The Bread Project Week 10: Basic Hearth Bread

I told a million people I was going to make pita bread, or maybe english muffins, or maybe etc etc etc. The weekend ended up being insanely busy. I enjoyed myself a lot, but unfortunately bigas fell by the wayside. I ended up settled on...

The Recipe: Basic Hearth Bread from The Bread Bible

I picked it since the recipe called for a sponge (like a biga, but wetter) sit out for 4 hours, giving me time to do laundry and go to the gym. I also hoped it would be a nice compromise, flavor wise, between a straight bread and having to wait another three days to make something.

The Result:

There was probably a bit too much flour in my dough but I didn't mind, as it wasn't scary wet while kneading. It turned out fine and probably had the best crust I've made. Next time if/when I make this bread I'll do a freeform loaf or rolls.

Earring-A-Day 30: Rubber Ducks!

I picked up these ducks years ago, on a little group trip in college. A bunch of people I worked with were going apple picking, and there was food and stands near the farm. These immediately jumped out at me for earrings, but they say for ages in drawers and boxes as I moved around. It's nice to finally get them made.

Not at all seasonally appropriate, but completely adorable. Wish I had more.

Earring-A-Day 29: Mini Pin Cushions

When I sew, I have the terrible habit of putting pins in my mouth, mostly because I have no pin cushions. A lazy Sunday gave me the opportunity to create these mini pin cushion earrings with bottle caps, though I've had the idea in my head for at least the past two Mondays.

I love this fabric- I actually made a tie out of it a while back. So adorable, though you kind of look like a 6 year old going to church on Easter. Having some crazy idea turn out well is the best feeling in the world- and they're not too hard to make either.

Materials and Tools:
- Fabric (scraps)
- Bottle Caps
- Stuffing
- Earring Hooks
- Glue
- Pliers
- Scissors
- Needle/Thread

Start with a circle of fabric:

Use whatever needle and thread you have on hand (I had embroidery floss) to sew a quick running stitch around the outside of the circle.

Then tighten the string, creating a pouch.

Fill said pouch with your stuffing of preference and tie it closed:

Create your bottle cap earrings with (the usual method)- making sure the inside faces front. These caps are plain silver ones we use for homebrew, I didn't take pictures of the other side- sorry!

Put a big glob of glue in the cap and stuff the cushion inside, knot side down. I used Elmer's glue that takes forever to dry, so rubber bands came in handy:

Once it's dry, you have your adorable little pin cushions:

Now I won't have to worry about inhaling pins when I sew! Hooray!

Earring-A-Day 28: Paper

I was a bit stumped for today's earrings, though I guess I always am for studs. I'd gone so crazy preparing for the dud of a hurricane that I there really wasn't much to do today. Most stores were closed, and although it wasn't terrible out I didn't really feel like driving. So I took the opportunity to clean up a bit around the house, and used one of the ad's to make my earrings:

Call it a bonus upcycling day. Also, very easy. Just coiled up strips of paper. Hooray!

Earring-A-Day 27: Keys!

Ok, this was a lazy one, but come on- I was preparing for the hurricane! One of the things I wanted to do (which I didn't actually end up doing) was to put my bike inside so it didn't blow away. The problem: I always lose my bike keys. The lock I bought came with two keys- perfect for earrings:

This way they can live in my earring frame when I'm not wearing them so they won't get lost! Added bonus: shiny shiny.

Earring-A-Day 26: Soda Tabs

Friday was upcycle day, and I decided on soda (well, beer- Genny Cream Ale to be specific) tabs. There was an Etsy Labs day where they made bracelets and belts out of tabs a while back, but I wasn't able to attend. I think for that they used elastic- which makes sense for a bracelet, not so much for earrings- so I used duct tape. Here's a front and back view:

Yep, that's the same duct tape as Day 23's. Very easy, and I liked the way they turned out.

Earring-A-Day 25: Birthday Candles

The 25th was my birthday, and although nobody could've blamed me for taking the day off, it was actually very easy to come up with my earrings for the day: Birthday Candles!

You see how they're burnt? I tried to light them while wearing them. Fun fact: the melting wax puts out the flame. Instead I lit them while just holding them, D sang, and I blew them out. Still very cool. And less of a chance of me setting my hair on fire, which is always good.

Earring-A-Day 24: CD Cases

You know how I mentioned two fails in last week's office supply theme post? Well I managed to salvage one of them: CD Cases!

Are CD cases office supples? I think so- especially since I work in operations for a TV network and we use these for DVDs. In my previous position I always ended up recycling a number of these, so they'd even work for a Friday upcycle post, too.

