Quiz answers and sourdough

In case you pondered the picture, Brian is on the left and I am on the right.  I tried my hardest to find pictures from around the same ages!  These are about when we were 6 months old.  This is what our little baby will look like in one year!

Way back in June, I was summoned to Grand Jury Duty on Fridays.  It was a really good experience, but it also lasted 4 months!  I liked it during the summer months, but it made my work weeks WAY too long!  However, I learned a lot (like how to be a smarter criminal) and I also made some really good friends.  One of my jury duty friends was just getting into sourdough when we were almost done.  She shared her starter with some of us jurors before we departed on our last day.  I have so far been able to keep mine alive and enjoy it!  If you've ever kept a sourdough starter alive, you know how animal like it really is, with regular care and feedings.

Apparently, the liquid on the top is called hooch and it's an alcoholic beverage that used to be enjoyed by poor people and bootleggers way back in the old days.

I shared my starter with my mom.  It's fun to share a starter!  And I wonder how long I'll be able to keep it going?  I hope for awhile!  Here's a wonderful loaf of flaky bread!

This next weekend we will be having sourdough waffles made from a sponge that has to sit overnight with buttermilk.  They'll be nice and sour by the morning!

Mint Brownies

These mint brownies are the best!!!

 

Ingredients

Brownies:
• 1 cup butter
• 1/2 cup cocoa
• 2 Tablespoons honey
• 4 eggs
• 2 cup white sugar
• 1 3/4 cup flour
• 1/2 Tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
• 12 oz. chocolate icing (Use your own icing recipe or purchase some chocolate frosting.)
 
 
 
Mint Icing
• 5 Tablespoons butter
• dash of salt
• 3 Tablespoons milk
• 1 Tablespoon light corn syrup
• 2 1/3 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
• 1-2 drops green food coloring

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt butter and mix in cocoa. Allow to cool. Add honey, eggs, sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix well. Add nuts. Pour batter into a greased 9-by-13 baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Cool.
2. Prepare mint icing: Soften butter. Add salt, corn syrup, and powdered sugar. Beat until smooth and fluffy. Add mint extract and food coloring. Mix. Add milk gradually until the consistency is a little thinner than cake frosting.
3. Spread mint icing over brownies. Place brownies in the freezer for a short time to stiffen the icing. Remove from the freezer and carefully add a layer of chocolate icing.  Store in the refrigerator.

Bread machine Madness!

I used to absolutely hate making bread from scratch, but I have always loved eating it!!  With my birthday money, I decided to get a bread machine and I love it!!!  I got the Panasonic SD-YD250 from amazon.com.  I chose this bread machine because it was rated #1 in the bread machines on amazon, and also after looking at all the comments about it, I decided it really was the best one.  So far, we have made several pizzas using the bread machine, dinner rolls, and many many loaves of bread!  It's so easy to use, and I love programming it so I can come home from work to nice, hot, fresh bread as soon as I walk in the door.  It's almost like the gift that keeps giving!  And I don't have to suffer through making the bread anymore!  :)

To make things even easier for myself, I pre-measure all my dry ingredients and put them into jars with labels of what to add.  This way, Brian can very easily start up the bread machine also without having to look for everything.

This jar method has been a great!

I love using 1/3 wheat and 2/3 white flour, but I might try a 50/50 loaf soon.  The all wheat loaves were just too heavy and made almost a brick of bread!

Here's the machine in action!

 

 I also like how quiet this model is and it doesn't slide/dance all around the counter when it mixes.

It's fun to get the soup going in the crock-pot and the bread into the bread machine and have the aroma of everything coming together around mealtime with so little effort spent on making it smell so good!

mmm!!!

Let them eat cake birthday preview

The other day I really wanted a cake, but didn't have any boxed mixes on hand.  It occurred to me, back in the day, they didn't even use boxed mixes, so why don't I attempt making one from scratch?  It was another adventure!  This was the recipe I used, and it was very good!  And, it's a great practice for Brian's birthday cake next month!

Basic Yellow Cake Recipe

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 large eggs, room temperature
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 3/4 cup milk

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour 2 9-inch cake pans.

In bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt with a wire whisk.

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla and mix until completely combines. Slowly add flour alternately with milk. At end of addition batter should be smooth. Divide between 2 pans.

Bake Yellow Cake Recipe for 20 to 25 minutes. Cool 5 minutes in pan, then invert onto a rack and cool completely before frosting.

