Donna Reed and Martha Stewart rolled into 1
I have been a domestic goddess for the past few days. On Thursday, I baked my own pizza crust. I don’t mean I bought one and baked it. I mean I proofed yeast, kneaded, punched down, and shaped pizza dough. It was good but to be honest not really worth the effort. On Friday, I got really brave. I did this:
That, my friends, is home made, fresh from the oven, French bread. I’ve only made bread once in my life. It was when I was in high school or early college with my mom. But look how pretty it turned out! And it tasted as good as it looked. It wasn’t hard – you just have to do it on a day you don’t want to leave the house. The active portions of the process (kneading, shaping, etc) I did while the girls napped. I used this French bread recipe and followed the advice of the reviewers and only used 5 cups of flour and proofed the yeast with a teaspoon or 2 of sugar for 15 minutes.
Also on Friday, I made some mighty yummy pulled pork.
Can you tell I am loving my new camera? Sabrina has started asking me if I want to take pictures of her crackers at snack time.
This is a 3 3/4 Boston Pork Butt Roast. I rubbed it down with the slightly modified Alton Brown’s Rub #9 which was left over from when I made ribs a few weeks ago. Then I put it in the crockpot on low with 1 cup of water and let it cook for about 8 hours. I took it out, discarded the liquid, shredded it with 2 forks (discarding all of the fatty pieces), and put it back in the crock pot with some carolina style BBQ sauce (vinegary and mustardy rather than ketchupy) but you can use whatever BBQ you like best. I let it warm through for about 20 minutes and voila – pulled pork BBQ. It is good alone or on a bun topped with coleslaw.
Today I made chili for the football game. And no, I’m not going to try and give you the recipe. Something you just can’t quantify.
That bread looks yummy and very pretty. You have inspired me to make bread. My mom made it all the time. I’ve never tried myself but have thought about it. Thanks for the recipe. I may try it tomorrow. Let’s see…………bake bread or get my oil changed, hmmmmmmmmmm…..I think it’ll be the bread. Hope it comes out like yours.
Your bread looks fantastic! Are you sure you’ve never done that before?! ‘Cause it looks like you know what you’re doing! =)
ooooh bread. I wish I had time to make bread. Its one of those few things that is completely worth the effort.
I looooove to cook, but yeast is entirely too daunting to me. You are superwoman.
Wow! Looks fantastic. I may need to give making bread a shot again soon! At 10am I also may need to eat lunch after reading anything about “pulled pork.”
You dang overachieving types!
Wow! That bread looks amazing! I love making pulled pork in the crockpot because it is soooo easy, but it tastes like you have been slaving in the kitchen. I also used yeast for the first time ever in my life recently! I made some breadsticks and I also made pizza dough. The pizza dough was actually very easy. I found the recipe on http://www.stolenmomentscooking.com. This is my new favorite cooking site to stalk! Check it out.
I have never been brave enough to not use a bread machine!! You may just be the next Julia Childs:>)
I was just getting ready to do pulled pork. Going to try your recipe. Thanks!!!
I love AllRecipes.com. I have found the best stuff on there – there’s a chicken enchilada dip recipe on that site that is to die for. I am saving this french bread recipe in my recipe box for a later date… you make it sound SO yummy!!!
I always make my own pizza crust, since I like to make it whole wheat. I did a garden this year and have frozen our supply of tomatoes and tomato sauce, squash, pear sauce, and pears for the year in hopes of decreasing the food budget. It all leaves me feeling a bit like Martha. I have to say that the bread looks amazing!
That bread is so pretty!
Damn but you’re good girl!
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