Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

All I can say is "WOW"....  where have I been all these 52 years that I have never thought about stuffing a baked sweet potato until I ran across this recipe and tried it.  I am hooked!  All the ingredients are high in nutritional value and it was delicious and very filling.  I ate 1/2 my sweet potato for a meal and was quite satisfied.

If you don't like any particular ingredient in this recipe, it is adaptable and you can get creative with mixing flavors until you have created something out of this world.  Here is how I did it.

Baked Twice Stuffed Sweet Potatoes


Preheat the oven and stab each potato to allow a little steam to escape.  (Of course wash the outside of the potato thoroughly before you begin).  Rub the outside of the potato with olive oil or coconut oil and salt it.  Place them in a glass baking dish and bake for about an hour until tender.

After they have baked and are cool enough to handle, cut the tops off of them like this and carefully scoop out the majority of the soft sweet potato.

 Place all the scooped out sweet potato into a bowl and add the following ingredients:  (These measurements are for 5 sweet potatoes so if making fewer, adjust accordingly)
1 Tablespoon olive oil or coconut oil
1 cup Chopped broccoli
1/3 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup dried Cranberries (I used dried cherries)
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder (I substituted chopped onion for the powder)
Salt and pepper to taste

 Now stuff all that mixture back into your potato shells and cover loosely to bake for about 15 minutes to heat them through.

I added a little cheat to mine.  Before filling them up with the filling I put butter and a drizzle of honey inside each shell at the bottom with some salt to make the skin good enough to eat!  If I would have had some Feta cheese on hand I would have thrown a little of that in too. This made a fantastic meal and very nutritious!!  My body thanked me for the good fuel that day.

Orange Chicken

I believe people may have the wrong idea about how we eat at my house.. we are not on a "diet".  We eat all kinds of real foods.. in fact I would say we eat a "real food" diet, not a calorie restricted one or low on fat or even low on sugar.  When I cook, it is with the freshest and simplest ingredients I can afford to buy and then I combine them myself as opposed to getting them out of a can.

This really makes grocery shopping much simpler for us.  I shop the periphery of the store and always keep milk, eggs, wheat berries, nuts, fruits, and vegetables, and meats put away for use later.  For instance today was shopping day.  Fareway had a sale on spices so I got 3 for $2.00 and I stocked up.  Bananas were .29 a pound and I got a couple of bunches of those.  Pineapples were 1.99 so I bought 2 of them and chicken breasts were 1.99 per pound. ..  Looking at food differently than ever before, I left the store with under $40 and had enough food to feed us for most of the week.

Now this real food diet is not a boring diet... it is quite delicious and fun to make.  Today, for instance, Mike came home after lunch and I served him a gourmet-type lunch (our main meal of the day).  He was greeted with Orange Chicken on a bed of rice pilaf with a side salad of fresh baby spinach and pineapple chunks with homemade Orange and pineapple vinaigrette dressing.

This was not a hard meal to prepare at all.  And I always make enough to have leftovers so we have food for a couple of days time or I can choose to freeze some for another later meal.

When you keep the staples around, you have a world of opportunity in front of you as far as food creations!  If I see a recipe that looks good, I can make it!  So here is the recipe I used for the orange chicken.  When I don't have one ingredient I substitute but I have most raw ingredients at hand now.

Baked Orange Chicken

Ingredients:

• 4 chicken breasts
• salt and pepper
• 1/2-3/4  cup orange marmalade
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 2 tsp mustard
• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• a little bit of garlic powder
• 1 tsp curry powder

Prep:

Use a good quality oil to spray or coat the baking dish.

Wash, trim, and cut the chicken breasts into serving-sized pieces.

In a separate bowl, combine the marmalade, lemon juice, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, and curry powder and mix well.

Arrange the chicken breasts in the baking dish and pour the marmalade mixture over the top.  You can marinate the chicken first if you would like but I did not do that and it was wonderful. Cover the pan with foil or a lid.

Bake the chicken, covered, in the oven at 375 for about an hour or a little longer.  Baste the chicken in the juices ever once in a while during baking and baste again right before serving.

This recipe was perfect after today's shopping.  Last week I had about 6 pounds of oranges that I turned into orange marmalade so I had plenty to use today.  The pineapple worked well mixed with fresh baby spinach and the Orange Vinaigrette dressing delicious!  Making your own dressing is really SO easy!  I bought a couple of dressing servers at Goodwill a while back and use the heck out of them.  Here is that recipe:

Orange Vinaigrette Dressing

2 T orange juice ( I used the orange marmalade and some pineapple juice)

2 T red wine vinegar

½ cup extra virgin olive oil

1 t dijon mustard  (I used a dash of regular mustard)

½ t salt

fresh ground pepper

Mix well.   

So.. I am always on the lookout for more tasty "real food" recipes...  if you have any great menu ideas, shoot me a message or if you try one of these recipes and find a new secret ingredient, let me know!  I would love more ideas...  and I love being able to say to my family "the menu today includes orange chicken on a bed of rice pilaf with a side salad of baby spinach and fresh pineapples with an orange vinaigrette dressing". 

This is just like going to a fancy restaurant at a fraction of the price and I am assured of the best ingredients...  wow.. should have been cooking for us a long time ago.   This beat Totino's pizzas HANDS DOWN!!

In the Garden - Soil Testing- a good idea!

So you are probably aware we live in the 'burbs.. which is not what I would choose right now if I had to do it over again.  Now don't get me wrong.  I love being close to the mall and the grocery stores!  But I really want to expand my gardens and grow my own food!  I have also decided that one of our next vehicles should be a pick-up truck.  So for those of you local readers, don't laugh at me when you see me show up in a pick-up... it will be a good practical purchase, I am sure.  I promise NOT T EVER wear overalls (at least in public). 

You see, I really know nothing about gardening except for what I am learning.  I am not an expert, even though I have had a small garden for vegetables for many years (mostly I just love home grown tomatoes) and have grown flowers around the outside of the house.  I grow what grows for me and let die that which wants to commit suicide.  I have never paid much attention to soil quality, fertilizers, and some years barely give them any water.  Let's just say I have not been a good plant mommy in years past.

This year is different.  I want a BIG garden to grow tomatoes, squash, strawberries, lettuce, pumpkins, grapes, peppers, onions, garlic, potatoes, asparagus, rhubarb, raspberries, zucchini, and LOTS of other vegetables.  I want to stay busy all summer canning and freezing and have fresh organic food that I don't have to go to the supermarket to buy!  But did I mention I only have a back yard?  That will change.  I have plans.

We put 8 fruit trees in our fenced back yard this fall and so far, they are doing well.  I followed directions to protect their little tender trunks from animals and weather by using a white plastic covering.  We fertilized them organically when their leaves fell and mulched them to winter them over.  Now to wait for fruit and pray!

I checked in my suburb to see if there was an ordinance stating that you had to have a particular percentage of grass in your yard... there is not.  There are all kinds of "rules" about leaving your garage door open, shoveling your snow, mowing your lawn, and other things, but none about a garden-yard!  Mike is "on-board" with this not only because he sees money to be saved on good food, but I think he figures he will till once in trade for less mowing and trimming each year.

