baking bread

Not to toot my own horn, but TOOT TOOT! I made this bread. Yep, baked it entirely from scratch (well I didn't mill my own flour). Isn't it gorgeous? You want to know what is even better? It was so easy. Seriously the easiest bread I've ever made.

I'm pretty sure I'm the last person in the world to discover this recipe, but I'm going to share it anyway. It's the NY Times No Knead Bread and it's pretty no fail.

Basically you mix:

3 cups of flour

1/3 tsp active yeast (recipe calls for 1/4 tsp instant yeast)

1 1/4 tsp salt

Then you stir in

1 5/8 cup water

and mix it all up and pop it in a bowl. The recipe says to let it rise for 18+ hours, but I started it super late and only let it rise for 4 (stuff does rise faster at a high altitude). When it gets all bubbly you know it's risen enough. Then you dust it with more flour, fold it like an envelope and pop it in a bowl to rise some more (I let it rise an hour). Preheat your oven AND your pan and then I baked it at 450 degrees for 30 minutes, then take the lid off and bake until it's nice and brown.

The key is baking it in a closed container. I used my le creuset - you want to make sure that whatever you use has a lid and can stand up to the high heat.

Voila! It was seriously the easiest thing I've ever baked and it tasted amazing!!

Baby Puppets

When men play with babies

Prematurity Awareness

Today more than 1,400 babies in the United States (1 in 8) will be born prematurely. Many will be too small and too sick to go home. Instead, they face weeks or even months in the newborn intensive care unit (NICU). These babies face an increased risk of serious medical complications and death; however, most, eventually, will go home.

But what does the future hold for these babies? Many survivors grow up healthy; others aren't so lucky. Even the best of care cannot always spare a premature baby from lasting disabilities such as cerebral palsy; mental retardation and learning problems; chronic lung disease; and vision and hearing problems. Half of all neurological disabilities in children are related to premature birth.

Although doctors have made tremendous advances in caring for babies born too small and too soon, we need to find out how to prevent preterm birth from happening in the first place. Despite decades of research, scientists have not yet developed effective ways to help prevent premature delivery.

In fact, the rate of premature birth increased by more than 20 percent between 1990 and 2006. This trend and the dynamics underlying it underscore the critical importance and timeliness of the March of Dimes Prematurity Campaign. The rate fell to 12.3 percent in 2008 from 12.7 in 2007, a small but statistically significant decrease.

We were one of the lucky ones. Our baby came home and has thrived despite her early and tumultuous beginning. Every day I'm reminded of the fear of having a high risk pregnancy and a baby born too soon. Even looking at my full-term miracle reminds me of how hard Emma fought and how lucky we are to have her.

3 months!

Quinn is a quarter year old today!

Happy Halloween!

I didn't get a single picture of the girls together :(

3.5

Three has been a hard year, three and a half is REALLY hard. Our girl is full of sass and a whole lotta attitude. It snowed this week, we knew it was coming and Emma asked if she could stay up until it snowed. I told her no since I didn't know when it was going to actually start snowing. So instead of waiting up, she woke up early and sneaked out of the house with only a tank top, leggings and boots on. (random note... I keep using the word "snuck," which spell check tells me isn't really a word, but "sneaked" is, so that's why I'm using it) SHE SNEAKED OUT OF THE HOUSE!!! Thank goodness she went out the back door so none of the neighbors saw her and called the police. She then came upstairs and told me what she did.

I may not survive her teen years.

and if this picture is any indication her father won't survive her teen years either

Sisterly love

In case you can't hear it, she says "I'm so happy that you're here. Mom wouldn't have had a baby without you."