For a 9 x 13 pan - Baked at 350 degrees F. for 30 to 38 minutes. 

For the frosting, I mixed a little butter, powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla together and frosted my cake with it.  It wasn't quite a glaze, but it also wasn't like the heavy chemical frostings, either.  It was pretty darn good, especially with some blue sprinkles on top!  

Sorry, there were no pictures!  I just plain forgot, can you believe it?!  How unusual!

But here's a picture to ponder: A Crackle Weave Companion

When I was ordering birthday presents for Brian, I came across another new weaving book.  This is a very new crackle weave book.  It was released this summer, on July 16th.  I find the other crackle book so confusing, the one called Weave Classic Crackle and More by Susan Wilson.  It's good, but leans on the and More side a bit much.  It's so advanced and hard to follow.  I always have more questions when I'm done looking at it than when I started, so I think this might be a better start and then work from the other book later when I understand crackle more.  I want to start with the basics.  I need to start with some basics!  I have no crackle basics!!  According to amazon.com, this book "[uses] the drafts published by Mary Atwater, Marguerite Davison, and Mary Snyder, Brusic weaves them in many new ways that illustrate the flexibility of the weave structure."  I'm excited to do some digging when it comes!  Is it me, or does everyone get themselves a little something also when it's their spouse's birthday?!

Something to do with all that mint growing in the garden.

I've been harvesting mint from the garden!  We have so much, and so I'm trying to dry it with our dehydrator so I can make this mint salad later this winter.  Or... mint tea!  mmm...

LornaSass Wheat Berry Salad with Apples and Mint

Ingredients

1/2 cup orange juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
3/4 cup tightly packed mint leaves
2 cups cooked Basic Wheat Berries
2 teaspoons grated orange zest (from 2 juice oranges)
1 small green apple
1 small red apple
1/2 cup hazelnuts, toasted and coarsely chopped

Instructions

First prepare the dressing: Blend the orange juice, oil, vinegar, salt, and 1/2 cup of the mint in a food processor or blender.
Set the wheat berries in a medium bowl. Pour the dressing over them and toss to coat. Stir in the orange zest. Set aside for at least 15 minutes. Toss occasionally.
Meanwhile, core the apples and cut them into 1/4-inch dice. Stack the remaining mint leaves and roll them into a log. Slice them as thinly as you can. Toss them into the salad along with the apple, and hazelnuts. Add more salt, if needed.

Variations

After blending the dressing, stir in 2 to 3 tablespoons finely chopped crystallized ginger.

PS.  After being skipped by many monoons this week, we finally got some rain!  It was wonderful!

Peanut butter Caramel Corn

SO YUMMY, SO YUMMY!!!!

Peanut Butter Carmel Corn

Ingredients

• Cooking spray
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 1/2 cup unpopped popcorn kernels
• 1/2 cup sliced almonds
• 2/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 2/3 cup light-colored corn syrup
• 2 1/2 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 250°.
2. Line a jelly-roll pan with parchment paper; coat paper with cooking spray.
3. Heat oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add popcorn; cover and cook 4 minutes, shaking pan frequently. When popping slows, remove pan from heat. Let stand until popping stops. Uncover; add almonds.
4. Combine sugar, syrup, butter, and salt in a medium saucepan; bring to a boil. Cook 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat. Add peanut butter and vanilla; stir until smooth. Drizzle over popcorn; toss well. Spread mixture out onto prepared pan. Bake at 250° for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Cool completely.

Fresh, homemade Challah!

I love homemade bread.  Who doesn't?!  I've never been very good at making it, even though I've tried all kinds of recipes.  When I was in high school, I discovered James Beard's Challah recipe and from the first time I made it, it was perfect!  It has always been my favorite homemade bread recipe!







Here is Mr. Beard's recipe:

3 pkgs of yeast (I use 1 1/2 tbs)
1 tbs sugar
1 tbs salt (I used 1/2 tbs)
3 tbs softened butter
3 eggs
5 cups flour
1 egg yolk

Proof yeast in warm water in a large bowl.  Add the sugar, salt, butter, eggs, and flour, one cup at a time.  Beat thoroughly with a wooden spoon or with the hands.  Gradually add more flour until the dough is very stiff.  Turn the dough out on a board sprinkled with flour.  Knead until the dough is smooth and elastic, apporx. 10 min.