So my plan is to till up a good percentage of the yard and make another garden next spring.  I have 2 little gardens now in either corner of the back yard and there is an old wooden swingset in the middle of the yard that Journey has outgrown so we will place a garden smack in the middle of the yard right under and around that swingset!

Since I want to be a serious gardener and really want my food to grow well, I decided to research soil quality and testing.  The soil needs to be the proper pH and have adequate supplies of nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium.  You can buy a soil testing kit (I got mine from Earl May) and it will do all 4 of these tests 10 times each.  It was $20 but I figured it was money well spent.  No sense trying to grow something in depleted soil, only to be disappointed in the yield after months of watering, weeding, and toil.

I figured I would have to check 5 areas of my yard.  I am glad I did because each area tested out differently on its quality and so I will have to treat each area differently and perhaps plan my planting a bit more carefully this year. 

This is a great activity to do with your children who love "experiments".  Journey had a blast with the pipette and putting the capsules of stuff into the testing chambers.  Then she got to watch them change colors and interpret the results.

As I feared, each area came up with different results, which I won't bore you with.  Suffice it to say I am glad I started composting last spring and I spread some of it around the areas that needed more nutrition but will amend some of this soil next spring as we till and plant.  Surprisingly, the area under our grass that will become my newest garden is very deficient in proper nutrients so I have an opportunity to fix the problem before planting there next spring.

I kept careful notes about the results from each area of the garden too... in a garden journal book that I have had for 8 years and never written in.  See, I told you I was not a good plant mommy.  If I can stay disciplined to keep that journal up, I am sure it will come in handy!

I am also glad that I bought a couple of organic gardening books last week.  That helps a lot... this is the information age and it is possible to learn anything if you study.  I know that because I can now actually cook!

Ricotta Cheese

A few weeks ago I tried to make ricotta cheese... you may have read that it was a dismal failure... but I learned from it.  I kind of like having a few failures in the kitchen because whenever I fail, I learn a little bit about what NOT to do!

So for ricotta...  what I love about it is that it can be made from leftover whey after making other things.  This week I made cottage cheese from a gallon of milk and that gave me a little less than a gallon of beautiful yellow whey.  Then I made some cheddar cheese curds from a little over a gallon of milk and ended up with another gallon of whey.

What is a girl to do with 2 gallons of whey?  Go figure... I made ricotta cheese.  See I have been hungry for homemade lasagna for a few weeks and I just stay hungry for it.  When I say homemade, I mean make every part of it myself except for butchering the cow (yuck - count me out for the animal slaughter part of farming).  So I needed to make the red sauce (have canned tomatoes from the garden), make the ricotta, make the mozzarella, make the noodles (just found a homemade noodle recipe) and put it all together from whole and fresh ingredients.  mmmm......  some people call this too much work... I call it heavenly eating and well worth it!

The first step in making ricotta is to leave the whey out on the counter for 12 - 24 hours.  That idea repulsed me a bit but I did it anyway.  Haven't we all been trained not to eat things left at room temp for a long time?  Then to put the whey (2 gallons of it) into a big pot with a thick bottom and heat it to 203 degrees.  Once it reached 203 degrees I took it off the heat and left it covered until it cooled again to room temp.  This took a few hours for 2 gallons of whey.
But here is what it looked like when cooled:

BINGO!  I was so excited to see that white curdy stuff in my pan!  I made the usual exclamation to Mike when I have success with something "Mike, I am actually making ricotta cheese"...  He hears a lot of those kind of exclamations during my cooking expeditions, as well as the ones where I am mumbling or cursing quietly because something has gone awry.  You see, Mike works from home as an independent contractor and I stay home doing what I do, so we have a lot of together time.  This is really helpful some days and I thank the Good Lord that he is a supportive man and I get to have him around.

As I watched the curds form in the whey, I realized some of what I did wrong the last time I tried to make ricotta.  I tried to strain that mess through a cheesecloth and colander but the small bits of ricotta are really SO FINE that I basically drained it all away.

This time I was prepared with a tea towel and colander.  The tea towel provides a tight weave.  Several weeks ago I bought a chunk of muslin, washed it, cut it into several towel sized pieces and serged the sides so that I could use them for things like this.  It provides the perfect weave for fine filtration!

It took quite a while to drain the whey from the ricotta through this tea towel.  The fine ricotta kind of gummed up the drainage but I persisted and drained and squeezed all the whey out until I found this in my cloth:

HOMEMADE RICOTTA CHEESE!  Yippppeeeeee.. first successful step towards the lasagna!

But what was I to do with the leftover 1 1/2 gallons of whey?  Why, I fed the compost bin, of course!  Might as well give all that nutrition to the vegetables and fruits we are going to grow next year!

Homemade Noodles

Who knew that making noodles was so easy?  It never looked easy to me... I remember years ago I bought a fancy pasta machine that extruded noodles in any shape.  It looked like a Play-Doh toy and I never really used it.  Back then I did not understand the value of good fresh food to my body.  I don't know where I missed that lesson in nursing school 30 years ago, but I appeared to have done so.  Perhaps it was a lecture during one of the extended lunch breaks I took at the local brew pub... or one of the classes I slept through.  I remember a nutrition class where they taught us that vitamins A, D, E, and K were fat soluble vitamins and you could overdose on them but that is about all the nutrition information I took from formal training so long ago.

It was a few years later, which was also many years ago, that I sold that pasta machine or gave it away, hardly ever touching it.  Oh, what I could do with it now!

Earlier this week I was hungry for beef stroganoff.  Not the kind from a package... the kind that starts with fresh meat, homemade cream of mushroom soup, sour cream, and seasonings... and over a bed of noodles.  Noodles sure seemed intimidating but I considered the stroganoff noodles a trial run for the lasagna noodles I knew I wanted to make soon.

So I googled a recipe for noodles.  Oh my goodness... all that is in them is flour, eggs, and a little salt!  After grinding a few cups of white wheat berries, I turned on the KitchenAid and asked it to produce some noodle dough for me.  And it did.

I really did not like the way it was mixing up so I added a little milk to it.  Perfect and it felt SO CLEAN!!  Like real food should.  Simple and delicious.

I soon realized why noodles were so intimidating.  I had to roll them skinny so I could cut them.  Now that was a workout!!  I was exhausted when I got that first batch of noodles rolled out.. and they were not thin either!  My hands gave out early on and I was leaning my forearms on the rolling pin pushing with my upper body weight.  It seemed as soon as I rolled the dough one way, it sprung back when pressure was let off.

Nevertheless, we ended up with some long fat noodles that night!  The instructions called for boiling them for 15 minutes.  Mine were so fat that I boiled them for about 25 minutes before they were tender.

Just like all the food I have been making from scratch, the beef stroganoff over whole wheat noodles was FANTASTIC!  Nothing can compare to the flavor derived from using fresh ingredients, real butter, whole milk, and whole wheat.

