Best Ever Baked Fries

I saw this recipe on America's Test Kitchen. It makes the best baked fries I have ever had. We make them all the time.

Ingredients:

Potatoes

Olive Oil

Salt

Pepper

Preheat oven to 475. Cut Potatoes into thin wedges. (I usually leave the skins on). Place potatoes into very hot tap water and let soak for 10 minutes. This helps change the starch in the potatoes. Liberally oil cookie sheet with olive oil. Sprinkle salt and pepper to taste directly onto the cookie sheet. This helps keep the potatoes from sticking. After potatoes have soaked, drain and spread on cookie sheet in one even layer. Cover with tin foil and bake for 20-25 minutes. Remove tinfoil, flip and bake without the tinfoil for another 15-25 minutes. Enjoy. Goes great with mom's sloppy joes.

(Mostly) Whole-Wheat Bread

This is really Mom's recipe, but I tweaked it a little, and I've been really happy with the results.  No more dried-out, heavy-as-a-brick loaves of sandpaper!

THE INGREDIENTS:
3/4 c. milk
1 large egg
1/8 c. water
1 1/2 tsp. salt
3 TBS. honey
1 1/2 TBS. melted butter
1 1/2 tsp. yeast
2 c. whole wheat flour
1 c. bread flour
3 TBS. wheat gluten


THE PREPARATION:
First, heat the milk 'til it is warm, even steaming.  Beat in the egg and the water, then dump it in the bread machine pan.  Add salt, honey and butter.  *Tip: I dip the measuring spoon in the melted butter before I measure the honey, that way you're not waiting a half hour for the honey to dribble off--it just slides right off the spoon.  


Dump in wheat flour, bread flour, and gluten, then hit the dough setting on the bread machine...or, obviously, you can just hit the correct bread setting.  I much prefer my bread without the hole in the middle, and in traditional bread shape, so I like to bake it in the oven.  SO, once you've got your dough...


THE BAKING:
...remove the dough from the bread machine pan, and pinch and pull it, or roll it to fit into a bread pan.  Cover with lightly greased plastic wrap and let it rise a little.  I usually just heat up the oven and let the bread rise on top of the stove, so it goes pretty fast.  It's ready to bake when it's risen just above the top of the bread pan.  Pop it in the oven at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes, or until the bread sounds hollow when you knock it.  Set it out to cool before slicing, unless you are ravenous.


THE ENJOYING:

Limericks

Megan, Lizzy and I composed some limericks while we were preparing dinner the other day... Enjoy!

Sandy

We once had a dog named Sandy
Who ate poopy diapers like candy;
She liked to eat crap,
Right down the old trap,
And thought that TP was just dandy!

Mom

We have a mother, called Mom
Who wanted to play Liebestraum;
So she sat right down at the piany,
And played until she was an old granny,
And all she could play was that song.