From Madrid to Barcelona {Spain}

So I am going a tad out of order on this post, skipping ahead to 2004 and my trip after I graduated high school, but have no fear, I shall go back in time soon and post on those adventures once I can locate the pictures that accompany them! So onwards to one of my favorite countries, and trips. After graduation a group of us that were in the National Spanish Honor Society (I know, we have now fully established my level of dorkiness) went on a trip with our teacher (one of the coolest men I have ever known) to visit from Madrid to Barcelona for a couple of weeks. One of the best decisions I've ever made!

We started our journey in Madrid, and made our way through several little towns including Toledo, Salamanca, and several others, ending our time in Barcelona. I took seven levels of Spanish courses in high school, so I was rather prepared for the language barrier and extremely excited to expand my knowledge of the history of this gorgeous country. We visited museums, historic squares, ruins, and so many other "educational" type tours, but more than that, we experienced the country. We traveled by train (much like the Hogwarts Express indeed) visited night clubs with floors upon floors of different themes, road a party boat, saw a bull fight. We dined on local cuisine, sipped sangria, and simply lived life the way of the Spaniards in each city we stopped in. We even ate at a Hard Rock Cafe, which much differed form my previous experience abroad :) Such an incredible experience. I long to go back. To show my husband where we ventured, and cross the borders to Portugal and France as well.

Traveling is such an intensely bonding experience. I had learned this in my travels previously, but this was one of the trips that began to solidify that. One of the other girls on the trip was one of my dear friends from high school, and I love that we were able to share that experience together. One of friends taped the experience and gave us all a copy of the VHS (I know - goodness, I feel old! haha) and watching it recently just brought back so many hilarious and fond memories of such a wonderful opportunity.

Little did I know how much this concept would shape one of my closest friendships to this day that was molded during a journey after undergrad. Thankful to look back on how traveling across this world has infiltrated so many aspects of my life!

Spain Group 2004

Come back soon to go back in time and read about my first trip abroad when I was 14 :)

Best of the Blog: Top 5 Faith Related Posts

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Today I am guest posting over at Grace for Gayle for the #PerfectlyImperfect series. Be sure to check out my post on cultivating a gentle and quiet spirit, as well as the entire series where bloggers are speaking out about the imperfections of life and how we are all imperfectly perfect in our own ways.

If you're here looking for today's post on Coffee and Conversation, read this post from last week to read our announcement & view the topic and be sure to come back next week!

As there are lots of new readers here, I wanted to take some time and do a "Best Of"/"Top 5" series of the specific areas that I blog about. Over the next few weeks I'll be breaking down these areas and doing the top five posts of all time in that category! This week I want to begin on the heart of why I blog, my faith.

1// emptied to be filled again

2 // Demanding Perfection

3// Bread & Wine

4// Numbers

5// The Hope of the World

While this is simply the short list, you can read all posts regarding faith here. Did I leave one off you enjoyed most? Which one would you say is your favorite? I'd love to hear what you think!

No-Knead Bread {Recipe}

So you may remember a while back when I posted about a Simple Pickled Onion Relish and mentioned some incredible homemade bread my husband made with his then new dutch oven. Well, I am finally sharing that with y’all today! Now, since we have been living more Paleo, we don’t eat very much bread, but let’s just be honest… You can’t beat a good homemade loaf every now and then, especially if you have company! The best thing about this is that it contains four ingredients. Four. Talk about knowing what goes into your food. Which has always been more important to us than anything. Simple, chemical and preservative free eating. So if we are going to have a little sneak of carbs, you better believe it will be homemade :)

The ingredients are simple: flour, water, salt, and yeast. And just like the title says, this bread requires no kneading. You can make a delicious loaf of bread with very little hands-on effort & experience which is delightful.

Basic No-Knead Bread


Ingredients:
6 cups bread flour (recommended) or all-purpose flour
[plus more for work surface

1/2 t. instant or active-dry yeast

2 1/2 t. salt

2 2/3 c. cool water

Directions:

• In a large bowl, combine the flour, yeast, and salt. 
• Add the water and stir until all the ingredients are well incorporated; the dough should be wet and sticky. 
• Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. 
• Let the dough rest 12-18 hours on the counter at room temperature. 
• Sounds like a long time - but remember you don't have to knead it, so go do something fun while it does all the work!
• When surface of the risen dough has darkened slightly, it will smell a bit "yeasty". 
• When it is dotted with bubbles, it is ready.
• Lightly flour your hands and a work surface (the counter works). 
• Place dough on work surface and sprinkle with more flour. 
• Fold the dough over on itself once or twice and tuck the dough underneath to form a rough ball.
• Generously dust a cotton towel (not terry cloth - that's important!) with enough flour to prevent the dough from sticking to the towel as it rises
• Place dough seam side down on the towel and dust with more flour
• Cover with the edges or a second cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours (until it has doubled in size).
• After about 1 1/2 hours, preheat oven to 425 degrees. 
• Place a 6-8 quart heavy covered pot (like the cast-iron dutch oven we used), in the oven as it heats. 
• When the dough has fully risen, carefully remove pot from oven. Get ready to use your muscles, it's hot and heavy. 
• Remove top towel from dough and slide your hand under the bottom towel and flip the dough over into the dutch oven, seam side up. 
• Shake the pan a couple of times if dough looks unevenly distributed but fret not, it will straighten out as it bakes.
• Cover and bake for 40 minutes. 
• Uncover and continue baking for 10-15 more minutes, until the crust browns. 
• The internal temperature of the bread should be around 200 degrees. 
• You can check this with a meat thermometer if you'd like (we did). 
• Remove the bread from the pot and let it cool completely on a wire rack before slicing. 
• Attempt to resist cutting into the most incredible smell that is filling your kitchen until it is “quiet” as cutting it too soon will make the bread dense and gummy - and no one wants that.
• After it's quiet, cut, and try not to eat the entire loaf. Enjoy!

{slightly adapted from frugallivingnw}