Normally, in the process of making six loaves of our regular bread, we use one loaf’s worth of dough (flavored optionally with 1/2 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes) to make either:

• one 10 x 15 jellyroll pan, or
• two 8 in. round cake pans, or
• three cake pans for the thinner variety.

Alternatively, you can experiment with your own favorite bread recipe.

1.  Press dough evenly in well-oiled cake pans, sprinkled with cornmeal. (Cornmeal is optional.) Cover with damp cloth and let rise 20 or 30 min.

2.  If you opt for black olives, make an indentation for them in dough for every square inch with spoon handle or fingertip and insert an olive in each hole. Brush dough with olive oil. Sprinkle entire amount with:

• 2 tsp Rosemary Leaves crushed,
• 2 Tbsp Parmesan Cheese,
• 1/2 cup Mozzarella Cheese, and
• 1 clove Garlic, finely minced (or 1 t. Garlic Powder—not garlic salt!)

3.  Bake at 400 for 12 minutes or until nicely browned.

Serve warm and enjoy!

1. After dough has risen, divide each loaf into 4 balls
2. Place on cookie sheets and flatten slightly
3. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes
4. Lightly beat 1 egg white with 2 Tbsp of water and brush mixture onto risen loaves.
5. Bake at 375 for 40 or 50 minutes
6. Remove from oven and let cool
7. Cut a circle out of the top of each loaf, and  remove that part of the crust
8. Either remove the soft bread at the center or compress it to form a bowl

Now the bowl is ready to be filled with your favorite soup. For starters, try . . .

Broccoli Cheese Soup – 6 servings

1. In a saucepan, heat:
   3 cups Water, and 
   1 Tbsp Chicken Bouillon
2. Add:
   3/4 tsp Salt
   3/4 tsp Seasoning Salt
   1/8 tsp Pepper, coarse
   1 pinch Nutmeg
   14 oz. Fresh or Frozen Broccoli Cuts
   1/3 cup Diced Onion
3. Bring to a boil
4. Reduce heat to very low and simmer ten minutes or until vegetables are tender
5. In a separate saucepan:
   Melt 1/3 cup Butter
   Add 1/3 cup Flour and whisk
   Cook on very low heat for 5 minutes
6. Add to broccoli mixture and whisk until smooth
7. Add 3 cups warm Milk
8. Bring to a boil
9. Immediately decrease heat and simmer two minutes
10. Add 1 1/2 cups Shredded Cheddar Cheese
11. Cook until cheese is melted and soup is hot!

Then pour into bread bowls and enjoy. It definitely isn’t as difficult as it sounds. If you’re like us you will end up wanting to make it again and again. You might even have less dishes to wash.

For other excellent recipes see Kim Cahill’s No Guesswork Cookbook

1. We grind our wheat and have no experience using any other kind of flour, so if you buy whole wheat flour, it may make some differences. Our stone grinder is able to grind finer than some hand-grinders.

2. We use a Bosch mixing bowl with kneading hooks that knead the dough so that we do not have to knead it by hand. This bowl has two lids; the first is like a ring. It is about 2 inches wide and keeps the dough in the bowl while kneading. The 2nd lid is for covering completely, helpful for keeping warmth and humidity in the bowl while it is rising.

3. We use hard white spring wheat. Different kinds of wheat do make a big difference in the resulting bread’s color and density.

4. Since we have a “large family”, we always make a large batch; about 6 lb. of dough each time. Actually we have to bake bread one to three times each week depending on how much of the family is in. Any bread that will not be eaten in 24 hours can be frozen in plastic bags. We slice it before freezing it. That way we can bag it into portions that we will need at one time, such as two slices per family member, and remove one portion from the freezer at a time. By the way, it greatly improves the quality of the bread to double bag it when freezing. We like to put a number of portions, each in its own bag, into a large bag which can be marked with the date that batch was made.

Anyway, here’s the recipe:

100% Whole Wheat Bread

Prep time: 2 1/2 hours.

Batch size: 6 lb. dough, 6 medium-small loaves (about 12 slices per loaf including the heals). Larger bread pans can be used.

Ingredients:
  1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup pure local honey
5 cups warm water (uncomfortably hot to the touch)

1 1/2 tablespoons salt
2 1/2 tablespoons of dry yeast
1 vitamin C tablet

15 1/2 cups freshly ground whole wheat flour.

