Loess Hills Day Trip, Freshly Baked Sandwich Bread and Homemade Frozen Yogurt

As I was all excited about showing off my new header, you get a few peeks at my weekend one day late. It was a good weekend, all around, and it felt both productive and leisurely, which is often a tough combination to work out. There were definitely a few highlights.

1.) Taking a day trip to Loess Hills and going hiking. While I admit that this particular hike was not my finest few hours (note to self: always bring bug spray so to avoid getting attacked by mosquitos/nearly passing out from heat stroke with an almost migraine level headache when attempting to hike in 80 degree weather in my rain jacket), it was still an experience. I learned that I do not like orienteering, but rather a real trail with a real direction. Thankfully Josh took over the leading/bushwacking and was patient with me and my lackluster attitude. (I love hiking, but this day the cards were definitely stacked against me. It happens.)
Thankfully, we found an orchard with cherry pie a la mode soon after finishing, which completely saved the day. And we located a map with real trails on it, so we will definitely head back there soon.

2.) I made sandwich bread! After successfully botching a loaf last weekend because I was trying to do too many things at once, I can say with confidence that this loaf—the Oatmeal Sandwich Bread from Good to the Grain* rocks. I kid you not when I say that this is the first loaf of sandwich bread that has actually risen and baked up like a loaf of sandwich bread is supposed to. Huzzah! I am eating a lot of toast with jam (from the orchard) this week.

3.) I made frozen yogurt! You know that I love my ice cream maker, well I also love this recipe for Strawberry Cinnamon Frozen Yogurt from the latest issue of ReadyMade. I decided to tweak it a bit and I used blackberries and stirred in some chocolate shavings. The result is a sort of Pinkberry meets Cherry Garcia flavor that I very much enjoy. I might puree the berries next time, but the base recipe is so darn good. Like cheesecake (only with 2% yogurt) on your spoon.


*After giving it some thought, I realized that it's not right for me to post the recipe for this bread unless I take the time to reach out to the author/publisher to ask permission. I know it might seem unfair of me to rave and rave about this and that recipe without helping you make them yourselves, but for now, I'm going to recommend you check out the actual book. I'll share the recipe once I'm able to do it responsibly.