Category: Recipe

Kim's White Bread Recipe, Altered

9/4/2016

Tried another bread recipe, this one from Kim. Hubby asked "can you make some of that into buns?" So 1/3 of it I turned into buns.

Ingredients as called for in the recipe:

3 cups warm water
4.5 tsp yeast OR 2 pkgs
5 tbsp sugar or honey (if you heat the honey til liquidy it mixes in really really easy)

1 cup milk (optional to replace with water if not using milk)
5 tbs butter (about 1/4 cup)

1 tsp salt
2 or 3 eggs

about 7 cups flour

Directions:
1. mix water, honey/sugar and yeast together, let set while you warm the milk and butter.
2. Add warm milk and butter to water and yeast mixture.
3. add salt and eggs.
4. Add flour one cup at a time. It will take up to 7 cups of flour. You will know it's well mixed when it pulls away from the bowl.
5. Turn out the dough onto a floured surface, flour up your hands and knead for 10 minutes.
6. Place the dough into a greased bowl and let set until risen -- will double in size. Takes about 40-60 minutes.
7. Preheat oven to 350
8. Punch the dough down, divide into three and make your loaves or buns. Cover with damp cloth and let sit until risen (about 20 minutes)
9. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes, unless making buns then cook about 20 minutes.

Once again, I made some changes, some deliberate, some well.. OOPS!
Changes Made:
1. I again used two types of yeast because I failed to get out shopping yesterday.
2. I forgot the salt and the eggs... GO FIGURE, it worked anyways!!!!   The butter I am using right now is salted so I think that helped.
3. I added an extra almost tbsp of honey because I slightly over measured the hard honey we have here.   Didn't want to pour it back into the container as it just seemed like too small an amount to fuss with. :)
4. I didn't use the stove top to heat the milk and butter, I used a microwave (easier).   Just heated it for 30 seconds at a time until it was warm and the butter melted.
5. all told, from when I was kneading the dough I probably used 8 cups flour.
6. Rising time varies depending on the temperature in the house, might take longer to rise (see image above from buns allowed to rise different lengths of time, the smaller one for 20 minutes, the larger for 50.

Bread... Traditional White Bread. I MADE SOME!!!! :)

9/1/2016

So, as you know, while I was camping I learned to make bread. :) It was fun. I don't tend to make bread at home as it's just SO easy to buy it right? We buy it on sale so it's cheap too. But the success I had while camping made me think, ha! I can do this at home. REAL bread not just soda bread as an experiment with my lad. :)

And CHECK IT OUT!! It worked. (thanks to the moral support that Kim offered me). :)

This recipe came from here.Ingredients2 h 30 m 20 servings 187 cals

2 (.25 ounce) packages active dry yeast I used two kinds of yeast as that's what I had and you know what? It worked!
3 tablespoons white sugar
2 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)

3 tablespoons lard, softened I used veggie oil
1 tablespoon salt
6 1/2 cups bread flour

The bread is a rising!

Directions:

In a large bowl, dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water. Stir in lard, salt and two cups of the flour. Stir in the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, beating well after each addition. When the dough has pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes.
Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.
Deflate the dough and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough into two equal pieces and form into loaves. Place the loaves into two lightly greased 9x5 inch loaf pans. Cover the loaves with a damp cloth and let rise until doubled in volume, about 40 minutes.
Preheat oven to 375
Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for about 30 minutes or until the top is golden brown and the bottom of the loaf sounds hollow when tapped.

I have to admit, I used my thats-a-bowl from Tupperware, the lid pops when the bread has risen enough) - learned that from someone in casual conversation..
I also used the sun's energy to help the bread rise (said put in warm place and the house felt coolish to me).
I used more flour than the recipe called for but Kim assured me that's perfectly normal.
Also instead of oiling my bowl I used my "Pam" to spray the bowl and just rolled the bread dough around in that.
Took precisely 30 minutes to cook.   Eating commenced shortly thereafter.

Things learned... don't freak out if you use too much flour. Don't stress over the type of yeast used, it will still work out.
It's FUN to punch air out of dough.   Watching all those air bubbles squish out was cathartic. :)
Use a knife to loosen a stuck loaf from the pan, you won't hurt it and helps it come out of the pan nicely.

Next time I think I will make Kim's white bread recipe.

Hobo Stew - my style

8/25/2016

I make hobo stew pretty much the way I make many things.

Have a good idea of what you want, and toss together what you think will get you to that end.

I like making hobo stew in a fire, but we were in a restricted fire ban time at the campground so having a good fire was a no go.   We used the next best thing...our dutch oven and some coals.

I had some ground beef (about 1.5 lbs)
Some potatoes, carrots and canned corn.
We had a touch of onion left from hubby's hamburgers.

