Imperial moth caterpillars and bread!

Thankfully not together! Ha.

KJ found this huge caterpillar outside. We took photos and measured it, then let it go in an area safe from the chickens. We hope to see the beautiful moth it will turn into someday.



Our oldest son baked bread for the first time today, it came out great! That's what happens when you criticize your sister's breadmaking skills... you get to bake the next loaves!



He did a pretty good job :)

Zucchini!

This week we've made:


Zucchini bread (only a pic of grated zucchini, not the bread, sorry!)


Dried zucchini in the dehydrator...




.. and Zucchini Relish. The relish is surprisingly good. I used the recipe from the Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving. It's very watery though, so next time I'll be trying out a different recipe.

Our mandolin comes in very handy with all this food prep. I have been very impressed with it so far.. quite a nice kitchen tool for a decent price. I like how you can wash all the parts and then put them all in the storage box and put that in the drying rack and it air dries in there. That definitely saves us from accidental cuts.. those blades are SHARP!

Bulk Yeast

For those of you who bake a lot with instant/active yeast but are still buying it in sachets or those little bottles.. there's a better way!

Costco and Sam's Club sell bulk yeast bricks. Sam's has Fleischmann's sold in a package of two 1 lb bricks and Costco has Red Star sold in a 2 lb package for $3.39. The bricks feel SOLID as they are vacuum packed but once you open them up they're granular and exactly the same as the yeast in those little sachets.

2 1/4 tsp instant yeast = 1 yeast sachet

I keep some in a small jar in the refrigerator and the rest gets kept in the freezer. It doesn't lose its potency.

In case you don't know what to look for, here's what the Costco yeast looks like (milk in there for size reference) and you can find it on the bottom shelf under the spices, right around the area you'll find the Vanilla extract.