destinations in the western United States. One year my brother Merrill received a set of James Herriott books for Christmas. We took them and devoured them during the trip. As soon as one person was finished with a book, it was passed to the next, and so on, and so on. I don't remember the destination of that trip, but I do remember the books.

For years during my childhood, we'd go to the Bookmobile which would be parked on Pages Lane in front of Dick's Market in Centerville. The trip to the Bookmobile was always anticipated as a sort of treasure hunt - what would I find to bring home to read that week? There was always something new.

Books can create immediate connections between people. I just found out that Tony, Mark's dad, loves John Grisham books. My mom gave me my first Nancy Drew mystery because she read them when she was a girl. My brother Clay got several of us in the family reading books by Vince Flynn. (Warning - don't start a Vince Flynn book on a work night. You won't be able to put it down until you have read the final page.) If you love dogs, or if you just want a good laugh, read "The Dog Who Wouldn't Be" by Farley Mowat. My dad got me reading Tom Clancy books - The Hunt for Red October is a classic, and the step-by-step description of the start of a war in Red Storm Rising is unforgettable.

Mrs. Goodrich, my third grade teacher, introduced us to the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. She read the books out loud to us and made history come alive as we then studied the pioneers. And who can forget the Anne of Green Gables series by L. M. Montgomery? Good stories, good morals, and a great way to escape for an hour, an afternoon, and sometimes even a weekend.

With a few years' growth, Jane Eyre and Little Women came into my life. The people in the books became more than characters in a book, almost like old friends that you meet again after a long separation. I'll admit that every couple of years I'll pull out Jane Eyre and Little Women and read them again. Sure, some of the language is dated, the book spines are cracking, and the pages are dusty. . . but what's a little dust among friends?

I'm seldom without a book, or three, that I'm reading at any given time. It's my favorite way to unwind, clear my mind, and take a mental vacation. So, have you read any good books lately? Let me know. . . perhaps it will be an opportunity to make a new connection.

The Paper Bag Princess

Twenty plus years ago I "discovered" a wonderful book called The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch. Its about a princess who finds out who she really is by using resourcefulness and creativity to overcome adversity. This was a girl power book before anyone even knew what girl power was all about. It's also a cute story with a great message (which I've used in a few Relief Society and Young Women lessons over the years).

What triggered these memories? Mark's nephew's wife is expecting twin daughters and the shower is in just under two weeks. Instead of a card, they've requested a children's book to build the girls' library. So, this book was my first thought, and I wasn't sure if it was still being published. The answer is a resounding "yes!" In fact, the book is having it's 25th anniversary. I guess a few million other people have also discovered this charming tale. If you haven't read it, consider getting it and reading it. Barnes & Noble has it in the children's section, or it's available on Amazon.com. Enjoy!

Being Prepared

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about preparedness and what it takes to be prepared for whatever life throws at you. And although none of us know what the future holds, one thing I've learned is that it's never what you expect. But that doesn't mean we can't be prepared in some basic areas like having our finances in order, getting out of debt, preparing a will, having a basic food and water supply to last anywhere from 2 weeks to 2 years, and being emotionally prepared for change. Easy to say (or write, as the case may be), but not always so easy to do, and I have a long way to go.

Living in an apartment with limited living space, let alone storage space, it's been hard to get real excited about provident living, food storage, gardening, etc. However, last fall we cleaned off a couple of shelves in the basement and just organized the cans and boxes of food that we already had. It was a start. I bottled tomatoes and applesauce and added those to the shelves. It was another step in the process. Two weeks ago I planted 7 tomato plants and 1 cucumber in the tiny planter box that separates our apartment from the owner's garage. Again, it's a baby step, but everything we do adds up to increase our peace of mind.

So now I want to put in a plug for my sister's blog: www.positivelyprepared.blogspot.com. The subtitle of her blog is "fun with food storage, finances, and more" - but trust me, that's only the beginning. There's information about budgeting, gardening, getting out of debt, and some great ideas for getting and using food storage. Way to go, sis! Keep up the great posts.

