In the meantime, Valentine’s Day is fast approaching to bring a little extra warmth into your home. Share it with those you love.

How about a heart (and hearth) warming meal on Valentine’s Day? I’ve always felt the smell of rising and baking bread makes a house a home. Don’t worry if you’ve never baked bread before. In this newsletter, you’ll find my recipe for Crusty Rustic Bread.

Serve your homemade bread in a homemade panadiere described below. Make up a hearty cream soup. People are always impressed by homemade soups. I guess they don’t realize how easy they are to make. For Valentine’s Day, I suggest a creamed red pepper soup for its color (and taste!).

Then top off your meal with a very impressive but easy Valentine dessert. Try my recipe for Quilled Pastry Hearts.

Happy Valentine’s Day to you and all your loved ones!

Eileen

Winners of A-Mazing Heart Design Contest
Click here to see the winning entries in our A-Mazing Heart Contest. If you haven’t made your Valentine cards yet, these will surely inspire you. You can borrow and adapt ideas from our winners or download the A-Mazing Heart graphic and do your own thing.

Panadière – Bread Basket à la Française
Have you seen those cute fabric bread baskets with the corners tied up in little bows? They’re surprisingly easy to sew because the stiff inner layer forms a guide for your sewing needle, resulting in very straight seam lines and perfect right angles. Get my pattern by clicking here.

Make them for yourself, as gifts, or to sell. They are my second biggest seller. If you plan to give or sell them, feel free to use my panadière product label in the shape of a piece of bread available on that page. It’s really cute, if I do say so myself.

Crusty Rustic Rosemary-Sesame Bread
This delicious bread takes about 4 hours to make, but most of that time is for rising. So you can be off doing some crafty thing while the yeast does its thing. The bread is usually shaped into a ring, but for Valentine’s Day why not form it into a heart?

1 ¾ c. warm water (divided 1 ¼ + ½)
1 T. active dry yeast
4 ¾ c. all purpose flour (divided 1 ¼ + 2 ½ + ¾ + ¼)
½ c. olive oil
2 t. ground rosemary
2 t. sea salt

Additional flour for work surface
Topping: 1 T. sesame seeds (divided 1 ½ t. + 1 ½ t.) and 1 t. sea salt

Make sponge : Sprinkle yeast over 1 ¼ c. warm water in a 4 cup measuring cup. Let stand 5 min. to soften; whisk to dissolve yeast. Stir in 1 ¼ c. flour until smooth. Cover with plastic wrap and set in warm place (about 75 degrees) until sponge is bubbly and more than doubled (about 45 min.).

Make dough: In standing mixer using dough hook, combine ½ c. warm water, olive oil, rosemary, 2 ½ c. flour and 2 t. sea salt. Add sponge mixture. Gradually add ¾ c. flour. Let machine knead the dough until smooth, adding more flour by tablespoons if sticky. Continue kneading until dough springs back when lightly pressed with finger (about 8 min.).

First Rising: Transfer dough to large lightly oiled bowl, turning it once to coat with oil. Stretch plastic wrap tightly over top of bowl. Let rise in warm place until doubled (about 1 hour).

Shape Bread: Turn dough out onto lightly floured work surface. Flatten it into a rectangle 18 x 12 inches. Roll it, jelly roll fashion, into a 20 in. long log, finishing with seam side down. Insert one end into the other and form a circle, oval or heart. Smooth the seam.

Second Rising: Line baking sheet with parchment paper and sprinkle with flour. Transfer dough to sheet, reshaping as necessary. Sprinkle top with 1 ½ t. sesame seeds, pressing lightly to adhere. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and place in warm place to rise until almost doubled (about 45 min.).

Prepare to Bake: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Remove plastic wrap and, using a serrated knife, cut a ¼ in. deep slit all around the top of the loaf. Spray bread lightly with water. Sprinkle remaining 1 ½ t. sesame seeds and 1 t. sea salt atop loaf.

For Crusty Crust: Bake for 15 min., spraying lightly with water every 5 min. [Open oven door, give a quick spitz making sure not to spray oven light bulb, and quickly close oven door.]

Finish Baking: Continue baking until bread is golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom (25 to 30 min.). Transfer to rack and cool completely.

Sharing Good News
It’s always fun to share good news. I’m delighted to announce that my sister has launched her own website.

Please visit Ageless Beauty and meet Jean. Jean has a lifetime of experience in health and fitness. She started out as a ballet dancer, then ballet teacher. (Talk about being fit!) Next she acquired a degree in education; taught physical education; coached gymnastics; and eventually became an aerobics and power sculpt instructor.

She has sold cosmetics and nutritional supplements and has done an awful lot of research on antiaging. As you will read at Ageless-Beauty, there are many effective ways to slow and even reverse the effects of aging. And new ones are being introduced almost daily!

So please pay her a visit by clicking here.