Parmesan Crusted Chicken (Gluten-Free)

This turned out moist and delicious.

Trust me, you won't miss the bread crumbs.

 

GF Parmesan Crusted Chicken

 

1.5 lbs. Chicken, cut up

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

1/4 tsp. Italian seasoning

salt, pepper & garlic powder, to taste

4 Tbs. of crushed Rice Chex

 

Preheat over to 425 degrees F. Place chicken in a baking dish. Mine was Pyrex. In a small bowl, mix together the mayonnaise, cheese and Italian seasoning. Spoon on top of chicken pieces and spread it on as best you can. Sprinkle with remaining seasonings. Top with crumbs. Bale uncovered for 25 minutes. Cover loosely with foil and bake an additional 5 to 10 minutes or until cooked through. Mine to a total of 35 minutes. No one will guess that these are gluten-free.

GF Blueberry Muffins

I have not found time to mix up my own GF baking mix but I found this Arrowhead Mills All Purpose Baking Mix on my last visit to Fred Meyers (Krogers). Yesterday I decided to fix the husbeast some blueberry muffins using blueberries I picked at our local Blueberry Park in the summer of 2012. I sealed them in one cup batches in vacuum sealed bags and stored them in my freezer. Yes, the berry are still good.

I followed the Blueberry Crumb Muffin recipe on the back of the box, but omitted the crumb topping. Other changes I made were to use regular whole milk and use 1/2 cup of honey in place of the 3/4 cup of sugar. I used salted butter, as that was all I had. The muffins were not too salty. The recipe did not tell you when to add the blueberries, which I found amusing since they are blueberry muffins. I added a Tbs. of the baking mix to the blueberries and coated them thoroughly then folded them into the batter before spooning the batter into the lined muffin tins. The recipe says to pour the batter in, but it is far too thick for that to happen.

The muffins turned out nice and moist and very, VERY buttery. I think I will try decreasing the amount of butter next time. It seemed like overkill. Otherwise I am very happy with them and the husbeast declared them "delicious".

Homemade Corn Tortillas. Yum!

One thing that I've discovered since going gluten free? You have to cook a LOT of things from scratch. This has been a challenge, but also a lot of fun. Yesterday I decided to try making some corn tortillas. There are only 3 ingredients, so how hard can they be? I started with the recipe from the back of the Maseca bag. Turns out there is a bit of a learning curve. The first dough was too dry and I didn't know how to properly cook them. They were also a bit bland for my liking. Today I tried again and I am happy to report that I have been successful. Here is my recipe. I added a bit more water and salt to that first, original recipe off the bag.

Corn Tortillas

2 cups masa flour

 3/4 tsp. salt

1 1/2 cups warm water

(plus more if needed)

 

In a bowl, wisk the salt into the flour, mixing it in thoroughly. Add the warm water and mix it in using your hands and fingers, until all the flour is incorporated. You want the dough to be the consistency of Play-Doh. If the dough feels too stiff, add some more warm water, a tablespoon at a time. If the dough is too moist add a bit of masa flour. Once your dough feels right, cover it with some plastic wrap. It dries out really fast. Get out your tortilla press and start heating your pan. Start with your pan on medium high heat. You may have to adjust the heat up or down. All stoves vary and it will also depend on the type of pan used. I use a cast iron frying pan and a medium heat. Anything hotter and it burns off the seasoning from my pan. Cover your press with some plastic wrap.  

 

 

Take a small amount of dough (about walnut size) and roll it into a ball, then slightly flatten the ball and place it on the press.

 

 

Top the ball of dough with another piece of plastic wrap and close the press, pressing down hard on the lever.

 

 

Open it up and "ta da"! You've made a tortilla. I like to rotate the tortilla 180 degrees, then press again, to make sure it is flattened evenly.

 

 

Carefully lift the tortilla and remove the plastic, one side at a time. Brush the tortilla lightly with oil (depending on the type of pan you are using. Mine needs oil) and lay the tortilla in the pan. Cook it for approx. 50 seconds per side. You want it to get cooked and slightly browned, but not burnt. Flip it once the first side is done.

