Kitchen Fun 'N" Brainstorming

Today is Library/shopping day! It's also Costco day! We're looking forward to receiving our Costco shipment almost as much as our trip to town!

Yesterday, I had hoped to make some yeast bread, but by the time I finished with everything else I had run out of time, so I made do with a loaf of quick bread instead. Rather than the usual banana bread I thought I'd try something different. I found a recipe for peanut butter bread, and added some chocolate chips to the batter. As it turns out, it was a better choice than the yeast bread for a couple reasons. First off, I realized I only have one bread pan, and if I'm going to put the time and effort into making yeast bread, I figure I may as well bake more than one loaf at a time. Naturally, a loaf pan is on today's shopping list. Secondly, we didn't do as much grocery shopping last week as usual and we were out of dessert options for the kids. The peanut butter bread, with the addition of the chocolate chips made for an excellent alternative for that. It was good last night, but I'm really looking forward to sampling it again today as, generally speaking, I've found quick breads tend to be much more flavorful the second day.

With the addition of a working oven, I'm finding new inspiration almost daily. I've decided I'd like to start baking my own bread for my family, rather than relying on the overpriced, preservative laden breads available at the grocery. Upon thinking that over a bit, I realized recycling the bread bags from previous bread purchases wasn't going to get me very far for storing my homemade creations. What to do? I looked online and found various sources of plastic bags for sale, ranging in price from better than $7 for 2 bags, to $80 + for 1000 bags. Obviously the 1000 bags is a better deal, but I really don't think I need that many! Then I had a light bulb moment. We do our shopping in a relatively small community, which limits us in some ways, but also has it's benefits. Folks tend to be friendly, and helpful. The folks at the stores we frequent know us. Perhaps, if I ask real nice I may be able acquire some bread bags from the bakery dept. at the grocery store! Guess I'll be finding out today!

In my previous post I forgot to mention, in all the fun the kids and I were having, somehow my glasses got knocked off. It took me a moment to realize what had happened. As I looked down, I spotted them, laying on the ground, right in front of me. Unfortunately, at the same moment, I was taking a step forward, in an attempt to steady myself. It was too late to stop myself. I did manage to swerve a bit, so I didn't hit them head on. . I picked them up, and was amazed to note they hadn't broken. They were bent, and it was a challenge to get them bent back enough that I could place them back on my face. It took several more adjustments to actually keep them on my face, but it was doable, and I am now gazing through them again. Perhaps Dorothy was right, and we should stop off to grab a lottery ticket during our trip to town today!. ;-)