Basic Sandwich Bread - Mother Earth News

I still have  a long way to go when it comes to bread, but my plan is to stop buying it from the store. This is the first recipe where it did work well.

3 1/2 unbleached white flour
1 tbsp soften butter
1 egg beaten, I use my chicken eggs, nutrition value higher
1 tsp Salt use the full amount. I didn't the first time and it made a big difference
2 1/4 tsp dried yeast
1 1/4 cups milk at room temperature

1 egg, beaten and thinned with water. I tried it will milk too.

Note:If you rehdrating yeast with water, subtract the amount of water you added to the yeast from the milk.

Put flour in a mixing bowl, add soften butter. Use your fingers to work the butter into the flour until no large pieces remain. Add egg, salt and yeast. I use my fingers to give it a quick stir. Then add milk to form a dough. I use my kitchen aid, until raggedy and rough.

Turn your mixer on and knead for a few minutes. You don't have to knead long just until it comes together.
Place in a clean, lightly buttered bowl. I leave it in my kitchen aid and cover with a big plastic bag and I don't butter, but you should. Leave until it doubles in bulk/size about an hour- 1 1/2 hours. After it has doubled turn on a flour board. Gently press out the gas and form dough into a rectangle to fit buttered pan, and let rise until nearly doubled. About 30 -60 minutes. Brush the top with egg or milk and bake at 375 degrees until golden, about 45- 1 hour. Remove and turn out of tin. Let cool, if you can and sit on its side for 3 hours or cut and eat hot. Whatever works, hot bread and butter is the best in the world.

                                              Good luck and let me know how it goes for you.

Butternut Squash Macaroni and Cheese

Preheat the oven to 400F

1 Medium butternut squash cooked
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper
12 oz small pasta shells
1/2 cup whole milk
1 cup shredded Monterey Jack Cheese

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook according to package instructions. Drain and transfer to a large bowl.

Puree butternut squash with milk, fold into pasta.

Grease a 9-inch baking dish. Spread mixture evenly in the dish and top with cheese. Bake until the cheese is melted and the top is golden, 5 to 7 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.

Oatmeal Bar Cookies

I wish I remember whos blog this came from so I could give them credit. However I changed the recipe some and you can too.

1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 cup packed brown sugar (you could use less)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup soften butter
1 pint jam flavor of your choice.

Stir flour, oats, brown sugar, baking soda and cinnamon.
Cut in softened butter until crumbly.
Press 2/3 of the crumbs into the bottom of an ungreased 13x9x2 inch pan. I have a stoneware bar pan that works perfectly for this.

Spread with your Jam. I used a jam that was very thick and put in the mirowave first, makes it very easy to spread. The crust wants to come up with the jam as it is spreads. But with a steady hand it can be done. A few bits of crust mixed in won't hurt.

Sprinkle the rest of the crumbs on top. Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes or until crust begins to brown. Let cool and cut into bars.

I sent these to school with the kids and they both came in asking that I put them in their lunch tomorrow. I love that they are very happy to take their lunch and not worry about buying.

Vanilla Coffee Cream

I had dinner parties for years with two of my dear friends. We would go to each others place and one of us would cook all the dinner. Three courses, we loved it so much it was hard to move away and know that was coming to an end.  One of my friends would always have store brought coffee creamer, until her Mothers doctor told her not to use it any more.  So we all stopped. Well last night I was reading someone's blog and found this great recipe. She can take all the credit for it, I will just pass it on to everyone. I made it this morning and it is wonderful.

Vanilla Coffee Cream
1 cup whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 tablespoon vanilla

Combine all ingredients in a pan over medium heat. Once cream starts to simmer, turn off heat, cover and let cool. 

Store in refrigerator

You can change out the maple syrup and vanilla to tailor to your taste. Almond flavor would be wonderful. Also you can use light cream and milk or organic.

Make it the way you would like and enjoy.

One more thing you can make easy and doesn't have to be processed.

Cheesy Potatoes

What a great dinner at BullFrog Springs tonight.  So before I forget I wanted to let you all know about a good recipe for cheesy potatoes. I have made them several ways before but the has to be the best so far. 

Add a smoked ham and a glass of wine and you will be one happy cooker.

                                                               Cheesy Potatoes

5-6 med potatoes
2 tablespoons of flour
salt and pepper
butter
2 cups hot milk
2 cups sharp cheese. I'm thinking you can use any cheese you had on hand.

Peel and cook potatoes. Cut cook potatoes into pieces and put one layer in dish. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and 1 tablespoon of flour.  Keep making layers untill all the potatoes are gone. Add hot milk and place in the oven covered for 30 minutes. Uncover and stir in cheese and cook uncovered for 15 minutes.

Enjoy

Add some smoked ham

Homemade Pretzel Bites

 I found this homemade pretzel recipe on a friend’s blog, it is so good I had to make it two days in a row. The first day friends stopped by and loved them so much. I had to make more for my son. Like almost everything else I make, I know what is going in it so I’m finding it harder to eat out.

Recipe

1 1/4 cup warm water

1 T. plus 1/4 tsp. yeast

3 3/4 c. all-purpose flour

3/4 c. + 2 T powdered sugar

1 1/2 tsp. salt

2 tsp. vegetable oil

Bath:

2 c. warm water

1/4 c. baking soda

Mix water/yeast let sit for 10 minutes

 add dry ingredients, knead for 8 minutes in kitchen aid,

Not sure by hand as I’m not the best at that.

raise until double.

     Ready for salt bath.

When dough is done, preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Make a bath for the pretzels by combining the baking soda with warm water and stir until soda is mostly dissolved (it won't dissolve completely).

Roll out dough. Using a pizza cutter, cut into small 2" sections. Dip each dough square into the water/soda bath and place on a greased baking sheet. If you are making salted or garlic pretzels, sprinkle with kosher salt.

Bake for 4 minutes, then rotate pan and bake another 4 minutes.

Always brush with butter when they come out of the oven. There are so many ways you can make these. Garlic and salt,  

 For cinnamon/sugar pretzels, brush with butter AFTER baking and then roll in cinnamon/sugar.

Sorry I didn't get a photo of them finished, they are gone so fast. Maybe next time.

Homemade Brown Sugar

So I was reading that brown sugar has only two ingredients and very easy to make. Being the dork that I am, I had to try and see if they were right.

One cup sugar and one tablespoon molasses, blend with a fork or mixer. I did both.



This is half way through. It took a while to get it blended and I used a fork to finish it off. Make sure you get all the little balls of Molasses blended. The finish product is brown sugar. Store.

It really works and is brown sugar. One more thing I can make and one less processed food in my kitchen. Plus how many times were your going to make something and you out of brown sugar.

Have fun.