Here is the ingredients to make a batch of noodles:

3 cups flour
4 - 5 eggs
3/4 teaspoon salt
4 - 5 Tablespoons water (or milk)

mix it up, roll it out, cut it up, and boil for 15 minutes. 

In the Kitchen - Cottage Cheese

In my quest for making all my own food I wanted to turn out a really good batch of cottage cheese.  Cottage cheese is one of my favorites and I always LOVED the taste of Anderson Erickson 4% cottage cheese... that is until I wanted to go organic and my distaste for the questionable additives and quality of original substances used in these things made me quit buying it.  But ever since then I have tried to re-create it myself.

Using the whole milk from Pickett Fence Creamery, I finally produced my own cottage cheese that is even better than AE.  It was super easy too!

Starting with one gallon of fresh Pickett Fence whole milk, I poured it in a large heavy pan and over medium heat, heated it to 120 degrees.  Removed from the heat, I slowly poured in 3/4 cup of white vinegar and stirred until curds began to form.  Then the pan was covered at room temp and allowed to rest for 30 minutes.

Once rested, the mixture was poured into a colander lined with a tea towel and allowed to drain the whey for about 5 minutes.  When that was done the tea towel filled with the curd was lifted and rinsed under running cold water for 3 - 5 minutes while the curd was broken apart and separated.

DONE!  Curd transferred to my favorite AE cottage cheese container and 1 teaspoon of salt was added (non-iodized) and mixed in.  After refrigerating the curds for a few hours, I added part heavy cream and part whole milk back into the curds to make the most delicious cottage cheese ever!

It passed my test and the Mike and Journey tests... best cottage cheese ever and quick and easy.  I am comforted to know that I know exactly the presence and quality of all the ingredients used.  This truly was quick and easy to make and homemade food just tastes better.

Weaving - I love it!

Winter is the perfect time to find a hobby or craft that keeps you productive, warm, and entertained.  I found mine.  It has kept me pretty busy.. so busy that it has kept me from blogging much since Thanksgiving, but that being said, I have turned out 8 rugs since then and love to weave!

My friend Shari has a big floor loom and I fell in love with it when I saw it.  She makes beautiful rugs.. mostly fuzzy ones from carpet warp and they turn out so nice that I wanted to do it too.  She graciously helped me find a loom, advised me on type, helped train me to use it, gave me my first cone of warp thread and a training video, and has been so supportive.  I thought she deserved credit for that!  She has an Etsy shop called Creations Looming and you can see some of her work here:  http://www.etsy.com/shop/Creationslooming?ref=ss_profile   Now you see why I fell in love with her art. 

I have always been someone who loves threads and fabrics.  I used to sew a lot and still have a sewing room set up in the basement with a large fabric and yarn stash, especially since my mother-in-law left me a very large inventory of fabric and yarn.  So weaving looked ideal to me!

It took me a little while to get Mike on board.  A floor loom suitable for making rugs is big.. almost the size of a small piano, and it is pretty expensive if you buy it new... somewhere in the range of a few thousand dollars.  Pretty steep for us and I am sure he did not see the practical application for this new toy I wanted.  I don't blame him but I had to wear him down.  I had to make enough money to afford getting into this new hobby so while I was searching for the right used floor loom, I sold almost all my Silpada Sterling Silver jewelry collection on ebay.  I really needed to be able to buy what I needed with my own money.. such is the dilemma of a woman who has no real income to call her own... it was a pride thing.

I spent a lot of time on Craigslist and eBay searching for a loom.  There were a few that came up within a reasonable distance but they were either way more than I wanted to spend or not quite the right type of loom.  I networked with other women who weave in addition to Shari and then a loom DROPPED IN MY LAP!  I knew it was meant to be when 2 or 3 different people sent me an email letting me know there was a LeClerc floor loom 4 harness, 6 treadle for sale in Waukee.  I was ecstatic and went to see the loom.  It had belonged to a lady who has been gone for many years and her husband, being elderly now had to move from his home to assisted living.  He wanted someone to have the loom that would love it and I promised!!  I did not spend much at all!

We had to figure out how to then get it out of his basement.  Mike had to practically take it apart to get the pieces through the doorways and into the minivan but he did it while I prayed we would remember how to put it back together.  He did a fabulous job of moving it to our living room.. close to the rest of the family and close to the kitchen, since I always have some project going in there too.

When we got it home and all the pieces figured out.. and the instruction book out.. I discovered that it had never even been used!  There were some critical pieces of it still in the box and never touched.  Being about 30 years old, it had waited this long for someone to use it.  So the learning process came.  I watched countless videos and read books.  I visited my friend Shari to see hers in action again and I slowly figured out how to "warp" it and how to weave.

Here it is warped with 140 threads, each about 10 yards long and strung through little "eyes" in the beater and the heddles behind it.. then they are wrapped snugly around a round beam in the back so they can progress through the loom.  There is a run in progress on this one.

To warp 140 threads that are each 10 yards long, there is quite an elaborate process to be followed or strings would knot everywhere (that kind of happened the first time I tried).  It requires a "warp board".  Here is a picture of Shari's and then Mike made me a warping station in the basement fashioned after hers.  He is turning out to be quite the woodworker.  :)

My "warp board" is attached to the beams in the unfinished basement in an unfinished closet.  I love it in there.  I couldn't have picked a quieter place to count and wrap a bunch of string.  Mike pounded those dowels in the boards and then built a thread stand so I could warp up to 6 colors at one time without tangling them.  I have a hook to the left of my warp board that holds my pattern.

So now I make rugs.  I intend to make a LOT of rugs.  I have to buy the warp string and put my time into it.  One rug takes me several hours of work but I love how they are turning out.  The first one was not a pretty or as well done as the subsequent ones but Journey snagged it up quickly, saying it was her colors and she put it outside her bedroom door in the hallway, hanging a sign on her door that says "Please wipe your feet".

Journey's rug.  Greens, blues, and pinks.. made with fabric from mother in law's stash.

I made this rug in browns and neutrals for in front of my fireplace.  I love it there.

This rug is about 20" X 30" in greens.  $32

Pretty rug in reds and browns.  20" X 27".  $33

20" X 32" in reds and brown stripes.  $35

20" X 32" - stripes of brown/olive with dark brown, red, and beige.  $35

Variegated browns, beige, reds.  20" X 32".  $35

21" X 40 ".  Variegated beige with blue and red accent colors.  $40

I am pretty excited about my rugs.  I will be giving some for gifts and putting the rest up for sale.  My mother has several of them in her antique shop in Valley Junction now to see if they sell there.  Antique-lovers love the rustic look of handwoven rugs and they are not too common to find.  I also intend to do some vendor events with my rugs in the months to come.  I will need an inventory for that.  But mostly I just need to make money to continue to buy more warp threads and try different mediums for the weft.

I am excited to make some denim rugs!  I know they are popular and I wouldn't mind having a few of them myself!  I have asked family and friends to save old worn out jeans and denim clothes for me.  The wonderful thing about re-purposing into rugs is that even the stained and ripped worn out clothes are good for rugs!  I thought about experimenting with terry cloth towels, sheets, t-shirts, and fleece too!  Imagine all the color combinations and possibilities for someone who loves textiles like I do!

