Another go at baking bread

I've been attempting to make wheat bread for sandwiches, but haven't had much luck. This time I took the bread out of the oven a few minutes sooner and I let it cool longer before slicing. This is what I got:



The bread turned out much better and made a great salami-cheddar sandwich for lunch today.

Once I started slicing the bread, I noticed it was still a little warm in the middle and some slices still crumbled some. Mom told me to think of it like cookies . . . the bread sets more the longer it cools. It just takes much longer than cookies because it's so much thicker.

So next time I'll try to be patient and find something else to occupy my time instead of hovering over the loaves, waiting to slice into them. I'm bad about that with cake, either removing it from the pan or waiting for the cake to totally cool before icing it. Just can't make myself wait that long! I'm ready to eat it then! That's why I love cookies. I eat them as soon as them come out of the oven, it all their mushy, warm goodness. :)

Pictured with the bread is some yummy pumpkin-chocolate chip muffins. My friend, Adria, loves these and we have lunch plans later this week. She's also has a birthday coming up in a couple of weeks so I thought she'd enjoy some of these to celebrate. I won't share her age as she may hurt me. She's already said she's not celebrating with big plans this year. I feel the same way with my birthday coming up in five months.

I also made my first batch of corn bread from scratch yesterday and it turned out really good. I made some honey butter to sweeten 'em up. Next time, I may add honey or more sugar to the recipe to make the bread taste better. I'm a big fan of Jiffy corn muffin mix, which is really sweet and delicious. Hope I can come close to Jiffy's yumminess!

I also made chocolate pudding pie for my hubby. With some Vanilla Wafers, butter and sugar, I made a vanilla crust to went really well with the chocolate. I normally use graham crackes, since that's what Chris' mom uses, but we didn't have any so I had to substitute.

And with another furlough day today, I was able to enjoy a three-day weekend that allowed me time to finish this project:

This is a crocheted shirt pattern from Debbie Stoller's "Stitch 'N Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker." As I've said before, this is a great book for novice hookers and a great resource with cool patterns for even more mature hook welders.

I have some sweet tank tops and long sleeved shirts that'll look great with this shirt. The pattern also suggests tying a ribbon along the neckline.