No-Knead Bread

This bread is every bit as good (if not better) 

than those expensive Artisan Bakeries that you pay $4-5 a loaf.

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt

1 3/4 cups of very warm water
flour, corn meal or wheat bran, for dusting

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and "Fuggedaboutit" for 12-20 hours at room temperature, about 70 degrees. This recipe is very forgiving. I have waite as much as 24 hours before making and left the dough in the car at a very cold temperature for a couple hours. 

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice.  Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

3. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats.t  When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

Yield: One 1½-pound loaf.

Food storage Challenge

I need to update and catch up I haven't posted my days 7-10.
Day 7 was Tuesday We had Leeks Au gratin Wow Thanks Pam Epperson for the recipe
and a baked squash.

Day 8 David made Homemade Ravioli's with refrigerated pasta dough and sausage we had in the freezer

Day 9 Oh good grief for the life of me I can't remember what I made for dinner last night............ Does this ever happen to any of you? Wow I had to go back to my Facebook page to see what I had posted. I must be getting old. I made Chili Rellonoes. Now this was great and another Big thank you to Pam Epperson. She told me to Fire roast my Anaheim peppers and put them in a ziplock bag, skins and all right into the freezer. When ready take the bag out defrost run peppers under hot water and the skins come right off. This worked amazingly. Which I very glad because I froze 11 quart size bags. We will enjoy fire roasted peppers all winter. I use my own canned salsa and prepare rice. I purchased a 25lb bag of brown rice a year ago and we are still using from it. I just keep it stored in an air tight container.

Day 10  We will have leftovers. Have to clean out the frig.

I have so much to be thankful for.......

Last night I had just mopped the kitchen floor when David tracked in some dirt. Argh! was my first reaction. "When will I ever have clean floors?" Instantly God reminded me that I could be alone, then I would have clean floors. .......Ouch! I got it! Please forgive my grumbling Lord. Thank you for my husband, dirt and all. I love him so much.


This morning I was have a very difficult time with something and David listened to my woes with gentleness and compassion and true servants heart.  He didn't offer a quick fix solution, but wise counsel. I'm telling you he really is the best.


To start this month of Thanksgiving. I am Thankful for my dear Husband.

Day 6 Challenge

Boiled the bones of yesterdays Roasted Turkey. Made a wonderful pot of Turkey stock ( approximately1 1/2 gallons). Chopped up Leeks, carrots garlic and peppers from our garden. Added a Home canned jar of green beans and some frozen corn.
Spices: 1 tsp thyme, 2 tsp salt, 1 tsp black pepper, 1 tsp marjoram  1 tsp rosemary
Now for the best part:


Homemade noodles:  1cup of flour, 2 eggs mix, knead (a lot) until dough is very smooth and not sticky you may need to add more flour as you knead. Let dough rest for 15 minute (your arms will need a break also) Roll out dough as thin as possible. With a sharp knife or pizza cutter cut you pasta into strips. Drop in  soup broth. cook at a rolling boil for 3 minutes.


The great thing about the pasta is you can make a  double or triple batch and refrigerate or freeze it for another time.


Note: any time you have a roasted Chicken or Turkey don't forget to cook down the bones to make the best stock for soups.


This huge pot of soup cost so little to make. A great soup to take to a sick friend. They may not want to get well in hopes that you will bring them more soup.

Day 3, 4,& 5 of Food Storage Challenge

Yesterday I made egg drop soup and yakisoba noodles for dinner

Today I was at work. When I'm at work I have to prepare meals for the men from their food supply. FYI: I work at t a group home for men with mental illnesses.  We had grilled turkey and cheese sandwiches and cole slaw for lunch.  Dinner this evening was at our churches Fall Harvest Festival. We had chili dogs.

I will be working tomorrow also, but we are having our annual Thanksgiving Dinner at church tomorrow. I'm fixing a Turkey from our freezer, and a squash casserole and a broccoli casserole with things from our garden.

Day 2 Food Storage Challenge

Day 2     Oct. 27, 2011

Breakfast:
Oatmeal with Frozen Black Berries

Lunch:
Egg salad Sandwich with homemade whole wheat Bread
Apple and Plum  (that we picked from our neighbors overly abundant trees) Thanks Jim.



Dinner:
Potato Leek Soup (from the garden)  Banana Bread,  Froze Bananas when they were .29 lb very ripe, which are great for Banana bread.

10 Day Food Storage Challenge

Rules: for 10 days I only buy milk and cream, (since I don't have any powdered or fresh boxed milk or cream nor do we own a cow or goat) Everything else I use to prepare our meals will be from our garden, home canned, already on our pantry shelves or in our freezer.  I will post pictures of our meals, what they contain and evaluate their nutrition and taste.  Hint: I don't think they will be that much different than what we usually do.

Day 1             Oct. 26, 2011
Tonight's dinner is: Meatloaf, Mashed sweet potatoes and green beans ( I don't have the camera right now, I will try and post a picture this evening before we eat.)

Lean ground beef: in our Freezer, I purchased 17 lb (individually wrapped in 1lb packages) a couple weeks ago when it was on sale for $1.99 lb.
Eggs: from our chickens
Oatmeal: last year I purchased a 50 lb bag  I've used about 1/2 of it so far. I think I paid around $15.00 for it.
Onion: from garden
Tomato sauce: Home canned
Yellow French Beans: Home canned
Sweet potatoes: had them in the pantry, pealed, boiled  added 2 Tbsps of butter and 1/4 cup of milk and mashed.

This meal has an excellent source of protein, with the lean ground beef, and two eggs in the meatloaf. There is approximately 1 cup of whole grains with the oatmeal and Sweet potatoes are so much more nutritious that white potatoes. Look at all the veggies, 1 small onion chopped, 1 pint of tomato sauce (remember homegrown tomatoes, canned) 1 pint of Yellow french beans (again garden grown and canned)


Very Healthy and really tastes great!