I'm done! Whee! Now for 3 weeks of hanging with the Price, cooking, cleaning, and doing nothing!


In other news, here's a couple of recipes I've cooked up recently:

Dill Bread (inspired by Joy of Cooking)
1. Combine 2.25 tsp yeast and 0.5c warm water in a small bowl and let sit for awhile.
2. In a large bowl, combine 0.5c finely chopped onion, 3c bread flour, 3-4 tbsp chopped fresh dill, and 2 Tbsp sugar.
3. Dump yeasty water into flour bowl along with 1c cottage cheese and 1 egg. Stir until everything is in a bog doughy mass. Turn out onto lightly floured counter, set bowl up-side down over the top, and let rest 10 minutes.
4. Knead with floured hands, gradually adding in 1 tsp fine sea salt, for about 10 minutes, until it feels smooth, springy, and elastic. Add flour as you go along, but don't over-flour it (though it is pretty sticky).
5. Place in an oiled bowl, turn over once to coat, and cover with plastic wrap. Leave to rise 1-1.5 hours or until approximately doubled in volume.
6. Turn out and shape into a loaf whichever way works for you. Place in an oiled 9x5 pan, cover with oiled plastic wrap, and let rise for an hour, until about doubled in volume.
7. Preheat oven to 350F. Brush the top of the loaf with melted butter and sprinkle a few dill seeds over it. Bake for 35 minutes, or until golden brown on top and hollow when tapped on the bottom (this took ~40 minutes in our crappy oven). Let cool completely before eating.


Brownies (still in my freezer for delicious snacking)- This is basically Deb's recipe, but I used 150g of 72% chocolate instead of baking chocolate, which I couldn't find. Awesome.


Rice pudding (I actually make this all the time but forgot to post the recipe)
2 cups leftover cooked white rice
3 cups milk (any kind) (sometimes I add a little extra milk at the end if it seems a little dry
1/4-1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup raisins
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, optional
pinch nutmeg, optional

Combine cooked rice, milk, sugar (and a pinch of salt, if you want) in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat to a simmer and stir in the vanilla and raisins. Cook until just about all of the milk is absorbed (30-45 minutes, depending on how absorbent your rice is). Stir in cinnamon and/or nutmeg, if using. Serve warm..
Makes 3-6 servings.

Yum!

Also, I accidentally typed a billion vet words into this post, including Orf and ruminate. I took them out where I could, but please forgive the intrusion.