Procedure:

1.  Review the recipe and make sure all needed items are on hand.

2.  Crush the vitamin C tablet in a small bowl and add the yeast and salt, set aside.

3.  Grind 16 cups of wheat. This will make more than 16 cups of flour. It helps to make the bread while the flour is still warm from grinding. The leftover flour can be frozen for use in other recipes.

4.  Pour the honey and oil into the large mixing bowl equipped with kneading hooks, then add 5 cups of warm-hot water.

5.  Add 6 cups of flour, then turn on the mixer to the low speed. As soon as the flour is mixed in, and while mixing, add the dry mix of C, salt, and yeast, allow to mix for a few seconds.

6.  Add two and a half cups of flour while mixing. When everything looks thoroughly mixed, turn off the mixer, and cover.

7.  Allow the thin, spongy-looking dough to rise for 30 minutes, by which time it should have more than doubled.

8.  “Punch down” the dough by turning on the mixer for just a few seconds. Then allow the dough to rise again for 15 minutes.

9.  “Punch down” the dough a 2nd time. Allow to rise a 2nd time for 15 minutes.

10.  Turn on the mixer to the low speed and add flour a cup at a time until the dough leaves the sides of the bowl. It will likely be about 7 cups. When I made bread for the show it was 7 1/8.

11.  Leave the mixer on and set a timer for 6 minutes. This kneads the dough.

12.  Spray your bread pans, pizza crust pans, etc. with no-stick oil spray.

13.  Pre-heat the oven to 175 degrees F. or turn on a warming drawer.

14.  When the dough has been kneaded, (6 min.), turn off the mixer.

15.  Oil a section of clean counter top with a couple tablespoons of oil. Get your hands oily too.

16.  Slide the kneading hooks out of the dough and remove the dough from the bowl onto the oiled surface. Divide the dough into 6 one pound loaves, shape, and put into bread pans -  or divide dough into desired amounts for pizza crusts or rolls or buns, etc. The exact amounts of dough preferred for each item is best learned by experience. The resulting bread should be about double in size.

17.  Put the bread into the warming drawer, or turn the oven off, open the door, and put the bread into the warm oven to rise for 30 minutes. If no warm place is available, the bread can be covered with a cloth and allowed to rise at room temperature. Let rise until size doubles.

18.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Put bread in and bake for 25 minutes. If bread was rising in the oven, no need to remove it; just turn the oven on and bake for 30 minutes instead. If the bread surface looks too light after the baking time is over, leave it in for two or three minutes more or until it looks right before turning off the heat and removing the bread. Baking temperatures and times may be different depending on what the dough is being made into. We bake pizza crusts at 400 degrees for 6 or 7 minutes. They will be baked again with the toppings later and are usually frozen in the mean time.

19.  Leave the bread in the pans for 5 minutes after removing from oven.

20. To remove the bread from the pans, slide a knife around the sides of each loaf to make sure it is separated from the pan, and finally dump the loaves out onto a cooling rack. Wait until the bread has (mostly) cooled before slicing and giving thanks…     

For cinnamon rolls we roll an amount of dough into as large a rectangle as we can, with corners nice and square, and edges nice and straight. It should probably be about 1/4 inch thick, 16 to 18 inches long, and as wide as 1 inch per cinnamon roll desired. Obviously the amount of dough used depends on how many rolls you want to make. Spread with butter and honey, sprinkle with cinnamon and raisins, and roll up. Then slice the roll and turn the slices onto a greased pan for baking. They bake at 350 for 16 to 18 minutes.

Combine dry ingredients and mix well:
6 cups rolled oats
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup sweetened or unsweetened coconut
1 cup slivered almonds
1/2 cup raw or roasted wheat germ
1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds or raw chopped walnuts
1/2 cup oat bran (optional)
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt

Add and stir in wet ingredients:
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup local raw honey
1 1/2 Tbsp molasses

We’ve never used a processor to mix the thick wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, so we get a healthy work-out doing it with a big wooden spatula. Try to chop up the clumps and mix in the loose powder from the corners of the bowl. If you would like to bake it, you can bake it in an ungreased casserole dish at 350 degrees until it reaches the desired doneness, perhaps 1/2 hour, but be sure to take it out of the oven and stir it once about every 10 minutes. When using it for breakfast cereal, we like to top it with fresh or dried fruit.

