Easy Yeast Bread

There may be nothing on this earth that smells as good as baking bread. It may seem a daunting task but baking bread is easy and rewarding.  

This is a super easy recipe that is good for beginners.  

Easy Yeast Bread


3/4 Cup Warm Water
1 Package Active Dry Yeast
1 Tsp Salt
1-1/2 Tbsp Sugar
1 Tbsp Vegetable Shortening
1/2 Cup Milk
3 Cups All-Purpose Flour
1 Tbsp Vegetable Oil


In large bowl, add the sugar to the warm water.  Stir until all the sugar is dissolved.  Stir in yeast.  Allow to sit for about 5 minutes until yeast is bubbly.

Add salt, shortening, and milk to bowl. Stir.

Mix in the first 2 cups of flour.











You may not need all three cups of flour.  But, if needed, begin adding more flour, one tablespoon at a time, until the dough makes a soft dough.

Turn dough out onto floured board and knead, adding small spoonfuls of flour as needed, until the dough is soft and smooth, not sticky to the touch.

Add the oil to the bowl.  Put dough in the bowl, and turn over so that is covered in oil. Cover with a moistened towel and let rise in warm spot for 1 hour.

Punch down dough. Turn out onto floured board and knead.

Preheat oven at 375 degrees F. 

Form dough into loaf and set in buttered bread pan. Cover and let rise for about 30 minutes.

Put in oven and bake for about 45 minutes or until golden brown.

Turn out bread and let cool on a rack.

Which is better: to have fun with fungi or to have idiocy with ideology

My hubby isn’t particularly fussy about the foods he consumes.  He’ll eat just about anything put in front of him . . . or try it, at the very least.

There are three things he will not eat . . . seafood, black olives and fungi.  Seafood because sea creatures eat and poop in the same water they live in.  Black olives . . . he’ll eat other olives . . . because of they are  

processed in lye and lye is a poison.  I love black olives and, to the best of my knowledge, I haven’t died yet.  And fungi . . . because . . . well, because they are fungi and therefore are gross.  His reasoning is flawed at best. 

It’s generally pretty easy to avoid seafood and black olives; fungus . . . not so much.

Mushrooms are usually pretty easy to spot . . . I love them but I don’t normally cook with them because he doesn’t like them and when we’re eating out he can pick them out of his food if he spots them.  But mushrooms aren’t the only fungus in the food chain. 

Yeast is a fungus . . . what is made with yeast?  Beer and bread are the very first things that come to mind and he might very well die if he couldn’t have them.  

And pickles . . . oh my goodness . . . my hubby loves pickles.  Many pickles are fermented . . . fermentation requires yeast.   Give him a garlicky pickle and a shot of vodka and he has veritably died and gone to heaven.  Vodka is also is made using yeast . . .

And what of cheese?  Mold is a fungus and without it many cheeses would not exist . . . again, he loves cheese!  LOVES it!

Back to the olives that he will eat . . . much like pickles, in order to cure olives, yeast in one form or another is required; either through natural fermentation or by using vinegar. 

I could go on and on . . .

Like I said . . . flawed logic.  He’s cute but not too bright.  But, then again, I didn’t marry him for his brains . . . or for his good looks for that matter.  Just sayin’.

Sour Cream Cucumbers Salad

This recipe is a favorite of mine.  It's cool and wonderful.  Just try NOT to drink the dressing after all the cucumbers are gone.  :)

2 Large Cucumbers, Peeled and Sliced

1 Large Onion, Sliced Into Rings

3/4 Cup Sour Cream

3 Tablespoons Cider Vinegar

2 Tablespoons Sugar

Salt And Pepper To Taste

In a bowl, combine the cucumbers and onion. Combine remaining ingredients and pour over cucumbers. Mix well. Chill. Yield: 6-8 servings.

Which is better: to have fun with fungi or to have idiocy with ideology, to have wars because of words, to have tomorrow's misdeeds out of yesterday's miscreeds?   
Aldous Huxley