A Bread Making Experiment

I jumped on the CORONAPOCOLYPSE sourdough starter internet bandwagon. I have actually wanted to try my hand at a sourdough starter for a long time, and never made it a priority. So since we are sheltering in place and all of that I decided now is the time! (you know because my roles as distance learning enforcer, breakfast-lunch-dinner lady, blogger, graphic designer, housekeeper, mom and wife weren't keeping me busy enough😂) I've been following the process from Amber's Kitchen on Instagram. So far I've made English muffins and sourdough rolls. Today I decided to try a loaf of french bread. I'm learning that you don't have to use a recipe specifically for sourdough to use your sourdough starter. So I follwed Amber's kitchens recipe for french bread and replaced the yeast with a cup of my sourdough starter.

For some reason my starter didn't seem as bubbly today as it usually does after I feed it. So I wasn't sure how successful this loaf would be. All in all I would say it was a success. The flavor was good it wasn't really very sour, I wasn't going for sourdough today so that in my opinion is a good thing. It was a little more dense than I would have liked, I'm wondering if that is because my starter wasn't as active as it should have been. I also used a combination of white flour and spelt flour, which the spelt could have added to the dense texture. I will definitely be trying this again. To see if I can make it just a little bit better. All in all I'm happy with my first attempt.

Some of my favorite kitchen items that I used today were of course my KitchenAid. This was my first baby that I got shortly after my husband and I got married over a decade ago. I also LOVE these covered Pyrex Bowls. I love them so much I have two sets and use them everyday, mutlitple times a day. They come in very handy for mixing and storing and a more! The perfect place to let your yummy bread dough rise! I hope you enjoyed coming along with me on my bread making experiment. I'm by no means a professional, but I had fun. Let me know if you give it a try!

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National Jelly Bean Day

We are still celebrating the small things over here at Modern Family Designs, and today we're celebrating National Jelly Bean Day in our homes. We both did fun (and different) jelly bean challenges and enlisted the help of our husbands and kids. It was a blast. Watch the videos below for some ideas on how you can make some fun memories with your families today. You can download this free printable that Elizabeth used in her challenge for an extra element of fun!

How did you celebrate National Jelly Bean Day? We want to hear from you!

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Want to try this game with your family???

Jelly Belly's ORIGINAL Bean Boozled Game is one of our favorite family party games.

I love that this is an activity that is great for ALL AGES!

Check out our video of our family trying out the Jelly Belly Bean Boozled Challenge!

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Jelly Belly has a NEW version of the Bean Boozled Challenge!

Introducing The FIERY FIVE CHALLENGE!!!

These spicy pepper candies go from mild Sriracha and Jalapeno, all the way to up blazing-hot flavors like Habanero and Carolina Reaper. Because each of these jelly beans is made with real pepper puree, you’ll be able to savor the authentic flavors along with the high spiciness factor.

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Feeling EXTREME?!

Jelly Belly has released a Bean Boozled version with NO GOOD FLAVORS!

This contains 10 different flavors:

Barf, Booger, Canned Dog Food, Dead Fish, Dirty Dishwater, Rotten Egg, Skunk Spray, Stinky Socks, Spoiled Milk and,Stink Bug!

Some of the links in this post are affiliate links, meaning at no additional cost to you, we at Modern Family Designs will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. We are grateful for your support in reading our posts and any purchases you might make.

Review of The Hazel Wood and Night Country Series by Melissa Albert

Hey friends! I don't know about you but I have been doing a good amount of reading lately. I am keeping busy like all of you, but I also decided when all of this began that I was going to prioritize time for myself. So everyday I force (read encourage) my boys to take some time off screens and I force (read allow) myself to stop working or keeping up with whatever needs to be kept up on and I take that time to read. I feel like it has been my saving grace over these past six weeks. I can't even believe it's already been that long. This feels crazy. Am I right?

I read The Hazel Wood a couple months ago and loved it so much that I bought The Night Country right away, but didn't make time to read it. So the very first book I picked up for my own personal quarantine book club, was The Night Country. I really loved this duology. I snagged The Hazel Wood on a whim actually. I was browsing the aisles of a bookstore a few months ago and the cover caught my eye. I read the description and was very intrigued. And I'm so glad I bought it. If I'm being honest it's not the type of book I normally read. I'm a sucker for a good vampire romance or a good distopian novel. But the description of The Hazel Wood really intrigued me. Here is the description from Goodreads "Seventeen-year-old Alice and her mother have spent most of Alice’s life on the road, always a step ahead of the uncanny bad luck biting at their heels. But when Alice’s grandmother, the reclusive author of a cult-classic book of pitch-dark fairy tales, dies alone on her estate, the Hazel Wood, Alice learns how bad her luck can really get: her mother is stolen away-by a figure who claims to come from the Hinterland, the cruel supernatural world where her grandmother's stories are set. Alice's only lead is the message her mother left behind: 'Stay away from the Hazel Wood.'"

Ok, can you say dark fairy tale? The Hazel Wood has the makings of a fairy tale mixed with the supernatural. It is expertly written and casts a lovely spell over you as you read. It was dark in all the best ways. I loved reading every page in this book as it takes you through Alice's struggle to find her mom and herself. Alice is a little rough around the edges, but I absolutely adored her from minute one. There are some serious plot twists that I didn't see coming (and I usually spot them a mile away). I loved all of the little details that were included too. It was a book that I could easily imagine coming to life.

The Night Country was equally as good and I was thrilled to read more about Alice and her dark fairy tale friends. Here is the Goodreads description " InThe Night Country, Alice Proserpine dives back into a menacing, mesmerizing world of dark fairy tales and hidden doors. Follow her and Ellery Finch as they learnThe Hazel Wood was just the beginning, and that worlds die not with a whimper, but a bang." As Alice continues to discover hereslf and figure out how to navigate the real world, she is thrown into a magical mystery that has a dire consequences. Another wonderfully written fairy tale with twists and turns that you will not see coming. The characters really come to life again in The Night Country and are creepy and wonderful all at once. You will love going on another wild ride with Alice.

What books are you reading right now? I'm in the market for a new read and would love some suggestions.

Some of the links in this post are affiliate links, meaning at no additional cost to you, we at Modern Family Designs will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. We are grateful for your support in reading our posts and any purchases you might make.