Other ingredients to try in place of or in addition to similar ingredients above include: dry milk, grape nuts cereal, chopped walnuts, peanuts, or other nuts, pumpkin seeds or other seeds, vanilla flavoring or other spices, flavorings, and extracts. It is fun to make “theme” granolas such as “pumpkin granola” using pumpkin seeds, pieces of pumpkin leather, and pumpkin pie spices like ginger and nutmeg.

My family did not use herbs very much when I was a child, at home, so I’ve had to learn this art from talking with others through the years. Here are some of the questions I asked and the  discoveries  I made.

1. Do I have to use pork in my soup beans to make them taste good?  After all, the less pork you eat the better.

2. What did you put in this stew? Mine always tastes so bland!

3. Can canned green beans taste good without adding oil or butter?

The answers, I’ve found, to each one of these questions involves using the right herbs and spices.

1) When Esther (now age 23) was three months old I found myself in the “nursing mothers’ lounge” in Knoxville while Don and I were attending the home school seminar. I asked one of the ladies, who was also there in the lounge, question number one, and this was her reply: “bay leaf”. She was right! After experimenting a bit, I discovered a very delicious recipe. This recipe is for one pound of dry beans (all kinds of dry beans will work).

Let beans soak overnight. Add one teaspoon of salt, one teaspoon of bouillon, 1 bay leaf, 1/2 cup of onion, and one clove of garlic (minced). Cook until desired softness. We have soft water so they are done after about `1 1/2  hours. Harder water will take 2 1/2 hours.

2) At a covered dish dinner, I tasted the best beef, potatoes, carrots, and onion I had ever eaten. I asked the one who brought it what herbs she used, and she said. “My brother actually made this, but I think he used  ‘rosemary’.” What a revelation! After experimenting a bit, I came up with this recipe for two pounds of stew meat,  two pounds of potatoes, one cup of onion, and three carrots. Add  1/2 teaspoon of rosemary (don’t overdo it–you can get too much!), one bay leaf, one clove of minced garlic, one teaspoon of bouillon, salt & pepper to taste.

3) This one is the best yet. Once, While waiting on our children, another mother and I were talking about menus. I asked her what she liked to fix, and she told me about adding Cajun spice to her green beans! After I warm  up the can of beans, I pour off the water, sprinkle on the Cajun spice, stir it up, and serve. You will have to experiment to see how much you like. I use quite a bit. Cajun tastes great on beans fresh out of the garden too.

One more little tip. If you grow your own herbs, they will usually dry just fine if picked and left on the counter for a few days. Just put them in a glass jar and keep them all winter. I found this out after accidentally leaving some raspberry leaves (for tea) in the car one summer.

“Are you sure you can be here by 5:00?  It is 4:15 right now.”

“No problem, Dad.  I’ll call Evelyn and tell her to be at your house at 5:00 too.”

Where did the time go?  I thought I had all afternoon! How can I  have the promised dessert (rhubarb crunch) ready in 15 minutes?  It would take 40 min. just to bake it.   Hum…  I’m glad Esther had diced some fresh rhubarb and made granola before she left for Virginia.  I will make rhubarb sauce!  We can pour it over ice cream and sprinkle the granola on top!

Here is the rhubarb sauce recipe.  It is also very good on plain yogurt, topped with granola.

Combine 3½ cups of diced rhubarb, 1 cup sugar, and 2 T. of orange juice.  Let stand 10 minutes.  Stir, cover, heat to simmer.  Cook, stirring several times.  Increase heat slightly as juice cooks out, until rhubarb is tender but not mushy.  Serve warm or cold.

We were late for Chris’ program but not because of a late meal!  We ate our supper on time!

Actually, I am not talking about a pumpkin but a “melon squash” or “sweet necked squash.”

Some look at its shape and call it a gourd, but when you cut it open you see a solid orange neck and a hollow bulb full of seeds. We dry the seeds to plant in the spring or eat. Michael started growing these squash when he learned that they were sweet enough to eat raw. However, they are best when cooked and used in recipes which call for pumpkin.  They make perfect pumpkin pies.

One squash goes a long way. I cut up one that was fourteen pounds last week and was able to can five quarts of pumpkin with three cups left over for soup!  They also keep well in the cellar.