Basically I put these in a reusable shopping bag and broke them. Originally when I took them out I thought the pieces looked too big/obviously CD cases and deemed it a failure. Last night I revisited the idea and broke off smaller pieces by hand. Then it was just a matter of drilling holes in each and looping some wires through to attach the hooks.

Earring-A-Day 23: Duct Tape Flowers

Another idea I'd had kind of fizzled out last night, but glancing around my room I happened to notice a roll of red duct tape I'd bought in an attempt to patch my rain boots. That attempt mostly failed, but red duct tape is very cool regardless.

I folded over strips to take away the sticky side, then cut out petal bits. I attached them together with that makeshift staple in the center. Kind of wish I'd thought of this for tomorrow, as I could've used an actual staple and saved myself some trouble. Does duct tape count as an office supply?

Anyway, here's another view of the earrings, showing the layers off a little more, and getting my requisite short depth of field picture in.

Purdy!

Earring-A-Day 22: Otter Creek Macaroons

I knew there was a reason I love making bottle cap earrings- they're so easy! These are a bit more complicated than the normal method I'd been doing. Instead of the standard single caps I put two together with wire.

I think they kind of look like macaroons:

In that last pic you can kind of see how they were connected with head pins. I wish I'd had a single longer piece of wire- despite my best efforts they moved around (noisily) everywhere I went during work.

OCB stands for Otter Creek Brewing. Technically we got these caps from Wolaver's bottles- which is owned by OCB. Wolavers makes a lovely coffee porter, though their wildflower wheat is incredibly tasty, too.

Earring-A-Day 21: Perler Bead Flowers (...?)

Not going to lie, pretty sure these are the worst ones I've made this month. But I was very much running short on time (I think I made these at 8 or 9pm on Sunday), so I was happy to get something done at least:

These kind of look like flowers...right? Maybe? Ah, well they're simply perler beads ironed together then attached to backings with glue. Easy, though it kind of shows more with these than others.

Maybe by the end of the month I'll get the stud thing down.

Earring-A-Day 20: Dominos

This past weekend was fairly insane for a number of reasons, so sorry it's taking me so long to post these last few days. For Saturday's pair of earrings it's an especially iffy post, as I gave them away that night.

They were dominoes I'd picked up at a church rummage sale a few months ago:

These were not $3.35 as the sticker says- I think I got a bag with a million things for $2? At most $3.

Anyway, I picked out two sevens (I believe a 4/3 and a 5/2) and drilled a hole in middle/top. I threaded some head pins through, made loops and attached them to hooks. Here's a closeup on the dominoes themselves- the back on these are pretty cool, too:

My hole for the one on the left would've been on the face of the domino above (below) the center dot. Have a ton left, will definitely make more. If I ever open an Etsy shop maybe I'll put some up.

The Bread Project Week 9: Oatmeal Banana Bread & Corn Bread

In my mind I will only officially be obsessed with baking bread when:

a) I own and use a kitchen scale to measure out ingredients
b) I have a pizza stone/quarry tiles/bricks in my oven
c) I maintain my own sourdough starter

Until that point I'm on the cusp. But! I did end up making...uhhh...five loaves of bread this weekend? There were only three batches (and only two recipes between them), but still. So much bread.

How did this happen? Well, I'd already picked a bread for this week (the cornmeal alternate to Buttermilk Potato Bread from The Bread Bible), when I noticed I had a few extra bananas this week. Food Blog Search has become a great friend of mine, and I stumbled upon this Whole Wheat Oat Banana Yeast Bread from Judicial Peach. There is literally no part of that name that didn't sound good to me. So it was set. Lots of bread. And it all ended up being tasty.

Putting in a page jump as this thing will be loooong.


Recipe #1: Whole Wheat Oat Banana Bread from Judicial Peach

Two of these three things are my breakfast everyday at work:

And I've been trying to eat more whole wheat bread so this was the perfect project for me. Everything came together well- I was worried since Banana Breads were usually quickbreads that something would go wrong with the rises, but the end result was very good. I probably needed to cook it a bit longer, but the honey (I believe) was already making the crust rather brown and I was worried about it burning.

As I knew I'd end up with two loaves I decided to try a roll method I'd read about. I created little boules and squished them together in a pan, creating a lovely crown of bread that could easily be pulled apart for consumption. I think next time I'm making bread specifically to bring somewhere I'll use this technique, it ends up much less messy than cutting slices.