Mike is on board now.  He has been working hard to keep my expenses down by making me shuttles and the warp room you saw in the picture.  He built me two different kinds of shuttles and I love them!  He just has to see a picture and get the concept and then off to work he goes.  Gotta love a hand man!  Now I am working on getting him to envision and build a cheese press.

So, if you are interested in rugs, I take special orders or have those above for sale.  OR if you have some old clothes/sheets/t-shirts/towels laying around that you are going to throw out, consider sending them this way and let someone, someday, walk on them. 

In the Kitchen - The Ricotta Failure

Well, there goes the lasagna idea.. a least for right now.  I had a little problem with the ricotta cheese.  I think it actually started with the yogurt I made.  I may have learned a little bit more about this whole milk-processing thing...  I sure hope so ..  I hate kitchen failures.. I feel wasteful.

To make yogurt, you start with milk and heat it to 185 degrees before cooling it to 110 degrees and adding the yogurt starter.  Then keep it warm (on a heating pad) for 7 hours until you get yogurt.  I have done it countless times and it turns out well.  When it becomes yogurt, I strain it through a cheesecloth and separate the whey from it before storing the yogurt (greek style) in the refrigerator.  The whey still has value so I save it in the refrigerator.

I usually use the best milk I can find .. which is from our local dairy, Pickett Fence.  What I love about that milk is that it has been pasteurized but not hemogenized so the cream floats to the surface.  I like the whole milk best because of the richness and fresh taste.  That milk has no added hormones and I trust the source, plus I can buy it at Whole Foods, which is much closer to my home that the Creamery is.  We were at the store a few days ago and they were out of Pickett Fence whole milk.  Being creative, I got the Whole Foods brand of whole milk instead to make my yogurt. 

The yogurt was a pretty dismal failure.  I got just a little tiny bit of yogurt out of a regular sized batch.  I should have known then not to try the ricotta cheese with that whey but I did it with high hopes anyway. 

To make ricotta cheese you are supposed to leave the whey out at room temp for 12 - 24 hours to promote the acidity.  Seemed kind of gross but I guess no one has died from room temperature whey.. so I did it.

Then the instructions said to bring it to 203 degrees over heat, stirring continually.  I did that and as you see, the thermometer was right there to guide me.  It got foamy on the surface just under the boiling point, just like the instructions said it would.

Once the ideal temp was reached, the instructions said to take it off the heat and let it cool to room temp.  This is when the ricotta cheese was to form.  HA!

A few hours later, I looked at the whey ...  I could see that there was some separation of liquid from a milky substance lurking in the bottom of the pan (wish I had gotten a picture for you).  Ricotta is a soft cheese and is supposed to solidify into a curdish substance.  They say sometimes it floats and sometimes it sinks.  Check... mine must have sunk.

Then the instructions say to carefully ladel out the curds if they are on top or pour off the whey if it is on top.  I poured off the whey carefully and slowly, exposing the milky white substance in the bottom of my pan.  Here is what I got:

See that little bit of thick "milk" clogging up my cheesecloth?  Really?  That is not formed enough to be any type of cheese!  It is a ricotta failure... so sad to waste.

I did save the whey that I used to try the ricotta.  It is in the refrigerator and can be used in place of water in recipes for added nutrition.  At least I have that...  but back to the ricotta drawing board and the lasagna I had planned will have to wait until later.  I was looking forward to making homemade noodles next!

So I think the ricotta failure is due to the quality of the milk.  I know that I get great results from the non-hemogenized milk I usually use, so I would have to assume that the extra processing of the store brand milk prevented good curd formation.  I am now SOLD on the Pickett Fence milk!  I will buy no other!  I would love to experiment with raw milk.  Did you know that raw milk is illegal to sell in Iowa?  It is legal in Missouri and many other states but not here.  Living in the center of the state makes me sad for this fact.  I know there is a lot of controversy and fear over raw milk but someday I will try some for my cheeses and yogurts!  I know someone out there has to have a healthy milking cow... so sad to live in the suburbs today.  I want a cow... and maybe some hens to lay eggs... and maybe a goat.. ... ...  someday..  I can dream.

The PERFECT Loaf of Bread

I don't know how I managed even a few months without a stand mixer.  I had no idea how nice it was to turn it on and let it do the work for my hands.  It is like having an extra set of hands in the kitchen and especially to spare my hands the additional discomfort of kneading that heavy homemade bread dough.

A few weeks ago, I finally broke down, and ordered a powerful KitchenAid on ebay for a decent price.  I could hardly wait for the mail to come but it finally arrived.  It was brand new in the original box!

It did not take long to learn how to use it.  I was grateful for that after just having dealt with a new floor loom and all the work it took to set it up and learn how to make it function!

I couldn't wait for pre-Thanksgiving preparations to begin so I could put it to the test on my homemade bread.  One of the things I have learned about making bread is that without a good kneading, yeast breads (and especially whole wheat yeast breads) will not get a proper rise.  That may have been part of my frustrating problem with the bread failures recently.

So with this stand mixer, I just through all ingredients in the bowl and follow the steps on the recipe.  I make sure to add Vital Wheat Gluten for the rise, and Yogurt as a dough enhancer, and I let the KitchenAid do all the work.  I doubted that the dough hook could really knead the bread properly but with a little faith and a lot of peering into the bowl, I discovered it was doing quite a nice job!

With a little adjustment to a higher temperature on my oven dial (which differs from the actual temp inside my oven by about 50 degrees), I baked two loaves of bread right out of the KitchenAid bowl - NO KNEADING!

They were wonderful!  Very soft and airy on the inside and perfect crust on the outside.  I couldn't have asked for better bread.  One other secret I learned fairly recently is to avoid disturbing the bread loaves for the first 2 hours out of the oven.  I used to wait about 15 minutes and then cut into them to see if they were done... they were not...  go figure...  I think they need that 2 hours to "set".

I am now in the "bread business"... at least unofficially.  :)

Foraging - The Pinecone Expedition

Last week, right before Thanksgiving, it was beautiful outside, especially for a late November day in Iowa.  It had been quite a long stretch without a motorcycle ride so we decided to get out.  Journey was home from school for the holiday so she rode with us.  It amazes me how much an 11 year old girl can love to get on the back of her dad's bike and take a ride.

Mike likes to ride long highways for long distances without a destination in mind.  I like trips that have an outcome to them.  We compromised this day and agreed to ride a long ride looking for pine cones.  I am always tempted by big beautiful pine trees in my neighbor's yards but find the thought of stopping to pilfer their pine cones a bit distasteful.  I draw the line with apple-foraging at the neighbors and with permission only.

So on this particular day we drove through some local area parks.  I loved that ride.. it had a purpose and was not fast enough to lower the wind chill factor.  Even on a 65 degree day, if you ride 65 miles per hour, the wind chill lowers somewhere to feel like the 40's or 50's... a little cold for me.  So driving through parks was the perfect trip for us!

