Blessings Abound Friday, Nov 9 2007

Oh, there are many but so far my favorite today was making out big time at my favorite little grocery store. It is little. It’s an old italian grocer with the best meat counter ever. They are 71 years old this month. And so they celebrate with a sale, of course. I stocked up. We waited 30 minutes for our turn, but it was worth it. Everything is packaged up in dinner size packages and headed for the freezer.

Here’s what I bought:
10 lbs of boneless chicken breast (6 meals)
12 links of italian sausage (3-4 meals)
2 lbs of boneless chicken thighs (1 meal)
10 pounds of ground chuck (10 meals)
4 lbs pork chops (3 meals)
3/4 pound olive salad just for fun.

Total: $65
Amazing! And there is not a better time to stock the freezer than now as I hate grocery shopping around the holidays.

Thank you, God, for this opportunity. Bless this food so that we may put it to good use and be generous to others with it as well.

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Comfort in Quantity Friday, Jun 8 2007

I’m making spaghetti sauce to make stuffed shells for dinner tonight. There is something very comforting to me in making a very large batch of spaghetti sauce. It speaks to abundance and family get togethers and good memories.

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Working Day Rewards Saturday, May 26 2007

Life has been crazy for the last couple months. Or April was crazy and it’s taken us most of May to begin to recover. So not much of our spring work has gotten done. We made a plan to fix that today. Brian mowed while I did Saturday chores with the boys. And then he painted the kids climber set. Me, well, I got some mulch laid and a couple of herbs planted, but between boys needing patched up and dogs needing walked and hubby needing someone to hold the paint can…I didn’t get much on my list done. There is tomorrow…

However, we celebrated the hard work of today with an incredibly yummy dinner: ribeye steaks on the grill, asparagus, baked potatoes and a bottle of merlot. Hard work has its rewards.

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Weekend in Review Monday, Mar 19 2007

We had a good weekend. We met my parents at a Der Dutchman restaraunt for lunch on Saturday. Mmm yummy yummy food. Then, since it was just across the road, we took a spin through the Amish furniture store where I found a potential coffee table for the living room. Then we ran a few other errands…including a trip to the yarn store, the toy store and the Ohio Wildlife Center to drop off a squirrel box made by Brian and the boys. While we were there we got to see them working on an injured Red-tailed hawk. Interesting to watch them at work. Sad that there is the need.

Sunday was church and baking a ham for our small group potluck. Yummy ham. And the get together was fun. We are going to continue our small group with a study of the book of James. Our last class was interesting, but not a bible study. This will be a good change.

So after everyone left last night we cleaned up-including slicing the remainder of the ham and setting the bone aside. Carla got to have that as a special treat this afternoon. She was tail wagging happy. Nice to see. She’s okay, but she’s tired. I continue to snuggle her when I have the chance.

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Pizza Dough Recipe Friday, Feb 2 2007

I get a few compliments on my homemade pizza so I’d thought I’d post the recipe. I also use this same dough for breadsticks, pepperoni balls (a favorite from growing up in Erie, PA, but they fried them there!) and white pizza. Hubby likes all of the above and that’s a tough test to pass since he grew up on Chicago pizza.

Pizza dough recipe:
1Tablespoon sugar
1 cup warm water
1 envelope active dried yeast (2 1/4 tsp)
3 cups bread or all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup olive oil

Add yeast and sugar to warm water. Stir and wait till it turns foamy.
Put 3 cups flour, olive oil and salt into bowl of heavy duty electric mixer.
Add the yeast mixture.
Using the flat beater, beat the mixture until well mixed, about 1 minute.
Replace the flat beater with the dough hook (or knead by hand) for about 5 minutes.
Shape into a ball and place it in a well oiled bowl, turning to coat completely on all sides with oil.
Cover tightly with plastic wrap. Place in a warm place to rise until doubled, about 1 hour.

