My hand at bagels

Herb Sourdough Bagels 

 1 cup sourdough starter

 1/4 cup vegetable oil

 1/4 cup warm water

 2 teaspoons salt 

 2 1/2 cups flour 

1 T. basil

1 tsp. oregano

1 tsp. onion powder

1 tsp. garlic powder

Couple shakes season salt

 Combine all ingredients and knead until smooth. Let rise until doubled in bulk. (Depending on  your strength of starter this can take anywhere from 2-4 hours)

   

Divide into eight portions, and form each into a smooth ball. Punch a hole in the center of each and stretch evenly until about 3 or 4 inches across.

Place on a floured surface and bring a large pot of water to a boil. Boil the bagels (four at a time if the pot is large enough) 3 minutes on each side.

Drain and place on a greased baking sheet. Bake about 15 minutes at 450.

Base recipe found here.

Great hot and fresh with cream cheese!

We like to split the herb ones open and top with deli ham, apple slices, cheddar cheese and honey dijion mustard.  Or bake chicken breast patties with marinara and mozzarella cheese and then place in between two bagel slices!!!  Your own deli at home!!!

I'm a Cheater

Les Pains No. 1

I have really been wanting to make a sourdough starter but I have been nervous about it, or intimidated shall I say, crazy eh?  Then while reading Leigh's post at 5 Acres and a Dream it got me thinking about it again, and I thought if Leigh can make a starter on accident surely I can make one on purpose?!?!?!

Well I didn't realize that professional Sourdough Baker's look down upon starter made using commercial yeast.  Which is what I did! I used this recipe found at allrecipes:

1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast

2 cups warm water

2 cups all-purpose flour

Directions

1.In large non-metallic bowl, mix together dry yeast, 2 cups warm water, and 2 cups all purpose flour and cover loosely.

2.Leave in a warm place to ferment, 4 to 8 days. Depending on temperature and humidity of kitchen, times may vary. Place on cookie sheet in case of overflow. Check on occasionally.

3.When mixture is bubbly and has a pleasant sour smell, it is ready to use. If mixture has a pink, orange, or any other strange color tinge to it, THROW IT OUT! and start over. Keep it in the refrigerator, covered until ready to bake.

4.When you use starter to bake, always replace with equal amounts of a flour and water mixture with a pinch of sugar. So, if you remove 1 cup starter, replace with 1 cup water and 1 cup flour. Mix well and leave out on the counter until bubbly again, then refrigerate. If a clear to light brown liquid has accumulated on top, don't worry, this is an alcohol base liquid that occurs with fermentation. Just stir this back into the starter, the alcohol bakes off and that wonderful sourdough flavor remains! Sourdough starters improve with age, they used to be passed down generation to generation!

5.Use this starter to make the Sourdough Chocolate Cranberry Cake, and the Sourdough Chocolate Cake.

Bread Rack

 

And ofcourse since I was "cheating" I was successful, ;-)......and then I cheated some more and made a San Francisco Sourdough recipe, and I couldn't believe that it called for yeast as well. But I made it.  And let me tell you it was delicious, but I still felt like a cheater!  ;-)  (Sorry I didn't get pictures, they did turn out beautiful!)

 

Assortment of Breads

So tonite I read some more about starters using wild yeast and really enjoyed this page devoted to the sourdough novice......Sourdough Bread.....The Basics by S. John Ross.  So in my kitchen I have a jar of "cheater starter" and a jar of no commercial yeast starter, I am anxious to see if this is going to work, and a large stainless steel bowl of starter mixed with the beginnings of pancakes ingredients for breakfast.  These pancakes can be mixed up the night before, I found the recipe at the Nourishing Gourmet:

 

Sourdough Pancakes

1 cup of sourdough starter (my starter is fed 3/4 cups of water and one cup of flour, so it’s the thinner type of starter)

2 cups of water

3 1/2 cups of whole grain flour *see note below

3 large eggs

4 tablespoons of maple syrup, honey, maple sugar, or rapadura (optional)

1/4 cup of coconut oil, or melted butter

1 teaspoon of baking soda

1 teaspoon of salt

*This recipe first called for 2 1/2 cups of flour. However, I think my starter became thinner (I was working with a new starter when I developed this recipe) and 3 1/2 cups of flour turned out to be perfect now. I think how much flour you need will depend on how thick your starter is, but if you have a thinner starter, the larger amount will probably work the best.

3 to 24 hours before you want to eat, combine in a large bowl the starter, water, and flour. Make sure that you have plenty of room for this mixture to rise. If it is a very hot day, beware of leaving it too long as it will ferment very quickly. I usually make this up the night before, for breakfast, or the morning of, for dinner. In colder weather, I have done this recipe for up to 24 hours.

After the soaking period, add the rest of the ingredients, and combine well. A whisk is helpful. If you want thinner pancakes you can thin with water (or milk). Drop about 1/4 of a cup of the batter on a lightly oiled hot griddle (over medium to medium-high heat) until the the top is set, and the bottom lightly browned. Flip the pancake and cook until the pancake is lightly browned on the other side. Repeat until all of the batter is used, re-oiling the pan as needed. ~ Sourdough recipe from the Nourishing Gourmet

Hand Pours Syrup onto a Stack of Pancakes

Ramblings......