Place the dough in a very large buttered bowl, and turn to coat the surface with butter.  Cover and let rise in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in bulk, about 1.5-2 hrs.  Punch the dough down and divide into six equal parts.  Roll each portion into a rope about 1 inch in diameter.  Braid three ropes together to make 2 loaves and let rise in a warm place until almost doubled in bulk.  Brush the tops with egg.  Bake in a preheated oven for 400 degrees for 30 minutes.

I don't need a man to grill my chicken!

I've decided that I need to learn to do things on my own.  I mean, last week I cut down a peach tree all by myself, weeded the yard, AND cleaned out the garden bed in front.  So this week when I wanted grilled chicken, I thought, "Why not do it myself?  I don't need a man to grill my chicken!"  This is really quite brave of me, but I got out the charcoal and started the grill by myself and slapped those little chickies on it!  I just rubbed some olive oil on the chicken and added a little dash of salt and pepper.  I really wanted to just smoke them a little bit with apple wood.  Last time we pruned our apple trees, we kept some of the wood and it makes the grilled meat tastes so good, almost like bacon!  And one piece of wood has gone through about 3-4 grillings now.

So, here's my chicken a grillin' in the apple wood smoke:

 And it made such a wonderful salad!  I topped it with sheep's milk cheese I found on sale at the store.  It tastes a lot like feta.

 And for the side I made square biscuits from scratch.  They were so good warm from the oven and and smothered with butter and honey!

I've never cooked for just myself before so this was quite a treat!  I'm going to enjoy my summertime so much more this year now that I have my grilling skills!

Biscuits:

2 1/4 cups flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup shortening
1/4 cup butter
1 cup milk

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.  In large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt.  Using a pastry blender, cut shortening and butter into flour.  Add milk and stir with fork.  On floured surface, toss lightly until no longer sticky.   Roll out to 1/2 in thick and cut into squares.  Bake 8-10 minutes or until golden brown.  Makes about a dozen biscuits.

Chewy Ginger Cookies

Chewy Ginger Cookies

 

2 C flour (+2 T for high altitude)

2 t baking soda

1 T ginger

1 T cinnamon

1/2 t salt

3/4 C oil (canola or light flavored olive oil)

1 C sugar plus enough to sprinkle

1 large egg

1/2 C molasses

Mix dry ingredients in one bowl, set aside.   Mix sugar and oil well, add the egg and molasses. (Measure out the oil first and then the molasses in the same cup, it makes the molasses not stick).

 Mix well and add dry ingredients.   Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto cookie sheet and sprinkle with sugar.   Leave plenty of room because they spread!  Bake at 350 for about 10 - 12 min.   Do not overbake!   Cool on sheet for five minutes then remove, cool.  Optional: Make a frosting of powdered sugar and water.

  These cookies really put me in the holiday spirit!

And now for a little holiday cheer:
Here's our little choo choo train that circles the salt & pepper shakers, sugar bowl, and the mountain of bananas...

The BEST Chocolate Chip Cookies EVER!

This is the only chocolate chip cookie recipe I have been able to get to work at high altitudes!  Beware, it makes A LOT of cookies!!!













The BEST Chocolate Chip Cookies EVER:


Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Beat well:
4 sticks of butter, soft
2 cups brown sugar
1.5 cups white sugar

Add:
2 Tbs vanilla
3 eggs

Combine, then mix in:
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
6 cups flour

Add last, and hand stir:
6 cups chocolate chips (about 2 bags)


Make golf ball sized rounds of cookie dough.  Place on cookie sheet and flatten slightly with the bottom of a glass.  Bake 14 minutes.  Let cool 2 minutes on sheet and carefully move to cooling rack.

Cranberry Relish

I've been making this cranberry dish almost every year since I was in 4th grade!  My teacher shared it with us that year, and it has been our tradition since!

Cranberry Relish

1 bag frozen blueberries
1 bag fresh cranberries
2 chopped apples
2 chopped oranges
2- oz. crushed pineapple, packed in juice
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup sugar

Using a food processor, chop the blueberries and cranberries.  Cut up apples and oranges.  Add everything to a bowl and stir.  Make 1 day in advance and stir every few hours.

Good News and Pumpkin Bread

I'll start off with the really great news that we received yesterday!  My husband is a former helicopter pilot and has been unemployed for the last 18 months, but he has spent the last 6 months training to become a certified flight instructor for airplanes.  Yesterday Brian finally passed the flight instructor test for airplanes!  Yay!  We are so excited to be moving in a forward direction again!  Sometimes the only thing that got me through these hard times has been weaving! (Thank goodness for weaving!!!  In fact, the name of my blog "weave-away" refers to these hard times that I am weaving through and weaving away.  I always feel better after a good weaving session!)  We are so happy to have made it through these hard times.  And we can't wait to see what the next year brings for us!

