Italian (or not) Bread

Italian (or not) Bread

This recipe comes together easily and pretty quickly, as far as bread recipes go… two things I appreciate when it comes to bread making!
It can also be tweaked and personalized very easily to go with whatever flavour you’re looking for πŸ‘ŒπŸ»

Enjoy and not only good luck making it but also in doing your best to not eat a whole loaf or two yourself, once they are out of the oven πŸ˜‰

 

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups warm water
2 tbsp yeast
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
5 1/2 cups flour
1 egg white / oil (I used rosemary infused olive oil)
2 tbsp Italian seasoning*
1 tbsp everything bagel seasoning (optional…but nice πŸ˜‰)

*the seasonings can easily be adjusted to suit personal preferences and make other flavours of bread, so go ahead and play around with combinations!

 

 

Instructions:

Pour the water, sugar and yeast into a bowl and let it sit for 10-15 minutes until the yeast has activated.

Add the remaining ingredients and mix it all together until well blended.

Move to a warm area, cover and let rise for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 450Β°

Punch down the dough and then divide and form into three loaves.

Using a sharp knife, score the tops of the loaves and then brush with either egg white or oil.

Let the loaves rise another 5 minutes.

Bake for 12-15 minutes.

 

 

I brushed a little butter over the loaves and ground some corse salt on top, once I removed them from the oven.

I’d love to know if you make this/enjoyed it!
Tag me on Instagram @Jemstory or drop a comment here β˜ΊοΈπŸ’•πŸ₯–

 

Annnnd She’s Back!

After a sabbatical (well, not really a sabbatical at all, since typically those are paid amounts of time off, which I did not get) I am back to attempt writing here once again! πŸ˜€

That’s all, you can go on your way now.

No, really that is petty much all I have to say on this, my first official day back.Β I just wanted to say, ‘Hello, it’s me’ and that I will be doing my best to provide some form of pleasant reading/browsing material in the near future. As the humans who frequent this page, feel free to leave a comment with what would be of the biggest interest for you to see/read!

Thank you for the past support and now, in this the present, ‘take 2’ πŸ˜‰

Airing Out Our Dirty Laundry

Here I was thinking I’d told all there was to tell about our own homes Reno’s but somehow I failed to mention that our basement got (almost completely) redone?? πŸ™ˆ

Well, it did and it’s about time you knew 😏 Continue reading “Airing Out Our Dirty Laundry”

The Mac Makeover

Come the time to renew my blogs payment, I hesitated.

Was it worth it? I wasn’t writing much anymore and I didn’t feel inspired to begin a new genre of… anything.
Then I talked myself into it and you know something must mean a bit to me, if I’m willing to spend a bigger then average sum of money on it πŸ˜‰

Weeks later, an opportunity arose which in future times, would give an over abundance of material which would be worth writing down!

The time has come to announce the next β€˜project’ of Mike and Jess.
Continue reading “The Mac Makeover”

How We Now ‘Dine Well’ – A Kitchen Transformation

It’s been so long since I wrote a blog post pertaining to the house and it’s makeover, I hardly know where to begin!

 

For starters, I’ll tell you what room it is πŸ˜‰

The most important part of a house aside from the loo…. the kitchen! πŸ˜„

 

 

When we bought the place back in spring of 2017, this is how it looked.

 

 

Oddly raised counters, strange built-in shelf type thing to kind of-but not really hide a pipe, fridge sticking out, no dining area and an unfinished, closet like space with a sagging door (door not pictured).

 

Everything was torn out. I mean everything.

 

 

The electrical was redone and Mike couldn’t stand the uneven floors or ceilings so it was all taken down to the bones… and even some of those got replaced πŸ€ͺ

 

Maybe this picture above is the point where I should have felt some deep concern?Β πŸ˜‰

 

Mom had saved her old kitchen cupboards and we painted them.
Taking them from a yellowed I believe what’s called, β€˜almond’ to fresh white and so far they’ve held up very well.

 

 

Giving the fronts a light sanding before using a heavy duty all-surface paint and a gold spray paint for the also sanded, wooden handles.

 

We bought our faux marble countertop from Rona and just in time it would seem because a few months later when trying to figure out what to create our island out of, we found out they’d discontinued it.

 

It took a long time to figure out a kitchen island.
Mostly because I couldn’t decide on all the different factors πŸ€ͺ
Size, style, top, sides etc.
We wanted it to be comfortably large enough but not so big that it hindered movement and opening of the fridge and stove.

As I mentioned, our countertop had been discontinued and because it would be a custom shape with multiple finished sides, the price wasn’t the happiest number we’d ever heard.

I don’t like working on wood countertops so that was a no and Mike had to rap his head around figuring out a process to make a cement top, that would be light enough.