Punch down to remove air bubbles, shape into ball.
Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to the desired size. ( I just make mine as big as my pizza pan).
Place dough on lightly oiled pizza pan.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees
Brush pizza with olive oil (optional), add pizza sauce and toppings.
Bake at 450 for 12 to 15 minutes on lowest rack until cheese starts to brown around the edges.

White Pizza:
Follow pizza dough directions.
Instead of red pizza sauce take 1 1/2 Tablespoons of Tastefully Simple Garlic Garlic, 1 T olive oil and 1-2 Tablespoons water microwave for 20-30 seconds. Let stand for a couple of minutes. Brush this on dough and then top with cheese. Bake for 12 minutes. Yum!

Pepperoni Balls:
Make dough.
Take balls of dough that are 2 1/2 inches in diameter, flatten. Put a pepperoni and cheese in the middle. Close the ball up and pinch. Put on lightly oiled baking sheet. Then brush with olive oil, salt and garlic powder. Bake for about 12 minutes…until golden.

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Lemon Tea Bread Friday, Jan 26 2007

1 8oz package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter softened
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 large eggs
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk
1 tablespoon grated lemon rind, divided
2/3 cup sifted powdered sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Beat cream cheese and butter at high speed until light and fluffy.
Gradually add 1 1/4 cups sugar, beating well.
Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition
Combine flour, baking powder, and salt; add to creamed mixture alternately with milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Mix after each addition.
Stir in 2 teaspoons lemon rind.
Pour batter evenly into two greased and floured 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 x 3 inch loaf pans. Bake at 350 for 40 to 50 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.
Combine powdered sugar and lemon juice stirring until smooth. Stir in remaining 1 teaspoon lemon rind.
Spoon glaze over warm loaves. Let cool in pans 10 minutes.
Remove from pans and let cool completely on wire racks.
Garnish with more lemon rind if desired.

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Use What You Have Monday, Dec 18 2006

Trying to use more of what we have on hand. Hubby makes our bread. And we wind up with a lot of heels. I dry them and store them and once in a while I put them in the food processor and grind them up into bread crumbs. I use them as binder for meatballs and meatloaf and to bread chicken. It just feels good to do something useful with something I’d otherwise waste.

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Mmm…Baking Bread Friday, Dec 1 2006

Three loaves of Brian’s “House” Bread just came out of the oven, and three loaves of my herb bread just went in for a potluck dinner tomorrow.

The house smells divine! Perfect day for the oven to be on as the wind is blowing so hard that when I took Carla for a walk I came home with windburn!

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Beer Bread Recipe Sunday, Sep 17 2006

I love the tastefully simple beer bread, but $5/ loaf is a little much.

I found several versions of this recipe and I’ve tried it a few times. Very good.

Beer Bread:
3 cups flour (all purpose or half all purpose and half whole wheat)
4 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 12 oz beer

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Mix all dry ingredients.
Add beer and mix thoroughly-you may need to use your hands.
Put into greased loaf pan.
Pour 1/2 stick melted butter over the top (optional)
Bake 50-60 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.

I’ve actually played with the recipe and added 1 tablespoon dry oregano and 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese to make an italian flavored loaf that’s great to go with pasta.
I also understand you can put all the dry ingredients in a quart jar to give as a gift.

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Recipe Keeping Saturday, Sep 9 2006

My cookbook cabinet is often a wreck. Not from the cookbooks but from the file of loose recipes. Today I came up with a solution!

Most of my recipes get printed off the computer either from allrecipes.com or from emails from friends by request. I have a little recipe book with blank pages where I keep many of my most often used recipes, but I have to copy by hand into the book. Let’s just say that’s not often on the priority list. Hence, the file folder. Those recipes are also written on paper-which gets wet easily in the kitchen.

I’m going out tonight and buy a three ring binder, some dividers and page protecters.
New recipe routine:
1. Print recipe.
2. Slide into page protector
3. Put into binder under appropriate divider
4. Put binder into recipe cabinet.

Now the recipes will be protected by plastic and I will be able to find them easier.

It’s a simple, obvious solution. And one that I’m glad I finally thought of!

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