The Results:

I didn't take a picture of the loaf. I used this bread for peanut butter sandwiches (delicious!), dunking in a few spicy soups I'd made to combat a cold I felt coming on (weird tasting...), and as a bun for sliders (actually good, though I couldn't taste the bananas over the burger so that's probably why).

Recipe 2: Tangy Cornmeal Bread from The Bread Bible

This is the tastiest bread I've ever made. No kidding. Leaving the biga (flour, water, and yeast you mix ahead of time to develop flavor) in the fridge for three days gave it a lovely acidity- almost a sourdough flavor. Kneading the dough was kind of scary as it was (intentionally, per the recipe) very very wet. I have to rethink my kneading surface as the cutting board I use wasn't working well at all. Luckily my mom had gotten me a dough scraper a while back. That definitely helped.

The Results:

As I said the flavor was delicious and tangy. The crumb looked lovely as well, and the crust was thin but chewy.

Will definitely be trying the biga method again, perhaps next week!

Earring-A-Day 19: Earbuds

I have a hard time throwing some things away. Eventually old electronics will get tossed, but for example I held on to the innards of a rotary phone for far longer than is sane. I don't know anything about wiring, what was I going to do with it? Still not sure. Did eventually throw it out, after doing something awesome with the dial I'll have to post about soon.

Today's use up three sets of busted earbuds that have been sitting in my desk drawer. There may be another pair floating around, but I wasn't able to find them:

I was originally going to just do the Apple ones, and have a single pair long enough for me to actually put in my ears, but I liked the way the three together looked.

I threaded each of the wires through the loop, then used jump rings to cinch and secure the wires. I still may make them tighter just so I know they'll stay put, but overall I'm so happy. Especially since they're not in my drawers anymore! Well...I still have the jack ends. Maybe I'll make a matching bracelet. Or throw them out- you know, eventually.

Earring-A-Day 18: Legos

Well obviously I have a thing for nostalgia. As I've said. Apparently I like red more than I thought as well. Today's earrings: legos!

I've seen a number of lego studs, and some Sunday coming up I'll be kicking myself for not doing that. But these were taken these from my parents' house ages ago- it's not like I had my whole old stash on hand. Simple construction: drill, insert headpin, make loop, attach hook. Still, it's nice to make things that people recognize and like.

Earring-A-Day 17: Paper Stars

Today's earrings came out of a whole ton of fail. I had two different ideas before this- one featured plastic that was incredibly uncooperative, the other was too simple. And soon as I'd basically finished that second one a new strategy came to mind that I liked a ton better but was impossible given what I'd already done. Sorry about the vagueness, if I can work out the issues they will be featured the next two Wednesdays of the month.

Yes, it's office supply day! Today's are simple but cute:

 
Yes, those are the paper stars you probably made in elementary school. Thing is- I didn't learn until last week. Truly I had a deprived childhood.

After creating the stars with paper strips I used a sharp embroidery needle to create holes for my headpins to go through. Then it was just a matter of creating loops at the top and attaching earring hooks.

This is my first experience with paper earrings, and I'm happy the weather today is supposed to be nice. For added protection I may coat these in some outdoor mod podge I happen to have, we'll see.

Earring-A-Day 16: Bears

Are you ready? Brace yourself.

Today's earrings may just look like the cheapie bears that used to be ubiquitous at the registers of craft stores (are they still? I haven't noticed any lately, but I haven't really been looking), but if you notice, I've drilled through their ears. The question is: are they my earrings, or am I theirs?

I'll give you a minute to clean your brains off the walls, as I'm sure your mind was just blown. Or something.

Method was the usual: drill holes, insert wires, attach hooks. I didn't have any premade gold jump rings so I finagled my own. They're a bit on the heavy side but they're so adorable I don't mind.

The Bread Project Week 8: Whole Wheat Potato Bread

Surprisingly on track with my variations on a recipe...well, kind of.

I was debating between two recipes- one from The Wooden Spoon Bread Book, the other from what I just checked out of the library: The Bread Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum. In love with the latter from what little I've read, but it's a bit intimidating in that most breads require even more forethought than I'm used to (at least a day, maybe three). So I played it a bit safe and did one from the former.

The Recipe: Whole Wheat Potato Bread from The Wood Spoon Bread Book

The Changes: Butter instead of shortening, subbed in 1.5 tbs of honey as I ran out of molasses midway through. Also used one loaf pan and two random pans (all pyrex- one technically for pies, the other a larger oval pan), as that was all I had.

The Result: 

The Verdict: I should probably make smaller recipes. Or start giving this stuff away haha.