I cubed the potatoes and sliced up the carrots.   Tried to make the pieces about equal.    Didn't totally succeed.

Browned the beef, added the onion and some seasonings.   Added some water.
Let that cook a bit.
Then added the potatoes. About six cut up
Let that cook a bit.
Then added the carrots and the corn. About four big carrots and one can of corn.
Let that cook a bit.
Added some more seasoning.   For seasoning with used garlic salt and a mixed seasoning mix.

All told it cooked about 2 hours, and when we had it most of the potatoes were soft though not all, we saved those for the second serving.

It tasted great. :)

Python Dogs and Sun Bread

8/17/2016

Do you know what I learned when I went camping?
I learned to make bread! YES!!! Me....who rarely if ever makes bread. I made bread!

First off you need to make a sun box. The size of the box can vary as long as it can hold the rack that your bread pan will sit on and big enough for the coals.

i have to admit the instructions I found where none to clear and when I printed them off they were even more unclear with lots of misspellings and random characters (which if I had had time to check before leaving to camp I would have retried but I grabbed my bunch of recipes and instructions off the printer as I ran out the door).

Instructions:
One box. make sure it will easily fit the rack you are using.
one roll of aluminum foil.   I used regular strength.
then either Sticky spray that will hold down the foil OR aluminun tape (comes in a roll like duct tape).

1. remove the top of the box. Either attach it to the bottom of the box OR to one of the long sides. The picture wasn't clear and the instructions horrid. I did it to the side of the box. And truth be told I didn't attach it, just laid it on top.   It fit nicely.   The box I used was the chips box.

2. Cover the box COMPLETELY will aluminum foil. Use tape/spray liberally. You want it completely covered. No box showing as that would be a FIRE HAZARD! Shiney side facing out NOT in.

3. Once that is done say YEAH!!!!   The hardest part is finished.

Now some hints.
If you put the extra layer on the bottom the sun will help provide heat (if it's a sunny day) to cook the top of the bread.   Doing this will give you a loaf with a very light shading of brown.
OUR site was a shady one...one small patch of sun that moved and then disappeared so I did mine on the side so the heat of the coals would radiate off the top of the box and cook the bread that way.

Make your dough. We used three recipes total in our bread making ventures.

First two loaves I made was Irish Soda bread. VERY easy to do.

Ingredients and Instructions

4 cups flour (I used a fibre flour so needed a touch more liquid for the first loaf, regular flour for the second loaf)
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 cups buttermilk

Mix it all together (first the dry then add the liquid).

Form into loaf (I used disposal pie plates) OIL THEM FIRST!

Cut a cross into the top, it's traditional and it allows the bread to expand.

Let it sit the ten minutes it takes to get your coals hot in the chimney. You'll need about 14 of them.

Takes about half hour to cook. If a coolish day you might want to add a sleeve of aluminum foil to the top of the box and drape it down to contain the heat.

This bread stores well wrapped in tea towels.

Third and fourth loaf was a yeast recipe bread. Also very easy to do.

3 1/4 cup flour
1 pkt dry active yeast
1 tsp salt (I used kosher)
1 1/2 warm water.

First time I let the yeast sit in the water for five minutes and then added the remaining ingredients (mixed together first).
Second time I just mixed everything together without letting it sit first.

JUST SO YOU KNOW you get a lighter loaf if you let the yeast sit for a bit first. :)

So you have it mixed, now let it sit in a warm spot for an hour (we used the vehicle as it naturally gets warm in the sun).   Punch it down and then shape it by tucking it in (form a circular shape and pull the dough from the center tucking it under neath).

First time we followed the instructions, preheating a dutch oven and cooking it take way. Just so you know... NOT A GOOD METHOD!!!!   A preheated dutch oven is VERY difficult to work with!!!

Next time I just cooked it in the sun oven and it turned out great though I got distracted the last five minutes so it got a touch darker than it should have.   Still tasted good.

Fresh bread lasts two days when camping before it moulds so eat it quickly.

This bread does best stored in a bag, large ziplocs work well for this.

The last recipe I made was really versatile.
It is I THINK supposed to be for making tortillas or wraps or something like that but we played around with it.

INGREDIENTS
4 cups flour
2 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp melted butter (we used oil)
2 cups milk (used almond milk as it travels and stores well)

1 cup flour (or thereabouts)

cooking oil

Mix first five ingredients together (first dry and then adding wet).

Flour your working area with the remaining flour...not all the flour at once, just a bit at a time so you can work with the dough. The flour helps you flatten and shape it.