And now, onto the pumpkin bread...  My mom has been making this recipe for years and years and years!  It's super moist and tasty.  I have noticed it's much darker and tastier than most pumpkin bread recipes out there.  Give it a try!

Pumpkin Bread

2 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp allspice

1 large can pumpkin
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 cup oil

optional ingredients:
2 cups nuts
2 cups raisins

Mix dry ingredients in large bowl.  Mix wet ingredients in bowl, add to dry ingredients.  Mix well.  Add nuts and/or raisins.  Grease 3 loaf pans.  Poor batter into these and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour, until done.  Cool slightly and remove from pans.

More apples!

100 lbs of apples so far... 63 quarts of apple products... lots of gifts!

We have 35 quarts of applesauce, 21 half-pints of apple jelly (plus a lot of leftovers!), 21 quarts of apple slices for pies and cobblers and crisps, and next we want to dehydrate some apples and make more jelly for gifts!

That's a lot of apples, and it's only 1 tree!

The first 50 lbs of apples!!!

Here's our first 50 lbs of apples!!!!  We are so excited because last year we got 2 apples total... this year is so much better!!!!  The trees bloomed after a spring snow, so we actually lost the peaches to the snow but thankfully the apples weren't around to get frosted.

 We wash them...

And cut them... 

They are kind of small so I decided to cut them by hand instead of with the apple slicer.  I figured that we would lose too much apple if I did it with the slicer.

 Very little loss!!

Soak them in lemon juice and water to keep them from browning... 

 

My apple cutting station... 

 If I fill up one side of the sink with cut apples, it means that my 20 quart stock pot will be full to the brim!

 

And yes, it is quite full!

After cooking them for awhile, I blend it in the blender.  These are my applesauce holding stations... 

 

 Then add it all back to the pot with the sugar and spices...

Fill up the jars and boil in a hot water bath... this is what I had left after 7 quart jars!  So I will have to do another batch.

And store it away for the winter and spring!!!

Yum!!  I love canning season!!!

Oatmeal cookies

These were the softest and best oatmeal cookies ever!  And the recipe was just on the bottom of the oatmeal box!!  They are a definite repeat!

We froze half the batch and they were still chewy and fresh after they thawed.  Yum, yum!!

Orange rolls

These were a delightful treat!!

 

 

Orange Rolls

4 Tbs yeast

2 cups warm water

2 cups milk

1 1/3 cups sugar

1 1/3 cups margarine

4 tsp salt

4 eggs

13-16 cups flour

1 stick margarine

2 oranges

powdered sugar

Dissolve yeast in warm water in large bowl.  Stir in milk, sugar, margarine, salt, eggs, and about 6 cups flour.  Beat until smooth.  Mix in enough remaining flour to make dough easy to handle.  Turn onto floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes.  Place in greased bowl, turn greased side up.  Cover, let rise in warm place until double.  

To make glaze, place margarine in bowl, and add finely grated orange peel and juice from two oranges.  Add powdered sugar until the mixture becomes smooth frosting. 

Dough is ready if indentation remains when touched.  Slide dough onto floured surface.  Shape into long rectangle.  Using a spatula, spread 1/2 of mixture over rolls and roll up.  Let rise for 15 minutes and bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes.  Take remaining mixture and pour on top of orange rolls after they cool. 

Garden update

We're not looking so well over here in our garden.  While we were on vacation, something happened.  Maybe it is getting too much water?  We're not sure, but we're kind of sad.

 
We dug up some of the potatoes and cooked them and they were small but tasted good.  Here is a closeup of the plant:

But in the other garden bed, the zucchini are thriving...






Every time I turn around, more zucchini are ready to pick!  It's totally amazing!  We have so many zucchini we don't know what to do with them all!

 

Here's a good recipe for zucchini bread and it made 12 muffins.  I had to double it because I wanted to use an entire zucchini.

1 cup minced zucchini
1 egg
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
1.5 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup sugar (I reduced this and it was still good!)
1.5 cups flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Add all contents to blender and secure lid.  Blend.  Cook in greased muffin tins for 25 minutes.







We also made the Moosewood Restaurant's Zuccanoes. 

 In other garden news, the corn is looking great!

 And the apple trees are getting so big!