We drove a few looking for the biggest pine trees we could find that dropped good size pine cones.  We have been using some of the homemade pine cone firestarters in our fireplace already this season and they work wonderfully!  If one is nestled in the middle of the logs to be started and lit, a raging fire is effortlessly obtained.  They are so pretty on the side of the hearth in a metal basket too!  So Journey and I are going to dip a few hundred more to last the winter and to give for Christmas gifts.

While out on our trip we spotted this on a hill:

Beautiful!  Two enormous pine trees!  I had thought to bring 3 big grocery sacks for gathering, so off the bikes we went and up the hill.  We easily filled three bags with medium to large pinecones from those trees just laying on the ground ready to be covered by Iowa winter's snowfall.  It felt good to rescue them for a purpose other than becoming dirt in later years.

Riding motorcycles poses a challenge for a gatherer.  Sort of like riding a horse with no buggy I suppose.  There is only so much room to bring back your spoils.  Although you would be surprised what Mike can fit in his luggage areas.  We put the three heaping full bags of pine cones in the packs of our bikes and took off again for home. 

But we will be back to this park.. not just next year for more pine cones.. but soon.  We found a huge bunch of walnuts just lying on the ground under a nearby tree.  Ready for me to harvest, clean, and pick the nutmeats from.  SCORE!!  I hope I get this lucky hunting Morels next spring! 

Ode to Thanksgiving Feasting - What's Next?

It has been a busy week!  Thanksgiving dinner at my house was quite a feast.  As usual, I made too much food and it was all made from scratch.  My family joked that I was going to feed them a Tofu turkey because I guess they don't understand what healthy food is.  In my world, eating healthy is eating from the earth and land..  from scratch cooking with all the best ingredients.. and avoiding processed and chemically altered foods.

The turkey was good.  The stuffing was all made with my homemade sprouted and freshly ground wheat bread along with organic celery, onion, butter, and my own homemade chicken stock as opposed to canned broth.  The green bean casserole was made with homemade cream of mushroom soup, fresh frozen green beans, and homemade little french fried onions.  It was good but I did break down and make 1/2 the casserole with additional Velveeta cheese for one of my daughters, who swore I would ruin it if I did not add that cheese.  So I did.  For her.  I just can't bring myself to eat Velveeta Processed Cheese.  I don't think it is really cheese.. it seems more like soft plastic to me, but who am I to ruin Thanksgiving for someone?

The pies were AMAZING!  If you have never had a fresh pumpkin pie made with real cream and fresh baked pumpkin, you don't know what you are missing.  It was so much better than I even expected.  On top was homemade whipped cream from organic cream and vanilla.  And the pecan pie was delicious too.  I am sure the fact that the pecans were sprouted before being placed in the pie was lost on many but I have never had better pecan pie.  Instead of the usual corn syrup, I used pure maple syrup and was amazed at how it came out the same but tasted even richer.

Dinner went without a hitch and I am pretty sure my family enjoyed most of it.  Since then I have been busy trying to catch up and eat up the leftovers.  We had an 18 pound turkey carcass that got boiled down that night and made into about a gallon of now frozen turkey broth...  it smelled like Thanksgiving baking that night all over again.

Today I made a turkey and wild rice casserole that looks pretty darn good.  The bottom layer is cooked rice pilaf and then the layer on top of that has a generous portion of turkey mixed with sauteed green peppers and onions with garlic, parsley, and nutmeg, then creamed into a white sauce consistency through the addition of flour, some of that turkey broth, and some whole milk.  The top layer is a bit of cheese. 

Journey has been hungry for cottage cheese so today I made her some cottage cheese with the left over whipping cream suspending the curds and am now starting a batch of ricotta cheese out of the leftover whey.  I want to use the ricotta in a casserole resembling lasagna with hamburger and spaghetti squash (unless I get ambitious and make homemade lasagna noodles out of the leftover spelt flour). 

I will post about the ricotta cheese after I finish this batch.  You are supposed to leave the whey covered and at room temp for 12 - 24 hours before bringing it back to the heat so tomorrow should be ricotta day.  I will let you know how it goes.

Cheese is one of those things that I miss buying at the grocery store.   It seems so expensive to buy good quality cheeses .. seems even more than some of the meat I buy and it NEVER seems to go on sale..  darn it!  I have ordered some cheese making supplies from New England Cheese Making Supply.  To make cheddar cheese curds you need good quality milk and rennet, citric acid, and mesophilic.  While I don't understand all of these things yet, I have been researching and when my cheese supplies come, I will be experimenting with cheese curds.  To make cheddar cheese like you buy at the store, you would need a cheese press for your curds.  We don't have one of those yet but I have Mike thinking how he might make one simply that would apply up to 40 - 50 pounds of pressure to a cylinder filled with cheese curds.  He likes cheddar as well as I do so we are highly motivated to figure out how to make it around here!

For my family, eating healthy is just what we are committed to doing.  With a little planning ahead, a bit of creativity, and a willingness to research and try things we are managing to figure out how to "homestead" in the suburbs.  But don't get me wrong.. I am SO GRATEFUL for those little things in life that make it easier like my new KitchenAid, the stove, the washing machine, dishwasher, softened and drinking water systems, etc.  I can't imagine life on the prairie where we had to go to the stream to do the washing, and carry enough water back to the little cold log cabin to do what needed to be done for the day.  Or having to keep a fire lit for warmth.  I am partial to my electric blanket at night, thank you!

I will keep sharing the adventures as we have them with you!  My latest venture has been to make rugs on a loom out of old fabric.  They are turning out wonderfully and will be having them for sale soon!  Stay tuned my friends!  There is so much more to come, including sharing all the handmade gifts we are going to produce for Christmas presents this year!

PERFECT POPCORN and Clarified Butter

I love popcorn.  Not the kind that is air popped and dry.  Not the kind that has all the greasy movie-theater-butter chemicals and powders on it.  I love the kind that is popped in a pan and has a REAL butter taste.  (I know what you are thinking... real butter is bad for you.. but I am here to tell you it is not).  Some fats are natural fats and as a result your body needs them for healthy hair, skin, and proper absorption of nutrients.  These fats are a staple of my family's diet:  Olive Oil, Grapeseed Oil, Palm Shortening, and Butter.  If one won't do in a recipe, another will.  So we eat butter.  We do buy it carefully, either organic or at a minimum we buy the kind that has no added rBGH hormones.  That makes me feel a little better about the potential  contaminants.

So in my search for the perfect popcorn I bought a Whirlypop at a garage sale for $1.00.  Well worth it!!  I put some oil in the bottom and make my popcorn the old fashioned way.  LOVE it!!  Whenever there is a good show on tv on the weekends we have popcorn.  I have noticed that when I make the popcorn in a flavored oil, it takes on the flavor of the oil.  So as a result I tried popping my popcorn in butter.  That was a pretty dismal failure, as the butter burned before the popping was complete...  so I had burned butter popcorn.  Not the flavor I was looking for.