 

 

Don't worry if your tortilla feels a bit stiff. You may be wondering, as I did, "how is this thing going to roll up or fold around a filling without breaking"? Here is the secret to soft, moist tortillas. Once they are cooked you place them into a tortilla warmer (or steamer). These can be made of cloth, pottery or plastic. Mine is blow molded plastic. You close the lid and the tortillas steam each other, making them soft and pliable. Like magic.

 

 

Once you get the hang of it, making fresh tortillas from scratch is incredibly easy. You will never want to eat those rubbery tortillas from the grocery store, ever again. Enjoy!

 

Potato Chips & Newly Gluten Free

There have been some minor changes here at the urban homestead. First, I have made the decision to make some dietary changes. I have a chronic autoimmune disorder since I was 20. Well over 30 years. It's not life threatening but it is a nuisance. It's one of those maladies that doctors can't cure.

Recently I stumbled upon some forums and read posts from others with my same illness that had benefited from going gluten free. On August 16th I cut out all wheat, rye and barley and immediately began feeling better. On August 26th I decided to eliminate processed sugar from my diet. It is also a trigger for my autoimmune disorder. I understand it takes a month to see most results and a full 6 months to get it completely out of your system. However I have already seen these changes:

*As of today I have lost 1.5" from my hips and a full 2" from my waist. No, I am not exercising.
*My skin is clearing up. Even the skin on my face has improved.
*My joints feel much better. My knees no longer hurt.
*My gums are in much better shape.
*I have more energy.
*Food tastes better.

The only real hardship? I miss beer. Yes, I know there if GF beer out there but I am used to drinking my husband's delicious home brew.

I also need to find a good salad dressing without added sugar. Or learn to make my own. I am a beekeeper so I am going to use raw, unpasteurized honey, from my bees, as my only sweetener.

The immediate weight loss was a happy revelation. I wasn't expecting it. I always wondered why I kept gaining so much weight when I really don't overeat. Apparently my body couldn't process the gluten. I look forward to getting my skinny body back. Stay tuned as I chronicle my GF/SF journey. Meanwhile, here is a nice snack you can whip up if you find yourself with an abundance of potatoes. I used sweet potatoes for this batch.

 

 

Baked Potato Chips 

 

Potatoes, any kind.

Olive oil

Salt

 

Slice the potatoes thin. I used a mandoline. Soak the potato slices in an ice bath for 10 minutes. Drain well and blot dry. Place in a bowl, drizzle with some olive oil (just enough to coat them) and mix them with your hands. Spread them out in a single layer on a baking sheet, sprinkle lightly with salt and bake for 20 minutes at 300 degrees. Watch them the last few minutes to make sure they don't burn. You want them crispy and slightly golden. You may have to adjust the temperature as all ovens vary. Enjoy!

 

NOTE: I can't report on how well these store since they didn't last that long. ;-P

Thundercloud Wine?

Our street is lined with Thundercloud plum trees. Some of them even bear fruit. My next door neighbor's tree is a heavy fruit bearer. Each year the neighborhood kids congregate to pick most of the low hanging plums....usually long before they are ripe. However this year they missed one large area.

I asked my neighbor if it would be OK if I pick them and attempt to make some wine. He doesn't do anything with them so was happy to oblige. I have a huge container of generic honey that I need to use up. I prefer my bees' honey for eating but this generic stuff is fine for mead making. For those who don't know mead is wine made from honey instead of sugar. And melomel is a fruit mead. Here is the recipe I am using, in case anyone else has access to Thundercloud plums. I can't promise the wine will be any good, though, as this is my first attempt at this wine flavor.

Thundercloud Plum Melomel

· 4# pitted plums (about 5# unpitted)
· 2 # honey
· 1/2 tsp. acid blend
· 1/2 tsp. pectic enzyme
· 1 tsp. nutrient
· 1 campden tablet, crushed
· package wine yeast (or 1/4 tsp in starter)

Wine begun 7-30-13.

