No knead whole wheat bread and multi-grain bread made with proofing baskets

No knead ww bread adapted from Jim Lahey's recipe.

JS' labs came back last week. The total chol is 184. Way to go!! The healthy diet definitely plays a big roll for this excellent result.   Ha, the high fiber low fat diet must be continued. Of course regular exercise can improve the health even more if added to daily living. Good job:)

Multi-grain bread adapted from Michael Smith's recipe.

This is the first time I use proofing basket. Does it look nice? I bought 3 of them, so I can bake 3 loaves at the same time. The price was pretty good because they were on special. Besides the beautiful appearance of the bread the benefit of using these proofing baskets is bread dough not sticking on them at all. I used to have problems to dump the final raised dough into hot pot right before baking because it always sticked on proofing container somewhat. However, using these proofing baskets I don't have to face this problem anymore!

Happy happy birthday---Whole wheat chocolate muffins

Today is a very important day. So sorry you're sick with cold. Wish you happy birthday. You said no birthday cake because the upset stomach won't tolerate the rich whipped cream frosting well. I will definitely make you a wonderful birthday cake when you feel better:) Right now just let me use these pictures of chocolate muffins instead of birthday cake to wish you happy birthday!!!

The original recipe of this chocolate muffins uses white flour. I adapted it for whole wheat. Surprisingly it turned out great. However, I forgot where the source of original recipe is from. (There are many of similar recipes in my recipe notebooks.) Plus, these muffins were made for a while ago:( Any how, this is a wonderful day. So, enjoy the pictures...have fun!

捐血--我終於又完成了一個心願。。。加了很多蔬菜的蔬菜沾醬和25%全麥日式貝果 Rich vegetable spread + 25% whole wheat Japanese bagels

早在七年前完成骨髓捐贈登記之後，我就告訴自己要加入捐血的行列，只是唯一的一次捐血經驗不是很好(捐完後差點昏過去，後來還貧血了好一陣子)，所以對捐血這事有些怯步。雖然捐血的事遲遲沒有去實行，但我一直惦記在心裡。剛巧不巧前天在checked辦公室的emails時，看到醫院的CEO 送出email說昨天院裡有捐血活動，鼓勵大家一起來捐血。所以就這樣，我終於踏出了這麼多年來的一步。雖然在剛捐完時有非常輕微的頭疼，但在護士的照護下，我順利地完成捐血。以前我的家人也曾受益於他人的捐血，得以重獲健康，所以很高興自己終於也可以幫助別人。我想不久的未來，我還會有第二次、第三次。。。等等的捐血。真的，捐血一袋，救人一命，請大家踴躍參與這個意義非凡的活動:)

Pita chips and bean dip 全麥口袋麵包脆片和豆子沾醬 (補食譜3/08/12)

好久沒有update了，應該是冬眠還沒有醒吧，最近總覺得很懶散，雖然東西一直有在做，就是沒有那股勁post的上來。前一陣子先生出差兩個多星期，最近孩子們放mid-winter break，所以時間被壓榨掉不少，網誌update這事就只能放在一旁納涼。

免揉裸麥麵包 No-knead rye bread...農(龍)曆年快樂:)

這個裸麥免揉麵包是我常做的麵包之一，因為我個人喜歡hearty bread，而家人並不是很欣賞，可是這個麵包是個例外，因為不但我很喜歡，家人也可以接受。

保暖的針織拖鞋 Cozy knitting slippers

其實我不太喜歡打毛線，總覺得沒有縫紉來的快、來的直接，再則打毛線時要不時地計算針數，若錯了還得拆掉重來，而且整個成品是一針一針慢慢織出來的，不像裁縫可以一大片一大片接起來，還有就是看patterns很花力氣，需要一針一針的數，不如裁縫來的簡單明瞭，因此我對打毛線一直沒有多大的興趣。

酸酵厚片比薩 Sourdough thick crust pizza

以前做比薩都是用Peter Reinhart的比薩餅皮食譜，做出來的比薩是普通厚度的餅皮，而這個用酸酵比薩餅皮做的則是外酥內軟的厚皮比薩。當初會選上這個食譜，只是為了消耗養的過多的酸酵(sourdough)，沒想到誤打誤撞發現了這個全家都非常喜歡的比薩餅皮食譜。