Tuesday's Tip

ok, so this doesn't count as a new tip - but, blogger finally decided to let me post pictures.  so, since i was a slacker and did not post yesterday (honestly, i didn't even realize it was tuesday til i crawled my way into bed - but more to come on all that later), i've opted to repost last week's tip with the missing pictures.  thanks for being merciful :)

loved, loved, loved the suggestions i got from everyone last week.  keep 'em coming.  i'm looking forward to writing about each... or discovering a tip to share.

today's tip builds on an exisiting, fabulous tip from sarah over at short stop.  and because it involves food and saves time and money, it's one of my favorites.

a while back, sarah posted a recipe for homemade beer bread.  it is a super easy recipe, based on the boxed bread mixes you can buy at specialty stores and from certain home-party food retailers.  when you buy pre-made bread mixes, you are paying for convenience as much as taste and name, and while i am a big fan of convenience, i am not always willing to pay the price.  caring for a family of six on one school teacher's salary doesn't allow for convenience with a price tag.  so, when sarah taught us all how to make homemade beer bread (skip the $8 a box cost and fancy packaging and skip right to mm mmm good), i was happy to try it.  

not surprisingly, it was delicious and fast and cheap.  seriously, the 6 ingredients required you will always have on hand, and although the recipe calls for beer, it is equally good with any type of soda (i've tried coke, ginger ale, and sprite).  i love being able to make bread from scratch for an every day meal.  

so, you may not be surprised that i decided to make it even easier.  i thought, "if a manufacturer can box these dry ingredients, why can't i?"

i lined up all FOUR dry ingredients,...

put them in a bowl,...

and then poured it in a ziploc bag.  tough, huh? then i repeated this process a few more times.

as a result, i now have four bags of beer bread mix in my pantry, ready for the next time i want fresh bread with dinner.

one little step i added was to sift the ingredients.  i did this, simply, by placing my small strainer / sifter inside the large ziploc bag and pouring the ingredients into the strainer and sifting it right inside the bag.

no mess, no hassle.  now it's really ready to go.

oh, and don't forget to write any extra steps / ingredients on the bag.  that will save you the step of finding the recipe when you're ready to throw it in the oven.

enjoy :)