Simple White Bread

 Welcome back to my kitchen! I hope that the aroma of the fresh-baked bread fills your house and arouses your senses as it does mine every time. Baking your own bread will reduce your food cost; for some it could relieve stress at the same time, especially if using the method of kneading and working the dough. There can be no question that homemade bread will taste so much better than most bread you can buy in the store. The long process of baking bread can be time-consuming and requires patience, but it is quite interesting. If you want to learn this process, you can go to these websites below that I followed when I first started baking my own bread.

http://www.baking911.com//
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/

If you are a beginner without the experience of baking I would prefer that you try some simple recipes of baking bread at home using a bread machine with a few changes. I will now share this technique with you to build your confidence because if the first time the loaf comes out wrong; it will kill any chances that you will want to try again.

Luckily for you, I have studied all the recipes that I could get my hands on and came up with my own. Just rest assured that whatever recipes that I post in my blog have been tested by me and can be revised to any size to fit your lifestyle. You can double or triple the ingredients to make it work for whatever events that you are hosting.

A simple loaf of bread is flour, water, and yeast and a few changes to enhance the taste of bread. If you use a bread machine, your job is more than halfway done. This is the simple and foolproof recipe for white sandwich bread; I hope you will enjoy it.

Ingredients:
1 cup of warm water (105°)
2 tablespoons white sugar
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons milk powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups of bread flour (maybe 3 more tablespoons of flour is needed)
2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Instructions:
Place the ingredients in your bread pan machine in the order listed above or you can follow the instructions from your bread machine manual. If you want to bake the loaf in the machine, then select the white bread button; press start.

After practicing a few times, I don't like to bake my loaf in the bread machine because it looks conventional rather than homemade. If you want to bake your loaf in the oven, then select the dough cycle and press start. The bread machine will do the mixing, kneading and the first rising for you in the machine or placing the dough in an oily bowl. Cover with a damp dish-towel and lest it rise in a warm place for 1 or 2 hours or when the dough is double in size as the picture below shows

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Then punch down the dough with your fist to remove any air bubbles.

Brush a 10x6x3 inch loaf pan with oil and lightly dust your hands with flour and shape the dough into a long rectangle the same width as the loaf pan. Now fold each end of the long dough rectangle underneath so that the dough length will be exactly the same length as the loaf pan. Place the dough into the prepared pan seam side down.

Cover with a damp dish towel like earlier and let the dough rise in a warm place for another 30 minutes, or until the dough has reached the top of the loaf pan. To achieve a deep golden brown top, brush with egg wash

Preheat the oven to 400° and bake the loaf in the oven for 30 minutes. To test that the loaf is done, first remove the loaf. It should sound hollow when you tap on the bottom with your knuckles. Turn the bread out onto a wire rack to cool.

I experimented with several different variations of this white bread recipe to convert it into wheat bread, potato bread, sauerkraut bread, pumpkin bread and sweet dinner rolls etc... The options are endless.

Just try baking bread one time -- we all KNEAD to try something new!

Renew Your Mind!!

"Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment"
For Buddha's followers out there, this is a famous quote from him thousands of years ago and still holds true today.

I have been thinking of writing about this subject for quite sometime because this is the subject that has transformed my life completely to a different direction.  The road leading my life now is peaceful, joyful, and loving with a sound mind and self-control.  Who doesn't want this kind of life? Some seek God for help to become more like him.  I am not talking about this kind of transformation or religion. Because if you don't believe in a God (we all come with different religious backgrounds), then what will happen to our life?.I am not trying to be a Zen master either, but by practicing and focusing on what really matters every day of my life, I have determined that happiness is so simple and reachable, and I would love to share this journey with you.

I gave my blog the title-- Enjoy a Simple Life. What does a simple life look like? Let's all get back to the basics. Renewing your mind is a role to play in a major part of this transformation. Even though I am a Buddhist, I used to live my life not like a Buddhist at all. I wanted more than I needed, wearing designer clothes, eating in 5-star restaurants, and the last thing I did was build my dream home.  Yes, my dream home was  built in 2007. I started this project, and, believe me, I loved every minute of it. But if I could go back to redo it, my dream home would be half of the square footage (furnishing and cleaning the house would be much simpler). However, going back to basics is making things simpler or more efficient and less complex. In our life, we waste so much of our energy on things of little matter at all. We are afraid of people judging us for the way we look, become angry on the highway when someone cuts in front of us, or argue with others about politics and religion. It is like a fire that explodes out of your belly. When this fire starts to explode, you have to make a strong effort to neutralize the fire before it hits your mouth, and you start cursing.  The reason your bad temper is triggered so easily is because you are weak in self-control. To remove this bad habit out of yourself, it is necessary to start renewing your mind by getting rid of negative qualities, such as being too critical or judgmental of others, maintaining an unforgiving spirit, or demonstrating too much pride and arrogance. I call all these bad toxins that will make your life miserable, and you feel like the world is against you. It is all in your mind. With just a few simple steps, you can renew your mind and become a whole new you!!

