I love me my Bosch!!!!

I'm on a bread making kick! I've made bread 4 times in the past 5 weeks. Since each batch makes 6 loaves --way more than we need--we've had a fun time sharing yummy hot bread with many of our friends and neighbors who've helped our family out so much since Eliza was born.

When it comes to bread-making machines, there are two types of people in this world--KitchenAid people and Bosch people. I am a Bosch person. My mother's day/birthday/anniversary presents for the past few years have been this bosch-motored wheat mill and Bosch universal mixer. i think i only need to make about 200 more loaves this they've paid for themselves--and at this rate, that'll be before the year's out!

My dear friend, Kristin, was over here the other day when i was making some bread. Now, bless her heart, this girl has eaten a total of 2 whole grains and 3 vegetables in her life. (I cut her some slack since she's from Texas, where the last line in their pledge of allegience is "a cow a day keeps the doctor away.") She was completely fascinated by the fact that i could put this

in this

Where it turns into this

add some water, yeast, oil and honey, mix it in this

and get this

Perhaps, to better understand where she's coming from, I should spend a day at a farm and then a slaughterhouse....yes, i think i'd absolutely LOVE that! :)

Seriously, though, there is only one thing in the world that is better than hot whole wheat bread (with butter and honey..yummmmm). And that is hot whole wheat bread made from freshly ground whole wheat flour. Even Kristin, with her explicit disdain for all that is natural and nutritious, enjoyed a few slices on Sunday.

So, if you're reading this, and you live nearby, and you've never had my bread, and you're not a stalker, please let me know--we'll take right care of that! And if you don't live nearby, but you desparately want some hot bread, then you should think about moving here. I promise it's worth it!!

SNL

Reid and I have thoroughly been enjoying SNL lately. They're our favorite thing about the presidential campaign. Tina Fey does Sarah Palin better than Sarah Palin does!!! We are also both in LOVE with Kristin Wiig. And we have been singing the song from this sketch non-stop the past 3 days, so Reid posted this clip on his family's website. It didn't surprise us at all that they didn't appreciate it. But there's gotta be someone out there who thinks this is as funny as we do! Or maybe it's just cause it's Kristin Wiig and we think everything she does is hillarious!

Anyway, click here if you're in a good mood, have semi-low expectations and your name is not Anne :) (actually, anyone who admittedly has an extremely selective sense of humor and hates the Christopher Guest mockumentaries is uninvited to view this clip :D )

It's worth it--it really is!!!

I was starting to wonder if this whole "no dairy" thing was really worth it. Passing up the Cheetos, the ice cream, the DELICIOUS meals that SOOO many neighbors and friends made for our family has been SOOO hard for the food-lover in me. I was thinking of throwing in the towel this weekend when my sister comes to visit, but now i know better.

Last Saturday we went with some friends to Applebees. I ordered what i was SURE was a diary-free meal. But the next 3-4 nights were awful with Eliza. So i called my local Applebees restaurant to see if i could talk to a chef in the kitchen and find out if there was by chance some butter or something in my entree. Well, she referred me to their 1-800 number. I wondered how in the world the people at the 1-800 number would know what they do here in Littleton...well, it turns out that they don't prepare ANY of their food onsite! and it also turns out that i am the only one completely shocked by this! Apparently ALL chains (chilis, outback, olive garden, etc) receive their food frozen!!! And i'm the last to know! I've since been appropriately ridiculed for my naivete.

Anyway, they verified that the food i ate did have dairy--something in the seasoning of the rice. I was pretty sure it did, but it was good to confirm. It makes this whole thing TOTALLY worth it. Since about Wednesday night Eliza's been SOOOOO calm, and such a sweet, content baby! It's crazy the difference it makes!!

we've gone from lots of this

(Thanks, Jenny, for this ADORABLE outfit!!! She gets more compliments on those jeans than i knew was possible for a baby!!)

to lots of this

And she still only manages to be awake about 6 hours a day...so most of what we see is this

And the moral of the story is that this has dairy:

Cajun Lime Tilapia

and this is not fresh food: