Marshmallow-swirled Peanut Butter Bread
When you're home with the kids, time can be of the essence. When lunch time rolls around, who can be bothered to pull out the bread, peanut butter, marshmallow fluff and knife? And then spread peanut butter on one piece of bread and fluff on the other? I could save 37 seconds if all that yummy goodness came in one package.
4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup melted peanut butter
2 cups warm milk
1/2 Tbsp instant yeast
2 tsp salt
7 oz. Marshmallow fluff
Mix first 5 ingredients together (by hand or use a mixer). Knead dough well.
Let rise 1 hour or until nearly doubled in size. Punch down and roll out flat into a 12" x 18" rectangle. Spread fluff on dough, coating well, leaving an inch strip on one of the shorter sides. Starting with the opposite shorter side, roll the dough into a loaf. Grease a pullman or pain de mie pan well. Place the loaf in the pan.
Preheat oven to 425' F. Let loaf rise until the dough is just under the lid of the bread. Place pan on a baking sheet and put in oven. Lower temperature to 400' F. Bake for 40 minutes, removing lid of pan after 30 minutes. Lower temperature to 325' F if the crust of the bread is dark brown after removing the lid.
Allow to cool, slice and serve.
Friday, March 11, 2011
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Spirit Gendreau (1992-2011)
Most of you who have met Spirit, met her in her twilight years when she was a crotchety old lady. She couldn't go more than 10 minutes without uttering one of her trademark sarcastic yowls. If we left her alone for more than 8 hours, she would make us pay in the form of little regurgitation presents that she left in the most strategic places. She was the proverbial old maid, having outlasted her sibling and fellow pack-mates.
Spirit was rescued, along her sibling Mirage in the summer of 1992. At the time I was living in the basement of my mom's house and we had just lost our dog. My mom wasn't ready for another pet and I took it upon myself to bring a pet into the family. As I said, my mom wasn't ready for another pet and to prove to my mom that I was willing and able to care for a pet, she made me take care of a stuffed pet for 2 weeks. For two weeks, I had to feed imaginary food to the cat and scoop an imaginary litter box. After caring for Faux-cat, I went to the MSPCA and adopted Spirit and Mirage. Spirit was all black and her sister Mirage was black & white. I don't recall the thought process behind naming them Spirit & Mirage, but all future members of Clan Gendreau continued the tradition of being named for a super-hero which was also the name of a car. (Vision, Phantom and Impulse rounded out the Clan in later years.)
My most treasured memory of Spirit happened very early on in her life. As i said, I was living in the basement at my moms and my mom didn't want the cats upstairs. They were cordoned into the two rooms that comprised my "place". There were two entrances to my room. One a door and the other an entry way into the laundry room. To keep the cats from the laundry room, I used a 7 1/2 foot tall JFK movie cardboard standee to block the 8 foot tall entry. Being kittens Mirage & Spirit tried for hours to try to escape but never were able to-until given the proper incentive. One afternoon, my mom cooked chicken wings for an upcoming family party. The smell of the chicken proved to be too much. Spirit vaulted the 8 feet up and over the standee and bolted up the stairs where she proceeded to gorge herself on chicken wings. Needless to say, my mom wasn't happy.
In the 18 years (that's 126 in cat years) that Spirit was with me, she out-lived all her Clanmates, but I'm sure she's pouncing through the Elysian fields with them now. She is up there with Mirage, Vision, Phantom & Impulse. Spirit, you will be missed.
Spirit was rescued, along her sibling Mirage in the summer of 1992. At the time I was living in the basement of my mom's house and we had just lost our dog. My mom wasn't ready for another pet and I took it upon myself to bring a pet into the family. As I said, my mom wasn't ready for another pet and to prove to my mom that I was willing and able to care for a pet, she made me take care of a stuffed pet for 2 weeks. For two weeks, I had to feed imaginary food to the cat and scoop an imaginary litter box. After caring for Faux-cat, I went to the MSPCA and adopted Spirit and Mirage. Spirit was all black and her sister Mirage was black & white. I don't recall the thought process behind naming them Spirit & Mirage, but all future members of Clan Gendreau continued the tradition of being named for a super-hero which was also the name of a car. (Vision, Phantom and Impulse rounded out the Clan in later years.)
