Back to blogging...lets see how long it will last and Mango Bread

So I guess its been awhile since my last post...ok over a year.  :(   I haven't stopped cooking or living for that matter, still around. I've been working on and off, taking care of myself (mentally) and my family.  "They" say that the second year after a loved one's death is the hardest, and "they" are right.  There are so many missed opportunities and milestones that hits home the hardest, the "what could have beens" really stink.  Seeing my daughter's friends go to prom, graduate high school and move on to college has been the hardest of all. I miss my  Lauren everyday.  As much as I would love to hide in my room and wallow in my sorrow; I know, not only my hubby, but pretty much every single friend of mine would be banging down my door to drag me out of bed (Thank God!).

So back to cooking, we participate in our local Bountiful Baskets. If you haven't heard of it, its a food co-op where you donate a particular dollar amount, the organizers purchase in bulk fruits and vegetables (sometimes other items like bread, granola or cases of particular fruits/vegetables or specialty packs) and then the participants pick up their baskets at an ungodly hour in the morning.  Yeah, I get my husband to do that fun part. I on the other hand get to prep and put away all of our goodies.  A lot of the basket is seasonal and we've had some interesting produce, brussel sprouts, kale, santa melons, etc.  If its not something you are used to cooking on a regular basis (i.e brussel sprouts for me) it can certainly expand your horizons, make new friends or waste food, the latter is not an option in our house.

The last two baskets we received had 3 or 4 mangoes in each, which in it of itself is not a bad thing, but it happens to be the two weeks we don't have my step-kids (they are huge fruit eaters, whereas Miss J is not as thrilled with mangoes as the other two).  So the mangoes have been just hanging out ripening to the stage of "use me now before I go bad or start to root." So off to Google I go in search of something to do with them.  I peeled and sliced about half of them to dehydrate (love my food dehydrator!) and I found an interesting mango bread recipe. Its along the same lines of banana bread, but with mangoes!!!! I found it on All Recipes.com which can be hit or miss as far as the reliability of the recipe, but thankfully this bread turned out very well.  So much so that my husband really enjoyed it and that says a lot!

To ensure credit is given as its due, I'll only post the link to this lovely sweet bread. the only thing I did differently was to add a splash of milk to the batter, only because I was a little paranoid about it not being 'batter-y" enough but if the mangoes are ripe and juicy, it will add enough moisture to the batter! Enjoy!!

Chinky's Mango Bread

2nd verse same as the first....

Ok, so maybe it should be like second post, but not quite the same as the first....

I've trolling the various food blogs out there, some of them I am starting to visit quite frequently.  I'm a little slow to the punch sometimes and I never realized just how many food blogs are out there. My husband will eventually drag me into the 21st century!  Some are pretty basic and then there are others that are pretty pretentious, which make me want to write a comment "aren't you just full of yourself...I'm surprised that you can stand-up straight, with your head being so big!" But alas, I don't.  The blogs I do enjoy reading, seem to be written by very down-to-earth people, not unlike myself (at least I hope I am).

One in particular Farmgirl Fare has some pretty good recipes on it as well as funny stories/cute pictures regarding her life on a farm in Missouri.  I tried one of her recipes last night, from a collaboration blog A Year in Bread, the FarmHouse White.  I actually kneaded 5lbs of dough!!!!!! They even turned out pretty good! Although I did make one little mistake and forget to add the second half of the salt during the kneading, but that's ok, I'll remember next time.  That's what happens when you have a 2 1/2 year old insisting on helping! One loaf was an overachiever and puffed up a lot more than the other two (picture above), but that may have been because I just eye-balled the size of the dough and didn't weight them - we really need to get a food scale if I keep this whole baking thing up!  The crumb was quite nice and the crust was crusty, though you could tell the salt was missing in the taste.  Oh well, live and learn!  I would show a picture of the final product (especially my little overachiever) but alas, its halfway gone already and the other two are wrapped and in the freezer. Next time, next time....