Rachel Allen’s White Bread and Coming Soon...the Irish Boutique of Cedarburg

After living most of my adult life in Chicago, moving to another state with four kids in tow feels like a huge change. Monumental. Talk about logistics. And paperwork. New schools. New doctors and dentists. New friends (please!). But wait, there’s more. SO MUCH MORE!

We’re opening an Irish Boutique in our new town, Cedarburg, Wisconsin!!!!

It’s exciting, and scary and because it’s the family business we already know how much work it will be. But if there’s one thing that has really hit home for us over this last year is that life is short. We’ve thought and dreamt of doing something like this, not this exact thing, but something similar, for years. I don’t think there is ever a perfect time to take a leap of faith like this, a time when you feel really “ready”.  It feels kind of like having a baby for the first time, “Here goes nothing!” Ha. At least that’s how that felt for me. But I think we are as ready as we’ll ever be and thrilled to be opening a store in our new community.  So there you have it, hopefully this is it on the change front for a while. Cross your fingers for us! 

No front teeth! But he doesn’t let that stop him.

We’ve been lucky enough to have both houses for a short period of time which has allowed us to do this move in stages, thankfully, becauseI cannot bear the idea of living in a house full of boxes. Too chaotic! And it’s funny because living like this makes you think about what you really need and what you use on an every day basis. In terms of kitchen appliances, all I have left is a mini-food processor, my toaster and my bread maker. Thank goodness I still have those. The mini-food processor for making meatballs with “invisible” vegetables in them so Isla can brag that she ate a bunch of zucchini without actually confronting one in it’s natural form, and also for making frosting because Eve’s birthday is the weekend before we move-move. The toaster, um, for toast. And the bread maker, for the bread that we put in the toaster. Specifically, plain old white bread.

I mean, what do you want when everything about your life is changing both rapidly and drastically? Comfort. Carbs. White bread. My kids LOVE white bread. We all do. It’s so fluffy and soft. It makes the house smell amazing.  I swear my son can smell it from the front porch. None of us can refuse a slice of fresh bread, still warm from the oven (or the bread maker). There’s something magical that happens when you add yeast to simple ingredients: flour, salt, sugar, butter. I could bake a loaf a day for the rest of my life and still be awestruck at the power of yeast.  

So fluffy!

As you may have guessed, I bake white bread all the time. At least a couple times a week. I normally use a very simple recipe from the cookbook that came with my hand-me-down breadmaker. I’ve memorized it and could throw it together in my sleep. Today, not in the mood to leave my comfort zone, I decided to mix it up just a little. I looked up Rachel Allen’s White Bread Recipe and saw that it was very close to the one I normally use. Feeling confident that it too would be easy to throw together and, like all of  Rachel Allen’s recipes, comforting and delicious, I got to work. And by work I mean, collecting the ingredients and putting them in the canister of my breadmaker - so not that much work at all. I halved the recipe to make just one loaf but I’m including Rachel’s full directions because I’m the only person I know who owns a breadmaker. 

White Bread 

(adapted slightly from Rachel Allen’s recipe which can be found here. )

Ingredients (for one loaf)

• 1 tsp sugar

• 7.5 fl oz warm water

• 1 tsp dried yeast

• 2 ¾ cups bread flour, plus extra for dusting

• 2 tsp kosher salt

• 2 tbsp butter, or 2 tbsp olive oil

• vegetable oil, for greasing the bowl

• 1 free-range egg, beaten (optional)

• poppy or sesame seeds, for the top of the loaf (optional)

1. Mix the sugar with about 1 oz of the warm water and yeast and let stand in a warm place for five minutes, or until frothy. If using fast-acting or instant yeast skip this step.

2. Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl. Rub in the butter and make a well in the centre. (If using olive oil instead of butter, pour the olive oil into the remaining water.) Pour in the yeast mixture and most of the remaining water (and the olive oil, if using). Mix to a loose dough, adding the remaining water if needed, plus extra if necessary. 

