DAY OF REST - My Wife Makes Hamburger Buns in her Lingerie

Between Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, an early Mardi Gras and Valentine's Day, it has been a busy few months for specialty cooking. I am exhausted, and deserve a day of rest. Yesterday was President's Day. The day we honor our hard working achieving Presidents by having all federal employees lose a day from making further achievements for the people who hired them. So, in the spirit of how I wish the world worked, I (a private citizen) took the day off, and had my wife, the federal employee, do some productive work for a change. And what is more productive than taking a little four and water and flavoring and creating BREAD!

Actually, this is a bit of an experiment. I wanted to see if I was giving clear instructions on my blog so that a novice baker could follow what I was doing. And who better to pick on than my wife. I have done a couple posts on Moomie Rolls recently. One HERE, and one on my sister site, OUR KRAZY KITCHEN... HERE. So, with me manning the camera only, and not offering any advice or making comments, I turned my wife loose in MY kitchen. First thing she did was to read the two posts carefully. And that is great advice for anyone trying a recipe, read it over first. Who knows what tips are buried in the body of the recipe, beyond just the ingredient list.

Second, Mise en Place the ingredients. Get everything together that you will be using in the recipe. It is so easy to skip an ingredient if you are just grabbing from your shelves in order. It also insures that you have all the stuff you need before you start. Nothing worse than getting everything mixed and then finding out you are out of eggs. As you can see in the photo, I didn't offer any advice, but My usual assistant, Eng double checked all the ingredients

Third is the logical step of following the recipe.

� 1 c water
� 2 tbsp butter or margarine
� 1 egg
� 3 1/4 c. flour
� 1/4 c. sugar
� 1 tsp salt
� 3 tsp instant yeast

� Place all ingredients in your bread machine. Select dough. Allow to run cycle.

Hint, If you do not have a bread machine. Just add all the ingredients together in you kitchenaid bowl. Mix until it just forms a ball. Do not over mix.


Then, knead the dough into a ball shape, coat with a bit of oil and allow to rise for at least an hour, until it has doubled in size.


Punch the ball and allow it to collapse a bit (this is all a bread machine does on "dough cycle").

� Dump out onto lightly floured surface. form into bread shape, or cut and form into bun shape. Place on greased cookie sheets or your bun pans, cover; rise about 30 to 40 minutes. Bake in preheated 375 degree oven for 12 to 15 minutes til golden. Cool on wire racks.

In the hour and a half the bread machine did all the work, Jackie did get out of her lingerie, but she was still VERY proud of her work. She knows from the rolls that I make that they come out a little big for her tastes. so, instead of cutting them into 8, she made a dozen. She is starting to take a cue from me. While I rarely make a recipe exactly as listed, She never varies from a recipe. She did ask me what I thought about making smaller buns. Only advice I gave was that it was going to be her final product and for her to do what she wanted. I listened as she talked her way through the changes that smaller rolls would make and she ended up making what she would like.

The experiment was a success. The rolls came out perfect as usual. She was thrilled, as was I...

As a teaching blog, I can take a federal worker who spends her days achieving nothing, and transform her to a girl with skills.

And look at our lunch...

While Jackie was making the buns, I made another batch of CRAB MEAT MASSON ala the Cajn Critter - A Salad or an Appetizer. Accented with a handful of Fritos Scoops, the crab salad dressed with lettuce and tomato on a HOT bun was incredible!

And hey, speaking of the crab salad, be sure to check out my post from yesterday when I announced a chance to win a copy of this very fun cookbook! be sure to check out this post... Cookbook GIVEAWAY and Virgin update. Only one more day to enter!

Two final notes... Lea Ann, how many hints do I have to give? Let's see your Moomie Bun Post soon.

And Jackie, if you are reading this, I used the tongue in cheek humor font for this post. The government computers can not show humor. But the rest of the world (hopefully) got the joke. You and I know that you do important work.