After the rain

Welcome to our North Carolina home after a spring rain!

The heuchera has responded well to rain & warmer temperatures.

And so has the rhododendron!!

Bloomin' linky

Start outside with a few azalea blossoms, then snap a few pix of dead nettle, and head on in the house for a few photos of orchids... what a great way to welcome spring! 

Wordless wonderment: spring!

Blue skies and spring trees blooming - what more can one ask for?

Another wordful Wednesday linky

This coleslaw is the bomb! I got the recipe from Daydream Kitchen, and I'll be forever grateful! It's different from anything I've had before, light and refreshing, with a tasty tang. And it's pretty, too!

Cilantro Lime Slaw
Ingredients
½ head of green cabbage
2 carrots
½ red bell pepper
⅓ cup of mayonnaise
3 garlic cloves
¼ cup cilantro
Juice of 3 limes
Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions
Finely chop cabbage into bite-sized pieces, place into large bowl. Peel carrots, then grate them into bowl. Finely julianne red bell pepper, add to bowl.

Create dressing by blending together mayo, garlic, cilantro and lime juice until combined. Toss dressing with other ingredients, add salt and pepper to taste, serve chilled.

Making bread (unwordlesslyy)

This week's photos are culinary and include a recipe for "crusty bread".... the easiest one you're likely to find.

Crusty Artisan-Style Bread
3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 3/4 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon fast-rising yeast
1 1/2 cups water

In a large mixing bowl, mix together flour, salt, and yeast. Add water and mix until a shaggy, hard-to-stir dough forms. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set it aside in a warm, dry location for 12-18 hours. It will rise slowly... very slowly... but look what happens:

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Once the oven reaches temperature, place a cast-iron pot with a lid in the oven and heat the pot for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, pour the dough onto a heavily floured surface and shape it into a ball. Cover it with plastic wrap and let it set while the pot is heating.

Remove the pot from the oven and drop in the dough. Shake the pot a bit to distribute the dough, but don't worry if it's a bit uneven - it will tend to even out during the cooking process. Replace the cover & return the pot to the oven for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, remove the lid and bake for an additional 15 minutes. Remove bread from the oven and place on a cooling rack to cool.

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Don't be afraid to experiment, either. I made a second loaf in a smaller Dutch oven, this time snipping in some fresh rosemary and a tad of minced garlic.

And I made another loaf with dried cranberries, clove, cinnamon, and a few sliced almonds tossed into the dough.

If you want to continue to experiment with "kneadless breads", do a web search - there are a host of recipes popping up out there. But as I said to start with, this particular recipe is by far the easiest I've found, and it'd darn good besides!

I told you this week's "wordless Wednesday" linky was unwordless, but I hope you enjoyed the photos & I hope you'll try the bread - the house smelled amazing, and the bread got rave reviews! Now let's see your photos!