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Amish Friendship Bread
10 days ago I recieved some Amish Friendship Bread starter from a co-worker. After massaging it, feeding it, and sending it to a health spa, I made bread.

IMHO it was a lot of work for an over-grown muffin that uses a bread starter. Yup, you heard me, muffin. Eggs, lots of sugar, milk, baking soda & powder, no proofing == muffin. I guess the starter is just there for a bit of flavor.

Next time I'll just make a raised bread or a muffin bread or just make muffins. (Zucchini and banana breads use the muffin method.) Wot? You don't know the muffin method? Get thee to a bookstore and get "I'm Just Here for More Food: Food x Mixing + Heat = Baking ".

Any how, the recipe below I adapted from this Amish Friendship Bread recipe.

The results? Decent. Not my best. Though my co-workers enjoyed it. One of them said, hyperbolically, "It brightened my morning." Go figure.

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup wheat flour [why just go with AP, wheat is neat.]
• 2/3 cup honey [much tastier than sugar... and I lessened the quantity.]
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground gloves [coffee grinders are fun!]
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup Amish Friendship Bread Starter
• 2 eggs [Sure the original called for 3, I only had 2.]
• 2/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 apples - peeled, cored, chopped [I used Granny Smiths]

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease two 9x5 inch loaf pans. Sift together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, cloves, baking soda and salt, set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, stir together the Amish Friendship Starter, eggs, oil, honey, and vanilla. Gradually stir in the sifted ingredients, until just blended. Finally stir in the chopped apples. Divide the batter evenly between the two prepared pans.

Bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a loaf comes out clean. Makes 2 loaves.

Pictures via Flickr
Yup, I now have a Flickr account. Currently you can find some pictures from my trip to Mount Hamilton last June and the 10" of snow that fell on Thursday, December 7th.

snow, Snow, SNOW!
Current conditions in KC as of 8:50am on this Thursday, December 08, 2005:
Temp: 7F/-14C Windchill: -4F/-20C ... and anywhere from 8" to 12" of snow in areas.

BynkFamily Little Pizzas

• 2 bundles Green Onions
• 2 small cans Chopped Black Olives
• 4 cups Cheddar Cheese
• 1/2 cup Mayonnaise
• 1 tsp Curry Powder
• Snack loaf of rye or sourdough breads (usually found in the deli area)

Broil until the cheese melts. Addictively yummy!

Note: These are guesstimations. You may need to tweak the mayo to cheese to curry ratios.

On tonight's menu: Gyros

The sauce:

• 6oz yogurt
• 2tsp curry powder
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 1/4 cup grated cucumber
• 2 cloves garlic, minced

The meat:

• 1.5 lbs ground beef (ground pork would do too)
• 1tsp paprika
• 1.5tsp chili powder
• 1tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp onion salt
• 1tbl oregano
• 1tsp fennel seed
• Dash of Worcester Sauce

Serve on/with:

• Gyros (or tortillas in a pinch)
  
• Slices of cucumber
• Slices of onion
• Pepper Jack cheese

Mix and grill and serve:

1. Mix the sauce and refridgerate for one hour.
2. Hand mix the herbs and spices into the meat and form into patties.
3. Grill the patties.
4. Slice up the patties.
5. Put it all together with the gyro, cucumber, onion, cheese, and sauce. YUM!

Join the Charles Darwin Posse!

I can see Kris and Lisa's house from here! (Lick Observatory, Mt Hamilton, San Jose, CA)

Unfortunately, Google Maps just shows a big batch of fuzz.

Geek Trap!
Move your mouse.
Roll the dice.
Build the trap.

Don't worry. They say its humane. Kills 'em dead, instantly. As you can see, it helps to place a bit of geek bait in the trap.


Here it is disguised as a couch.



You are the rare, the overlooked, yet incredibly useful dodecahedron: the d12. You are a creative, romantic soul. You often act without thinking, but make up for your lack of plans with plenty of heart. You easily solve problems that stump others. You can be silly at times and are easily distracted by your own day dreams, but are at the end of the day you're someone who can be depended on.

Take the quiz at dicepool.com