Then I discovered clarified butter.  It is also called ghee or rendered butter.  I, again, wonder what rock I have been under for the last 50 years.  It amazes me all that I don't know!!  This clarified butter process is easy and it is so interesting.  Who knew you could separate butter?  Ok, probably all of you did.  I have not seen you under this rock with me ... you must have known.  Let me know if you knew this trick before reading it here. 

Clarified butter is a stick or tub of real butter that has been melted and lightly boiled to provide separation.  Did you know there are 3 parts to butter?  The butterfat (that is what you want for your popcorn), whey, and milk solids.  Here is how to make clarified butter:

Melt the butter in a thick-bottom pan on the stove.  Bring it to a gentle boil and watch all the white foam come to the top.

This is the whey.. it is a liquid and has a low boiling point.. causes butter to burn.  While it is bubbling it's whey up to the top, skim it off with a flat spoon and put it in a separate container.  Get as much as you can from the top of the butter.

You will then find a rich yellow oil under that white foam.  That is the butterfat.  That is what you want to preserve for your popcorn.

At the bottom of the pan, you will find heavier white foam-looking globs.  These are actually the milk solids.  So.. when you have all the foamy whey spooned from the top, pour the layer of butterfat into another container and pour the last bit that has the milk solids into the whey container.  Now you have separated or clarified butter!!

You can use the foamy stuff... it still tastes like butter and I use it in recipes or on toast or for butter flavor.. just not for frying.  Now here is the great part.  How to make butter popcorn in your whirlypop pan with the butterfat.

Pour some oil in the whirlypop.  I use grapeseed or palm oil as the initial oil.  Pour in the popcorn and put on medium heat until the first few popcorn kernels pop.  Remove from the heat for a moment to add a healthy supply of butterfat and return to heat to finish popping.

What I have found with this method is that my popcorn does not taste like burned butter but each kernel seems to be coated with a real butter flavor!  I don't have to pour butter over the top of the finished popcorn and it seems much less greasy.   I try to keep rendered butter in the refrigerator all the time so I can have my delicious popcorn when the mood strikes!

I will tell you, when you remove the processed foods from your diet, and get yourself fairly clean, you can eat lots of delicious REAL foods!  I don't count calories or fat grams.  I eat when I am hungry.  I make delicious foods.  We don't gain our weight back because we are not slowly poisoning ourselves with things like twinkies (RIP Hostess), artificial sweeteners, "diet foods", tons of processed sugar, preservatives, dyes and "flavorings".  If you want to know more about how to cleanse yourself of years of accumulated toxins that are making you sick and heavy, send me a message...  then eat to your heart's content (but only good food!)

In the Kitchen - When LIfe Gives You.....

I did not plan for this morning to be spent in the kitchen.  I intended on weaving my second rug.  But plans change quickly, don't they?  I have never been one to turn down opportunity when it knocks on my door.  That is just what happened.

This morning after taking Journey to school, I made a quick stop at Fareway for a few things.. just a few.  As I walked past the produce isle, I spied a white paper bag with "99 cents" written on the handle.  That is a sure way to cause me to detour or double-take at least!  In the bag was a whole bunch of pears!  Lots.. I would say at least 3 pounds of them.  They were past their selling prime but just about at their eating prime, I would say.  I like them nice and ripe and juicy.

Not only did I spy this one bag, there were three more of it's little friends.  Total of 4 bags of pears there as if they had my name on them.  I put two in the cart and wrestled with myself about organic versus non-organic, as these were not organic pears, but just conventional.  Then I decided that while we do try to stay as organic as possible, we don't buy organic jams and jellies, nor do we buy organic fruit cups for Journey's home lunches....  so the bags won and soon I found all 4 bags of pears had jumped in my cart.  So what, maybe a total of 12 - 15 pounds of pears?  The activities of my morning had now changed and I found myself home about 8:30 with the loot.

After some quick "googling", I decided to make pear preserves, canned pears, and dehydrated pears out of my 4 bags, so I then got to washing and peeling.

Oh My Goodness.. it felt like hours of peeling pears when I realized I was only 1/2 way through my supply.  I had the canning pot on to boil, had washed 15 canning jars and lids, had a pot for the jam and a pot for the blanching of the pears going.  I literally peeled and cleaned pears until after 10am.

I am really tired of pears.  I have learned a new "diet" trick.  COOK alot.. when I am busy cooking it, I usually don't want to eat it.  Funny how that works, except with cookies.  There is nothing that compares to eating that first warm cookie right out of the oven.  I consider it a responsibility so I always do the first testing before my family tries them.

So the pear production?  Here are some on the dehydrator:

Pears are one of those fruits that suffer from turning brown in the air.  I did soak these in diluted lemon juice but they are still turning... the bananas do the same thing.  Oh well, they still taste good.

I also made my first batch of jam.. just boiled the pears until mushy and added pectin.  (I think I added too much and it will set up like a rock but it tasted good).  I added some stevia and honey to sweeten it and it made 6 little jelly jars full.

Then I left the rest of the pears quartered and boiled them for 2 minutes before canning 7 more pint jars of pears for later.  I think Journey will like these in her lunch instead of store bought when we don't readily have fresh fruit for her.

All in all, the last cans came out of the water bath at about noon, but I think I did really good with a $4.00 purchase... and Mike got fresh jam on homemade wheat bread for lunch today.  Happy Anniversary Honey!!

In the Kitchen - Another Explosion

I don't even like mushrooms.

I made cream of mushroom soup just a few minutes ago and had to cut up 5 cups of mushrooms, another 1/2 cup of onions, add it to 1/8 tsp of thyme, and 1 1/2 cups of chicken stock and boil it for 15 minutes.  Then the recipe called for me to puree it...

There is that word that I have come to hate:  PUREE... for me it just spells trouble.  I put it in the Magic Bullet blender just out of the boiling pot and turned it on.  Immediately I was covered with piping hot mushroom puree, as was the entire corner of the kitchen again.  I feel like my mother when she told me she did not know how she drove her car through her neighbor's garage door last year when I tell you I don't know how that blender exploded.  When I got it turned off, the lid was still on.

Journey says she saw it spew through the pour spout...  I hate mushrooms... and puree!!  I screeched loudly as boiling hot mushrooms stuck to my arms and landed on the front of my shirt!  I still have red marks all over my forearms where I am burned.  But after cleaning up the kitchen, I glowered at that blender, put a cloth over the top and turned it on again.  HA!!  Pureed mushroom and onions!!

Then melt 3 Tablespoons of butter in the pan and whisk in 3 Tablespoons of flour.  Pour in 1 cup of half and half and 1/4 teaspoon each of salt and pepper.  Add back in the wicked mushroom/onion puree and cook over medium heat until it thickens, stirring the whole time.

Done.  The kitchen got cleaned, along with the cupboards, my shirt, the surrounding appliances, the floor, the wall, and everything else in the path.  The offensive soup is now in a glass jar in my refrigerator to be added to the green bean casserole on Thursday.

