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posted by Esther on 12/5/06

There is a secret to getting everything you need from your daily bread. The greatest possible health benefits will be gained from your bread if you have a way to use freshly ground whole wheat. Flour loses almost all it’s vitamins 72 hours from the time it is ground. The nutrition in bread made from flour that is older than that comes from added artificial nutrients. The only way to healthily delay this loss is to freeze the bread, which we do quite often after slicing and double bagging it. We would by all means recommend purchasing a grinder and finding a source for buying wheat kernels so that you can enjoy every bite and experience the ultimate health benefits of fresh homemade bread. 

Ingredients: 

• ½ cup oil 
• ½ cup honey  
• 5 cups warm water (110 degrees) 
• About 15 cups whole wheat flour divided. Grinding 5 pounds (12 cups) of grain yields 17 cups of flour. 
• 2 ½ Tb. yeast 
• 1 ½ Tb. salt  
• 2 vitamin C tablets 500mg. 

In a small container crush vitamin C tablets, add yeast and salt and set aside. In Bosch mixer equipped with kneading hooks, put oil, honey and warm water. Add 6 cups of flour. Jog on medium until lumps are gone. Mix in the yeast mixture thoroughly. Add flour until it looks spongy (probably 3 cups). Cover bowel and let rise 30 min. 

Mix in flour until dough cleans the sides of the bowl (6 cups). Let Bosch run on lowest speed 6-7 min to knead dough. 

Lightly oil a clean counter, turn out your dough onto it and divide into 5 loaves (1 ½ pounds each). Place in 5 none-stick-sprayed loaf pans. Cover with a towel and let rise in warm place at least 30 min or until loaves look as big as you want them.  Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 min. Enjoy! 

You can also use this dough to make cinnamon rolls, dinner rolls, buns and pizza crust.

4 Comments » | posted in Recipes

posted by Esther on 11/3/06

With so much pumpkin from the garden this year, what better way to use it than to make pumpkin pie! We like the honey in this recipe that replaces all the sugar, though we do serve it with cool whip or ice cream. This is perfect for Thanksgiving.

• 2 eggs, slightly beaten
• 2 cups of canned or cooked pumpkin
• ½ cup of honey
• ½ teaspoon of salt
• 2 tablespoons of flour
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon *
• ½ teaspoon of ginger *
• ½ teaspoon of cloves *
• 1 2/3 cup of evaporated milk
• 1 large unbaked 9″ pie shell

Blend filling ingredients in order given. Pour into pie shell. Bake in preheated 425° oven for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350° and continue baking for 45 minutes or until knife inserted in center of pie filling comes out clean. Cool.

* These three ingredients can be substituted with 1½ teaspoon of pumpkin spice.

3 Comments » | posted in Recipes

posted by Esther on 10/22/06

The days are getting colder and there is nothing like a good hot soup to warm you up. Hmmm. What kind of soup should we make? Around here pumpkin bisque is a logical answer. Last week Donald brought in over 300 pounds of melon squash which can be used just like pumpkin. The blending step is a little extra trouble but definately worth it if you have a minute. This is our 2nd favorite pumpkin soup recipe.

Chop and sauté in olive oil:

• 1 cup of celery
• 1 cup of onion

Add:

• 2 quarts of vegetables or chicken stock. (Set aside 1/2 cup to mix with cornstartch.)
• About 4 cups melon squash cut in chunks (or butternut squash or pumpkin)
• 2 potatoes cubed
• 1/2 teaspoon of thyme or 1-2 bay leaves
• 2 teaspoons of coriander (or 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon and 3/4 teaspoon cloves.)

Boil 20 min. Blend all together and return to pot. Add salt to taste and 2 tablespoons of cornstarch dissolved in the 1/2 cup chicken stock to thicken. Serve.

4 Comments » | posted in Recipes

posted by David on 10/13/06

I thought that you would enjoy these cookies that Mom and I made during my Math class. I had to double the recipe. Instead of 6 dozen we made 118 cookies!

½ c. butter
2 tsp. baking powder
1 c. brown sugar
¼ tsp. salt
1 ½ tsp. vannilla extract
nutmeg
½ tsp. almond extract
1 egg white
1 ¾ c. flour
2 tbsp. water

Cream first four ingredients. Add flour, baking powder, and salt. Pack mixture into empty 1lb. butter carton. Chill. Remove from carton and slice lengthwise. Slice each section into 1/8-inch-thick slices. Brush with water and egg white beaten together. Sprinkle with nutmeg.

Bake at 375° F for 12 minutes until golden brown. Makes 3 dozen.

2 Comments » | posted in Recipes

posted by Esther on 09/22/06

The Lord has blessed our tomato plants abundantly this year! Thanks to Michael’s diligence, we have harvested over 200 pounds and they are still coming. David is the great biscuit maker around here and we love fixing our tomatoes this way and serving it warm over his biscuits. Enjoy!

• 4 cups blended tomatoes
• 1 1/2 cups milk (Use 1/2 cup of milk with 5 tablespoons corn starch.)
• 1 t. salt
• 2 T. butter
• 1 T. honey

Bring tomatoes, 1 cup of milk, salt, butter and honey to a boil. Mix 1/2 cup milk and corn starch together. Add cornstarch mixture slowly to boiling tomatoes. Boil two minutes.

9-12 servings

Serve with biscuits and butter.

11 Comments » | posted in Recipes