Angela's Awesome Bread

Have you ever named a recipe after the person who gave it to you? That's what I did with this amazing bread recipe. I don't even know the actual name of the recipe. I named it Angela's Awesome Bread because it IS awesome, and my friend Angela gave the recipe to me.

This bread is really delicious and pretty simple to make. There's no hand-kneading involved. At all. So, here we go. I'm going to show you how easy it is to make this amazingly awesome bread.

First of all, place 2-1/2 cups of warm water, 1/3 cup sugar and 3 (3/4 oz. each) packages of yeast in your mixing bowl.



Mix together with a dough hook attachment and then let it proof until bubbles appear.



Add 1/3 cup of softened butter, 6 cups of flour, and 1 tablespoon salt. Mix. Then add 1/2 - 1 cup of flour until dough cleans the sides of the mixing bowl. It should look something like this.


Remove the dough hook and place a damp kitchen cloth on top of the mixing bowl. Place it in a warm oven for 10 minutes. Remove from oven, replace the dough hook, and mix for 10 seconds.
Repeat this process for an hour.



Grease a large cookie sheet.



Then dump the dough onto the cookie sheet.



Form the dough into two loaves. Score the tops of the loaves with a knife and place in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes. Turn the cookie sheet and bake for another 10 minutes.



Remove from oven and place cookie sheet on a wire cooling rack.



Place loaves of bread directly onto wire cooling rack.



It really is that easy! I hope you like this delicious and simple bread. It's especially good served warm topped with butter and jam. And it makes excellent toast too. Yum!

RECIPE

Angela’s Awesome Bread

Ingredients
2-1/2 Cups Warm Water (120-130 degrees)
1/3 Cup Sugar
2 Tbsp. Active Dry Yeast [I use 3 (3/4 oz. each) packages of yeast.]
1/3 cup Softened Butter
7 Cups Flour
1 Tbsp. Salt

Directions

In a Kitchenaid Mixer with dough hook attachment, mix together the water, sugar, and yeast.
Let the yeast mixture proof (until bubbles form). Then add the softened butter, 6 cups of flour and the salt.

Mix together and add ½ cup – 1 cup flour until dough cleans sides of bowl.
Remove the dough hook and place a damp kitchen cloth on top of the mixing bowl. Place bowl in a warm oven for 10 minutes. Remove from oven, replace the dough hook, and mix for 10 seconds. Repeat this process for 1 hour.

Form into two loaves on a greased cookie sheet. Score tops of loaves with knife.
Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Turn cookie sheet and continue baking for 10 additional minutes.

Remove from oven. Enjoy!

Thanks for stopping by!

© 2014 Copyright by Jana Last, All Rights Reserved

Music Monday ~ Vocal Point's "Happy"

I really like Pharrell Williams' song "Happy." Lots of musicians have made covers of this fun song. I've seen a couple of these covers, but I just recently watched this version by Vocal Point, Brigham Young University's amazing 9-man a capella group.

Did you know that the 2010-2011 Vocal Point group competed on NBC's The Sing-Off television show? Yep! They did! And the group made it to the top 5 in that competition. They also have produced numerous CDs over the years.

I hope you enjoy Vocal Point's cover of Happy!

Thanks for stopping by!


© 2014 Copyright by Jana Last, All Rights Reserved

He's Home!

Last Friday, our third-oldest son returned home from serving a two-year full-time mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.



He served his mission in the Massachusetts Boston Mission, which includes most of Massachusetts, all of Rhode Island, and parts of New Hampshire, Vermont, and Connecticut. During his mission, our son served in Keene, New Hampshire, Quincy, Massachusetts, Lowell, Massachusetts, and Manchester, Connecticut.

We hadn't seen our son in person for two years, so as you can imagine, the reunion we had with him at the airport was wonderful! This is a picture of him hugging his dad.



And here they are together waiting for our son's luggage.



Our son loved his mission and served faithfully. He returned with honor. We recently received two emails and a letter from people in the areas where he served. They had such kind words to say about our son and his service while he was on his mission. It was heartwarming and touching to read what they said about him. The following paragraph is an excerpt from one of the emails that we received:

"I just want to tell you how grateful we are to you and your family for being willing to share your son with us for a short time.  He is a wonderful missionary and carries the Spirit with him wherever he goes.  He has been a great influence on our family and the members of our ward.  We will miss him so much, but we are also very excited for you to welcome him home after a 2-year absence.  Just know that he has served faithfully and has helped to change many lives for the better.  We know he will continue to do so as he returns home and moves on with the next chapter of his life."

We're so proud of our son's selfless service to our Heavenly Father and His son Jesus Christ and to the people in New England. Well done son! And welcome home!

Thanks for stopping by!


© 2014 Copyright by Jana Last, All Rights Reserved

A Beautiful Wedding

In a previous post here at Jana's Place, I told you about the upcoming wedding of our second-oldest son. Well, the wedding took place about three weeks ago. And it was beautiful!

