bread, rice, and thrift

Justin was off on Tuesday so after voting and dropping of my good friend Christina (she hit a beaver a week or so ago,so her car is in the shop and she needed a ride to the polls) , we went shopping! First to Goodwill to pick out the fabrics for his quilt that I'm making for him.
Let me just say that while the stuff he picked out is totally muted and fully on the masculine side of the world for me and my taste (lots of tweed,wool,and dark colors all from the men's section), I'm really happy with what we got and I'm happy that once it's finished it will be a part of our family for many, many years to come. It took me all day yesterday to pull it all apart, and now I'm washing the fabric to get rid of the bits left from ripping seams then, I'll iron and start cutting. I'm thinking about doing it in triangles instead of squares this time, and I want to add just a hint of femininity to it so I need to look for something in my piles that will match nicely, oh and Justin wants me to try my hand at hand quilting it together. I can't wait to show everyone but I'm thinking it will be a week or so before you'll get any sort of a peek. Oh well on to the rest of my post!
After goodwill we hit the salvation army. Normally I hate the SA we have here in Saint Marys, i can never find anything, but boy do I have new eyes for them now after looking through the kids section!I don't think .75cent has ever made me happier. The cash register is '74 fisher price and the little metal bell still rings and all the buttons and the drawer still work, The pull along lace up shoe I'm not sure on the year, but it's wood so thats super cool and it says "an original fisher price toy" on the front. both are missing all of their little bits and bobs but that ok because the art work is so beautiful, and I'm not above a good search for parts. "Up and Away" is third edition copyright 1963. The art work inside is amazing and the book is in great condition for being as old as my mom!
after the fun shopping was done we headed out to our local oriental store to pick up a bag of rice before heading back home for a night of cook'n and love'n.
At the oriental store we had picked up some black glutinous rice along with our normal jasmine, after the owner told us this recipe!add 1/2 cup black glutinous (after soaking for around 30min.) to 1 1/2 cup jasmine
and 2 3/4 cup water for purple rice! It does not really taste any different from plain rice, but the black rice adds a little crunch(in a good way, like wild rice, not the under cooked rice way) and makes the rice clump really well, great for eating with chop sticks! We will totally be doing this one way more often, and I think it would be a really fun food to make for kids!

Anyway, while I was making purple rice, Justin was making this really great no knead, crusty bread recipe from motherearthnews.com

OH MY GOSH!!!!! It was so good ! In fact I'm making a loaf right now. It's in the oven and my house smells so amazing, I can't wait! super crusty out side and the inside is chewy, and it's so good with cheese and red wine. ummmm I can't wait till it's done! It does take a while to make, but so worth it, and the actual work is not much, but it involves lots of waiting.
Along with the bread he also made us some sauteed broccolli and cauliflower from our garden . yummy! yummy! yummy! Good food and a good man make for a very good night :)
cheers dear reads! until we meet again,
~heather