Tag: bread

A Photo a Week Challenge: Preparations

Baking always requires preparations. If you don’t have all of the necessary ingredients ready, it can ruin your bake. This is my set up when I make french bread. It’s a very easy recipe, but as I demonstrated in an early challenge (Something Missing), even one thing wrong can spoil the whole loaf.

As a wedding photographer, I’ve had the opportunity to take pictures of brides and their attendants as they get ready for the ceremony.

When I sang with the Utah Symphony Chorus, I was able to take pictures backstage as we and the symphony prepared for concerts.

Sometimes photos of the preparations are as much fun as photos of the finished products. And here’s mine:

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO (OR THREE…) OF PREPARATIONS.

Everyone is welcome to participate, even if your blog isn’t about photography. Here’s how it works:

  1. Each week, I’ll come up with a theme and post a photo that I think fits. You take photographs based on your interpretation of the theme, and post them on your blog (a new post!) anytime before the following Thursday, when the next photo theme will be announced.
  2. To make it easy for others to check out your photos, title your blog post “A Photo a Week Challenge: (theme of the week)” and be sure to use the “postaday″ and “Photo a Week” tags.
  3. Come back here and post a link to your image in the comments for this challenge.
  4. Follow nancy merrill photography so that you don’t miss out on weekly challenge announcements.
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A Photo a Week Challenge: Something Missing

Every other Sunday, we take bread to church to use for the Sacrament (Holy Communion). I have a wonderful, no-knead French bread recipe that I make almost every week. I don’t need the recipe any more. Or so I thought. Saturday, I made this beautiful loaf of bread. It was light; it was fluffy. The crust was nice and crackly, like you really want it to be with this bread. We cut into it when it was still warm enough to melt the butter. It was going to be so good. Except for one thing. I forgot the salt. It is the blandest bread I have ever tasted in my life. It took me about two hours to figure out what I had done wrong. Kneadless (ha, see what I did there?) to say, I made another loaf, this time WITH the salt.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO (OR THREE…) WHERE SOMETHING IS MISSING.

Everyone is welcome to participate, even if your blog isn’t about photography. Here’s how it works:

  1. Each week, I’ll come up with a theme and post a photo that I think fits. You take photographs based on your interpretation of the theme, and post them on your blog (a new post!) anytime before the following Thursday, when the next photo theme will be announced.
  2. To make it easy for others to check out your photos, title your blog post “A Photo a Week Challenge: (theme of the week)” and be sure to use the “postaday″ and “Photo a Week” tags.
  3. Come back here and post a link to your image in the comments for this challenge.
  4. Follow nancy merrill photography so that you don’t miss out on weekly challenge announcements.

A Photo a Week Challenge: Made by Hand

There is always something special about items that are made by hand. When I was younger, one of my favorite pieces of furniture at my grandmother’s house was a corner hutch that my mom and her father had built together when she was just a girl. My grandfather had ordered it as a kit, but the corner Grandma wanted it in was irregular, so he had to modify it to fit. It wasn’t until it was moved to my parents’ home that you could tell just how much he had to change the back to get it into that corner.

My husband loves it when I spend a day in the kitchen. I love baking, and the season change from summer to fall always seems to bring out the super baker in me. Today, I made bread and a fresh peach pie. The house smells wonderful, and I’m looking forward a piece of fresh-baked bread with butter melting on it. I better wrap this up so I can do that now!

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO (OR THREE OR…) OF THINGS MADE BY HAND (YOURS OR SOMEONE ELSE’S).

Everyone is welcome to participate, even if your blog isn’t about photography. Here’s how it works:

  1. Each week, I’ll come up with a theme and post a photo that I think fits. You take photographs based on your interpretation of the theme, and post them on your blog (a new post!) anytime before the following Thursday, when the next photo theme will be announced.
  2. To make it easy for others to check out your photos, title your blog post “A Photo a Week Challenge: (theme of the week)” and be sure to use the “postaday″ and “Photo a Week” tags.
  3. Come back here and post a link to your image in the comments for this challenge.
  4. Follow nancy merrill photography so that you don’t miss out on weekly challenge announcements.

A Photo a Week Challenge: Fresh Baked

Fresh baked bread

I love baking (I actually have a cooking blog, though sadly it’s been a while since I posted a recipe there). A few months ago, I found a really good and easy bread recipe that I no longer need the recipe to make. So, in a first (and probably last) for this blog, here is the recipe to go along with the image:

Homemade white bread
  • 2-1/4 C hot water (115-120F)
  • 2-1/4 tsp dry active yeast
  • 3 Tbl sugar
  • 2 Tbl vegetable oil
  • 1 Tbl salt
  • 6 to 6-3/4 C flour, divided
  1. In a large bowl, mix water and yeast. Once yeast has activated (clumped together and starting to smell yeasty), add sugar, oil, and salt. Add 3 cups of flour, one cup at a time, and mix well. Add the additional flour one cup at a time until you have a nice, elastic dough
  2. Turn dough out on hard, floured surface (I use my wooden kitchen table) and knead for 8-10 minutes.
  3. Oil a large bowl and put dough in bowl, turning once to oil both sides.
  4. In a warm place, allow to rise until double in size (1 to 1-1/2 hours). Punch down and divide into two greased loaf pans.
  5. Allow to rise again until double in size (about 1 hour). Preheat oven to 375F. Bake for 33 minutes or until golden brown and hollow sounding when you tap the top.
  6. Remove from pans to cooling rack. You can brush top with melted butter, if you like that sort of thing.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO THAT FEATURE FOOD AND BAKED ITEMS.

Everyone is welcome to participate, even if your blog isn’t about photography.

Here’s how it works:

  1. Each week, I’ll come up with a theme and post a photo that I think fits. You take photographs based on your interpretation of the theme, and post them on your blog (a new post!) anytime before the following Thursday, when the next photo theme will be announced.
  2. To make it easy for others to check out your photos, title your blog post “A Photo a Week Challenge: (theme of the week)” and be sure to use the “postaday″ tag.
  3. Follow nancy merrill photography so that you don’t miss out on weekly challenge announcements.