In all the pumpkin recipes posted, I have used this squash either fresh or canned. My latest experience with this delicious vegetable has been a pumpkin cake roll.  This is a cake rolled up with cream cheese.  This recipe is going to take some practice!  Does anyone have any pointers about how to make a pumpkin roll? Mine tasted good but did not look “like the picture.” 

“Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgement ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.” Matthew 7:1,2

Verses 19-20: “Open to me the gates of righteousness: I will go into them, and will praise the Lord: this gate of the Lord into which the righteous shall enter.” Question:Who is “the door of the sheep” through which they enter into the fold?

Verse 21: “I will praise Thee: for Thou has heard me, and art become my Salvation.” Question: Who is our Salvation?

Verses 22-23: “The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner. This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.” Question: Who is the Head that the builders rejected?

Verse 24: “This is the day that the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” Key question: What is “this” Day that the Lord has made?

Read the verses again. Verse 24 is just a continuation of the other verses. The gate, the salvation, and the stone are speaking of Christ. The Day in verse 24 is not ultimately speaking of any 12-hour or 24-hour period! This is speaking of Christ, the Eternal Day in which I will rejoice, beginning the moment that I made peace with God through the sacrifice of His Son. “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life” 1 Jn. 5:12. The water Christ gives is a well of water springing up unto everlasting life (Jn. 4:14). “For God, Who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” 2 Cor. 4:6. “The Lord is my light and my salvation” Ps. 27:1, “a light to lighten the gentiles” Luke 2:32, Is. 9:2, and Is. 49:6. According to Hebrews 4:8-10 this eternal day that lives within me is the Sabbath, the Day of rest. “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” Mt. 11:28. My temporal body may work and sweat, but how glorious it is to abide in the Rest of Jesus Christ forever! Woe to me if I attempt the labor of iniquity on this Day! Question: “And to whom sware He that they should not enter into His rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not  profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. For we which have believed do enter into rest” Heb. 3:18 – 4:3a.

The first thing I changed was the crust — we like “the real thing” rather than Pillsbury cresent rolls.

The second thing that was more to our liking was replacing the Ranch flavor powder style dressing or dip mix with our own spices and some sour cream or plain yogurt. Tastefully Simple has a very good all natural Fiesta Party dip Mix which makes a very good replacement.

We bake 5 loaves of bread once or twice a week so when we need a pizza crust we just make the crust instead of the loaves of bread: One loaf makes two crusts. After baking it about 6 minutes, the 12″ crusts freeze very nicely in a two gallon plastic zip-lock bag.

Also the vegetables can be cut up ahead of time and kept for as long as a week if covered with water which is changed every day.

Bake one pizza crust and cool
Mix: 1 T. Fiesta Party Dip,
          ¼ c. mayonnaise (real mayonnaise only), and
          ¾ c. sour cream or plain yogurt
Spread on cooled crust
Cut into small pieces:
          Cauliflower
          Broccoli
          Carrots
          Olives
          Celery
          Red/green/yellow peppers
          Whatever raw vegetables preferred (yellow squash, etc)
Top crust with vegetables
Chill well and serve

Enjoy!
 
 

My desire was to please everyone! Everyone being the seven that are under our roof at this time; some of whom say cranberries are not good unless you sweeten them a lot as well as those who say too much sugar is bad for you.

Most of the recipes called for at least 1 1/2 cups of sugar for the 2 cups of cranberries; but one used only 1/2 c. of brown sugar. Finally by combining two recipes I came up with the following:

                Cranberry Casserole

• 3 – 4 cups chopped unpeeled apples
• 2 cups cranberries
• 6 oz apple juice concentrate
• 1 T. flour
• 1/2 stick butter (1/4 cup)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup quick or rolled oats
• 1/2 cup chopped nuts

Place apples and cranberries in 2-quart baking dish with flour and juice concentrate. Melt butter and brown sugar; add oats and nuts. Sprinkle this mixture over apples and cranberries. Bake uncovered, 45 min. at 325 degrees.

We ate it with our meal as a side dish but it would also work for a dessert. These were the comments:

1. Usually I’m tempted to eat dessert too fast but this recipe was good because the slight tartness slowed me down.
2. Can we have seconds?
3. I like the topping (meaning the oats and brown sugar) the best. Less cranberries would be better.
4. I normally don’t like cranberries, but the apples offset their tartness enough to be a very pleasing taste that I enjoyed.

The list of health benefits from cranberries are incredible. Click here for more specifics and be motivated to try this winning recipe!