There's a quote that says "Wisdom is knowledge rightly applied." Well, I have knowledge about a lot of these things, and now I'm starting to apply what I've learned, and hoping, one day, to be a little closer to wisdom.

P.S. I'm also learning that establishing food storage with a man in the house is VERY different than doing it for 1 woman. Another little surpise about married life - it's a lot better for the relationship to store things that everyone in the house likes. Now I just have to figure out how to get it on the shelves before it gets eaten. Any ideas?

Back in the Saddle. . .

Well, after more than a month of no posts, I'm back. Back to Buffalo after spending the month of April in Utah. We had an exciting time (much fodder for the blog):

• Wisdom teeth removed - OK, not so exciting, but really, how exciting do you want your wisdom teeth to be?
• Saw The Phantom at Hale Theater - incredibly well done!
• Wedding shower for Brianna
• Huge Easter egg hunt (estimate about 2,500 eggs in the yard)
• Easter dinner - and the weather cooperated beautifully
• Lunch with mom, sisters, and sisters-in-law
• Board meetings in Deer Valley
• Dinner with friends
• Tyla and Joey graduated from BYU - Congratulations!
• Cheron and Jared G. sealed in the Salt Lake Temple - Congratulations!
• Brianna and Jared B. sealed in the Manti Temple - Congratulations!
• Reception for Brianna and Jared - fun company, beautiful yard (thanks Ryan and Lezli), and great food (thanks Katie, Diane, Patty, Lezli, Jackie, Nancy, Marni)

Whew! More info and photos to come.

The Quest for Grandma's Bread Recipe

I made bread yesterday after church. Ground the wheat, mixed it up (thanks, Bosch!), formed into loaves, and baked it. The process is fairly routine and the bread was really good. But then it's hard to go wrong with homemade bread. . .

Anyway, as I was letting the Bosch do the work, I thought of the bread my grandmother used to make. She always made white bread, and baked it in the tall cans that tomato or pineapple juice came in. It was wonderful as is, but became fabulous when toasted. Grandma would cut thin slices, toast them, and spread with butter. The final product was crisp with a bit of a chewey texture.

This is the bread you dream about. It was part of my childhood and the memory is still crystal clear of grandma mixing bread in her tiny galley kitchen in the house on the hill in Bountiful, UT. She served it toasted for breakfast following sleepovers, with soup for dinner, or made into sandwiches for lunch. But toasted was best.

My mom said she asked grandma for the recipe years ago, and grandma told her it was easy, but mom never got the recipe. I've tried to re-create the recipe, to no avail. I've searched magazines and cookbooks from the 1950's for bread recipes and made a lot of them, but the texture just isn't the same. My dad said it was the flour grandma used. When he was growing up, he'd go to Lehi Roller Mills and purchase flour that grandma used to make bread. I've made the bread using Lehi Roller Mills flour. It was good, but it wasn't the same. I found a recipe in an old Sunset magazine that even called for baking the bread in a coffee can, but it wasn't exactly right, either. I baked through the bread recipes in my Aunt Catherine's cookbooks. I even found ward cookbooks from Emery, UT (where grandma was born and raised) and tried those recipes, but no luck there, either. Maybe the recipe never existed except in my grandmother's mind. Or is it possible that I'm remembering something exists only in my mind? Nah! The bread was real, and really good. So... if anyone out there has a write bread recipe from Lyle Brookhart, please send me a copy.

Here's the recipe I use for Whole Wheat Bread. It's a poor substitute for my grandmother's bread, but it's still pretty good. This recipe makes 6 good sized loaves. I use the Bosch; if using the KitchenAid, cut the recipe in half. Of course, you can also make the recipe by hand and get your arm workout while kneading the bread.

