If you remember that in a earlier post I said how I was not a very good cook or that things could go wrong and what not? Well tonight I was encharge of dinner again since my mother was going to be getting home late tonight. I decided I wanted to make soup bread bowl and of course some home made soup to go inside them. Well the bread rolls took a long time to make but they turned out wonderful. I am so proud of them. It is the best recipe that I have ever had for bread rolls and yet again Michael is the one that found the recipe. He was actually able to help me make them before he had to go off to work. As for the soup, well mine turned out fine but the other one turned out the color green because of the broccoli in it but it still tasted fine. I just thought that it was funny how that seemed to work out and all. I thought you all might like to have the recipe for the bread roll (just make sure that you have plenty of time and energy to make them)..Bread Bowls
Ingredients
2 (.25 ounce) packages active dry yeast
1 cup warm water (110 degrees to 115 degrees)
1 cup warm milk (110 to 115 degrees F)
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons salt
6 cups all-purpose flour
Cornmeal
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DIRECTIONS
1.)In a mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add the milk, shortening, sugar, eggs, salt and 2 cups flour. Beat until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough. Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.
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2.)Punch dough down. Turn onto a lightly floured surface. Divide into eight pieces; shape each into a ball. Grease two baking sheets and sprinkle with cornmeal. Place four balls 3 in. apart on each prepared pan. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pans to wire racks to cool.
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3.)For bread bowls, cut a thin slice off the top of bread. Hollow out bottom half, leaving a 1/4-in. shell (discard removed bread or save for another use). Fill with chili, chowder or stew.
HOPE IN A SHOPPING CART!!! I know that it really doesn't see like such a exciting thing but it is to me because she really does enjoy ridding in one. If you remember the post I did about Hope trying a new thing, it was number two on the list, I said that I didn't get a picture of it but I have one now so it is a big deal to me. (I used a link on the words "new thing," if you want to go back and read it.)
I have to admit that I did have a very hard time getting her to actually look at me because when she is in a shopping cart she can see things that are higher up so she looks all over the place or she is smelling the cart to see who used it before us. Even with us taking the pictures outside I could not get her to look at me. I guess ridding in a shopping cart is like a park ride for dogs. After we were finished playing around that is when we waited in the car.
I put Hope in the front, no she is not driving the car and if she was she is not doing it correctly or safely. I wanted to have the backseat so that I could get the best light for reading my book since I knew that it was going to be getting dark fast. Hope also does like sitting in the front too because she really does not get to do it that often at all.
Once Hope was tired of looking out of the windows she started to play with a toy that we had in the car for her. She really loves this toy and will snuggle up with it when she goes to sleep too. Anytime that it feel off of the seat she would actually wake up and go and get it and then snuggle up with it again. It was so cute to watch her do that, like she was a mommy and it was her baby. So we had fun girl time in the parking lot which really is not that big of a deal with us going because Michael was not working that long last night. We really don't do it that often but sometimes it is just nice to be close together.
Here Heather (she is wearing a black shirt) is helping her son fill in the bear that she picked out for him. I feel bad but you can not see her little girls face in the stroller watching. Heathers son was so excited to get a bear but once we were all done he could not wait to get out of the store. It was just really funny. You can also see that Liz even got a bear too. I love what she named hers, Ginger.
After the animals are stuffed you take them to this really cute washing station so that you can get any extra fluff off of them or any loose fur. There is this really cool button that you step on that lets out all of this air to help. They even have brushes (what the bunnies are holding) to help you too. My bunny is on the left and Linda's is on the right. Don't they just look so cute?
Linda is helping to comfort her little fellow in that the bath tube is not scary but fun. While we were taking care of are little bunnies I found a loose string on mine so I went back to the guy that stuffed it for me and asked him to cute it. He was very nice and did it right away (while helping Heather's family stuff theirs).
My bunny is now finally all nice and clean and ready to be named. Not a very easy thing to do when you have to think very quickly. I just knew that my bunny was a girl bunny. I did finally decided on the name Holly Hoppy. I think that it is really cute and fits her well too.
Linda found this really cute hat that looked great on her bunny (a boy) and so she ended up getting it and I got a red hat for mine. So they are totally twin bunnies! Linda named her bunny Peter Cotton-Tail. I just love that name so much because it is just great. I still could not believe all of the things that they have in that store that you can do with your animals. They even have it where you get a birth certificate for it. That is where you are forced to name it on the spot and I had to think really fast.
This is the saddest part of it all. When I got home, I was so excited to show Michael what I got and when I opened the box it looked fine. I held up the bunny for him to see and then saw this opening in his back. I guess that they guy that stuffed him did not tie the back strings tight enough because they came undone. I was going to cry because it was such a sweet rabbit with a happy memory to it that Michael quickly took it from me and fixed it. He is so kind to me and I'm glad that he loves me so much as to fix my little rabbit. Holly is fine now and she has not needed to have back surgery again but I am still going to keep a close eye on her for a few more days. I'm sure that her lucky rabbit's feet will come in handy too.
Liz is showing us how she is a better window model then what was actually inside of the store. I just love the happy yellow sweater/shirt that only she can show off.
