Love and War!

 

War in the first degree... LSO and I having a all out battle it is a battle of epic proportions! A war to end all wars! A battle of Britain type war ..... And it is not without merit! What is it all about I hear you ask? Very simple really it is about bread! As simple as that, dear peeps, B-R-E-A-D!

 

It all started when LSO got a bee in his bonnet about making Corn Bread or to us South Africans Mielie Bread! It is simple I said - a can of sweet corn, a 500 ml self raising flour and a can of beer! Well apparently I had no idea what I was talking about, he went off on a mad tangent and started to try every possible mielie bread he could on the net....... to the detriment of my ever expanding rear end! I would be telling you a lie if all of these golden loaves of yumminess turned out well.... most of them were a bit ... well ..... flat and not so bready! I stepped up and made the bread I had spoken of- Voila! Perfect - But apparently not to his taste or specification - really! ..... How difficult do you want to make this....

 

And so began Our Battle - he had actually challenged me... Bawahahahaha! What a laugh I would win hands down! This dear darling peeps was a no brainer!

  

 

 

 

He arrived home with, what I must admit, is a lovely bread recipe book. And battle began. I however did not need any recipe book, I had a little help - YES, ok I cheated ...a bit, but just a little!! I was reading Attic24 a few days ago and Lucy had made this wonderful looking Artisans Bread! And that was to be the bread I brought to the War room!

 

The best thing about mine was that while LSO kneaded away, I mixed mine up then stood back and watched! He waited for his Olive Foccacia to rise, beat it down and then let it rise again..... then the process started all over again! I look and smiled a serene smile of the soon-to-be-VICTOR!

His Dough

My Mess

The only teeny weeny small problem with mine was that I had to let to rise for 18 hours! I like to think of it as a strategy, if LSO's was absolutely fantastic, I could review my battle plan.... Crafty, aren't I! I have to begrudgingly admit his looked really good - while mine was a gloopy looking mess - yikes what if I had to get out the white flag......

 

 

In The Oven

Foccacia  Bread

Looks Great

Tastes Better

With  Red Wine

Now I am not a someone that likes to lose, I think I have quietly mentioned this before....So it is with great pride-in-my-pocket that I have to tell you LSO's bread was sooooo good, especially with a glass of red and dripping with olive oil and balsamic vinegar! We devoured it, it was dense and flavoursome, it was totally and with out a doubt the best focaccia I have tasted - but did I tell him this? Not on your life!!! Not until I had baked mine! I can be a very sore loser!

  

Artisan's Loaf

The next day was my turn and as I mentioned before, mine did not look great, it was far from a dough, actually it was a mess, a gloopy, runny, yucky smelling MESS - but never one to be defeated I did exactly what Lucy said to do and into the oven it went!  I was worried really very worried! Worried with a capital W!

Being Cute!

After about 20 minutes a wonderful bready smell came wafting through the house..... Could it be..... Was it actually working..... I could not resist running to the kitchen... there I found a somewhat disgruntled looking LSO peering into the oven! 'It smells good!' was the comment! YES!!!

Bread and Butter!

It actually looked really good too! I was really impressed with myself, its one thing producing a cake BUT a whole other ball game making bread! But would the taste live up to expectations? Out came this piping hot mouth watering bread! it was quite a airy , holey looking bread when it was cut through.... As usual it never got the chance to cool down - lashings of butter and mouth application.... It was really good...And so?? I hear you ask  who won? To be honest I thought it was a pretty evenly matched battled but LSO  decided to called a "neutral' body into the kitchen..... Little Madame! She was instructed to taste each piece and give us a verdict! She tasted one then the other, she hmmmmed and ahhhhed until she pronounced, "the Winner is....... this one!" Double YES!!! It was mine! Do I have the best child in the whole world or what?

Bread And Cheese

So in ending this post, I have to be fair! LSO's Foccacia bread was a total different bread to my Artisans Loaf, so in my opinion, you could not really compare the two! they both had their merits But as they say - Alls fair in LOVE and WAR and  although his was good, mine was better! xxx