Bread of the Month: FAIL*

I had grand designs for this month's bread: I was going to make my own sourdough starter. See, you make the starter and the natural yeasts in the air start growing in it and that's what makes the bread rise and also what gives sourdough it's tang. (That's why San Francisco is so famous for it's sourdough - apparently their yeast is extra yummy.) How cool would that be, bread made with Indiana-native yeast?

Plus, Lance loves sourdough and I love Lance and it was our 9th anniversary this month. Reason enough for me!

It all started out so well. And so easily. You just mix some water and flour in a clean bowl.


Then you kneed it for a while and stick it back in the bowl.


Cover that bad boy with plastic wrap and set it in a draft-free place for 12 hours.


Then, every 12 hours for the next couple of days you 'feed' the starter by adding more flour. It got all bubbly and gassy, just like it was supposed to. The yeast was so happy! I was going to make the bread the very next day.


And then this. I got out the starter and it was all flat and brown and smelled really gross. No more yeasts. Dead. Sad. FAIL.*


Tragic. I tried again, but again, no dice. So I gave up on the sourdough. Perhaps Indiana has faulty yeast. Who knows.

So I decided to just make some simple white bread instead. My tomatoes have finally started ripening, and what could be better than BLTs with home grown tomatoes and fresh, homemade sandwich bread? (Answer: not much.) I used the basic recipe from my Better Homes and Gardens Baking cookbook.


So I made the bread.


@#$@#*!!!!

I don't know what happened. I've made this bread before and had no problems. But for whatever reason this time it fell in the oven and was quite dense. Not so good for BLTs. (I still used the bread though. I thought toasting the slices would help a little, but then it was like eating BLTs on large croutons. Oops.)

Finally, yesterday I decided to make my safe, no-fail ever pizza dough to make some BBQ buns.

Things went well. I made the dough, cut it into 12 equal parts, and rolled it out.


Then I filled it with shredded pork BBQ and cheese. (Thanks again for the Paytons, Melissa!)


Next, I wrapped the dough around the filling and sealed it all in.


Into the oven the buns went, at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.


And out they came...


@#%@(!!!! They werent' supposed to explode like that! Dang it! But...


... well, you know what? No fail. Despite their odd appearance, they tasted great. Third time's the charm in this case. Good job, never-fail pizza dough!

Next month? Something fail-proof.

*In honor of one of my favorite blogs.

Mindful

Yesterday was a good day.

I went on a date with Lance to finally (!!!) see Harry Potter. No kiddos invited, thanks to our wonderful neighbors and friends, the Polmateers. (Thank you, Polmateers!)

Loved Harry. No, luurrrvved Harry.

Let the record note that I also love Lance, even though he's not bespectacled a teenage wizard.

Then we had a free (!!!) dinner at KFC, thanks to Ms. Oprah. I'm not a big fan of KFC, but when it's free food oddly tastes a lot better than normal. (Thank you, Oprah!) I don't think I'll ever forget the sight of Josh chowin' down on a drumstick.

After dinner we headed over to the church to set up chairs in the Primary room. Our ward has gone back to 9am church so now I have that worry all over again. (Don't ask - it's a long story.) (The church time, not the chair setting up - I just hate having to set up the chairs.) Anywho, we get to the church only to realize that it's all locked up and neither Lance or I have keys with us even though we both have keys to the church. Annoying. Ironically funny, but annoying.

Fortunately, we had the good sense to call our friends the Jacksons to see if they had a key. They were actually driving quite close by the church and were able to just swing by and let us in. Awesome. More than awesome. Miraculous.

Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit with the miracle thing. But it did help me realize how mindful our Heavenly Father is of us. Was it some horrible situation I needed help with? No. Would it have been the end of the world if I had to instead go early to church to set up? No. Would I have gone crazy if I hadn't gotten into the church that evening? Of course not. Maybe.

But it would have been a very frustrating bother and would have ruined my very good day. But it didn't. And for that I am very grateful.

After setting up the chairs we had free (!!!) ice cream cones at the Silver Dipper, thanks to some gift cards. (Thanks, Fry family!) I had the Zanzibar Chocolate Almond. Heaven. Seriously. And it was fun watching the boys try to eat their cones before they melted. They were unsuccessful but very entertaining.

Like I said, it was a good day.

In Disguise

A Conversation Between Brothers

**Okay, hopefully the video works now!**

Dear Lance

Dear Lance,

I started off the day showered and dressed with my makeup and hair done all by 9am. Score! I was looking decent! It was a productive day! I smelled nice! I even have proof (Josh and I were playing with the camera this morning):


Unfortunately, this is not the wife you will be coming home to this evening.

No, the wife you will be coming home to will look something like this:


Perhaps a little crankier, but close enough.

Why?

Because of that boy.


No, not that one.


Surprisingly, not that one, either.

This boy:


Oh, don't be fooled by those sweet looks. That boy's a spitting and/or pooping machine. My shirt and hair have the stains/stickiness/smells to prove it.

I have never striven to be the perfect 1950's-June-Cleaver-Wannabe housewife. I don't greet you at the door in a skirt and pearls with a pot roast in the oven and clean, orderly children. That would be freaky. But I try to at least look decent. To at least smell pleasant.

But today I have given up. I know when I am beat.

Who knew it'd be the baby to defeat me in my pursuit of looking nice today? He's so much sneakier than he looks.

Love,

Maren

Bucket Hanger Lip

Cole has inherited the Burgoyne 'Bucket Hanger Lip'. (Burgoyne is my mother's maiden name.)


As in, "You could hang a bucket on that lip!"


Poor picked on baby!

