WEEK 20/52 - MINIMAL

 Baseball chain link

WEEK 19/52 - EMPTY SEAT

WEEK 18/52 - THE LETTER M

Mmmmmm

Carrot juice, spinach, bananas, limes, oranges, a pear, strawberries, blueberries and ground flax seed.

WEEK 17/52 - THE NUMBER NINE

WEEK 16/52 - ON THE LEFT

WEEK 15/52 - SOFT

I love how soft this looks.

WEEK 14/52 - SUNRISE/SUNSET

 Sunrise at my house. I like the way the light brightens the basketball hoop.

Sunset down at the marina. I like the light bouncing off the sides of the boats.

WEEK 13/52 - R IS FOR REJECTS

Rust

Rain on the airplane window

Rusty barbed wire

Rotary phone

Rusty fence

WEEK 12/52 - LIGHT BLUE

Cake.  The hardest thing for me was which one to choose. Thrilled to have light blue surround me this week.

This was Matt's favorite.

Shawn liked the bike the best.

 

 

 Individuality.  This to me, is Carly. Never one to conform with the other girls, always did what made her happy. Always spoke her mind.

Mike and I chose this one. Lemon slice in seltzer on a pyrex plate with bashful blue cardstock underneath. This day was so windy, the lemon kept floating away on me!

This was taken with my cell and it was so sunny I couldn't see what angle the word 'water' was at. Its a bit too straight for me. I would have liked it to be on an angle.

I took about 100 shots of this picture and didn't care for any of them. This was the best of the bunch. I was going to go back again and sink the rock in the sand but it was freezing. It was so windy that each time I was set, a little wave would come over the heart and take it away. My feet were wet and I couldn't feel my fingers so that's the one I chose. I also have found that I am heart-drawing impaired.

WEEK 11/52 - PINK

Very difficult since pink is something rare for me.

WEEK 10/52 - CLOUDS

Great South Bay

WEEK 9/52 - GRAFFITI

So much graffiti to choose from. These are my favorites.

WEEK 8/52 - PATTERNS

Again, I am stealing themes from the Flickr site but I find so many patterns, it makes it easy.

Week 7/52 - WINTER

I think I put in this theme to use these pictures from upstate. I was up there by myself and 18" of snow fell one night. It was absolutely beautiful in the morning with no prints and it smelled like snow; like winter.

One Hour Rolls

I remade these rolls today with a purpose. I made my favorite chicken salad with grapes, celery and pecans. I wanted to try these rolls again, hoping they would be better this time.

They were. 

They really do take one hour. I always think about making bread too late in the day but if you have an hour for rising and baking and maybe 15 minutes of assembling, try these. 

1 1/2 cups non fat milk (I had 2% and it worked fine)

3 tablespoons butter cut into chunks 

3 tablespoons sugar

4 to 4 1/2 cups all purpose flour, divided

1 tablespoon rapid or quick rise yeast (if you only have 1 packet that's fine)

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 egg at room temp (place in a bowl of warm water for 5 mins)

Turn your oven to 200*. When it beeps, turn it off. Boil the kettle and place a pan on the rack below the middle where the rolls will rest and ultimately bake.

Place the butter, milk and sugar in the microwave for about 2 minutes. It should be between 120-130 degrees. I use a yeast thermometer but 2 mins 17 seconds gets it perfect in my microwave.
While the mixture is heating, combine 3 1/2 cups of the flour, yeast and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the milk mixture to the flour and start to beat. Add the egg and continue to beat until it is all combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the remaining flour, 1/4 cup at a time. I use 4 1/4 c. total. The dough is sticky and very soft. Place some flour on a cutting board or silicone mat and turn out the dough. Dust the top with flour and lightly pat out a rectangle. Roll each section of dough into a ball. I tried making them small (slider bun size) and I didn't care for them. I would say about the size of between a tennis ball and a lacrosse ball. Place in a 9x13 pan that has been sprayed with non-stick spray and put the rolls on the middle rack of the oven. Fill an empty pan with the boiling water and place on the rack beneath the rolls. Quickly close the oven door to create steam. Let the dough rest for 20-30 minutes in the warm oven or until almost doubled in size.
After the dough has doubled, take them out, preheat the oven to 350*. Bake 15-20 minutes until the tops of the rolls are golden brown. Remove from the oven and brush with melted butter (or rub a stick of butter across the tops)

Week 6/52 - LEADING LINES

I took this picture out east on my way to work one morning. What I like most about it is that it is straight out of the camera, with no editing. The snow was blowing across the open fields and it looked like mist.

Week 5/52 SNOW

Snow. I love it when it snows. There is always something to take a picture of. My favorite is the last one.

 

Week 4/52 THE LETTER C

Finding this week terribly difficult but I chose The Letter C only because I took so many for the Flickr page.

C is for Cat in a Chair, Carly's Charm Bracelet and Cascade