From the kitchen, recently…

21 May, 2012

Ok, said tortilla recipe is actually a combined recipe from two dear friends. I’ve toted this recipe card from kitchen to kitchen over the years and I never make my tortillas quite the same way twice. Basically I combine both of these recipes into my own thing. One main difference being, I combine ingredients into pretty hot water that has had about a 1/2 cup finely minced onions soaking. I learned that in Africa where they would make chipati, a flatbread, with onions in it. It’s just a nice touch to the torts if you like that sort of thing :)Hope you have fun with this!! Yummmm….

 

12 March, 2012

So…I was going to put up this yummy bread I recently made that was a quick rye and caraway bread that I cut up cubes of cheese into before baking it- so good and then served with the soup I’m putting up tomorrow, but alas, I can’t find it anywhere… I will keep looking. Chow! (cause it’s almost dinnertime.)

8 March, 2012

Hurrah! We have finally arrived….and by we I sooo mean me. I thought I would be a new person this time around and blog every couple days, but I want it to be part of my writing rhythm and by the time I finish journaling, I find that I am spent. I will work this out eventually…

But for today! I have had a few people ask me for the bread recipe that was used at my {gorgeous} wedding last August, so here it is! The recipe was my own that I brought down to our local baker in Colville: “Heather’s Fairy Tale Bakery.”  She somehow managed to take my sticky little 4×6 index card and fill the bellies of our some three hundred guests. She’s wonderful. Anyway, the name of this bread is “Challah,” (pronounced halla) and I originally got the recipe from a couple different people who spent some time in Israel and Cyprus and came home incorporating the practice of Shabbat into their weekly rhythm. Over the years, I have tweaked it a little bit and made it my own. This is a photo of the bread from one of our recent Shabbat dinners here in our own home. I hope you enjoy! You should give me some feedback if you try this recipe or if you have any questions!

Braided loaf of Challah, shared dipped in balsamic- yumm!

Combine: in a big bread bowl, 3 Tablespoons yeast, 1 1/2 cups warm water (don’t kill the yeast-maybe a touch warmer than baby bath water.), and a pinch of sugar to help the yeast baby grow. :)

Combine: after your yeast mixture gets all bubbly, add another 1 1/2 cups warmer water, 1 1/2 cups honey (or however much or little you’d like your bread sweetened. You can get away with one cup, but 1.5 just tastes better. I encourage you to not use sugar, though. Agave would be good as well) 1 1/2 cups oil, and 6 beaten eggs.

After you get that nice and smooth, add 1 1/2 cups Whole Wheat Flour and 1 1/2 Tablespoons of salt. Now start adding your white flour. Add it a couple cups at a time until you get a feel for making bread. I usually add about 6 cups of white for a total of ABOUT 7 1/2 cups of flour. You want a good elastic dough at the end.

This is how we made the bread for the wedding. Sometimes when it’s just the two of us, though, I make the bread about half white to half whole wheat. I really don’t like to encourage the use of too much white flour. Something I like to use for breads and desserts that are more eggy like this recipe is Whole Wheat Pastry flour. It’s basically just really fine Whole Wheat. That way the bread doesn’t get dry or crumbly -what many people associate Whole Wheat bread with…most unfortunate. It does not have to be that way….

Anyway: Now that you have your smooth as a baby’s butt round of dough (that’s what my mom used to say to look for, ok.), you want to let it rise for a little bit. I split it into two big mounds and let sit in my oiled bread bowl (so it doesn’t stick) for about 45 min. in a warm spot. In a window in the sun with a tea towel over it is what I did with my bread the other day. The reason you are doing this is because the warmth slowly activates the yeast and that’s what makes your bread all light and fluffy and delish instead of being a 10lb hard rock!

So now that you have your bread all puffed up almost twice it’s original size, you want to punch it back down to let out all those gases released from the yeast. If you don’t do that, then your bread will bake weird and give you a stomach ache, basically.

Now take one loaf and divide into 4 ropes. Lightly flour (liightly) the ropes with your hands and begin to braid them into a four strand braid… let me find a picture of that- I would just confuse you by trying to explain. Here!

Heat your oven to 350F while you are about done braiding the second loaf…

By the time you have braided your loaves and your oven is good and hot, you will be letting your loaves rise for a few more minutes- i don’t double-rise at this point very often. I find they turn out just fine this way. This recipe makes two big loaves or three smaller loaves. I take a large baking sheet and oil and then sprinkle with cornmeal so my loaves don’t stick.

Brush (or blot with a paper towel) the tops of the loaves with a bit of egg or milk and sprinkle with sesame or poppy seeds. We like both.

Bake for about 30 minutes. I start watching them just after 20-25. You want the tops to get golden and when you flick them with your thumb and index finger, you want them to sound hollow and light. :) Enjoy!!

**************yum***************

17 January, 2012

Stocking the pantry

14 January, 2012

Uses for Mason Jars (disclaimer- I didn’t write these! so the cheesy ones aren’t my fault.)

1. Canning foods for storage
2. Storing dried foods
3. Storing sugar, flour, and oatmeal
4. Storing cookies
5. Storing bulk foods
6. Storing homemade mixes
7. Recipe in a jar gifts
8. Making and storing homemade vinegar
9. Making homemade vanilla extract
10. Storing leftovers in the refrigerator
11. Use as measuring device
12. Store saved seeds
13. Grow sprouts
14. Drinking glass
15. Hold homemade soy candles
16. Holding sour dough starters
17. Storing fresh milk if you milk your own goats or cows
18. Storing your clearly marked homemade cleaners
19. Cotton balls
20. Bulk or homemade shampoo
21. Homemade bath salts
22. Holding Legos and other small toys
23. Storing small office supplies
24. Bolt the lids (with screw tops) to the underside of a shelf and use to hold screws, nails, and washers
25. Hold balls of yarn while knitting or crocheting…drill a hole through the lid and thread the yarn through. Make sure it is smooth so it doesn’t cut the fiber. Keeps your yarn from rolling off.
26. Make a solar light
27. Make sun tea
28. Use them to hold fresh flowers
29. Reusable holders for candy gifts
30. Portable Garden Cloche
31. Store sewing notions
32. (Mostly) Homemade soap dispenser
34. Bug jars for the kids
35. Keeping change
36. Make a terrarium
37. Catch those pesky flies
38. Here is an easier version of the homemade fly trap. Just put equal amounts of sugar, vinegar, and water in a quart Mason jar. Punch holes in the lid that are large enough for flies to get through.
39. Sewing kit in a jar
40. I love these individual silverware and napkin holders
41. Poultry feeder
42. Mason jar photo frames
43. Potpourri jars
44. Snow globes
45. Add nonflammable material and nestle a candle in it to use as a centerpiece. I used cranberries to hold votive candles in pint jars last Christmas and they were fantastic.
46. Meditation jar – print out your favorite quotes, thoughts, or scripture verses and cut them in strips. Keep them in the jar and remove one a day to contemplate. You can use this for affirmations, journal prompts, or anything similar.
47. Holding scrapbooking and craft supplies
48. Pencil and pen holder
49. Hold shells and other collections for display
50.Cakes in a jar