German Pumpernickel Bread

INGREDIENTS

1/4 C. unsweetened cocoa	2 pkg. active dry yeast (4 1/2 tsp.)
2 Tbs. sugar	1 Tbs. caraway seed (omitted)
1 1/2 tsp. salt	3 C. rye flour
2 C. water	1/4 C. molasses
1/4 C. butter	3 C. all-purpose flour, sifted

INSTRUCTIONS

In large bowl, stir together yeast, cocoa, sugar, caraway seed, salt, and 2 cups rye flour; set aside. In 2-quart saucepan over low heat, heat water, molasses and butter until very warm (120-130°F). Gradually beat molasses mixture into flour mixture until well blended. Your end result is a very smooth dough that looks like whipped chocolate frosting. Add remaining 1 cup rye flour and beat 2 more minutes. Stir in enough all-purpose flour to make a soft dough. Turn out dough onto lightly floured surface. Knead until smooth and elastic.
Place into large bowl with a few teaspoons of canola oil, turning over dough so that top is greased. Cover with towel and let rise in warm place until almost doubled, about 45 minutes to an hour. Punch down dough. Divide in half. Cover and let rest 5 minutes. Shape each half into a round loaf.
Place, 4-inches apart, on greased large baking sheet. Cover and let rise until almost doubled, 45 minutes to an hour. Diagonally slash each loaf, crosswise, 3 times. Bake in 375°F oven for 20 minutes. Cover loosely with foil; bake 15 minutes more or until loaves sound hollow when tapped. Immediately remove from baking sheet. Brush tops of hot loaves with shortening and let cool. (omitted)

Linzer Cookie

Ingredients:
2/3 cup hazelnuts (3 oz)
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 12-oz jar seedless raspberry jam

Directions:
Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F.

Toast hazelnuts in a shallow baking pan until fragrant and skins begin to loosen, about 6 minutes. Rub nuts in a kitchen towel to remove any loose skins (some skins may not come off), then cool to room temperature. Pulse nuts and 1/4 cup brown sugar in a food processor until nuts are finely ground. Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon in a small bowl.
Beat together butter and remaining 1/4 cup brown sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes in a stand mixer (preferably fitted with paddle) or 6 minutes with a handheld. Add nut mixture and beat until combined well, about 1 minute. Beat in egg and vanilla. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture, mixing until just combined.
With floured hands, form dough into 2 balls and flatten each into a 5-inch disk. Chill disks, wrapped in plastic wrap, until firm, at least 2 hours. Put oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat oven to 350°F.
Roll out 1 disk of dough into an 11-inch round (1/8 inch thick) between 2 sheets of wax paper (keep remaining dough chilled). If dough becomes too soft to roll out, rewrap in plastic and chill until firm. Cut out as many cookies as possible from dough with larger cookie cutter and transfer to 2 ungreased large baking sheets, arranging about 1 inch apart. Using smaller cutters, cut out centers from half of the cookies, reserving centers and rerolling along with scraps (reroll only once). Bake cookies, switching position of sheets halfway through baking, until edges are golden, 10 to 15 minutes total, then transfer with a metal spatula to racks to cool completely. Make more cookies from second disk.
Spread about 1 teaspoon jam on flat side of 1 solid cookie and sandwich jam with flat side of 1 windowed cookie. Sandwich remaining cookies in same manner.

Snickerdoodles

Ingredients:
1 1/2 C. sugar
1 stick butter
1/2 C. shortening
2 eggs
2 3/4 C. flour
2 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
additional sugar and cinnamon for dusting cookies

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400*. Cream butter and sugar with shortening and eggs in a large bowl. Stir in dry ingredients. Shape dough into balls. Mix your cinnamon and sugar in a pie tin or on a paper plate. Roll balls in mixture and place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet (a silpat is wonderful). Bake 8-10 minutes or until set. They still appear the color of a sugar cookie, do not burn them.
Yield 6 dozen cookies

Peanut Brittle

Ingredients:
2 C. granulated sugar
1 C. light corn syrup
1/2 C. water
10 ounces raw Spanish peanuts
1/8 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. vanilla
1 Tbs. unsalted butter

Directions:
1. Combine sugar, syrup and water in heavy pan. Stir over medium heat, cooking until the sugar dissolves. Cook to soft ball stage (234° F).

2. Add the peanuts and stir. Cook until brittle reaches hard crack stage (300° F), stirring frequently but not constantly. The sugar mixture should develop a golden brown color from the sugars caramelizing, and it needs the right balance of sitting and stirring to accomplish that. Do not allow the temperature to go over 300 as this can break down the sugar structure and leave it weak and spongy.

3. Remove from heat and add the salt, baking soda, vanilla, and butter. Stir until well blended. Your peanut brittle will change to a lighter butterscotch color. Spread onto a well buttered cookie sheet, working fast. Parchment paper sprayed with Pam works, but waxed paper does not work. Break into pieces and store in an airtight container.

Polish Tea Cakes

Ingredients:
1/2 C. unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 C. granulated white sugar
1 large egg, separated
1/2 tsp pure vanilla
1 C. all purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup almonds, pecans or walnuts, toasted and finely chopped
1/2 cup jam

Preheat oven to 350* and place rack in center of oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolk and vanilla extract and beat until combined. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour and salt. Add the flour mixture to the batter and beat just until combined. If the batter is too soft to roll into balls, refrigerate for about 30 minutes. In a small bowl, whisk the egg white until frothy. Place the chopped nuts on a plate. Roll the dough into 1 inch balls. Taking one ball of dough at a time, dip first into the egg white and then lightly roll in the nuts. Place on the prepared baking sheet spacing about 1 inch apart. Using your thumb or end of a wooden spoon, make a indentation into the center of each cookie and fill with about 1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon of jam.