My most treasured memory of Spirit happened very early on in her life. As i said, I was living in the basement at my moms and my mom didn't want the cats upstairs. They were cordoned into the two rooms that comprised my "place". There were two entrances to my room. One a door and the other an entry way into the laundry room. To keep the cats from the laundry room, I used a 7 1/2 foot tall JFK movie cardboard standee to block the 8 foot tall entry. Being kittens Mirage & Spirit tried for hours to try to escape but never were able to-until given the proper incentive. One afternoon, my mom cooked chicken wings for an upcoming family party. The smell of the chicken proved to be too much. Spirit vaulted the 8 feet up and over the standee and bolted up the stairs where she proceeded to gorge herself on chicken wings. Needless to say, my mom wasn't happy.
In the 18 years (that's 126 in cat years) that Spirit was with me, she out-lived all her Clanmates, but I'm sure she's pouncing through the Elysian fields with them now. She is up there with Mirage, Vision, Phantom & Impulse. Spirit, you will be missed.
Friday, January 14, 2011
Debut issue of Jimmy & O'Brien Comics
I know digital comics are all the rage right now, so here is a day and date release (with commentary) of Jimmy & O'Brien #1.
The retail variant cover. Lex didn't want to charge anything for it, because we were making it for Mommy, but I figured we would try to recoup our costs. That's O'Brien in the upper right hand corner. Signed by both the artist/writer and the letterer!
Page 1: I firmly believe in DC Comic's policy of having a splash page in the first few issues of the book. Lex went with the stars of the book and did a fine job of capturing their essences. That's Jimmy on the left and O'Brien on the right. Lex dictated the story and I just lettered what I was told.
Page 4: Elephant is going back home. He's probably sick and tired of lion eating all the apples. I couldn't find our stapler so I had to bind the book using our staple gun. This book will last forever!
Page 5: Sheeps go to Maine. For vacation? Lex decided to try his hand at lettering here, so I added a caption to the book so one wouldn't be confused. Hannibal served as model for the sheep here. As he did with the splash page, Lex got his friends and posed them so he could draw them.
Page 6: The dolphin tries to save the whale. Lex got experimental here which is very impressive with his first comic book. He was obviously heavily influenced by both Diego's Ultimate Rescue League (which was playing while we created) for the material and manga for the format. This layout makes more sense if you read it right to left, so here's...
Page 7: This whale goes into an oil spill. Here we are introduced to the whale and see the danger that the whale has gotten himself into.
Page 8: Credits
So there you folks! The debut issue of Jimmy & O'Brien.
The retail variant cover. Lex didn't want to charge anything for it, because we were making it for Mommy, but I figured we would try to recoup our costs. That's O'Brien in the upper right hand corner. Signed by both the artist/writer and the letterer!
Page 1: I firmly believe in DC Comic's policy of having a splash page in the first few issues of the book. Lex went with the stars of the book and did a fine job of capturing their essences. That's Jimmy on the left and O'Brien on the right. Lex dictated the story and I just lettered what I was told.
Page 2: Pandas eat apples! Well of course they do...unless...
Page 3: Lion eats all the apples! Lion is the villain in this piece I guess. Better that he eats the apples and not the panda.
Page 4: Elephant is going back home. He's probably sick and tired of lion eating all the apples. I couldn't find our stapler so I had to bind the book using our staple gun. This book will last forever!
Page 5: Sheeps go to Maine. For vacation? Lex decided to try his hand at lettering here, so I added a caption to the book so one wouldn't be confused. Hannibal served as model for the sheep here. As he did with the splash page, Lex got his friends and posed them so he could draw them.
Page 7: This whale goes into an oil spill. Here we are introduced to the whale and see the danger that the whale has gotten himself into.
Page 8: Credits
So there you folks! The debut issue of Jimmy & O'Brien.
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