Happy Thanksgiving!!  Tomorrow I am supposed to get my new KitchenAid Stand Mixer and I sure hope I have had my last explosion in the kitchen for a while!!

Time to test the SmartKlean laundry ball again on this t-shirt, although I know it will work.. there is no trace of pumpkin left on the last shirt I exploded on. 

Onion Rings for Green Bean Casserole

The official cooking has started in my house for Thanksgiving dinner.  One of the favorites of my family is Green Bean Casserole.  You know the kind:  2 cans of green beans, one can of cream of mushroom soup, and basically French's Onions on top and mixed in the middle.  We have it every year for every holiday and they all expect extra to be cooked so they can have leftovers.

This year will be different.  I cannot buy a can of French's Onions, nor can I buy cans of green beans or cream of mushroom soup.  So today I tried making my own little fried onions.  When I make my own food I am in control of what is in it.  It is not that we are low calorie, or fat free in this house.  We just eat REAL FOOD and in appropriate quantities.  It is not as easy as opening a can of this and a can of that but I feel so much better physically and psychologically, knowing what is in my food.

These onions were SO easy to make and really were just like French's Onions but fresher and delicious!  Here is how we did it:

2 whole yellow onions (organic) cut into small pieces.
About 2 cups of whole milk (no added hormones, and non-homogenized)
About 2 cups of whole wheat freshly ground flour (sprouted)
A generous amount of garlic seasoned salt.
Olive oil for frying (olive oil has tremendous health benefits for an oil)

Soak the little onion pieces in the milk for at least five minutes (I cried like a baby cutting those onions today... are organic onions more potent than conventional onions?).  Heat the oil in the pan while the onions are soaking.

With two forks I lifted the onions from their milk bath and placed them in the flour and seasoning until well coated.  Then I fried them in the olive oil until brown and placed them on a paper towel to drain.  I was surprised that the flour stayed on them and they came out crispy and brown just like the onions I am used to seeing in the can.  Journey retrieved them from the oil with a slotted spoon and was eating them as fast as they were cooling.  I had to stop her from eating them all so we would have enough for the casserole.

Don't they look good??   They taste great and were really easy to do.  As with all the food I cook, I will keep them in the refrigerator in an airtight container until I put the casserole together Thursday morning.

Now to make the cream of mushroom soup with the remains of the milk and flour I used for the onions!  I love to have an opportunity to use everything and not waste!

Health - Avoid This Kind of Treatment!!

I am in no way going to tell you that doctors aren't needed or that sometimes you need medication to recover from an illness.  I just wanted to say that up front so that you know where I stand.  What I am going to tell you is that prescription and over the counter medications should only be taken when all other methods of treatment fail, and that all of them are chemicals that can produce side effects so should be used much more cautiously than they currently are.  Here are just a few things I learned about medications, and I learned them the hard way.

I used to suffer from chronic Gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD), or chronic heartburn as many of you know it.  I suffered for years, many nights unable to lay flat without pain, having difficulty sleeping, and hurting.  I took Tums frequently, and tried every prescription drug that the doctors would give me to help.  Prescription drugs provided me some pain relief and seemed like a Godsend until a few years after starting to take them I developed a severe and chronic fatigue.  I was so tired all the time that I finally had some blood testing done at the doctor.  My blood tests showed a dangerously and severely low ferritin level.  What that meant is that my iron stores were very very low and I was suffering from a form of anemia.  It took a special test to find it.. it is not routinely checked with annual lab work. 

What I then went on to learn is that anti-reflux drugs stop the production of acid in the stomach, thereby helping alleviate symptoms of heartburn.  But there is a purpose to those acids in the stomach.  They are there, in part, to help you break down and absorb the iron in your food.  Without those normal stomach acids, my body could not use the iron I ingested and it caused a severe form of anemia.  This is just one common side effect of chronic heartburn medication that many do not know about.  Chronic heartburn can, instead, be controlled with diet modification, which I now employ. 

Antibiotics.  Where would the world be without them?  I shudder to think of all the infections that would kill people without the invention of antibiotics.  But did you know that they, too, have frequent side effects that go undiscovered and undiagnosed?  Because my diet was poor and I consumed way too much diet Coke and even Vodka, I had very frequent urinary tract infections.  Many chemicals we consume in our diets cause bladder irritation and bacteria breed then where they shouldn't.  Five or six times a year, I ended up taking an antibiotic called Levaquin to recover from those infections.  What I did not know was that Levaquin has a fairly common side effect of causing tendonitis.  I did not discover that until recently as well and only after having pain from tendonitis in both hands chronically now, 2 years after taking my last dose of Levaquin.  Many report ruptured Achilles tendons after taking Levaquin.  Some of these tendonitis symptoms heal after a period of time but many do not and are permanent damage from the drug.  Mine appears to be permanent damage.

Because of the tendonitis and other pain I had, I used to take Vicodin or Hydrocodone several times a day.  I thought that was the way to kill the pain.  I also had frequent migraines and joint aches and took pain pills whenever those were bothering me.  Then I found out that pain pills are not the answer.  Both prescription pain pills and over-the-counter pain pills can also cause other problems including what they call "rebound pain".  What that means is that the more you take, the more you need.  Since I discovered what good nutrition would do for me 2 years ago, I have not had another migraine since.  With my hands I now turn to rest, ice or heat for pain control and have not taken another pain pill.  It is much easier to handle now than it was when riding the "yo-yo" pain cycle.

Cholesterol medication (Statin drugs are the worst) is another example of a drug that is widely prescribed but very harmful.  Cholesterol is NORMAL in the body... after all, they never want it down to 0, do they?  Cholesterol is PRODUCED in your body as a response to inflammation.  You may not even know you have inflammation, but your body does and produces cholesterol to line the arteries in order to protect them from the inflammation.  Of course we all know that too much of this lining of the arteries can lead to heart problems so the physician's answer is to give a chemical that blocks the production of cholesterol in the body.  Ok, great, but then what?  The inflammation, or root cause of the problem is never addressed and the body cannot heal itself.  Now I suppose you know I am going to fill you in on what causes this body inflammation, don't you?  Can you guess?  It is chemicals, toxins, sugars, and foreign substances that we ingest..  when you cleanse those toxins out of your body and quit over-indulging on them, your body will heal itself and the cholesterol issues that concern your doctor will magically heal themselves too.

The drugs frequently given to patients for their cholesterol are called Statins.  That is a whole class or group of drugs that causes many side effects in people that can be debilitating.  These drugs are known to cause arthralgias (pain in the joints), myalgias (pain in the muscles), confusion, memory loss, high blood sugars, and even muscle weakness.  In short, taking these drugs can make your life MISERABLE. 

Another interesting piece of information about cholesterol is this:  Cholesterol (your body produces it, remember?) is necessary to make testosterone in men.  Testosterone is the male hormone that makes men, well, men.  It is necessary for all the manly qualities that annoy us women so much, in addition to healthy sexual function.  Without enough testosterone a man can find himself unable to do the very thing he likes best to do (I don't have to tell you this, do I ? - I am trying to keep this rated G).  Enter Viagra.. or the little blue pill... 

