Kim Richards

 Whoa, my post over the weekend went poof. Oh well, it's been a day of computer foo anyway. My online crit partners and I had problems with msn (windows) messenger during our chat tonight as well. It's funny how you don't think about things much when they work but when they don't...it gets frustrating fast. 

I have a beer bread recipe I like and have been trying it out with different beers to see which taste best. So far the dark beers are nice. A wheat beer was 'okay'. Today's loaves were the best ever. I used a dark rye flour and the beer:  a German Warsteiner Dunkel. I hear dunkel means 'dark'.  I highly recommend it.

Here's the recipe if you are interested:

Rye Beer Bread
makes 2 loaves
Give yourself time as this must sit overnight. 

Ingredients:
2 cups rye flour
1 1/2 cups room temperature beer
2 packages active dry yeast.
                       Combine these three ingrediets in a large bowl, cover with plastic wrap and set out overnight. Do not refrigerate.

The next day add these ingredients:

2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon salt
2 tablespoons shortning or butter
1 egg
3 cups white flour
1 tablespoon caraway seed

Mix well and kneed for 10 minutes on lightly floured surface. Place in greased bowl, lightly oil the top of the dough and let rise in a warm place for an hour.

Punch down dough, divide in half and place in greased loaf pans. Let rise another 30 minutes, then bake for 30 minutes at 400 degrees.

I saw a show on tv Sunday about absinth. Apparently the reason it's now available in the US is because they have figured out how to distill it without the narcotic qualities, which is why it was banned in the first place. Interesting. I'm wondering what else will be refined into acceptability. 

I'm missing my fella, can you tell?