December 15, 2022 - Day 18

Today was a total day at home. There was a special request for dinner so I had to get to work...

AFTER taking care of the critters. 

Tom mentioned that he wanted Chili Cheese Dogs for dinner. Chili has been on the menu every week for the past several weeks, so I got that down. Had most of the ingredients in the basement pantry, so that would be easy to accomplish. We had some Hebrew National hot dogs and cheese. The only thing that we needed was the buns. As I mentioned before the day was a home day. The next best thing...home made buns.

I got to work in the kitchen using Joshua Weissman's Multipurpose dough recipe. One that I have used in the past, but not recently. It's a bit more involved. It's basically Hokkaido Milk Bread. I'm not sure what the differences are, but his recipe is delicious! In whatever shape you make with it. 

ANYWAY

It didn't occur to me to take photos of the process, but I made a tangzhong (milk, water, flour). Combined in a saucepan and then cooked until it forms a paste. This is added to the flour along with a yeast mixture, whole egg, egg yolk. It is then mixed until it forms a dough, to which three tablespoons of softened butter is added until well combined. 

Blah Blah Blah, if you want to watch it made check out Joshua Weissman's video:

So, this is what I ended up with:

They are shaped pretty much like his, but they could have been baked a little long. No matter though, they are good! Who doesn't love homemade bread?

After the rolls were done I threw together the chili and then went outside to get evening food ready. I decided to spend some time outside with the piggoes. They had a treat of alfalfa pellets and then came over to lay down in the sun. Since I was sitting on the pavement they plopped down near me, or next to me...

These boys are super sweet and just love a good belly rub and a nap in the sun! Ted who is closest to my leg is the bigger of the two brothers. He likes to lean, a lot! So much that he is practically was sitting on my leg at first. Poor little Zeke tries to wedge in, but the brothers weren't going to let him. 

It's nice to spend a few minutes with these goofballs. Shortly after I took the last photo I decided to feed everyone early and get inside to get the kitchen cleaned up and dinner heated up.

No one seemed to mind being fed early.