You see, when the human body has all of the nutrition it needs every day, and when it is allowed to perform uninhibited, it can produce amazing healing.  The body works hard to stay in balance and will do so when we get out of the way.  Almost 90% of all chronic illnesses can be traced to a mineral deficiency... and minerals come from the food we eat.

When I nursed at an internal med clinic and reviewed patient's medications with them before the doctor came in to see them, I always new if I found a man with a prescription for Viagra, he would also be taking one of the Statin drugs... it was true 95% of the time.  It was really sad to find folks with a list of prescription drugs that kept growing with each frequent visit to the doctor.  The harder they searched for ways to feel better, the more drugs they were prescribed to treat symptoms and the more drugs they were given to counteract the side effects of the other drugs.  I think that is why I quit practicing traditional nursing.. just too frustrating.

Now I am only sharing all of this to enlighten you.  I used to take about 17 different drugs a day and I felt crippled and terrible.  My weight continued to climb and I felt much older than I needed to.  I took frequent naps and really had a poor quality of life.  Then I became enlightened.  I made changes and now find myself feeling young and energetic!  It has been a slow and ongoing process for me but one I feel I need to share with you.  Please be an informed consumer.  Look at the list of side effects on your prescriptions..   When you need it, you need it, but if there is an alternative out there... please give it some thought.  Feel free to message me in an email any time you wish to know about alternatives or have questions.  I will be happy to help you search out answers or talk to you about your specific situation or that of a loved one... 

In the Kitchen - Bread Saga Continued

In my pursuit to make a perfect (or even good) homemade whole wheat bread, I have encountered many failures.  Those sit in my freezer right now waiting for Thanksgiving to make into stuffing, so I have not felt entirely defeated as I have high hopes for each subsequent batch of bread.

I shared my honey wheat bread recipe several posts back and continued to work with that recipe, attempting little additions or changes to make it better.  Whole wheat bread seems to have a tendency to get hard and dry.  For people that are used to "Wonder Bread", this whole wheat bread leaves something to be desired.  I have learned a few things in my journey, including things about my own appliances.

A few years ago, we had to replace the lower heating element in our oven.  Other than that, the oven is in fantastic shape so there was no need to waste the money on a new one.  It has worked well ever since except I noticed a tendency to burn things like cookies.  I bought an oven thermometer to compare the "actual" temp to the temp setting I was choosing on the oven and I found that when I set my oven to 350 degrees, it was actually reading 400 degrees on the thermometer inside.  No wonder I was burning stuff!  So clearly, I need to set my oven temp to a lower target and check the internal temp to see what it really is before attempting to bake my bread.

I discovered Wheat Gluten.  Yes, we still eat wheat.  I think if you soak, sprout, and grind your own wheat, there is a good nutritional content to it and it is good for you.  I don't think the flour you buy at the store is very nutritious, as it has been treated to prevent it from going rancid on the shelf and gives many people stomach aches, even if they are not gluten intolerant.  In fact, Celiac disease is not as common as many would think.. more people avoid wheat products and go gluten-free due to their gut reaction to processed flours, not due to an actual gluten intolerance.  I am very supportive of folks that go gluten-free but my family does not need to at this time, as we have fixed the gut issues in the quality of the wheat flour we use.  So why wheat gluten?  Because whole wheat flour does not have a lot of gluten in it and sometimes does not rise as well in yeast breads.  This creates a denser loaf than I like personally so about 1 teaspoon of wheat gluten per cup of flour produces a good rise in my recipes and a softer, airier loaf.

The pan you use can make a difference too!  I only owned glass loaf pans until yesterday when I found some pretty good metal ones at a thrift store for 99 cents each.  I priced the metal ones at Bed, Bath, and Beyond yesterday and they were running 15 - 20 dollars each.  Ouch!!  When baking in a glass pan, it is recommended to lower the temp of the oven by 25 degrees from what the recipe is calling for.  I have practiced this religiously since I have a tendency to burn things but this makes it even more complex for me when already having to adjust for my oven temp issues.. so I am switching to metal pans.

I have also discovered that adding a "dough enhancer" to homemade bread is helpful.  These are ingredients that improve the texture, taste, and crust of the bread.  They include Gluten, acid, starch, and sugar.  We have the gluten as above, the sugars are in the form of honey.  We just need a little more acid and a little more starch.  Yesterday I used a bit of homemade yogurt as a dough enhancer and even though my bread clearly had issues coming out of the oven, it was one of the best tasting breads I have made to date!  There are many items in your kitchen and that you can buy to enhance your dough.  I am going to experiment with yogurt, vinegar, eggs, gluten, and other items.  You can find recipes for dough enhancers on the web that include gelatin, citric acid, powdered milk, ascorbic acid, pectin, ginger, and other ingredients that I don't readily have in my kitchen. 

So yesterday's experiment with bread was a new whole wheat bread recipe.  It had basically the same ingredients as my previous one in the same proportions.  The difference was the addition of a bit of "greek yogurt" as a dough enhancer.  I had some homemade yogurt in the refrigerator so felt lucky!  The baking was a little different in that it asked me to put the loaves in a cold oven and set the temp to 350, calling for a baking time of 32 - 40 minutes.  I followed directions to a "T" and checked the bread at 35 minutes.  Clearly not done.  Did not sound hollow enough when tapped on the top and the crust was not brown enough.  Back in the oven for 10 more minutes....  when removed that time, I checked it with a thermometer for the internal temp, which on wheat bread should be 200 - 210 degrees.  The smaller loaf read the appropriate temp but the bigger loaf did not.  Back in the oven for 10 more minutes with the bigger loaf.  Here is what happened to those loaves.

This is the smaller loaf that showed the correct internal temp.  This was taken about 1/2 hour after removing from oven.  See the dent on top?  That has happened to every loaf that has come out undercooked in the middle.  I fear it might not be done all the way through but the crust was plenty done.  Gave this loaf to Grandpa and Grandma last night.

The bigger loaf was put in longer and when removed I only let it cool for about 20 minutes before trying to remove it from the pan.  Big mistake.... here is the result.  The "muffin top" came off!

You might be able to see that the very middle was still apparently not baked completely through.  There might have been too much rise in it and maybe too airy and light?

Since this last episode I have read that you should not disturb or cut your bread for at least 2 hours after removing it from the oven.  That may have been why my bigger loaf broke and because I did not disturb my littler loaf for about 3 hours, it may be fine when my grandma cuts into it.

But I will tell you this:  That yogurt in there sure made the consistency of this loaf heavenly!  I will use dough enhancers from now on!  And I will not cut my bread or remove it from the pan early.  The quest for the perfect baked loaf of bread in this house continues and I only have one more week to find something valuable to do with the ruined loaves...unless I make Christmas stuffing too! 

If you have any hints for making the perfect loaf of bread, include some comments below.  BTW:  I only used 1/4 cup of yogurt for my 2 loaves of bread, in case you are wanting to use it as a dough enhancer yourself!!