Another store that we found had these large cushions that I think were called "love sack." I will be honest I hate the name of them but they are very fun and comfortable too. Linda like the white one and I think that she looks cute in it (Peter you need to get her one *hint, hint, hint*).
I found this red one that I really liked. I think that Hope is rubbing off of me for liking the color red more and more. I will be honest that these things are very hard to get out of if you are not use to them I'm sure.
Ok, the cushion is so comfy that Linda fell asleep! Well we had been walking a lot during the day so it is fine.
Alright, I'm tired to off all of the walking but can you blame me? I have done a ton in only a couple of days. I'm just sad that these things cost so much or I'm sure I would get one for fun. The only problem is that it would not fit in my car and I don't think that it would fit in my room. I do wonder what Hope would do with one of these also.
Here you can see that she is tired because she is missing her nap but she also didn't want me to take the hat away from her either.
This is one of my most favorite pictures that I got from her today. She looks so cute!!! She could totally be a cowgirl puppy for Halloween next year and I wouldn't have to worry about making a costume in time for the holiday either.
I like this picture of her as well. I hope you noticed that I also changed the color of the bandanna because I think of red (for some reason) as the real cowboy color that they would wear. Don't ask me why because I don't know.
Since Hope was having so much fun with the hat I thought that it would be fun for us to join in as well. I love this picture with my beloved family. They are so wonderful and I always enjoy seeing Michael wear his cowboy hat. I think that Hope is happy that someone else was in the picture with her too.
Alright, I normally don't like to have my picture taken but I am trying to be better about it. I decided to also join in on the fun and have my picture taken with Hope as well. She is such a good dog to put up with all that I do to her but I know that she loves the attention (what a happy face she has on). So there you have it, Hope wearing all of her bandannas that she got for her birthday with a couple of fun extras in too.
This one Michael picked out for her and I wish that we actually had it out for Valentines day because it is just perfect for it. At least she will be able to wear it for the next one.
I think that she looks so cute in any color that we pick. I wanted her to have a nice bright one because sometimes everyone wants to wear a bright color and I know that Hope is the same way.
Here she is in her most favorite color. To her she owns the color red and just goes crazy to wear this bandanna for the day. I like it on her too because she just looks so cute and happy in it.
I really didn't think that she would like this purple one as much but it is one of her most favorite bandannas that she has. I think that she would wear this one every day if I let her. Normally in the morning I let her pick out what color she wants to wear and this is always at the top of the list. I think that it brings her eyes our nicely too.
I do have a picture of her already wearing the pink bandanna because that was the one that she got to wear all day on her birthday if you remember. But for a change I thought that it would be fun to see her with Michael's cowboy hat. She really liked his hat and then I thought that since she is wearing the bandannas she looked like a little cowboy puppy so that started a totally new thing there.
A fun tradition that I want to start and keep going in my family is taking a picture of the birthday girl and all of the things that she gets on her special day. So that is why you see this picture of Hope with all of her things. We do something like this at Christmas time and I thought that it would be fun and a little helpful to do it for birthdays too.
Now that everything is opened up and the party is pretty much over Hope has to decided what she is going to do first will all of the new and wonderful things that she received today. It looks like to me that she already knows what she wants.
Hope was actually very excited to finally get to open up her gifts because she has been looking at them for weeks and at one point I even had to put them up high so that she couldn't get at them anymore. But before she got to open up her gifts we had to sing to her.
Here she is with all of them around her. I wonder what one will end up being her favorite one to wear but only time can tell.
She is sure funny with how she has to check out each one of them but I think that she secretly likes the purple one. It was way cute but she had to smell and lick each one of them to claim them as her own. I really don't know who she thinks is going to take them away from her. Now its time to open up another gift.
She was a beautiful little girl and we fell in love with her right away and knew that she was meant to be with our family forever. We got to see her only one hour after she had been born and it was such a very special moment. She has been a wonderful little girl and has done so much for us.
Now a year has passed by and at 6:30 p.m.on February 19th, 2009 you can see how much she has grown. I wanted to take a picture of her at the same time that she was born and this is what you get. We were out on a very special birthday walk and enjoying the beautiful views all around us.
I love this cute smile that Matty has here. He actually had it the entire time that he was going around and around with Michael and Hope.
Here Matty is trying to tell Hope to keep going because he is having so much fun.
You can see that she is totally done and really needs a drink. It was hard to get Matty to go inside so that Hope could have a little break but he did eventually, with some Michael help.
Isn't she so cute! Its the special birthday girl. I love it when I can put her in pink that way no one can mistake her for being anything but a girl dog.
Since Hope woke up so early today I had to think of a way to entertain her so that I could at least get ready for the day so that is why every single one of her toys are out for her to play with. Normally I only put out a couple of toys for her to play with for that day so that she doesn't get to board with them but since today is special I decided to let her have them all. She has been going crazy with them and has just been so excited that she really is having a hard time just picking one to play with. You may be asking how am I able to post with a puppy that wants my attention so much and wanting me to play with her but lucky for me she has finally fallen back to sleep and that is how. I really should go back to sleep myself for as much as I can because today is going to be a fast, crazy, and very busy day today. I will let you all know how her birthday goes for the rest of the day, I sure do hope that it turns out perfect for her.