I finally made up a bottle of baking soda for shampoo and a bottle of white vinegar rinse to wash my hair.  And I have to admit at first I was thinking this isn't going to work, but then I considered the idea that baking soda is used to clean things, why not my scalp and hair?  I massaged it into my scalp and let it sit a little, then rinsed.  Then I sprinkled on the vinegar rinse (careful not to get it in my eyes, IT HURTS) and let it sit for a little, thin rinse.  

My hair was so easy to brush when I got out of the shower, I was surprised, I will never use regular shampoo and conditioner again, so healthy and affordable.  And much better than the cheap stuff I was having to buy anyways!

I made four loaves of bread a couple days ago, I am following the Emergency Menu on Hillbilly Housewife.

I have changed a few things, but overall I really like the ready made shopping list and recipes included.  I haven't tried her bread recipe yet, I stuck with my Amish bread recipe and cut the sugar down in it!  I doubled the recipe and made three bread loaves and one braided loaf, I love making braided loaves.

Last night off the menu we had homemade tortillas, smashed pinto beans, and spanish rice.  I used my own recipes here too, but just having the ideas of what to make in a low price range and still healthy is really great!

I am including my Tortilla Recipe below:

Homemade Tortillas

1-1/2 c. whole wheat flour

1-1/2 white flour

1-1/2 tsp. salt

1-1/4 c. warm milk

3 tsp. baking powder

1 Tablespoon oil

Mix all together and pinch off about size of a golfball. Round into ball and then roll out with rolling pin, Cook on oiled griddle until bubbles appear on tortilla then turn.  So yummy filled with beans and rice!

These are also good cooked again in butter in a skillet and then sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar and cut into fours.

I'm Still here

I have been a bad girl in terms of regular blogging, I am ashamed.  I liked to set aside time to to do it, but sometimes time doesn't let me! ;-)  Today was a great New Years Day, I loaded the crock with venison (my hubby got a deer this year), potatoes, carrots, and green beans.  I made a loaf of batter bread and enjoyed an evening with some friends.  Our friends have seven daughters ages ranging from 7 to almost 17 and they are a real delight. They are coming over in the morning for a pancake breakfast compliments of me. I am looking forward to it.

So as I have been away from the blogosphere for such a while I thought I would attach the pictures of our recent paitning to the cottage and the new floors our landlord put in.

We have limited space here in the cottage, the kitchen is not quite roomy enough for an eat in kitchen so we turned a corner of the living room into our "dining room".

The walls in the living room before were an off-white, and we went with a very creamy pale yellowish shade with a deeper yellow accent wall to add warmth and color but without making it to dark as the living room does not get a lot of natural light.

Oh yeah we painted the kitchen walls a refreshing green called "herb tea".

I guess you could call this my free section, we got the couch for free on freecycle and the plates were stashed in some boxes I received from leftover garage sale items on craigslist for free. I love decorating with old plates, just take a paper clip, un fold it and hot glue it to the back of the plate. I also have a rule of thumb when it comes to antique plates - I never spend over 25 cents on a plate.  It makes it fun!!!

So the cottage does not have any extra rooms, it's very basic, so I call this my "mud room" but it is actually on the right wall of the living room just as you walk in! ;-)

The lovely new floors, I love them! And am very thankful!

The window nook.

The accent wall, and yes a sleeping child on the couch!!! ;-)

Natural unrefined sugar

This past week I was able to make a trip to the Mennonite Store (Coblentz Bulk Foods) by my parents home to stock up on some baking supplies.  My eye was caught by a bag of unrefined natural sugar so I purchased a bag and I have been using it. I LOVE IT!  A LOT!  I made molasses cookies this week and they were beautiful rolled in it.  So I decided to do a little research on raw sugar and I was amazed that there are minerals and beneficial nutrients in raw sugar and NONE in our refined sugar from the store, infact there are added chemicals. It was alarming. So something that intrigued me is now something I want to get instead of the regular sugar in stores, makes me feel better!!! I am including a link to a blog that has a wonderful article on this. Click on Natural Organic Lifestyle

I love how we can make little changes, it doesn't have to be all at once but as we learn and can adjust it to our budget.

Peach & Blueberry Crisp

As usual my breakfast creations are made using what I have on hand, I was trying to figure out a quick breakfast this morn and remembered I still had some Georgia peaches in the freezer that I had put up this summer.  So I made a peach crisp, I like to use the same crisp recipe that I use for apples.  And if you don't have frozen peaches many times I have used a can of canned peaches in syrup and slice the slices thinner, very tasty!

I thinly covered my 9 x 13 oiled pan with the peaches and then sprinkled a handful of frozen blueberries on top, for some extra color and flavor.

Then I mixed together

2/3 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup flour

3/4 cup oats

3/4 tsp. cinnamon

3/4 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

7 T.  softened butter

(My base recipe is from my red 1969  Betty Crocker but I have changed it up a bit above by adding more oats and butter)

Mix all together and sprinkle over the peaches and blueberries, bake at 375 for 30 minutes.