Whole Wheat Bread - adapted from the Bosch recipe

5 1/2 cups warm water

2/3 cup oil

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 TB wheat gluten

2 TB lemon juice

2 TB instant yeast (like SAF)

2 TB salt

11 - 13 cups whole wheat flour

In mixer, add water, oil, brown sugar, gluten, lemon juice, and 5 cups wheat flour. Use the "M" switch to incorporate. (Or turn the mixer on/off until ingredients are incorporated. Turn to speed 1 on Bosch, or low-medium speed on the KitchenAid and add flour 1 cup at a time with the salt until the dough scrapes away from the edges. Knead on speed 2 (Bosch) for 6 minutes, or knead with the dough hook in the KitchenAid.

Dump dough out onto a floured counter top and cut into 6 pieces. Shape into loaves and place in pans that have been sprayed with Pam. Let rise until double. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.

A few notes from Lori:

The amount of flour you end up using will depend on the amount of moisture in your wheat and the amount of humidity in the air.

If you don't have quite enough whole wheat flour, finish with regular white flour. If you have extra wheat flour, place it in a ziplock bag and keep it in the freezer until the next time you make bread.

For this recipe, be sure to use the instant yeast. The instant yeast doesn't have to be proofed before adding the other ingredients, and you don't need to be too concerned about using water that's too hot in the recipe.

Dough enhancer is a standard ingredient in making whole wheat bread, but I haven't been able to find dough enhancer in NY. An Amish cookbook suggested adding lemon juice to whole wheat bread to improve the texture and retain freshness. I've made the bread several times now with lemon juice, and it seems to work just like the dough enhancer.

If you make the bread, let me know how it goes. And if you ever come across grandma's recipe for white bread, give me a call!

How About Some Crow?

Well, I've been eating crow this week. It was bound to happen at some time, I just didn't think it would be quite so soon following the broccoli disaster.

Last Monday we had the missionaries coming for dinner. I was making sweet and sour meatballs. It was just before 5:00 p.m. and everything was coming together on schedule. The doorbell rang and in the few minutes it took to greet the missionaries, walk them to the living room, and get back to the kitchen, the dish scortched. Badly. I thought I had turned the heat down when I went to answer the door, but evidently not.

And when I made such a big deal over the burned broccoli a few weeks ago (compliments of my very sweet but occasionally distracted husband), it only feels right to share my own kitchen mishap.

However, in my defense I'd like to state the following: I was cooking for others, I only left the pan for a moment, there was no smoke or stench of burned broccoli wafting through the house, and I was able to salvage the dinner. (Salvaging trick: added some barbecue sauce and smoke-flavored salt.)

So I'm eating crow, and you know what? It tastes a lot like chicken!

Houses and Homes

When you live with a man who designs homes for a living, you start to look at houses differently. Terms like Dutch gables, craftsman style, prairie style, farmhouse, contemporary, and oh, so many more start popping up in conversations (usually while we're driving miles and miles on the back roads of western NY). I've learned about space and proportion, and am starting to recognize "good" design over "bad" design.

Interestingly enough, we don't live in a house that Mark designed. We live in a relatively small apartment in the village of Williamsville, which is just a few miles away from Buffalo, NY. And ever since I moved here, it's felt like Mark's apartment - kind of like the house in Utah is referred to as "Lori's house." The apartment is filled with Mark's things, which reflect his tastes, his color preferences, and his style. For a long time, I felt almost like a visitor. And even today as I look around, I still see very little of myself in the apartment other than a decorative bowl on the counter and a new shower curtain.

But something was different today and I'm not quite sure when it happened. Because today as we were cleaning the house and getting ready for a client to visit, it felt like OUR home, not just Mark's apartment. Is it just a matter of time before the psyche is ready to accept another space as home, or is it something more? I'm thinking it's shared experiences, and patience, and compromise, and laughter, and tears, and forgiveness, and love woven into thousands of individual acts that create a home. Mentally, it's still hard to call anywhere but Bountiful, Utah "home" - but I think my heart is finally settling into western NY. Welcome home!