Seriously though, this was too much variation from last week's for me to get a good feel for the differences from Week 7's bread, but I'm happy with the result. I want to bake more whole wheat breads (much to D's dismay), and this had good texture and flavor. Still didn't have that potato-bread flavor I'm looking for though.

Earring-A-Day 15: Troegs Caps

Today's are one of the more decorated caps I've seen: Troegs

All their packaging is similarly epic. I'm a big fan of coffee in beers, and their Javahead is pretty nice. Originally I'd had something else in mind for today's caps but when I went beer shopping over the weekend I remembered selection in North Jersey can be a little spotty, so I went with that.

And as I need two caps I picked up a Troegs I'd never seen before: Flying Mouflan

The description on the bottle really sold me:

We classify this beer as pushing Nugget Nectar off the side of a cliff. It is bold and intense–think hops dipped in candied sugar and rolled in dark chocolate nibs.

It was tasty for sure, though it's kind of hard to live up to that description...

Earring-A-Day 14: Wine Cork Studs

I think these earrings work well as a concept, and that my execution was just ok and didn't do it justice.

Apologies for the flash photo- it's a super nasty day out and all my non-flash pictures looked awful.

These are wine corks that I colored with sharpies and then carved shapes into. Stud backings were glued to the back. Ta da!

In a perfect world I wouldn't have had to color anything. The goal was to use corks from bottles of red wine, where the corks would've been naturally (and prettily) stained by the wine. Unfortunately the only other corks I had I used on Friday, and really, the color was far too pale to work:

I guess I could've bought a few bottles but I'm not really feeling having to go through that much wine right now. The final results of my improvised method weren't bad- maybe if I'd chosen easier shapes they would've turned out better?

Oh studs, you're the bane of my existence. Or, you know, the Sunday earring part of my existence.

Earring-A-Day 13: Dart Flights

I love today's earrings so much. But then my ancestry is like half German, so of course I like shiny things.

Do you recognize what they are? Dart flights! Aka the bit on the tail end of a dart.

I'm not much of a darts player, but these great for earrings. Besides the aforementioned shininess, they were soo cheap. I found mine in a clearance bin at Kmart, marked as being 67 cents but rang up for 21. Then it was just a matter of drilling a hole and attaching jump rings and earring hooks.

Here's another pic so you can get a better feel for the shape:

Earring-a-Day 12: Wine Cork Earrings

Wine Corks are on the upper end of the trash spectrum, but I managed to leave work with both my iPod charging and my earrings supplies sitting in a drawer so yeah, it's good I got anything done haha.

Yes, that The Dread Pirate Rabbit in the background.

These are Pepperwood Grove corks- they have a decent but cheap Cab Sauvignon. I don't drink wine a ton, but when I do I want to be attacked by pepper and leather or drink, you know, a Reisling or something. Because those two flavors are so similar haha.

Anyway, I'm a big fan of the cork design- very mod and cool. My plan was originally to put head pins all the way through for support, but I couldn't get them to go through straight. So instead I just put a loop on the end of a bit of wire and stuck it in the top. It seems to be holding alright, but I'm not going to do a lot of walking or chair stacking with these on just in case. Once I get home I'll put some glue on to keep everything in place.

*Updated 8/13 to replace photo

Earring-A-Day 11: Button Chain Earrings

Ooh first post that didn't automatically go up at 9:30am. Slackin' off today. Why? Well between two dead mice (one computer, one my cat caught. ew) it was a little tough to get everything ready before I went to bed last night. That and I was working on bread. Expect that post later this month as the The Bread Project is a few weeks behind meat space. Anyway, onward!

Today's earrings fairly simple. Once again I reached into my bag of church rummage sale buttons, and took out a few that are the same shape but different tones. Buttons + jump ring chain =

I'm not totally in love with these. Originally I'd wanted to hang the buttons vertically, but I thought that might be too similar to last week's Sailor Jerry Earrings, so I went horizontal. The buttons are nice and woody looking, which is a nice contrast to the shiny shiny jump rings, but I'm not completely sold on it. Ah well, maybe I'll revisit this idea later, as there are still sooo many buttons left in that bag.

Earring-A-Day 10: Flying Spaghetti Monster Earrings

These earrings are the reason I had a "make something from office supplies" day. I was a little nervous these wouldn't turn out well, but they're my favorite so far. Seriously. I may have to stop now, because there's no way I'm going to top Flying Spaghetti Monsters:

Obviously the spaghetti is rubber bands. The meatballs are erasers, and the support structures are paper clips. The eyes are just the wire shaped into loops, then covered in a thick layer of white out. Once that dried I used a sharpie to color in the pupils.

