Hello, My Lovely...

This is my new bread machine. My Lovely. My Precious. It was my Mother's Day gift this year. If you haven't looked at bread machines in a few years then you'll be happy to learn they've come a very long way. Gone are the days of bread machine mixes. I do believe they're still out there, but these days they are totally unnecessary. You can make any sort of bread you like and you know exactly what's going into it. Last night I took Avery to my parents house for dinner so Rob was on his own. SAHM/Wife guilt kicked in and I just knew that Rob would stop by some heinous fast food place for his own dinner on the way home if I didn't make something for him. I only had time for something simple so I decided to put together a rockin' salad full of organic veggie goodness and throw ingredients in the bread machine to make Italian Herb Bread. I set it to be ready right when I expected him to be home. Right on cue I got a text from Rob saying how awesome the bread smelled when he walked through the door. Ahhh, satisfaction. It sounds very old-school, but I love it when my family loves the food I make for them. I feel proud of myself that I've made something people really want to eat and I love that most of the time it's healthy as well.

So our evening ended up being very busy and Avery and I didn't get home until her bedtime. We had to do jammies, teeth, and all the other nighttime routine stuff. Rob and I both completely forgot about the bread and it ended up being left out on the counter all night. I woke up this morning, sighing when I saw it and scooped it up, prepared to dump it in the trash. I then momentarily thought about ripping it up and tossing it outside for the birds and squirrels. Then it hit me. Croutons! I've never made croutons in my life, but I know the best ones are made from tasty bread. Here I had a huge hunk of super-tasty Italian Herb bread that was only a little dried out - perfect crouton material! So I cubed it as best I could, tossed it with some olive oil, salt and pepper and threw it in a 350 degree oven for about 15 minutes or so, stirring every few minutes. Here is the result:

Aren't they gorgeous?! Seriously the best croutons I've ever had. So you see why I love my Precious. I get adoration from my husband and super tasty croutons.

So I leave you with this recipe for the Italian Herb Bread and encourage you to discover the bliss of owning your own bread machine:

Italian Herb Bread

1 1/4 C water
1 1/2 TBS extra-virgin olive oil
1 tsp sea salt
3 1/2 C bread flour (I recommend King Arthur)
2 tsp organic or turbinado sugar
1 TBS dried parsley
1/4 C freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 tsp onion powder OR 2 tsp dried onion flakes
1 tsp dried basil
3/4 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp dry active yeast

Follow the manufacturer's instructions for adding ingredients to your machine and select the "french" bread setting.

Here We Go...

Welcome!

So, I'm going to try this blog thing out, see if it works for me. I'm a SAHM, so heaven knows I could use an outlet from time to time. I hope this will be a place where friends and family can keep current about the goings-on in the Essley family. So for those of you who don't know me all that well, here's the Cliff's Notes on our eccentric little family...

I met Rob Essley in July of 2000 at the age of 23. His sister tried to set us up. I resisted meeting him at first (blind date you ask? Um, no thanks, I've got enough dating horror stories under my belt already) but was eventually talked into it. I was born in California, but pretty much grew up in Georgia. Rob was born in Georgia, but pretty much grew up in Wyoming. It's a miracle we ever met. But meet we did, and yes, we really were inseperable from the start. We lived together much too soon (and much to the dismay of my parents, I'm sure) but we were among the lucky and in September of 2002 we were married in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.

Rob was offered a job shortly after the wedding. A job that would take us to Denver. We were married about 8 months when we packed a U-Haul, our one car and our cat and drove cross-country to our new home. Growing up in Laramie, Wyoming, just over the border from Colordo, Rob had always wanted to live in Denver. His best friend lives there and a large percentage of the disillusioned teens wandering the frigid streets of L-town apparantly long for the big city lights of Denver. We had visited twice and we thought we'd love it. Very long story short, I hated it. Hated it. I don't use the word hate all that often, but I use it now. Hate. In retrospect, it was the lack of friends and family rather than Colorado itself that brought about the strong feelings of hatred. I was miserable and I wanted OUT. We lived there for five looonngg years, almost to the day. The only positive thing about Colorado is the fact that our daugher was born there. Miss Avery Danae graced us with her presence in February of 2006 and made me a mother, and a better person. When the opportunity for another job in Georgia arose, I begged Rob to take it, and being that it was a great opportunity, he did.

So here we are, back in Georgia for two years now and life is pretty good. Living here has afforded us opportunities we would not have had had we stayed out west. We were finally able to buy a home (and not be house-poor) and we can afford my growing obsession with organic products of all kinds. We hope someday to add to our little family, perhaps turning three Essleys into four. Thanks for sticking with it this far, talk to you soon...