Homemade Bread

We've recently discovered the best thing since sliced bread - HOMEMADE bread!  I'm in love with my new Kitchen Aid electric stand mixer, and so far, we've made 4 loaves of homemade bread with it.  I never knew how simple it was to make your own bread, and I never imagined how much more delicious it is than store-bought!  Although somewhat time consuming, it is also a heck of a lot cheaper than buying bread from the store.  While you can purchase a single loaf for around $3.50,  you can spend the same amount on a bag of bread flour and yeast packets that will yield about 8 loaves! So far, we've only made white bread, but I'm thinking about honey wheat or even Irish soda bread next:)   

-C

Little Things

Just a few little things that put a smile on my face so far in 2013...

Random Gerber Daisies from my husband

Pretty spring pedicure

These tiny hearts of Ghirardelli deliciousness given to us by my Mother-in-Law

A large clam - still intact I might add - that Matt found for me

My new gorgeous stainless steel Kitchen Aid stand mixer (which I will be demonstrating in my next post!)

-C

Ie Island Trip - Part 2

Our weekend on Ie Island didn't end there.  The next morning, we had breakfast at the resort and (although we were slightly sore from our previous day of riding around the island), we hopped back on our bikes for another day of sight-seeing.  The main goal was to climb the island's central mountain, Mt. Gusuku, but we also made a few other stop-off's during the day.  Here are a few photos from the day:

My husband, pushing both our bikes up the (steep!) first part of the mountain

Point we started climbing from

Ie Soda - made on Ie Island

Another place we stopped was the old pawn shop.  This is the only building that is still standing in the same condition it was left in after WWII.  You can see the thing is riddled with bullet holes of all sizes.  

It obviously took some hard hits during the war

Exhausted, we both took a nap on the beach until it was time for our ferry to leave

It was a tiring but really fun and relaxing Valentines weekend on Ie-jima.  Thanks for following along on our adventures!

-C