Step 1: Pick and wash plums. Break them open with your fingers. Don't remove pits yet. Place into a must bag. Squeeze out as much juice as you can into the primary fermenter. This will also free up the pits. Remove pits from must bag.

Step 2: Add all remaining ingredients except the yeast. Add enough water to make one gallon. Make sure to allow for the weight of the must bag.

Step 3: Take the specific gravity. You are aiming for a beginning SG of 1.090. Mine was spot on.
Step 4: Top with a kitchen towel or cotton cloth and secure with a rubber band. Let sit for 24 hours. This gives the campden tablet time to kill off any wild yeasts that were present on the plum skins, and then gas off. You don't want it to kill your wine yeast.

Meanwhile prepare a yeast starter.
Yeast starter: 1/4 cup warm water, 1 tsp. sugar, 1/4 tsp. wine yeast, 1/4 tsp. yeast nutrient. Cover loosely and let sit until ready to pitch. This will give your yeast a big head start.

Step 5: After 24 hours pitch the yeast into the juice mixture and replace the cloth cover.
Step 6: Stir daily and squeeze juice from the bag. On the 3rd day check the SG. if it is 1.040 or above, rack to the secondary fermenter and attach airlock. While in the secondary it is important to keep the wine out of the light. Cover it with a thick towel or store it in a dark cupboard or closet.
Step 7: Rack again in 3 to 4 weeks. Then rack every 2 months, as needed, until there is no more sediment.

If you don't rack this often, nothing bad will happen. It's best not to have the wine sit on the lees (sediment) for too long but wine does OK if you ignore it. Just check the airlock often and replace the liquid (water or sanitizer) if it gets low.

Step 8: Bottle. I usually keep my wine in the secondary for 9 to 12 months before bottling.

I like to back sweeten my fruit wines at bottling. I add a cup of sugar (or honey) per gallon of wine, give or take. Dissolve the honey or sugar in water before adding. If you sweeten your wine you will also need to add a stabilizer or it might begin fermenting again and you'll have a mess when the corks pop or the bottles explode. Add 1/2 tsp. of stabilizer when you sweeten, then bottle. 

Norwegian Ammonia Cookies

I had promised to bake my husband some of his favorite holiday cookies. Better late than never, right? We'll call these New Year cookies. They are Norwegian Ammonia Cookies. I got the recipe (and the horn salt) from my friend, Gail Brooks. Horn salt is also known as baking ammonia. And yes, your oven will smell like ammonia but it isn't very strong and the smell doesn't linger. The cookies DO NOT taste like ammonia. Each year Gail drives up to Poulsbo, WA, to stock up on horn salt. I have one packet left in my freezer, for next year, and then I guess I'll be trekking to Poulsbo, too. Here is the recipe for these delicious cookies, in case you happen to have horn salt on hand.

NORWEGIAN AMMONIA COOKIES

1 cup butter
1 cup Crisco (or other shortening)
2 1/4 cup sugar
1 cup shredded coconut
3 cups flour
2 tsp. horn salt (baking ammonia)

Cream butter and shortening, add sugar and coconut then stir in flour and horn salt. Roll into balls the size of walnuts and bake on an ungreased cookie sheet at 350 degrees until just slightly brown (about 17 minutes).

The cookies are fragile until cooled so be careful when removing them from the pan. Let cool completely. Can be stored in an airtight container or frozen for future use.

___________________________

These cookies are incredibly crispy and highly addictive. We joke that there is "crack" in them. Maybe because of how horn salt looks in the little package.

The cookies freeze very well. In fact you can take them out of the freezer months later and they will taste fresh baked.

Chicken Enchiladas

I made some delicious chicken enchiladas yesterday. I am writing the recipe here, mainly so I can remember what I did but also to share it. I apologize that it is vague. I didn't measure or keep track of cooking times.