Now you have a choice to make.
Make it super thin and cook on a slightly oiled fry pan like a tortilla.
OR make thin strips and wrap around a hot dog, chocolate bar, or other such items and drop into a hot oil pan.
OR make into thin wedges and turn them into crispy chips cooked in the hot oil
OR make them into thicker pieces like indian fry bread (great with honey, jam) or if you slice into them like pitas into peanut butter-jam sandwiches.

PLAY around with it. Lots of fun. My son said they were great wrapped around starburst candies.

NOTE: when wrapping them around something... you want to use less flour so it's kinda sticky so you can mould all the pieces together.

As you can see, it was a bit of a learning curve. We called the wrapped hotdogs PYTHON dogs. My son likes snakes, and pythons can swallow things whole, and they wrap around their prey. :)

This bread stores REALLY REALLY well and became our go-to for our final days of camping.

I STRONGLY advise caution while working with hot coals and a sun oven.
Mind where you sit and what you are working on, lest you have a fall and have hot coals hand where they aught not land. You don't want to deal with a burn while camping. :)

Recipe: Pork Roast Soup

7/12/2016

I absolutely LOVE soup. It's my go to food whenever I am stressed or feeling poorly. Love soup, even basic chicken noodle, or broth and noodle soup. Every once in a while I'll make up a fancy soup... with different stuff in it.

Yesterday we were going to be out all day so in the morning I put a soup together with my international student and the lad.

What did we put in this soup?

Pork roast - I made this the night before with cranberry sauce and broth. Very simple.
carrots
barley
hard wheat red I think
green beans
corn
onion flakes (dried)
broth chicken and beef
green peas

tossed in some different seasonings
Garlic

Put it in the crock pot and left for the day.

As to who did what?
International student learned how to chop up roast into soup sized pieces and how to operate our can opener.
Son added the broth, spices and onion flakes.
I added frozen veggies, barley and wheat.

I love family cooking and it gives confidence to the less sure members of the family. :)

Came home to "Mmmm.. something smells good".
Two hungry boys and a mom dug right in.
It was good. :)

We have enough left for lunch on Wednesday, unless we have it for supper tonight.

Recipe: Sausage Stew

6/30/2016

I don't know that I'll ever be able to replicate this stew or not...but it turned out really well.. so well that even the lad liked it!!!! I will tell you what I put in it (roughly speaking) and see what happens in the future. :)

I will tell you that this was a family effort. All three of us did chopping and peeling and cutting and mixing. Family efforts make the food taste better. :)

Into one large crock pot put in

1 container of chicken bouillon (or use beef if you have it)
Turnip/rutabaga - 1 medium, peeled and chopped
White Potato - a few..chopped, peeled as they were old potatoes, don't need to if new ones.
Sweet potato - one regular sized one, peeled and chopped
Carrots - four I think
Onion - one big one
Sausage - couldn't tell you what kind, they came from the foodbank and were a touch freezer burned when I got them. Cooked them, and froze them, pulled a small bag out... six I think??? and chopped them up.
Tomato... wanted four... ended up with 1.5 as the lad who was chopping them up said "MOM!!! There are soft spots!!!!" and he couldn't cope. :)

Tossed in some thyme (the lad said it smelled good) and some oregano and basil.
The lad put in a bunch of garlic salt and some black pepper.

Let it cook for a good spell in the crock pot.
Hubby said "hmm.. tad bit thin yet lovey, and it's missing something".
So.. took out two cups of broth and added two tbsp of cornstarch to that. Mixed it up and then put back into the pot. Tossed in a bit of no salt seasoning. and let stew a bit longer...

I honestly thought hubby dear was going to finish the whole crock pot himself! He went back for bowl after bowl.. okay... in retrospect.. I was REALLY not feeling well last night and it only appeared he was going to finish it off...hubby read this over to make sure I wasn't too incoherent (dealing with bad headache) and he said that he only had two extra bowlfuls. :)

We had just enough stew left for us each to have one bowl for supper tonight.

Oven Baked Crispy Wings

6/28/2016

I have a distinct fondness for chicken wings. Not because I LOVE chicken wings, but because I often like picky food. Stuff I can nibble on slowly... like ripple chips where I can slowly eat a chip ripple by ripple, or fajita's that have lots of bits that need to be put together. Chicken wings I can just nibble all the yummy goodness off and has twisty bones I can fiddle with until all the meat and gristle is gone. It meets a need. :)

Hubby dear has been after me to simply learn to make them myself.. can't be that hard he says. I scoffed knowing it can be hard to get crispy wings if you don't want to do the whole oil fryer thing...

But he persisted, and so I gave it a shot. Took me a while to find a recipe I wanted to try but I found one...AND>>> drumroll.... it not only passed MY inspection, but it also passed hubbys!!!! Imagine that! He likes a completely different wing than I do, so to find a recipe that works for both of us was great!

