No Knead Bread

There's nothing better than a great bread recipe that doesn't require kneading. Boo to kneading! My step-father Dutch found this recipe on Youtube. Mark Bittman's No Knead Bread. Here is the link if you are interested in making just a plain bread or need the video in case my recipe makes no sense...which could happen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13Ah9ES2yTU

Anyway, this bread is not only delicious, it's easy and CHEAP!

What you will need:

Dutch Oven

3 cups of Flour

1/4 tsp of Active Dry Yeast

1 1/4 tsp of Salt

1 cup of chopped Pecans 

1 tbsp of Sugar

1 cup of Crasians

1 Large Orange for the rind

1 1/2 cups of warm water

(TIP: After the 12 hours of rising, before you take the bread out of the bowl, preheat the oven at 450 for 30 minutes with the top on. Just nice to have that ready to go when you finish folding the bread)

Chop and saute the pecans for about 10 minutes. Don't let them burn. I did not add oil or butter to the pan. They are dry.

 YUM! I love pecans!

 Add all the dry ingredients in the bowl. Blend them all together with a wooden spoon. 

Grate the whole the orange and add to the bowl of dry ingredients.

 Blend well. 

Add the water to the bowl and with a wooden spoon, blend the mixture. It may take a little muscle to mix it well. 

Cover the top with Saran Wrap. Really tight! 

 

Poke a small hole in the top of the Saran Wrap and let the bread rise for 12 hours.  

 Almost there! Yum!

 Sprinkle some flour on the counter top for the bread.

 

 Drop the bread onto the flour and cover both sides with flour. Shape the bread into a circle and fold over four times. This may sound confusing so the video posted from youtube may help. My husband was sleeping so I couldn't take a picture while trying to fold it over.

 Preheat the oven at 450 for 30 minutes with the dutch oven in the oven with the top on. (from the tip in the beginning of the blog)

 Be careful taking the top off. It's going to be super hot!!! Place the bread into the dutch oven FOLDED SIDE UP! I know this may seem weird but this will give the bread that Mohawk look!

Put the cover back on the dutch and cook for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes take the top off the dutch oven and cook for another 20 minutes.

DONE! Take it out and let it cool for about 10  minutes or so. It's so good fresh out of the oven with a little butter! Oh man! 

Enjoy.

xoxo

Robin

Cleaning the Stove Top Grates

Our stove top grates are SO GROSS. I have tried soaking them in hot water with soap and nothing seems to get all that left over grossness off the grate. So, of course, I turned to Pinterest. My Best Friend. I found this cheap great idea and it worked! 

What you will need:

Ziploc Bags

Ammonia

That's it!

 This is my poor excuse of a grate....barf

Place the grate in a ziploc bag with 3 tablespoons of Ammonia and let it sit for 12 hours. So don't plan on cooking. 

12 hours later....and I came so close to throwing up.

I opened the bag and dumped out the ammonia and added water to the bag. I shuck it up like old fashion shake and bake and SO MUCH caked on crap came off the grate. The bag also ripped so shake with caution. 

Wish some hot water and a sponge, I cleaned the grate and almost everything came off. 

SEE!!!!

I was so excited about it that I threw all the other grates into ziploc bags. 

I'm so screwed for dinner tonight...

xoxo 

Robin

Affordable Cat Bed

Do you have a high maintenance cat? I sure do. Here is a great affordable cat bed! 

This is what you need to do. 

1. Order something for yourself online that requires stuffing

2. Wait for the package to arrive

3. When the package arrives, open it and take everything out of the box but leave the stuffing

4. Place the box on the floor

BOOM

 She's so weird. 

xoxo

Robin

 

Oh that's no fun...

I couldn't help but laugh when I walked into the office and saw this. My poor husband....

Just wanted to share a good laugh. 

xoxo

Robin

Welcome

Well, hello there. Thanks for checking out my blog. I have been wanting to start a blog for a while and I think now is the best time for me to start. I see all these great blogs every day about crafts and cooking and I think to myself "Well, I can do that....maybe...some day" WELL THAT SOME DAY IS TODAY!

So this is me in a nut shell...

 I like to have a good time. Wine is going to be present through most of this blog. Just a warning. But I will show you cool things to do with all those corks! So tip those drinks back, Ladies and Gents. The more corks the better!

So I named my blog "Keeping it Vermont" for a couple reasons. Well, I grew up in Vermont in little town that was about 30 minutes to anything fun and it was awesome. I was very much a tomboy having two older brothers. I'll never forget my freshman year of high school when I wore brown carharts and a green flannel button down and thought I looked good. No wonder I never got a boyfriend that year. HA! Anyway, off track...shocking.

I left VT to move to Boston when I was 25. Boston is wonderful. Having the ocean only a minute walk from me is amazing. But there's nothing like going home. The air is so clean. The people are polite when they drive....although it is very hard to keep your composure when they drive under the speed limit. GRR!

I am still very much a country girl and even though I live in the city with no back yard for a garden, no driveway to park my car, packages are not safe on your stoop and I have no idea who my neighbors are, I make do in my tiny apartment I share with my husband.

So I hope you enjoy what I have to share with you. It will most likely be all over the board...like me.

Oh and this is my cat Bella. She hates living in the city.

Makes her sick!

xoxo

-Robin