Chicken, 2 legs & 2 thighs
1/2 a yellow onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
1 can diced green chilies1 small can sliced black olives, drained
2 cups Mexican 4 cheese blend  
1- 28 oz. can El Pato enchilada sauce (found at Hispanic grocer)
12-15 corn tortillas (or you can use flour)
salt and pepper, to taste
lard or oil for greasing pans, sauteing onions and garlic, and brushing tops of enchiladas


FILLING
Bake chicken until done. Let cool. Remove skin and bones, shred meat and place in a mixing bowl. Saute onion and garlic until onion is translucent. Add to meat. Add chilies, olives, 1 cup of cheese, 1/4 cup enchilada sauce, and salt and pepper to taste. Mix well and set aside.


TORTILLAS
Many recipes have you heat the sauce and dip the tortillas in it to soften them. This is time consuming and messy. Instead, I use a plastic blow molded tortilla steamer that works in the microwave. These can be found at most Hispanic grocers. Simply place your tortillas inside and microwave for a minute or 2 until your tortillas are soft. 


ASSEMBLING
Take a warm tortilla and place some of the filling down the center of it. I don't measure. Maybe 2 Tbs.? You don't want to be skimpy but you don't want to over stuff them, either. Roll them up tightly and place them into a greased glass 13" x 9" baking dish, seam side down. Continue until you have used all the filling. 


BAKING
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Brush the tops of the enchiladas with melted lard, or oil, and bake them until they are slightly browned. This step will firm up the tortillas so your enchiladas don't fall apart. Now remove them from the oven and pour the remaining sauce over them. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese. Lower the heat to 400 degrees and continue baking them until they are bubbly, heated through and the cheese is melted.


SERVE
I like mine with a dollop of sour cream on top. Serve them with some Spanish rice, refried beans and maybe a green salad. Enjoy!

Clam Chowder

I love clam chowder, especially New England style. My husband has to watch his milk intake so I had to come up with a recipe that would make just enough for me. I made this last night and it turned out great.

New England Style Clam Chowder

(makes 3 to 4 servings)

1 1/2 strips of bacon, cut in 1/4" pieces
1/2 cup shopped onion
1/2 cup chopped celery
___
1 potato, cubed
1 cup water
clam juice from a 6.5 ounce can of minced clams (reserve clams)
1 tsp. dried parsley
___
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup flour
1 cup half & half
1 cup milk
1/2 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper

In a small saucepan, fry bacon until almost done. Add the onions and celery. Saute until the onions are translucent. Add water, clam juice, potatoes and parsley. Simmer until potatoes are tender but don't overcook. Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, melt butter. Stir in flour until well blended. Add half & half and milk. Whisk, stirring frequently, until thickened. Stir in the potato mixture.  Add the remaining ingredients, including the reserved clams, and heat through. Enjoy!

Lemon Chicken

I had some chicken in the freezer and decided to try a new recipe. Husbeast says it's a keeper. I used garlic and fresh rosemary from my garden.

Lemon Chicken

Serves 4 to 6

4 each legs and thighs
1/3 cup lemon juice
6 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tsp. dried thyme
1 Tbsp fresh chopped rosemary (or 1 teaspoon dried)
1 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
2 Tbsp melted butter

Place lemon juice, garlic, thyme, rosemary, salt, and pepper in a small bowl, whisk to combine. With a sharp knife, cut each chicken piece twice, about 1/2 an inch deep. (This will help the marinade penetrate.) Place the chicken pieces and the marinade in a gallon-sized freezer bag. Seal the bag and shake so that all chicken pieces are coated. Place in a bowl in the refrigerator (in case of leakage). Let marinate for 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 425°F. Remove chicken from marinade and place in a single layer in a large baking dish, skin side up. Reserve the marinade. Use a pastry brush to brush a little melted butter on to each piece of chicken.

Bake for a total of 50 to 55 minutes, until the skins are crispy brown, and the chicken is cooked through, juices running clear. Half-way through the baking time baste the chicken pieces generously with reserved marinade.

Let rest, covered in foil, for 10 minutes before serving.