Ingredients: We did a 1 kg recipe.

4 lb/ 2 kg chicken wings, cut into wingettes and drumettes (tips discarded)
2 tbsp baking powder (NOT BAKING SODA / BI-CARB SODA!!)
¾ tsp salt (you could add other seasonings if desired)
Oil spray

Directions:

If you are organized enough, uncover the chicken wings and leave them in the fridge for a few hours to dry out. Otherwise, use a paper towel to pat the wings dry.
Adjust oven racks to upper-middle and lower-middle positions.
Preheat oven to 250F/120C.
Line a baking tray with foil, then place a rack (like a cooling rack) on the foil. Spray the rack with oil spray. I forgot this step, didn't make a difference.
Place wings in a large bowl or in a ziplock bag. Add the baking powder and salt, then toss to coat evenly.
Place the wings on the baking tray in a single layer with the skin side up. They should just fit snugly. They will shrink when they cook because the fat renders out so don't worry if they look too snug.
Place wings on the lower middle oven rack and bake for 30 minutes.
Move wings up to the upper middle rack and increase the oven temperature to 425F/220C. Bake for 40 - 50 minutes, rotating the tray halfway through. I admittedly oops on this step too. Cooking them for an extra 1/2 hour at 250, and then for 45 minutes at 350. They turned out good.
Remove baking tray from the oven and let it stand for 5 minutes.
Toss wings in sauce of choice (or serve it on the side to dip / drizzle on the wings), then serve. I had mine with sweet/sour sauce and hubby had his with hot sauce.

IF you want to understand the science behind this recipe, CLICK HERE.

Rhubarb Apple Crisp

6/10/2016

My son helped me make this recipe this afternoon. It was an easy recipe to make and I'm convinced he could have done most of it himself. But it is more fun to bake together don't you find?

Preheat oven to 350C

Ingredients:

3/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
3 cups sliced fresh rhubarb or frozen rhubarb, thawed
2 cups sliced peeled apples or sliced strawberries
1 cup quick-cooking or old-fashioned oats
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Vanilla ice cream, optional

Directions
1. Mix 3/4 c sugar and cornstarch. Add the rhubarb and other fruit.
2. Place into 8 inch square pan
3. In small bowl mix together the oats, brown sugar, butter, flour and cinnamon.
NOTE: in our recipe we didn't melt the butter, we crumbled it in to the mixture. Sprinkle the mixture over the fruit
4. Cook in 350c oven for 45 minutes.

I have to admit, I've not put other fruit in with rhubarb before... Apples work! :) I will make this again sometime.

Rhubarb Pudding Cake

6/4/2016

Hubby found this recipe and forwarded it to me. So now I'm sharing it with you. Tasted good. Be mindful though not to make the pudding part too thin. You want it less pourable but more spreadable.

RHUBARB PUDDING CAKE

Ingredients:
2 cups chopped rhubarb
1 3/4 cup sugar, divided
3 tablespoons butter, softened
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 cup sifted flour
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2/3 cup boiling water

Instructions
Cover the bottom of an 8 or 9 inch square pan with fruit. (I prefer an 8 inch or 9 inch square glass baking dish. You could also use a deep dish glass pie plate.)
Mix 3/4 cup sugar, butter, baking powder, salt, extracts, milk and flour together (add a little more milk if it is too thick to pour); pour over fruit. Mix remaining sugar and cornstarch; sprinkle over mixture in pan. Pour boiling water over the top.
( I know this sounds strange, but it works to create a pudding around the rhubarb in the bottom of the pan.)
Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes,

The sugar topping creates a glaze on the top of the cake, something like a creme brulee, as well as creating the pudding at the bottom. You can serve warm in a bowl with ice cream, or let it cool a bit, slice and invert on your plate to show off the pudding.

Moving along to Georgia

2/6/2016

We have finished Iceland, Sweden, Finland, Norway and Russia. This week we have move along to Georgia (the country).

My son drew it's outline and found where it was located this past Tuesday.

Earlier we watched some videos. Just some short quick facts.

The Video below gave us ideas for the meal we plan to make: Dumplings, Grape Juice and flat bread. (shodi is how it sounds) We also saw a neat looking dessert but are unsure we'd have time to make it and let it dry.

Tonight we had some friends over for a meal from Georgia. We had a great time.

We made:
Georgian Cheese Bread. This was very good and I totally understand why it is an important part of Georgian Cuisine.
Kozinaki. Who would have thought a sunflower dessert could taste so yummy.
Khinkali. Dumplings! I've never had dumplings before. Tasted pretty good. My son liked the meat (but not the dumpling part), and one of our dinner guests thought the same, the rest of us liked them.