3. Knead for about ten minutes or until the dough is smooth and springy to the touch. (If kneading in an electric food mixer with a dough hook, five minutes is usually long enough.) Put the dough in a large oiled bowl. Cover the top tightly and place somewhere warm to rise until doubled in size. This may take up to two or even three hours.

4. Preheat the oven to 425F.

5. When the dough has more than doubled in size, knock back and knead again for 2–3 minutes. Leave to relax for ten minutes before you begin to shape the bread.

6. Shape the bread into a loaf or rolls, transfer to a baking tray and cover with a clean tea towel. Allow to rise again in a warm place for 20–30 minutes, or until the shaped dough has again doubled in size. When fully risen, it should leave a dent when you gently press the dough with your finger. 

7. Brush gently with the beaten egg and sprinkle with poppy or sesame seeds, or dust lightly with flour for a rustic-looking loaf. I did neither and just popped it in the breadmaker. 

8. Bake in the oven for 10–15 minutes for rolls, or 30–45 minutes for a loaf, depending on its size. Turn the heat down to 400F after 15 minutes for the remaining cooking time. When cooked, the bread should sound hollow when tapped on the base. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

This was amazing fresh with a generous lashing of butter. I’m sure it would make lovely toast, if it lasted that long.  I’m not going to find out this time, but I will definitely make it again. 

So there you have it. Life changes. Comfort food. And more to come about the new store soon! 

We're Back with Big Changes and Fish Fry-day

Hello there! It’s been FOREVER since I’ve been here. So much has happened. We bought a house. In another state. We are in the process of selling our home that we love so much. We are moving to the new house soon. We got VACCINATED! Because life as we know it has not really resumed, at least not the full swing of it, it’s hard to recognize all the ways things have gone back to normal. I was just reading through some posts from about a year ago, looking for the lemon pie recipe that Emmett wants to make, and those old posts kind of floored me. No one was going to school, or leaving the house for that matter, the timeline for a vaccine was totally unknown. People were hoarding toilet paper. We didn’t know if we would even have jobs through the summer. Crazy times. We have so much more stability now, which is a huge relief.

For us, the big changes coming up are self-imposed. Like so many people, we re-evaluated our lives and what we wanted out of them during the past year. We decided that a more flexible post-pandemic office schedule would allow us the freedom to move further away from downtown Chicago. Ever since we had kids, I’ve longed to live in a small town, away from the hustle and bustle of the city, the traffic, the frenetic energy that I get more than enough of at work. We knew we didn’t want to live very far from Paul’s family. So when we found a small town just outside of Milwaukee that seemed to be the perfect fit for our family, we decided to look for a house there and miraculously (really, it was, given this housing market), we found one!

Look at us! Fully vaccinated! We went to church for the first time in AGES to celebrate Emmett’s first communion. It felt so normal (I’m pretty such normal has a new meaning now, more like fantastic).

I’ve always wanted an old farmhouse and after many months of searching Paul found her. She’s beautiful, with so much character. Well, right now she’s loaded with unpacked boxes in every room but she’ll be back to her old splendor soon. I couldn’t help but notice when we took a moving truck over how different it was from last time we moved, ten years ago. Yes, there is so much more stuff. But also, it was so much more exciting and fun, the kids were running all over the house finding hiding spots and checking out every room, laughing uproariously the whole time. It really hit home that in the last several years we made all these happy little kids. We made a family. So it seems it will never be quiet in the new house the way it once was in our current one, before the babies. And there will be so much to discover in our new community. I'm really looking forward to this next chapter and feel lucky that we get to have this adventure together.

That said, two real estate transactions, an out-of-state move, a job change (I’m still at the same company but in a new role) and the ongoing global pandemic have taken up a lot of my time in the last several months. Which is why I haven’t been here. Oh, and also all of my pots and pans are in boxes at the new house though we are still living in Chicago most of the time through the end of the school year. Moving y'all. It’s a process. I’m still cooking though, growing little people demand it. And I’m really looking forward to having people over for dinner again now that we are vaccinated. It’s been so, so long.