On my genealogy blog, I wrote a blog post about the wedding and shared some photos taken by Marielle Hayes, owner of Marielle Hayes Photography. If you'd like to read that post and see those beautiful photos, please click HERE.

The gorgeous photos I'm sharing with you today were also taken by Marielle Hayes. She did a fantastic job!

Our son and his fiancé (now wife) were married in the Oakland California Temple. They were sealed for time and all eternity. Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believe that marriages performed in the holy temple can last throughout the eternities and not end at death.



I love this photo of our son and daughter-in-law. It's just so sweet! It was taken on the beautiful Oakland Temple grounds.



Isn't she beautiful?



I'll end this post with this gorgeous black and white photo of our son and daughter-in-law.



Oh, and isn't our son's boutonniere awesome? It was made by our daughter-in-law. It's a paper flower. How fun is that? She also added a few in her bouquet.

Thanks for stopping by!


© 2014 Copyright by Jana Last, All Rights Reserved

Chicken Spaghetti Olé

This recipe has become a new family favorite. It's called Chicken Spaghetti Olé. Actually, maybe I should call it Chicken Vermicelli Olé because I use vermicelli instead of spaghetti when I make this dish. I've also changed a couple other ingredients from the original recipe too. It's pretty simple to make and delicious. I hope you enjoy it!



As I mentioned, I've changed a couple of the ingredients in this recipe. Instead of using a 10-oz. can of diced tomatoes with green chiles called for in the original recipe, I use a 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes and a 7 oz. can of diced green chiles.



I also don't include the celery called for in the original recipe. Instead I just sauté chopped onion and bell peppers.



This is what the dish looks like after adding all of the ingredients except for the vermicelli and chicken.



At this point, add the vermicelli and chicken into the sauce.



Here we are. All of the ingredients have been combined.



Spoon the combined ingredients into a greased baking dish and put it into a preheated 350° oven.



Here it is! Out of the oven and ready to enjoy!




RECIPE

Chicken Spaghetti Olé

Ingredients

6 ounces uncooked vermicelli
1 tablespoon butter
1 small green bell pepper, chopped (1/2 cup)
1 small onion, chopped (1/4 cup)
1 can (14.5 ounces) diced tomatoes
1 can (7 ounces) diced green chiles
1 can (8 ounces) tomato sauce
1 package (8 ounces) process cheese spread loaf, cut into cubes (Velveeta)
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
2 cups diced cooked chicken
Sliced jalapeno chilies, if desired

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350°. Grease rectangular baking dish, 13x9x2 inches. Cook and drain vermicelli as directed on package.

2. Melt butter in 12-inch skillet over medium heat. Cook bell pepper and onion in butter, stirring occasionally, until tender. Stir in tomatoes, diced green chiles, tomato sauce, cheese, salt and pepper; reduce heat to low. Heat, stirring frequently, until cheese is melted.

3. Stir in chicken and vermicelli. Spoon into baking dish. Bake uncovered about 30 minutes or until bubbly around edges. Top with chiles. 6 servings.

Adapted from Betty Crocker's Chicken Spaghetti Olé originally found in Betty Crocker’s Favorite Casseroles Booklet September 1999 .

This recipe is also online. To see the original recipe for Betty Crocker's Chicken Spaghetti Olé, click HERE.

Thanks for stopping by!


© 2014 Copyright by Jana Last, All Rights Reserved

Such Exciting Times!

It's an exciting time for our family right now. Our second-oldest son is getting married this coming Saturday. He and his fiancé are so happy and we are so happy for them. His fiancé is beautiful inside and out. We love her and we're so happy she will be part of our family.



We've been in wedding preparation mode for some time now and things are coming together nicely.



Congratulations to our son and his lovely fiancé!

Thanks for stopping by!


© 2014 Copyright by Jana Last, All Rights Reserved

The One-Year Mark

We recently received this picture in an email from our youngest son, who's serving a full-time 2-year mission in Arizona for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He's the one on the right. Notice the short-sleeve shirts? Ya. It's hot over there in Arizona right now.

Our son just passed his one-year mark on July 17, 2014. That's what the picture is about that he and the other elder are holding. The other elder received that cute picture from his parents. It turned out that July 17, 2014 was his one-year mark as well. In case you can't read the writing on the picture, here's what it says: Happy "Hump" Day! July 17, 2014.

So our son has reached the half-way point of his mission. In one of his emails he said that the first year of his mission has gone by so fast. And in his latest email he wrote, "If this year goes by as fast as the last one did, my mission will be much too short." That's so awesome. It makes me happy to read those words because they show how devoted he is to serving the Lord and the people in Arizona.

Thanks for stopping by!


© 2014 Copyright by Jana Last, All Rights Reserved