One big thing I got rid of was a commitment that I do out of obligation. This will be the first and an important part to renew your mind. For example many of us have been in numerous life situations where we have knocked ourselves out trying to please someone by being a selfless person. We emotional gave and gave until we feel deflated, just to seek approval for our heroic deed but instead feel disappointed when we realize that we are so unappreciated. Even worse in some cases is that our loved one misunderstood and blamed us for imposing our views into their life (l did learn this lesson big time).

I cleaned up all of my old things that I don't use any more and dropped them off at a Goodwill. As the old saying goes, "Someone's trash will be someone else's treasure".

I think  we should include exercise  in our life as part of healthy living. You don't need a fitness club or any expensive exercise equipment to complete this task. Walking is the most effective exercise that we should include as a daily routine.  Nothing can as refreshing as feeling the soft breeze on your face and the sound of chirping birds to keep you in touch with nature.

Reduce the time to watching TV. Studies show that TV viewing is associated with unhealthy eating, setting the stage for gaining weight, diabetes, heart attack and a short-life. Find a real hobby that you enjoy and start focusing on that.

If you have time, learn how to cook at home. First, you know what you put in your recipes, using fresh ingredients and avoiding all the chemicals that factories use when to preserve food. You will be on the right path of healthy living. Second, you definitely save money. For years, I learned cooking and now understand that to achieve this skill it is necessary to make cooking more fun and less complex. I will  share with you all the recipes that I have been tested in the most simplest way possible.

Let's start renewing our mind by looking to appreciate what God or fate has given us--the green earth.

Let go of the ugly past that is eating our souls and stop blaming someone else for our own mistakes.  As the famous author, Mark Twain, said, " Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first,".
So for now, until we see each other again.

Soy Milk Recipe

No question that soy milk is an extremely beneficial component to any diet, especially for those who suffer from lactose intolerance. With increasing study about healthy benefits of soy milk, it is a one- two punch of great taste and nutritional goodness to add this delightful drink to our diets. You can use soy milk anytime you would normally use milk, from hot oatmeal to cereal or scrambled eggs, the recipes are endless. http://www.soymilkquick.com/soy-milk-recipes.php

In the old days, making soy milk at home was a long process and time-consuming, but we are not from the dinosaur age any more!!. Thanks to technology, you can buy a soy milk machine without breaking your bank and start making your soy milk at home with very little effort. The machine that I have used almost 4 years now is still working perfectly fine. One suggestion is to get your hands on a fresh crop of soybeans because the taste is much better than the soybeans that sell in an Asian grocery. I discovered Laura SoyBeans by accident, but I am so happy because the service is excellent, and the cost of their soybeans is not much higher than those sold in Asian grocery stores. You can follow the link here to go to their farm
http://www.laurasoybeans.com/category.asp?id=3

If you decide to buy the soy milk maker, the instructions are included, and the machine will do everything for you . However, you can follow my simple instruction to make your soy milk at home.

You will need:

A cooktop range
A 6 qt pot
A piece of cheese cloth
A strainer
A wooden spoon
A blender

The Ingredients:
1 Cup dried soybeans soaked 6 to 8 hours,
16 Cups of water

Directions:
1- Divide the soaked soybeans and the water equally into 3 parts.
2- Pour each part in blender and start griding it until fine.
3- Sieve the mixture through a cheese cloth and re-cover the soy milk. Try to squeeze as much milk from the grounded beans as possible.
4- Pour the soy milk into the pot and start cooking.
Heat the soy milk until it starts to boil , keep your eyes on the pot and do not let the soy milk boil over, (Trust me! you don't want to clean-up if the soy milk boils over) and continue simmering for about 20 minutes.
Voila!!! the soy milk is ready .
With this amount you will have more than half of gallon of soy milk. Homemade soy milk can be served hot or cold. However, soy milk should be refrigerated if it is not going to be entirely consumed in the same day.
I use this same recipe to make 1 lb of tofu.
The remaining soybean mixture after you extract the milk from it is called okara . If you used a soy milk machine, the okara can be used right away as an ingredient for bread making, feeding animals, or composting. Otherwise, you have to cook the okara before you want to use it.