I made batter-fried cod today because it’s Emmett’s favorite food. Even though I hate deep frying at home, I wanted to know how to make it, just in case (of what? I do not know). It was so simple, really good and not messy at all. I’m not sure why I always tell myself deep frying is messy, because it never really is in the end. I followed this recipe but instead of making sandwiches, we just ate the fish with hash browns (I’m trying to make sure we eat everything in the freezer before we move), coleslaw and tartar sauce. It was super easy and quick - perfect for a Friday night. The fish came out crunchy without being overcooked inside. I was so proud of myself.

The Never Ending Summer

For lots of parents out there this looks like it might be the never ending summer. Unfortunately, not because the summer weather will persist, but because schools may not reopen.  Oh boy, so many feelings in our household about that.  Too many feelings and many of them are conflicting!

I’ve decided to just roll with the punches, whatever happens.  My company has decided to keep its employees working from home until July of 2021, in part to allow us the flexibility to deal with the uncertainties around education and childcare for our children, which I appreciate so incredibly much.  After barely escaping layoffs at both of our companies, we are in the extremely fortunate position of being able to “roll with the punches” without losing our jobs, or not being able to afford the mortgage, or being forced to make any of the impossible choices those less fortunate than us have been faced with these last few months. 

Eve’s been taking her Sunday afternoon nap under the tent at Buffalo Creek Brewing in Long Grove for the last several weeks.

Am I concerned about what school will look like for my kids this year, and how it will impact their development, health and safety? Absolutely. Do I wish there was some certainty so that I could make plans for childcare and my work schedule? Yep. The wish list is long. But life has always been unpredictable. The events of the last few months have just highlighted this - lest we become complacent. Did we get too used to going about our lives without a global pandemic to turn the most common of activities into deadly encounters? I guess so. 

When she wakes up she eats Joanie’s Pizza. LIVIN’ THE LIFE!!! #LongGrove

Anyway, I'm trying to accept the uncertainty and enjoy the moment because I know that we really are so blessed. And if 2020 has taught me anything, it is that nothing is owed. We should be grateful for all of our blessings right now while we have them. 

In that spirit I've embraced lots of things this never ending summer including...wait for it... boxed desserts! Have you ever had brookies (brownies + cookies, or does everyone already know what these are?) from a box? Pure genius I tell you. 

We made these brookie cookies n' cream ice cream sandwiches the other day and they were awesome. It was definitely easy enough for the kids to do themselves although step #2 wall all me.

Here's how we did it.

1- We used the boxed Brookie mix and spread the batter out as thin as we could on a baking tray, then baked for less time (because they are thinner) than the instructions told us, though I do not remember how much less, we just kept checking them for doneness. 

 2 - I guarded them like a hawk so that my little army wouldn't devour them before we could make them into ice cream bars. 

3 - Once they were room temperature, we cut them into two large squares that I could insert into a square cake pan. 

4 - We lined the cake pan with saran wrap, then put one brookie piece in.  

5 - We spread the brookie piece with softened cookies 'n cream ice cream (because I would have had to go to the store for vanilla).

6 - Then we put the other brookie piece on top, wrapped the saran wrap over the entire thing, put it back into the cake pan and loaded it into the freezer to harden. 

7 - The next day (though it could be an hour or two later) we took the HUGE ice cream sandwich out of the cake pan and cut it into small pieces with a serrated knife. 

8 - Then I hid a few of them in the back of the freezer for myself before handing them out to the kids. 

 You’re welcome.  Oh yeah, and if you are looking for somewhere low-key and very social-distancing friendly you should check out Buffalo Creek Brewing in Long Grove. We have been going there every weekend. It’s been so nice to get out of the house and for the kids to be able to see their Uncle and Grandpa. It would also be a great spot for a date IMO. There is a lot of outdoor seating, appropriately spaced out for social distancing, and it is bring your own food (or order it, we've been getting chicken and pizzas from Joanie's...yum).  

Sampling the ROOT beer at Buffalo Creek Brewing.

 Now go on and enjoy your never ending summer. xoxo