I served it with garden fresh green beans and some homemade stuffing. I save the bread heels, from my home baked bread, and make stuffing, croutons and bread crumbs with them.

My Favorite Trail Mix

The first Friday of each month a few of my knitting friends, and I, get together for a potluck/knit-in. At yesterday's group I grilled cheeseburgers, and the other gals brought Waldorf salad, apple crisp, chocolate cookies...and this amazing trail mix. It is incredibly tasty. I'm going to make a big batch to have on hand for movie night and road trips. This is a healthy alternative to snack foods. It satisfies my sweet tooth but is mostly seeds, nuts and fruit.

It is called Pumpkin Seed Dried Cherry Trail Mix

and can be found on the Food Network web site.

ENJOY!

Sourdough Blueberry Muffins

I had reserved a cup of blueberries in order to bake some muffins. Today I tried this recipe:

Sourdough Blueberry Muffins

Makes 16 muffins

1 cup sourdough starter
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup oil
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup granulated sugar
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
milk (added 1 TBS. at a time)
1 cup blueberries
1 TBS. flour (to coat the blueberries)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Liberally butter muffin tins if not using liners. Combine starter, flour, oil, baking soda, baking powder, sugar, eggs, and vanilla extract; stir well. You want your batter to be thick but not too thick to be able to stir in the blueberries. Add the milk, a tablespoon at a time, until it is the right consistency.  Toss blueberries with  flour. Add Blueberries to batter and stir well to incorporate. Spoon batter into muffin tins, filling each about 3/4 full. Bake for 25 minutes or until done (when a toothpick comes out clean).

EDITED: Recipe amended 9-21-11

Sourdough Biscuits

I have played with sourdough in the past. I have caught wild yeasts and once a friend shared a bit of her starter that she received from her friend in Alaska. But sourdough takes time, and when I was working I didn't have enough spare time to devote to it. The cool thing about sourdough is, once you master its use, you don't have to buy commercial yeast for your baking. Sourdough is just a live yeast of a particular strain, that is being propagated in your mix of flour and water. You can catch a wild yeast (did you know there is yeast all around you?), but that is a crap shoot. You could catch one that tastes really good, or really bad. It is better to start with a strain that you know tastes good. You can get a bit of starter from a friend, mail order some dried starter, or use commercial yeast and let it revert to its wild state. I chose to do the latter. In the past I have caught wild yeasts, and they were pretty good, but I have too many yeasts in my air. Beer, wine and kombucha yeasts, as well as others. Who knows what I'd end up with?

SOURDOUGH STARTER

2 1/4 tsp. (or one package) yeast

2 cups unbleached white flour

1 1/2 cups warm water

1 TBS. honey

Mix it up in a non-metal container which has plenty of room for the mixture to more than double. Cover it with a cotton cloth secured with a rubber band and leave it in a warm place for a couple of days. It should expand and become filled with bubbles. And it will begin to smell sour. You can then put it in your refrigerator, with a lid that is not screwed down tightly. The yeast needs to breathe. This is now your starter. Use it according to your recipes. 2 cups of starter really isn't much. To expand it, put it into a larger container and add 2 cups of flour and about 1 3/4 cups of water. Stir it well, loosely cover it with the cloth and let it sit out on your counter again until it is sour and bubbly. Then put it back into the fridge. It's that easy.

SOURDOUGH BISCUITS

(these are more like a cross between a biscuit and a roll)

2 cups sourdough starter
1/4 cup corn oil
2 cups unbleached white flour
2 TBS. sugar
1 TBS. Baking powder
1 tsp. salt
12" cast iron skillet

Let your starter sit out, covered, until it is active and bubbly. Don't worry if you don't get to it right away. The starter used for these biscuits (pictured) was on my counter for 2 days before I got a chance to use it. Mix the oil into your starter. Then sift in the remaining dry ingredients. Stir well with a wooden spoon, until you have incorporated all the flour and have a stiff dough. Place the dough on a floured surface and knead it a bit. Doesn't have to be much. About 10 to 15 times. Place the dough back into a bowl, cover it and let it rest for 10 minutes. In the meantime, preheat your oven, just a bit, and turn on the interior light. You want it to be warm enough for the dough to rise, but don't let it get hot. Turn the oven off once the oven is warm, and close the door. Leave the light on. Put about a TBS. of corn oil into your skillet and coat it well. Once your dough has rested, break off egg sized chunks, roll into a ball and place in the skillet, leaving a bit of room for expansion.