Another pic:

I know the FSM usually has more...tendrils(?), but I was worried the rubber bands would come undone. Still. Look at them: adorable!

Earring-A-Day 9: Dinosaurs!

I've had periodic bouts of insomnia lately, which has been annoying but there it one benefit: by this point I've moved past the tired into some kind of zen state where I get lots of weird ideas. Or I've gone insane. Either would explain how these lovely earrings popped into my head the other night:

Yes, those are dinosaurs. Yes, they're on swings. Yes, I'm wearing them to work.

I decided to break from my usual "drill hole, attach to hooks" method for these because dinosaurs are awesome, and I felt bad drilling through their heads. Originally I wanted to have the swings made from T-pins for more support, but those are really tough to bend. Then I came up with a complicated but stable backup:

These were nice (dinos are held on with little harnesses of wire) but I thought the swing contraption distracted too much from the dinosaurs- and that the duct tape swing was too ugly. So, after spending most of Open Craft Night at Etsy Labs working on that thing, I threw together the swing I ended up using in 10 minutes. And then glued the dinosaurs on at home.

Here's another picture for fun:

The swings are just two head pins taped together at the bottom with loops at the top. Dinos are from one of those quarter machines at the grocery store. Awesomeness. If I don't get comments on these at work I'll know I've gone off the deep end haha.

The Bread Project Week 7: Potato Bread & Flailing

So this week's loaf was someone on a whim. I intended to either remake The Learning Loaf, but maybe braid it? Either that or some english muffins or cornbread with yeast I'd had my eye on. Instead I drew another recipe from The Wood Spoon Bread Book!

Recipe: Dusty Potato Bread

I'd had some russet potatoes in the cupboard that weren't looking especially pretty anymore, and D is always bugging me to make him mashed potatoes. Also, unlike the wheat breads I've been making, D is madly in love with potato bread. So many birds killed with one stone.

I was doing a million other things in the kitchen that day so I let the first rise go on probably a bit too long, but all in all it came out well. Since the only actual potato came from the water the flavor wasn't there as strongly as I'd hoped, but I think it softened the texture up a bit.

My only change was using butter instead of shortening, as that's what I had on hand. Once again I was very pleased with the instructions in the book, and had no problem creating a bread that was delicious.

The Result:

 Maybe I should buy another loaf pan, as that second was made in a slightly larger dish.

Overall I'm feeling more confident in the technique, though I know there's still a ways to go. But given that the whole thing isn't as scary or overwhelming as it used to be I've started thinking about the direction on this project. Lately I've been just pulling recipes that look good or interesting without much thought as to direction. Given that the potato bread wasn't very...potatoy? I'm thinking about making it again next weekend, with another recipe.

Not too long ago I read this excerpt from a Mark Bittman book, which makes a lot of sense to me. I should pick a type of bread and for a few weeks make various recipes, taking note of things I like and don't like. It will give me an idea of what characteristics different ingredients bring to the table. Specifically, D wants yellow potato bread, which I think means eggs- right? So I'll find an eggy recipe, or maybe just one with actual potato in it, not just the water.

That's the overall goal- though don't be surprised if next week I'm making something random again.

Earring-A-Day 8: Lionshead Bottlecaps

Lionshead. Such an awful beer. But so cheap! At this point in my life I have standards for what I'll pay to drink, and Lionshead doesn't really make it in the flavor department. Even though this new redesign of the outside of their caps is kind of cute:

The real selling point for this beer is under the caps- they have Rebus Puzzles!

 
Not too long ago a liquor store near my apartment had random cheap single bottles, so D and I picked up two. I've saved the caps for ages and they're today's pair...except I'm wearing them backwards. See last week for a tutorial. Here is my finished pair:

These were kind of easy, though for whatever reason the one of the left took me a while the first time I saw it.

Earring-A-Day 7: Button Studs

Sunday came on a little to fast, and I feel like I copped out a little on these studs. I never make them so I was at a loss for what to do. Then yesterday D and I went out shopping and two things happened:

1) The greeter at the store said (re: my matchbooks) "Your earrings are pretty! I mean, unique. They're cool." Haha.

2) I noticed the studs they had there were fairly boring.

So I don't feel too bad about today's earrings: buttons I picked out from a random bag of buttons I'd gotten at a church rummage sale.

These were as easy enough as attaching the buttons to the backings with super glue. Sadly the glue I had was a little dried- kind of gummy- so it was hard to get a thin layer. Hence the glue gunk in one of the button holes. But they're nice.

I have a few more creative ideas for studs assuming I can find the materials. For now I'll just leave you with a shot of the backs.