Sunday Morning Berry Muffins

This morning I wanted to make something quick and healthy for breakfast before church. I found a great berry oatmeal muffin recipe and made it my own below. Makes 2 dozen.

Ingredients
2 cup quick cooking oats
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 tsp. baking powder
1-1/2 cup milk
1 cup vegetable oil
2 egg
1 cup blueberries
1 cup raspberries
2/3 cup quick cooking oats
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Lightly grease muffin pan.


In a large bowl, mix the oats, flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder. Stir in the milk, oil, and egg just until dry ingredients are evenly moist. Fold in the blueberries. Scoop batter into muffin pan.

Mix 1/3 cup oats, brown sugar, and cinnamon in a small bowl, and sprinkle over the batter.

Bake 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a knife inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.

The original recipe can be found here:

ENJOY!

Whole Wheat Granola Bars

There is nothing like a homemade granola bar for, much better than boxed and packaged hard things (and who knows what's in them).  I found a recipe here for granola bars and below is my version:

Mix together:

• 2 cups quick oats
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup rice crispies cereal
• 1/2 cup crushed cornflakes (or bran)
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 c. whole wheat flour
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1 egg beaten
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 1 cup chocolate chips (or raisins, almond slivers, craisins, white chips, peanut butter,etc.) use your imagination!

Press into 9 x 13 greased pan leave about an inch on each end, bake at 350 degrees for 18 to 20 min.  Cut into rectangles, let cool, very yummy!!!

A Cozy Find

Maple Sugaring, Early Spring in the Northern Woods, 1872

I just love romantic, warm and fuzzy, cute and cuddly things that come along with this time of year! With so much chaos in the world it's so delightful when you can make your home a haven, a little "heaven" on earth.

So when I found this cozy book and movie list from Coffee Tea Books and More I did a happy jig about the room!  Ha ha ha, She also has sweet tunes playing in the background.  Here is a sample of her list:

AUTHORS (Fiction & Nonfiction)

Edith Schaeffer

Elizabeth George

Sally Clarkson

Gladys Taber

FICTION

Christy by Catherine Marshall

The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder

BOOK SERIES

The Mitford Series by Jan Karon

The Oxford Chronicles by Melanie Jeschke

Let me just say that I loved the book Christy, and although I loved the series immensely the book was spectacular!  Me and the girlies are reading all of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books each evening and are almost finished with Little House in the Big Woods!

Whole Wheat Biscuit Cinnamon Rolls ~~~ YUM!

I love cinnamon rolls but don't always have the time to make the yeast ones, so this is a great treat when your in a hurry and want them for breakfast!!!

The rolls are made up of a buttermilk biscuit recipe:

You will need:

• 1-1/4 c. Whole wheat flour
• 3/4 c. white flour
• 1-1/2 t. baking powder
• 1/2 t. soda
• 1/2 t. salt
• 1/4 c. butter (cup up in pieces)
• 3/4 c. buttermilk

Mix all ingredients together.

Knead lightly on floured surface.

Roll out to a 9" x 16" rectangle, brush with 2 Tablespoons of melted butter.

Then sprinkle with 1/2 cup brown sugar and 2 tsp. ground cinnamon.

Roll up and cut into 1" thick slices.  Bake @ 450 degrees for 8-10 minutes or golden brown.

Mix up 2/3 c. powdered sugar, 1 T buttermilk, 1 tsp. butter, and 1/4 tsp. vanilla add to tops of rolls for a yummy glaze!!!

NOW, Eat 'Em up!

Photo Shoot

I really enjoy taking pictures, my dream is to have a really nice camera!  My friends wanted me to do a photo shoot of them this last weekend and here they are, they are sweet sweet friends of mine married 9 years with four children.

Healthy Oat Applesauce Muffins

I have lots of recipes to add this week, now to just find the time to do it.  Here is a new favorite whole wheat oat applesauce muffins, these are so versatile and Low Fat!

First mix together:

1 c. quick oats

1 c. whole wheat flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. cinnamon

3/4 tsp. salt

1/2 c. brown sugar

1/2 c. applesauce

1 c. buttermilk

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

And as you wish a handful of dried cranberries, or raisins, or choc. chips and raisins, the ideas are endless!!!

Pour into greased muffin pan and bake at 350 degrees until golden brown or 20 min.

These are very tasty and the kiddos loved them!!!

Healthy Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Scones

What to make on a cloudy morning, no butter, not much oil?  Healthy Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Scones, these are so fun and easy.  Simple to make and fun for kids as you do not pat them out like regular scones, simply drop them out like biscuits.  These are absolutely scrumptious with a cup of Joe!!! Enjoy!

Mix together:

1 c. whole wheat flour
1 c. white flour
1 tsp. cream of tarter
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 c. white sugar
3 T applesauce
2 T water
1/2 c. milk
1 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips (I love to use mini-chips)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Mix all ingredients together and drop by large rounded tablespoons onto greased cookie sheet. Bake 10-12 min. Makes a Perfect Dozen!!!