Place the skillet into the warmed oven

and let the biscuits rise for 30 minutes.

Leave to skillet in the oven and preheat it to 400 degrees. Now bake the biscuits for 20 minutes or until they are golden brown. You can enjoy them with some butter and jam, or use them as rolls with your evening meal. They are very versatile.

I almost forgot to add an action shot.

These went right into my belly after the photo shoot.

Home Made Leave-In Conditioner

After doing some research I discovered that my damaged ends don't just need oil. They need some type of emollient. The oil wasn't soaking in. And although my ends are feeling better, they are still wanting to tangle, like velcro, because the scales on that part of the hair shaft aren't laying flat as they should. I read about shea butter and decided to pick some up. I found it at Marlene's but WOW is it ever expensive. Almost $17 for 4.2 ounces of unrefined shea butter. I was looking for a way to make the shea butter go a bit further than just using it alone. Then I found a recipe called Foxe's Shea Butter Conditioning cream:

2 parts unrefined shea butter
1 part coconut oil
2 parts conditioner

I don't want to use coconut oil so I'll replace that with Proclaim Natural 7 Oil. For conditioner I am Using Suave Naturals Juicy Green Apple, because it smells nice. I will also add 2 drops of apple fragrance oil from Zenith Supplies.

Here are my assembled ingredients. The empty white jar used to hold vitamin E cream. I saved it to reuse. It will come in handy for this. The first thing I did was to fill a coffee mug with water and microwave it on high for 2 minutes. This heated up the mug. Then I dumped the water out and dried the mug. While the mug was still hot I added the shea butter so it could melt.

Then I stirred in the Natural 7 oil.

Once those were blended I stirred in the conditioner.

Then I placed my concoction into the clean white jar.

As it cooled it set up into a creamy consistency.

This is my new leave in conditioner. I'll apply a pea sized amount of this to my ends every day.

Adjusting To Retirement

I still feel a bit like a fish out of water. I am used to having a certain routine and that is gone. Time to create a new routine. But it will take a bit to find my rhythm. I haven't been doing much. Just slowly trying to catch up on things around the house and garden. I had a group of knitting friends over on Friday, which made me have to get most of the house company ready. But before they arrived I fixed the husbeast and myself some Spinach Salad with Warm Bacon Dressing for lunch (spinach and mushrooms from my CSA box, eggs from my hens).

Saturday was gorgeous and really, really hot. I took advantage and did lots of laundry so I could hang it out to dry.

I made omelets for brunch (bacon, onion, green pepper, Mexican cheese blend). For dinner I made a roasted beet salad with walnuts and goat cheese (beets from CSA).

I've been meaning to share my "garbage corner". The black bucket is for recyclable items, which then go outside into the blue container provided by the city. They empty it every other week. The big white container is for kitchen trash. Because I am such a good recycler we only fill this up once per week. The small white container is for kitchen scraps that will be fed to my composting worms (red wigglers). I have 2 multi-level worm bins going in my garage.

Inside the worm food container.

The black bucket lifts out.

I forgot to take a picture of my first CSA box from Full Circle. It was supposed to arrive overnight and be on the porch by 6am on Wednesday. But when my hubby got home at 11:30 pm Tuesday, there it was. And it's a good thing he pulled up when he did, because some strange guy was just crossing the street, heading for my house. He would've stolen my organic veggies. That's Tacoma for you. Note to self, "Turn off porch light on Tuesday evenings." It's a small porch and the CSA folks drop the box of produce there. With the light on it's like a beacon. But there really isn't anywhere else for them to leave it. Anyway, I'll be sure and take a picture of the next one. The produce was gorgeous and some of the tastiest I've ever had. Speaking of tasty produce, here are some pictures of recent harvests from my own garden.

