From "Big Fat Chicken" to "Little Red Hen"

I finally ordered my grain mill.  Finally. 

I've only had my hard white wheat berries since January.  Don't even start to count the months! 

I researched and procrastinated...
...and researched some more...
...and procrastinated even more. 

*Sigh*

I tend to do that (the research and procrastinate part...oh, who am I kidding?  I do the sighing thing, too.) when I'm not sure what to do about something.  I recognize it as a flaw.  That's the first step to recovery, right, admitting you have a problem?

I got the WonderMill grain mill.  Love it!  It cost the same at every reputable dealer I checked, and because we have Amazon Prime (which I got for free!  I need to do a post on that one!), shipping was free. 

Wahoo! 

Side note --  If I'm going to order something online, Amazon's one of my go-to places because we have free shipping, and their return policy is great!  (No, they have no idea I'm writing about them right now.)

So I got the grain mill on a Saturday determined to open the box and start grinding that wheat. 

Monday...Tuesday...Wednesday.....nothing happened.  Are you sensing a pattern here?

Thursday...Friday...Saturday...Seriously?  Oh for heaven's sake!  Just grind the darn wheat!...

Sunday...Monday...Like the title says -- "Big Fat Chicken!"  I certainly qualified. 

What in the world did I think was going to happen? 
Was I afraid it would explode?
burn down the house?
spray flour everywhere? (not a completely unfounded concern)

I was unsure, so I procrastinated. 

I really don't like that about myself.

So, the Monday 9 days (yes, 9 days!) after I got my grain mill, I finally ground my first batch of wheat to make my bread (hence "The Little Red Hen"). 

And nothing bad happened.  No wheat spewed; there was no fire or explosion; it actually was over relatively quickly.  It didn't even make the baby cry.  Huh. 

Then I made my first loaves of whole wheat bread. with wheat I had ground.
What an accomplishment!
And...since I had some over ripe bananas, and once I get my  booty in gear I tend to be an over achiever I made two loaves of walnut banana bread and two loaves of craisin applesauce bread. 

It rocked.  This week, I actually made whole wheat bread...twice. 

Oh my.  This could get dangerous.

Granola Recipe

I like granola.  I've never loved granola before because I've never had a recipe that really just made me go, "oh yeah!"  My Dad's a good granola eater and has gotten his from the Little Debbie outlet in a nearby town.  It's ok.  We ran out and didn't want to trek the 15 minutes (I know, so very far!) to get some more, so I decided that I would make granola. 

I was afraid it was going to be a longer task that it turned out to be.

I didn't have a recipe, but I remembered that I had seen The Frugal Girl had granola listed as one of her breakfast items and so I thought I would check out her recipe.  She uses Cate's recipe.  Unfortunately, I can't find the post with the link.  Stink. 

Cate adapted her recipe from another blogger, Kathryn.  If I could find the post, I would be linking you up all over the place.  Sorry 'boutcha.   

Cate was going for a "healthier granola base."  Me?  I'm going for a healthy granola base that's like I like it.  You know me.  I can't leave well enough alone.  :-)

I like my granola to have clusters...Cate called them "clumps."  I'm somewhat offended by that.

*Indignant Face* 
*Big Huff!* 
(That's so me, right?...Ha!) 

Anyway, if you don't like clusters in your granola, you'll need to cut back on the oil and honey.

Without further ado, the granola recipe that I'm lovin'!

Ingredients
3 cups Old Fashioned Rolled Oats
3 cups Quick Oats
1 2/3 cups walnuts chopped
1 1/3 cups almond slices
1 1/3 cups coconut flakes
1/3 cup sunflower seeds

1 cup oil (canola, corn, etc.  I'd avoid olive oil, though.  Please.  Avoid olive oil.)
1 cup honey
3 T to 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp almond extract

Directions
Heat the oven to 300 degrees.

In a LARGE bowl, stir together the oats, nuts, seeds & coconut.

In a small pot, over low heat, warm together the oil, honey, dark brown sugar, and extracts.  Stir together til it's well combined.

Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and stir to combine.  Make sure the dry ingredients are well coated.

Spread the mixture out evenly on two large cookie sheets/sheet cake pans.  (I cover my cookie sheets with aluminum foil because I'd rather not have to deal with the clean up of those when I'm finished.) 

