Another Food Picture

Not sure if anyone has noticed, but I've been taking a picture or pictures everyday since the New Year. I've tried this several times before, and have always failed, but I'm determined to do this, so here we go again. Taking a picture a day is not as easy as it sounds though. Sometimes all I end up with is...food!

Oh well...at least we will know what we ate on a certain day. Sunday dinner was a roasted chicken in my new favorite dutch oven. It was good.

I Baked Bread! Artisan Bread!

I baked bread!

And it's so pretty and good!

When I saw this post , I knew I wanted to try this bread. It only has 4 ingredients! So I got myself a dutch oven, made the dough last night - took all of five minutes and let it rise overnight. When it came time to cook dinner today, I followed the instructions in the blog post and into the oven my bread went with hopeful anticipation. After a short while, I could smell the baking bread. I wanted to take a peek, but held off for the 30 mins. When the timer went off and I lifted the lid, I got a huge smile on my face and started doing the happy dance, singing, "I baked bread, I baked bread"  It was so easy! So easy I'm mixing up another batch tonight, but this loaf will have rosemary and olive oil in it. I have a few other ideas too.

lemon and rosemary
cranberry, orange and almond
cinnamon, raisin and walnuts
garlic and cheese

So many different breads to try!

I've mentioned several times that I have a love/hate relationship with cooking. This is one of the times I loved it. I love trying new recipes and the recipe actually coming out the way it should! Experiences like this make me want to find other new recipes to try!

Dutch Oven Cooking

I've been wanting a dutch oven for a while now, but couldn't bring myself to shell out over $200 for a Le Creuset Dutch oven. I loved all the pretty colors, but paying that much just wasn't happening.

Then I found Lodge. I read all the reviews, found blog posts of people who compared Le Crueset to Lodge, and guess what. The Lodge performed just as well as the Le Crueset, and I got my 5 quart oven for $38 and some change at Walmart! You read that right! $38. As much as I hate Walmart, I was happy to get this. It's not as pretty as all the bright colorful dutch ovens, but I'm sure it will perform just as well. Lodge does have the pretty colors though, you will just pay a bit more for it. If you are on a budget like me, go with the black.

One of the first things I want to make in my new dutch oven is Artisan No-Knead bread. Yep, you read that right. Bread! I found this blog post, and plan to prepare the dough tonight and make my first loaf of bread tomorrow. I hope it's as easy as they say. It's suppose to be a chilly rainy day tomorrow, perfect for baking bread. I can smell the baking bread right now. Actually, I take that back! I smell wet puppy right now!!! So looking forward to smelling fresh baked bread instead!