Snow Peas

Strawberries (I only get this many per day,

but have already filled a freezer bag).

And my first raspberries of the season.

When it's hot I like to have a light dinner. Salads are a summer favorite. This is the one I had tonight. (Mixed salad greens, beefsteak tomato, green onions and cremini mushrooms from CSA)

I was still a bit hungry so added this sliced baguette brushed with

garlic & olive oil, then toasted, and some smoked steel head.

I want to wish you all a Safe and Happy Fourth!

Everyday Bread Recipe

My husband requested I make some "white" bread. He also asked for thicker slices. I am happy to oblige. I am using a modified version of this recipe for white bread from Food.com. Here is my version:

Willoughby Daily Bread
1 tsp. sugar
6 3/4 tsp (3 packages) yeast
2 cups warm water
Mix together in a bowl, with a whisk, and pour into a large mixing bowl. Add:
1 cup sugar
4 cups of warm water
Mix well and let sit for 10 minutes. I put mine in my KitchenAid mixer.
Add:
3 tsp. salt
1/2 cup (one stick) melted butter
6 cups unbleached flour
Mix on slow speed for 3 minutes. Pour into a very large mixing bowl. Add:
7 cups of unbleached flour (a cup at a time)
Mix with a wooden spoon after every addition.
Turn out onto floured surface and knead for 10 minutes, adding more unbleached flour as needed. Put 1/4 cup of oil in a large bowl. Roll dough around, to coat all sides. Cover with a cotton dish towel and place in a warm, draft free place and allow to rise until doubled. Pour out onto a floured surface and punch down. Cut into 4 pieces, form into loaves and place into 4 large buttered (or oiled) loaf pans.
Melt 2 TBS. Butter and brush tops of loaves.
Again cover and let rise until doubled. Remove cotton towel. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake loaves for 35 minutes or until they are deep brown and sound hollow when tapped. Allow loaves to cool before slicing. This bread freezes well.

Makes 4 large loaves.

HINT: I allow my dough to rise in the oven, with just the oven light on. Then I leave the pans in the oven while it preheats. Be sure to take the towel off, before baking. LOL

Breakfast Sausage

Safeway had a BOGO deal on their pork and beef roasts, last week. I decided it was time to try to make some sausage. First up? Breakfast sausage with 3# of the pork. I recently bought some sheep casings. Just the right size for little breakfast sausages. I opened up the package of casings, took one whiff, and thought they must be spoiled or something. They smell rank. But after looking around on the web I discovered that they aren't rotten, they just smell awful. I had to rinse the salt off them and soak them in water for 30 minutes, to soften them up. While the casings were soaking, I ground the pork.


After this first grind, I mixed in the seasonings, let it sit in the freezer for 30 minutes, then reground it. Now it was time to stuff the casings.


Let me just say, I am not at all impressed with the sausage stuffer attachment for the KitchenAid. It took FOREVER to stuff this 3# of sausage. Sausage stuffing is really a two person job. One to load the grinder, and one to control the casings. Since I was all by my lonesome I had to do both jobs at the same time. Needless to say my sausage isn't the prettiest. And my arms got really tired. But here is my filled sausage.


Now to twist it off into individual links and hang it to dry for 30 minutes. Hang it to dry? Where? Time to rig up something like coat hangers on the back of a chair.


Good thing the cat didn't wake up. Here are my little sausages, all ready for the freezer.


And here is the breakfast I fixed for my sweetie, this morning. He said they tasted like breakfast sausage from the store, and he's still alive tonight, so I guess it was a success.


Here are the seasonings I used.

Mild Breakfast SausagePer each pound of ground pork, add:
1 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. ground sage
1/4 tsp. dried thyme
1/2 TBS. brown sugar
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. dried parsley
1/8 tsp. paprika