Bake for 15 minutes.  Stir.  Bake for 5 more minutes.  If it's golden brown, pull it out of the oven and stir it.  (If it's lighter than you like it, stir it and let it bake 2 more minutes.) 

Once it's out of the oven, stir it every few minutes or so til it cools, or you will end up with one very large granola bar.  (Having three that are 3 and under, I end up with a large granola bar that has to be peeled off of the foil quite often.  Ha!  If you do end up with that, it does break up easily, so no worries.)  Try not to eat too many of the clusters off of the pan as you're stirring it up.  Not to worry, though, no one will know.  Trust me.  Not that I would know from experience, or anything.

Once it's cooled, store in a plastic cereal container and enjoy in the hand, or with milk, yogurt, kefir, your favorite dairy product, etc.

Do understand, this is a very forgiving recipe.  If you don't like almonds, use more walnuts or pecans or more sunflower seeds.  Add some dried fruit to the mix.  Be confident, and make it like you like it.  I have confidence in you!  :-)  I'd love to hear how you change it up.  Let me know!

Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day Update -- What else can I do with it???

I've made the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day with my tweaks and decreasing the salt to a little more than 1T a couple of times now.  I am still amazed!  You would not believe the variety of things that you can make with this Master Recipe.  Let me share just a couple with you.  I am loving this!

• Cinnamon Rolls-ish
• Once the dough's been refrigerated over night, you can do most anything with it.  Pull out whatever amount of dough you want.  I still don't have pulling about a pound of dough out, so I just work with whatever "looks right."  Gotta love that!  Make sure that you have plenty of flour on your hands and your board -- this is some seriously sticky dough.  For cinnamon rolls-ish, you need to roll it into as close to a rectangle as possible...about a quarter of an inch thick.  Once again, I just eyeball it.  Slather on softened butter then sprinkle with a generous amount of cinnamon sugar and whatever else you like it yours -- nuts, raisins, brown sugar, whatever.  Roll it up from the narrow end then pinch it all together and put the seam on the bottom.  Let it sit for about an hour, hour and a half then follow the "normal" baking instructions in the Master Recipe.  Don't forget your slices in the top before you bake it!
• I do need to let you know that when I made this, I used the excess from some lovely spiced walnuts my sister made for Christmas.  There was a lot of the butter/spice/brown sugar mixture leftover from the nuts, so I just scraped out the pan, and smeared it on the rolled dough.  It tasted super duper yummy, but there was a LOT of butter...more than I realized, and it melted out all over my overturned cookie sheet!  It was a bit of a mess.  Next time I'll have more control over how much butter I use.  :-)
• Calzone
• I rolled out the dough like I did for the Cinnamon Rolls-ish, but the first time around, baby brain took over, and I totally lost my memory on what goes into a calzone.  Silly me put sauce in it!  What in the world?  Since I goofed on the first one (It wasn't bad, but wasn't great.), let me share with you how I did the second.
• For the filling, I used about a half cup of yogurt (I know, I know, my baby sister is giving me a seriously rough time for all the things I'm substituting yogurt for!) and mixed in an egg, parmesan cheese, and a cheese blend.  I spread that on the left half of the dough and then sprinkled a great mound of mozzarella cheese and spices over the top.  (My favorite spice blend to use is the Spice Islands garlic bread dipping spices.  Yummy!  For those of you in Siloam Springs, you can get this for a song at the Allen's Outlet.  I think it cost me $0.70 the last time I was there.  I got six!)  Fold the other half over and seal the edges with a fork and make three slices in the top.
• I will repeat -- the dough is STICKY.  The first time I made the calzone, I did it on a flexible cutting board and had to put the parchment paper on the calzone then the cookie sheet and flip it all over.  It was a bit of a juggling act.  I'm so very glad there was no one here with a camera!  The second time I made it, I did it on parchment paper thinking that would take care of it...it was still pretty sticky and peeling the dough that I was trying to fold over was quite a messy trick.  I don't have the answers on this.  If you have any suggestions (aside from just more flour), let me know!  :-)
• Bake it according to the Master Recipe.  Depending on how big you make it, you'll have to adjust your baking time.  My second calzone was bigger than a pound, so I baked it about 5 minutes longer. 

I haven't made the breadsticks yet, but I'm looking forward to trying those out!  Pretty much anything that you're wanting to make with bread dough, it appears you can make it with this Master Recipe.  Any suggestions for what to try next with it?  I'll take suggestions and see how I can work them in with the menu for the week.  :-) 

Happy Easy Bread Making!

Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day? -- Oh, Yummy, Yummy Yes!

We've already discussed my fear and trepidation in making yeast bread.  It has hung over me like a dark, damp cloud forEVER.  I was so excited to be successful in making the cinnamon swirl bread, and then last week, I made homemade soft pretzels!  Woo hoo!  Both turned out really well.  It was all well and good, but the time and stress involved was a bit much.  I really wanted to find something that I could be successful baking without spending all the time that traditional bread requires.  I've found it!!!


If you recall, on Menu Monday this week I mentioned trying to find the Artisan Bread recipe from Backwoods Home.  Couldn't find it.  So, Google was my friend.  :-)  I came across a website -- http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/.  At first, I couldn't find any recipes on the site and figured it was just for selling their books -- Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day and Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day -- as well as a forum for questions for people who bought their books.  Not so.  Nope.  The Master Recipe from Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day can be found here (you will have to scroll down the page to find it).  Of course, I didn't do it quite like they said.  Of course not.  I couldn't leave well enough alone.  So, here's what I did, and I'll apologize now that the only photo (YES, there's a photo!) that I have to share is of the finished product.  My husband laughed that I was taking pictures of my loaves, but they were so beautiful, if I do say so myself!



One of my lovely loaves!



Back to the point -- how did I do it?  You have to start with a 5 quart bowl/container or larger.  I used a flour storage bin that I think was considerably larger than 5 quarts, but it's what I have.  It dwarfed the gallon pitcher that I measured my flour into.

• 5+ quart container
•  3.5 c of lukewarm water (Mine was about 105 F -- gotta love instant read thermometers.  Make sure it's not over 110 F so you don't kill your yeast.  Apparently, it will even work with cool water, it just increases the rising time.)
• 1.5 T of yeast
• 1.5 T of salt
• 5 c UNBLEACHED All-purpose flour (It will not work with bleached all-purpose flour because of the different protein content.)
• 1.5 c Whole Wheat flour

Put your water, salt & yeast in your container, then dump in all your flour.  Stir it all together using a wooden spoon.  Put a lid (not air tight, don't want your container to explode!) or saran wrap on your container.  Let it sit out for 2-ish hours (mine actually sat out for about 4), then put it, as-is, in the refrigerator overnight.  Your dough is good for about 2 weeks.  Granted, the longer you wait the more yeasty/sour it's going to get. 



Tuesday, I did all of the combining...the dough is supposed to rise on the counter and the fridge. Mine didn't.  It was about the same size when I pulled it out of the refrigerator yesterday.  I was afraid that was going to be the case -- I had pushed the envelope with my yeast.  The package said, "For faster rising, use by..."  It was out of date, and I knew it.  I was ok with a slower rise, but there was no rise.  *sigh*  I was just too impatient.  I wanted to make the dough Tuesday so that I could make bread bowls for leftover potato soup Wednesday, and I couldn't go to the store to get fresh yeast because Andrew had the car. 
Silly, impatient me.



I was determined, though, to soldier ahead.  So what if my bread turned out ridiculously dense?  I tend to like dense bread, especially for bread bowls.  Mid-afternoon yesterday, I pulled my dough out of the fridge.  The top was dry.  I probably should have added some water to the top and let it soak in, but I didn't.  Here are the next steps to finishing out your Artisan bread...at least the way I did it.  :-)

• Throw some flour on top of your dough -- enough so that it's not going to stick to your hands.
• Grab a glob and pull out about a pounds worth and cut it off with a knife or kitchen shears.  (I used a knife, 'cause my hubby moved my shears.  He'd better not touch my cheese!  hee hee)
• In 40 seconds or less, flatten it a bit, fold it over on itself and then form it into a boule ("ball" for the who's who at home).
• Set your dough on parchment paper, flour your hands and make sure the dough is lightly floured all around.
• I made four loaves.  The dough is supposed to make four one pound loaves.  My loaves were much smaller than the ones they show on their website, but they had some serious heft going on!  That's what happens when the silly stuff doesn't rise!
• Now the dough needs to rest, uncovered, on the parchment paper.  At 30 minutes of resting, I turned on my oven to preheat to 450 with my empty broiler pan on the bottom rack (set on the bottom rung) and an upside down cookie sheet on a rack set 4-5 inches above the broiler pan.
• At about 1 hour of resting...or when my oven told me it was at 450, but not before my oven was preheated to 450 (Sorry!) I put all four loves on their individual pieces of parchment on the cookie sheet and carefully poured 1 cup of water into the broiler pan.  (Yes, you must do the water, it provides a time of flash steaming which makes the crust the way it should be.)  I did cover the glass on my oven door with a towel just in case any water splashed -- I didn't want an accident that would cause the glass to crack/break/shatter!
• *NOTE*  Do this step before putting your bread into the oven -- I remembered just after I put them in and had to hastily do this!  Using a sharp bread knife, make several long(4-6 inches), quarter inch deep cuts in the top of the bread.  (I only did two because my loaves were small.)
• Let the bread bake for 20 minutes.  At 20 minutes, slide the parchment paper out from under the loaves and then let them bake for 10 more minutes.  Mine probably could have used another 5 minutes or so, but I thought they were lovely, so I took them out.
• The hard part -- leave them alone for 1 hour!