I wanted it closed off in the middle, he wanted it open… It’s closed πŸ˜œπŸ‘ŒπŸ»

He made one top and it turned out to be super heavy but he learned a bit and then dove right into making a second.
He put two packs of white cement dye in as well, as I wanted a lighter color rather thanΒ darker.

 

(Nephews much required assistaceπŸ˜‰)

Speaking of β€˜doing again,’ the other great aspect of the concrete top is the cost. Or lack of 😏
I know not everyone has the products, space or time available to create their own top like Mike did but IF, than it’s a fraction of the cost and if the quality decreases with time and ware, another can be made no problem.
The estimated cost for a custom cut, faux marble piece, with sides that wouldn’t even be an exact match to our existing, was around $600.
The concrete project? $80.

 

We bought two antique style doors from our local antique store and used those to create the base for our island.

 

 

I’d thought I’d have to paint them white or grey but once it was done, we kind of loved it how it was and it tied in the colors from the pantry door and trunks we had in other parts of the house, perfectly.

 

 

The pantry door was found at the local re-store and I white washed it, only to hate it and sand it all off back to how it was and then we frosted the glass ourselves using a simple frosting spray we purchased from Michael’s ☺️

 

 

 

Mike searched the webs for a gold sink tap for me and found one for $100 from China πŸ‘ŒπŸ»Β (Later, I did find out Ikea also carries one if we ever need one again, with a slightly easier finding process 😜)

Our black granite sink was a ‘brand new-in the box’ kijiji find!

The house came with a working fridge and stove, which we happily installed back into the space.
The fridge going into a special, built-in area Mike had thought upΒ πŸ‘ŒπŸ»

We found our kitchen light fixture at the same wholesale store we’d found our entry fixture and it worked well because I didn’t want a distracting light but Mike wanted a bit of a lower one, thus, glass.
BUT, it’s imperfect glass,so it doesn’t show grit and grime at allllll like most glass lights

The newest kitchen enhancement is the shelves, which I envisioned a rather specific way as I wanted them to tie in the island and Mike executed the vision splendidly, after some verbal pushing from me, as he is possibly getting tired of my ideas😜

The brackets for said shelves are from Ikea, just plain wooden ones painted gold, as we couldn’t find any gold bracket sets that weren’t ridiculously expensive in this neck of the woods.

 

I’m sure there is much more I could write and explain about the entire process and how everything came about but let’s be real, we really just want the ‘after’ photos 😜

So, there you have it, the kitchen, a written tour through the heart of our home, so to speak… now scroll down to view itΒ πŸ˜‰

 

Starting with some before and after side by sides to help let the complete renovation really sink in…

 

 

 

I know right?! ☺️

 

 

 

The art piece was purchased at Winners and we both loved how it depicted Paris from a different view than usual and once you’ve traveled to a popular place together, it doesn’t seem so cliche to have a picture of it in your home 😜

 

 

 

 

 

Matching pitcher and glasses are from Superstore, the totally frivolous, special occasion style glassware was just purchased at Home Sense and the bowls are Pioneer Woman brand, purchased at Walmart. The pink vase was brought over from Holland so good luck with getting your hands on one 😜

 

 

 

Our barstools are from Wayfair.ca

 

 

The end results and the end of this post…

I may try to create a small video of the space later on, but to do that, I needed more than my own two hands and Mikes were covered in concrete when I went to begin and now I have no desire to prolong the posting of this spaces outcome :p

 

 

If you have any questions about the process or where something is from, just ask ! πŸ™‚

 

 

Post Vacation Splurging

Friday Nov 24th –

The blur of what day blended into which, while traveling,Β had begun.
We actually slept for most of the longest flight, which came as a surprise to me, never having had that happen before 😳
It was the sleep of the sore but sleep none the less and after a couple of cat naps in Vancouver and Calgary during our two little layovers, I wasn’t feeling so bad come the arrival in Saskatoon.

We were happy about the Calgary layover, as it meant we’d get Chick-fil-A πŸ˜‹πŸ‘ŒπŸ»

Mom had appointments in the city that coerced with our landing time, so we took a taxi to the mall to pass time, checking out some of the Black Friday deals, now becoming more and more available in Canada.
Things were seen but not bought, as the shopping mood was distant and the desire to be done, most present 😜

Starbucks ebbed into our bloodstream and the mother picked us up and we headed home 😊

 

 

Saturday Nov 25th –

After a long sleep, we moseyed upstairs just before noon πŸ˜‹πŸ‘ŒπŸ»

Mike decided to go into town to pick up the snow blower he’d ordered and to buy a light for our bedroom from Canadian Tire. Continue reading “Post Vacation Splurging”

%d bloggers like this: