Home Grown

Archive for the ‘Gracie’ Category

Saturday

Saturday we worked together to start the first of our firewood for next winter. We brought home about 5 cords. Among the wood in the back of the truck we found this little creature on the last load home.

Steven loved watching the lizard change colors.

He was also delighted to have it sit on his shoulder.

Sunday

Sunday afternoon Gracie, age 12, did some baking.

The results were not only beautiful but also delicious.

She made the banana bread recipe from last week and a white bread. We are trying to use up some of the quantities of commercial flour I have on hand. This is a really good bread recipe.

White Bread

6 tsp active dry yeast
3 tablespoons sugar
2 1/2 cups warm water
3 tablespoons lard or crisco
1 tablespoon salt
6 – 6 1/2 cups bread flour

Preheat oven to 425F degrees. Just before putting in the loaves turn it down to 375F.

In a large bowl, dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water. Stir in lard, salt and two cups of the flour. Stir in the remaining flour half a cup at a time. Beat well after each addition. (Depending on the look and feel of the dough I may only use 6 cups other days it may require 6 1/2.)

When the dough has pulled together into a ball is not sticking to the sides of the bowl turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic or continue to use your dough hook attachment on the stand mixer to do thr work for you.

Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide into two equal pieces and form into loaves.

Place the loaves into two lightly greased 9×5 inch loaf pans. Cover the loaves with a damp cloth and let rise until doubled -about 40 minutes.

If you have smaller pans divide into 3 pieces and bake 3 loaves like Gracie did.

Bake at 375F degrees for about 30 minutes or until the top is golden brown and the bottom of the loaf sounds hollow when tapped.

Monday

We made pizza using a 100% whole wheat crust. It was amazing!

Pizza with sausage, pepperoni, black olives and sweet peppers

We love thin, cracker crisp pizza dough and this one fits the bill perfectly.

100% Whole Wheat Pizza Dough

2 1/2 tsps of yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 warm cup water
2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour,

Add ingredients to your mixing bowl in the above order.

We use a stand mixer and let it knead the dough about 3 minutes – when it pulled away from the bowl into a neat ball.

Place the dough into a lightly oiled bowl, drizzle just a little olive oil over the top, cover and allow to stand for about an hour.

Divide into two equal portions and roll the dough out as thin s possible.

Place onto a baking sheet or pizza pan and allow the dough to crust for about 8 – 10 minutes at 400F degrees.

Remove from oven, apply toppings of your choice and bake.

Tuesday
Steven loves to collect eggs. He gets very excited finding them. He also wants to help carry them to the kitchen which often ends up badly for the eggs. Yesterday he took his wheel barrow out to the duck pen filled with fresh green grass we collected for them. There were so many eggs and he was so eager to help that I took a little hay from the large bale in the field and nested the eggs on it. He was so excited to the bring the eggs from the barnyard to the house. This is half of yesterdays offerings – duck, guinea and turkey eggs. Special delivery!

I bottled a light pilsner yesterday.

I love the look of filled bottles capped and ready for aging.

I procured said wide mouth gallon jar for the apple cider vinegar that is culturing. I tasted it this morning – yumm!

Wednesday

Today’s agenda and to do list – not really sure but I plan to do a pickled carrot and green bean mix. We’ll see how it goes.

What is your week looking like?

This tree is in Gracie’s bedroom. Go take a peak. I’ll wait. Pink isn’t it? This is a custom color. I wanted her room to look like melted strawberry ice cream when I chose the paint. It does indeed look like strawberry ice cream with vanilla trim.

This tree is dressed in pink not only match her room decor but because pinks and reds are her favorite colors.

It is a 6 foot artificial tree. The tree is one of the skinny tall types as a wide standard shaped tree would take up too much room.

The ornaments are varied handmade items like this angel made from beads and safety pins.

Ornaments that are a shower of pink glitter.

Carved Santas.

Glass letters that spell out her name.

An egg Colby painted for her.

Glittery snowflakes.

Pink frizzled chicks.

Fancy Shoes.

Faux gingerbread cookies.

And gingerbread girls.

The garlands are marshmallow puffs and strings of glass candy. There are also glass balls in pinks and reds, light shaped bulbs in green and pink.

I say there are never enough ornaments but Gracie thinks there are too many. I think she just gets tired of putting them all on.

Each year we add something new, like a hand made ornament or something I have found that I like. This year I added snowflake shaped LED lights. Gracie added the pink bead and safety pin angel.

LED lights are bright! When this thing is on at night you could land 747′s in our yard.

It is a lovely little tree that reflects Gracie’s personality and adds to the decor of the room.

I love Christmas and I love Christmas trees.

Order your biscotti for Christmas now. Available for a limited time. Visit my etsy shop for details.

Yesterday I did not post the cookie recipe. Some of you may know something was up with my website. It was a glitch on the server hosting side and the nice people at Liquidweb had to take some time to fix things on their end. All’s well now.

Want to win a $100 Visa gift card and a Sonicare gift package? Go on over to Home Grown Reviews and leave a comment. There are 8 chances for you to enter to win. Please visit the site links to other participants. This would make a great Christmas gift plus the $100 gift card will put some damage on your Christmas shopping list.

I had another ENT appointment yesterday. Again he vacuumed out the ear (it feels good but makes you dizzy for a minute) and told me to keep doing what I am doing. The hole in the ear drum can take up to 30 days after the infection clears to heal. I am tired of hearing ringing and having diminished hearing. I need this thing to heal. I have no clue what super bug is living in my ear.

When the weather started creeping down the 30′s at night I brought in all of my potted plants. I had these double blooming impatiens on the side porch and just couldn’t leave them out to suffer death in the cold. I brought them into the kitchen looking a little leggy and the leaves fading to yellow. In the last two weeks they have made a comeback and are blooming again. Aren’t they pretty?

Cookies!

Today is the perfect day to feed the inner Cookie Monster in yourself and your family and friends. Today is the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street. (I was never into Sesame Street. This is one show that came after my time. My sister is from the SS generation.)

Gracie’s Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies

Preheat oven to 350.

1 c. butter
1/2 c. white sugar
1 c. packed brown sugar

Cream the butter and the sugar.

Add 2 eggs beating well after each egg.

1 tsp. Vanilla

Beat well.

In another bowl mix well -

1 3/4 c. all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3 cups quick cooking oats

Combine with the wet ingredients mixing only to incorporate. Do NOT over mix.

Add in -
1 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Fold in and do not over mix.

The dough will be stiff and you will have to work a little to fold in the chips and nuts.

Spoon out 1 1/2 inch balls and place them egaul distance on a cookie sheet and bake for 12 – 15 min.

Let cool a full 5 min before moving cookies from the baking pan.

We use silpats to bake on. They make cookie making easy. We bake 1 doz cookies per pan. As soon as one comes out another is already waiting to go in. In under and hour the cookies are baked and the mess is cleaned up. This recipe makes about 4 dozen cookie.

Also – we voted yesterday. Did you?

If you did not vote please do not whine, bitch or complain. You lost your chance to voice your opinion.