Once the hour had elapsed, I cut off the tops and dug out the insides so that we could use the base for bowls.  The guts were DENSE.  Oh my.  I jokingly refer to it as Black Hole Bread, it was so very, very dense...but it tasted super yummy!  The kids ate it with jam for a good portion of their dinner.  My favorite part was the crust.  Step aside, Panera, I now have the power!  :-)

I know I must have looked beyond crazy, as I was whooping and hollering and dancing around my kitchen in celebration at my dense success!  :-)  I did it, and it was easy to do, and it even worked when my yeast didn't!!!  I am super duper excited, and, from perusing the website, I know that the Artisan Bread in 5 authors have so many different kinds of recipes in their book -- soft wheat sandwich bread, for starters!  Lord willing, I will be purchasing this book with some birthday money.  Can't wait to try it all out!!!

If you try this out, I want to know!  Tell me all about it.  If you have any questions, the website, http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/, is a great resource and the book authors answer all the questions that are posted on it.

Now I must get back into the habit of Jazzercise so that this new found fun does not add any more to my ample hips & booty!  :-)

Breakfast Cookies!

My kids have been Nutrigrain (or Walmart generic) bars since W was at least 9 months old...that's a long time considering he'll be 3 next month!  At $0.25 a bar, that wasn't too bad when I was just feeding him.  But, AB came along, and that girl was an EATER.  She would eat TWO (count them -- 1, 2) bars each morning.  That bumped it up to $0.75 for breakfast...plus milk.  The darn things are sooooo sweet on top of the fact that there are lots of ingredients that I scratch my head as I read them wondering what in the world they truly are and why was it necessary to put them in my babies' breakfast?  With my challenge to myself, I decided that I would NOT buy any more "bars."  Unfortunately, I forgot to mention it to hubby, and he came home one day with a couple of boxes because the kids were out.  What a sweet, thoughtful man!  At that point, I shared with him, in the finest Christian fashion of course, -- Don't buy any more bars. 


We had a variety of things for breakfast to fill the void of the bars -- oatmeal...lots of oatmeal, cheese & crackers, fruit with peanut butter toast, bagels....  What I wanted was something that would be easy to make, I could make ahead and would be quick to eat that AB could eat independently.  We have to leave for Jazzercise or to take W to "school" by 8:15 at the earliest.  (I know.  That really sounds late to me, but getting the kids up at 7:15 so that they can see Daddy before he goes to work leaves us 45 minutes to get three of us ready.  Sometimes it's super easy, other times I'm running around like the proverbial decapitated chicken.  *sigh*)  Ease and independence were necessities.


My first thought was baked oatmeal.  "Aunt" Jane in Papua New Guinea made the best baked oatmeal.  Oh my gravy...that was almost more like cake, lightly sweet, super fluffy, could be eaten in squares by hand...my mouth is watering now...I think I'll have to email her for the recipe....  My concern was the kids squeezing too hard and it falling apart and being more mess than breakfast.  In talking with my middle sis, I discovered that she makes a breakfast cookie.  This, I could handle, so I had her email me the recipe.  I've included the recipe as she sent it to me below.  I made it the first time according to her recipe, but it was WAAAAAAY too sweet for me.  I put notes in purple showing how I changed them up when I made them this morning.  The notes in green are for how I plan to do it next time.  I really enjoyed them this morning -- needed a glass of milk to go with them, though.  They're not dry, but very dense.