Self-portrait Tuesday: Hormone Backlash

There are many things that no one tells you about pregnancy until after you are pregnant. (Otherwise the human race just might die out.) One of these things is what I call the 'postpartum hormone backlash'. I don't know if this is a real medical condition or if other women experience the same thing; all I know is that it's happened with all three of my pregnancies. For Spencer and Josh it started about six week postpartum; for Cole it started around 10 weeks. (Who knows why...)

First, my hair starts falling out. By the handful. It's all over the floor, all over me, all over poor Cole when I feed him. I am always amazed that I'm not completely bald at the end of it. I asked my doctor about it and he said it's partly hormones and partly the post-traumatic stress from having a baby. (Cole was my least stressful baby - maybe that's why this started later than normal!)

Second, my skin starts breaking out like I'm fourteen years old again. It's all nice and shiny and spotty and angst-inducing. Lovely.

Third, and this doesn't really have anything to do with hormones but I'm still blaming it on this 'disorder', none of my clothes fit. Some of my pre-pregnancy clothes are a bit too snug and my maternity clothes are way too big, as are a few shirts I bought just after I had Cole. In other words, nothing fits right and I just look and feel dumpy. Urgh.

But you know what? Doesn't matter. Because this little guy doesn't seem to care one bit that I'm shedding, breaking out, and not fitting in any of my clothes.


And that makes it all worth it.

Uncle Kevin's Visit (Now with photo captions!)

Whew! I'm finally back. No excuses, really. Sometimes you just need a little blogging vacation, you know?

We had a fun-filled few days with my baby brother, Kevin, last week. My 6' 5", 25 year old, funny, wicked smart, pop culture-lovin' baby brother. (He's available, ladies!)

We picked Kevin up from the airport Tuesday afternoon. Within an hour of being home the fruit bowl was transformed to this:


What is it about the Roper genetic make up that requires my fruit bowl to turn into a sugar-and-trans-fat-laden bowl of complete temptation? Sheesh.

We decided to brave the chance of rain and headed down to the Indie Zoo on Wednesday. The trip started off well enough, but within an hour it was pouring. We found shelter under a cafe overhang, then a pretzel stand tent, and then some trees. Finally, we just gave up and didn't care about getting wet anymore! The boys enjoyed splashing in the puddles, chasing ducks, and occasionally looking at the animals.

Here we are at the rhinos. They were fun because they kept scratching themselves on the big rocks around their pit. The rhinos, not the boys.


Despite the smile on his face, Spencer was something of a pill the entire trip. He kept whining about wanting to go home and play video games. I think he's addicted. Rotgut kid.


We ended up getting quite wet - but that's okay. It's not like it was cold or steaming hot.


Okay, maybe Spencer and I were the only ones who didn't mind getting wet. Trying to put things into perspective I told Kevin it could be worse - it could be super hot, with steam coming off of the pavement.

Within the hour steam was coming off of the pavement.


Oops. Whatever. It was still a fun and glorious (if a bit soggy) afternoon at the zoo!


It was supposed to rain most of the day Thursday, so we decided to hang out at home. Of course it didn't rain a drop, but whatever. Kevin played with the Spencer and Josh and I even got a nap. (Score!) Then he brushed up on his baby holdin' skills. (Have you ever seen a bachelor who was the youngest in his family hold a baby? Hilarious.)


Cole really liked his uncle, and showed his love by kicking him - repeatedly - for several hours. Fun!


On Friday we decided to do something I've wanted to do for the past five years I've lived here - visit historic Battle Ground, Indiana, home of the site of the Battle of Tippecanoe. Woo-hoo! Nothin' but excitement when you visit the Madsens! Okay, but seriously, it was a gorgeous day and this was the kind of place Kevin and I grew up visiting, so it was only fitting that we went.

We started with a rather tasty picnic. (Why are picnics so fun? Does eating outside make the food taste better? Discuss.)


Then we played a rousing game of "Guess Which Tree Mommy is Thinking Of", where you run to a tree and then look at Mommy to see if that's the tree she was thinking of while she eats her lunch in peace. After a couple of rounds, Kevin joined in on the fun, too.


Oddly, the tree mommy was thinking of was often the last tree the boys ran to. Weird.


Spencer also worked on his mad table walking skillz.


Then we decided to go check out the monument, which was actually fairly impressive considering it's out in the middle of Indiana and all.


Good thing we had Kevin with us to point out that the General of the battle, William Henry Harrison (thank you Wikipedia, source of all Internet knowledge!), later became a United States president. In all honesty, I wouldn't have put the two together. See Spencer? Little brothers are good for something!

We also found this random staircase on the fence around the monument. Weird. What's the point of having a gate that closes and locks if there's a staircase like this a few yards away from it? (Obviously the point is to entertain little boys.)


We also decided to checkout the battle museum. It was typical of a local, small museum, but worth seeing at least once. The boys actually did fairly well, and loved looking at all of the antique swords and guns.

Spencer thought these were computer mice:


Since there was no sign to explain what they really were I couldn't convince him otherwise.

There was a short presentation about the battle with a super modern (can you feel the sarcasm?) fiber optic map. Of course we had to watch it!


Spencer asked who the bad guys in the battle were: the Indians or the soldiers? I didn't know how to answer... so I distracted him with an Indian teepee.


We finished off the day with a visit to...

... a random log cabin with a bench in front of it in the antique gun room...


... an apparently fascinating drinking fountain, and...


... the monument again, where much frolicking was to be had and...


... where you could also pretend to be an Indian.


Or blow kisses. I'm not quite sure what Kevin is doing there.

That evening Kevin got to experience the thrill that is LANily Home Evening. I believe Kevin's exact words about the evening were "I got my butt handed to me", but I think he still had fun.

It was a short trip, but fun. Thanks for coming, Kevin! (And thanks for footing the bill, dad!)