I was trying to figure out how much this recipe costs to make.  I'll have to look up some prices to find out, but today it made 16 cookies -- enough for five breakfasts for the kids and me.  So...I am confident that they're much less expensive than "bars," and I know exactly what's going into them! 


If you try these out, let me know.  I'm curious to know your thoughts and if you made any adjustments to what's below.


The recipe my sis sent me was a single recipe, but since we always make it doubled, the quantities listed below are for a doubled recipe and will make 16-18 cookies.

Breakfast Cookies
2 large bananas smashed up

1 c peanut butter

1 c honey (1/4 c honey)

2 Tbsp molasses

2 tsp vanilla
1/2 c applesauce next time

mix all that together

separately mix up

2 c oats (1 c quick cook oats and 1 c old fashioned rolled oats)

1 c whole wheat flour

1/2 c dry milk

4 tsp cinnamon  (2 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp allspice & 1/2 tsp cloves)
1/2 c wheat germ next time

1/2 tsp baking soda

it doesn't call for salt, but I add l 1/2 tsp to a doubled recipe (with decreasing the sweetness, next time I'll cut the salt back to 1 tsp)

add the dry to the wet and get everything wet, then stir in about 1 c cranberries (or whatever else you want to add -- I use raisins in 2/3 of the batter and keep 1/3 plain.  W's in an anti-raisin phase.  :)

cook on a buttered pan (I use my unbuttered baking stones) - use 1/4 cup scoops, then flatten with a wet spatula (I haven't had to have my spatula wet.)

350 14 - 16 minutes

They do keep, but it's pretty easy to mix them up in the a.m.  (If you're storing them, I highly recommend putting a square of wax paper between the cookies so that they don't stick together.)


I'm looking forward to hearing about your foray into breakfast cookies, or yogurt, or whatever else you might be venturing forth to try!  :-)

I Did It!!! Yummy Cinnamon Swirl Yeast Bread!

I bit the bullet today and finally made some yeast bread!  I have wanted to try making yeast bread for a very long time.  My mom did it when we were growing up, and it was such a special treat!  She would usually make dinner rolls or cinnamon rolls.  Those cinnamon rolls beat out every other cinnamon rolls I have ever had...and probably will ever have, if only because they were the ones Mama made.

A friend of my sister's (& mine -- Hi, Rachelle!) did a photo-blog post on how to make the yeast bread she makes all the time (http://littlewifeontheprairie.blogspot.com/2010/10/for-michelle.html).  She did it for my sister, because Michelle was just as timid about making bread as I was.  Last month, when I was watching one of my nephews, Michelle brought a BEAUTIFUL loaf of bread in for me to bake -- so very yummy!  She did a fabulous job...and yet, I was still not comfortable trying it out.  I have two munchkins -- W is every bit of 2.5 and AB is 15 months old.  How in the world would I find time to do something as intensive as making yeast bread from scratch????

So...I continued reading Rachelle's blog and through her was introduced to The Pioneer Woman -- serious blogger with scads of photo-blogs of recipes.  Somehow, I came across her recipe for Homemade Cinnamon Bread (http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/08/homemade-cinnamon-bread/).  The photos and her description....it finally called to me long enough, and I HAD to have a piece!  Today was the perfect moment in time for me to attempt it -- W was at MDO and AB needed a LONG nap.

Step-by-Step and Inch-by-Inch (hee hee), with much fear and trepidation, I followed the recipe (with a substitution of 1.5 cups of whole wheat flour for all-purpose flour, cheeky of me, I know!) and photos -- SWEET SUCCESS!!!  It did take all day to get it done.  :-)  I started about noon and didn't have it out of the oven until 7:00.  There were a few moments where I had to hold my breath, though.  Was the liquid I put my yeast in too cool?  Did it proof like it should?  It wasn't "foamy," was it going to work?  I placed the dough in the bowl to rise, put it on the top of the refrigerator, and left it alone for a couple of hours.  I had, in full faith of rising, placed the small round in a HUGE bowl; when I pulled it down, the bowl was FULL of risen bread.  Woohoo!!! & PTL!!!  From there it was relatively stress free.  (Granted, I'll be sure to roll it a little tighter next time.)  Aaahhh...

And now, I can enjoy a yummy, delectable piece of cinnamon bread.  Tomorrow morning, I think it will be perfect with a cup of Kona coffee...

Now it's onward and forward to consistent yeast bread making.  That will be the trick.  :-)