Bake for about 13-15 minutes, or until cookies are set and the nuts have nicely browned. Remove from oven and place on wire rack to cool.

Note: If you are planning to store these cookies, I like to bake them without the jam. Just reduce the baking time by a few minutes. These cookies can be stored for about a week. Fill the cookies will jam the same day as serving.

Makes about 20 cookies.

Kolaczki

More polish cookies!!

Ingredients:
1 brick cream cheese
3 sticks butter
3 C. flour
2 jars filling (apricot, poppy seed, raspberry, etc..)
some sugar and powdered sugar

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350*. Mix cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy. Add flour 1 cup at a time and mix well. Wrap dough in plastic and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Roll out dough 1/4-inch on a surface that has been dusted with equal parts confectioners' and granulated sugars (not flour). Cut into 2-inch squares. Place 1/2 to 1 teaspoon filling on center of each square. Overlap opposite corners of dough to the center over filling. Bake for 15 minutes or when corners start to brown. Cool and dust with confectioners sugar. To preserve your cookies for later freeze cookies before baking or they get soggy when they thaw.

Persain Coconut Cookie

Nan Nargili

Ingredients:
1 C. butter
1 1/4 C. powdered sugar
4 C. flour
2 C. shredded coconut

Directions:
Cream butter and sugar. Add flour, then coconut. I had a pile of crumbles that held together when you squeezed it, but not good enough for a dough, so I added 1/4 C. water. Seemed to do the trick. Roll out dough 1/2" thick. Cut into shapes. Bake at 300* for about 15 minutes.

Kiss Cookies

Ingredients:
1 3/4 c. flour
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar
1 tsp. soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. butter
1/2 c. peanut butter
1 egg
2 tbsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla

Directions:
Combine ingredients. Roll into balls, flatten balls slightly to resemble fat pancakes. Bake on cookie sheet at 350* for about 10 minutes. Top with chocolate Kiss immediately upon removal from oven. The kisses have problems sticking, so place cookies back in oven for 45 seconds or so until they look shiny, then remove and let them cool. If you try to press the kiss into the cookie too hard the cookie will crack around the edges and they begin to look amature.

Sugar Cookie

Ingredients:
3 C. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 C granulated sugar
1 egg, at room temperature
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Sift the flour and baking powder together in a bowl. Cream the butter and sugar. Add the egg and vanilla and beat for about a minute or so. Add the flour and beat until the dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl. Roll the dough with a rolling pin until it is about 1/8-inch thick. Cut out cookies. When they bake, these cookies will not really spread, so you can place them pretty close to each other on a baking sheet. Bake for eight minutes or until the cookies begin to take on a golden color. Don’t let them get too brown before removing from the oven. Cool completely. I preferred the parchment paper over the silpat because they were easier to remove from the cookie sheets so they could cool faster.

Yield 146 tiny cookies.

Gingerbread Men

I am making cookies ahead of time and freezing them. Katie and I will have a frosting party next weekend.

Ingredients:
* 1 cup white sugar
* 1 cup molasses
* 3/4 cup lard or oil
* 1/2 cup hot water
* 2 eggs
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1 heaping teaspoon ground ginger
* 6 or 7 cups all purpose flour, use more flour if needed

Directions:
Combine first four ingredients, then rinse molasses out of cup with the hot water. Add the eggs and mix to blend well.

Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well until blended. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm. If you do not refrigerate it is sticky.

Roll out dough and cut with a cookie cutter. Bake at 350° for about 10 minutes.
Yield 120 tiny gingerbread men.

Apple Cidercar

Ingredients:
* 5 fl. oz. apple cider concentrate
* 5 fl. oz. water(*or, 10 oz good cider)
3 fl. oz. brandy
5 fl. oz. Cointreau or triple sec
2 fl. oz. fresh lemon juice (in a bottle..)

Directions: In a cocktail shaker, stir together the apple cider concentrate and water. Add the brandy, Cointreau and lemon juice. Fill the shaker with ice and shake well. Pour into sugar-rimmed cocktail glasses. Serves 4.

Happy Turkey Day

Turkey Broccoli Braid

Ingredients:
2 cups cooked turkey, chopped
1 C broccoli, chopped
1 C. shredded sharp cheddar
1/2 C. mayonnaise
1 tsp dill
2 packaged crescent rolls

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 375*. Chop turkey and broccoli and place in a 2 qt bowl. Add cheese, dill and mayonnaise. Mix well. Unroll 1 package of crescent dough; do not separate. Arrange longest sides of dough across width of 12x15 baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining package of dough. On each side of pan, cut dough into strips 1.5 inches apart, 3 inches deep. There will be 6 inches in the center for filling. Spread filling evenly over middle of dough. To braid, lift strips of dough across mixture to meet in the center, twisting each strip one turn. Continue alternating strips to form a braid. Tuck ends up to form a rim at the end of the braid.

Stuffing

Boil your baggie of giblets in a small sauce pan with one onion, diced. When organs are boiled (1 hr), remove them from the water. Dice the liver and add to your stuffing. Feed the neck and the tail to the cat. Dice the extras and put back in your sauce pot. Reserve this for turkey soup next week. In a 6qt pot, brown 1 tube of sage sausage with 1 onion diced. Add same seasonings you topped your bird with and some diced celery. When sausage is almost done add 3 cups of chicken broth and diced giblets and turn off burner. Add 1 bag of cubed stuffing. Stir until your stuffing is fluffy. Spoon into your bird, don't forget the neck cavity.

Turkey for you, turkey for me.

We are making a 10# turkey this year. I am using the 'poultry seasoning' from Penzeys and some fresh ground black pepper.
Wash your bird. Remove the gibblet package from the neck cavity and the neck from the body cavity. Cram bird full of stuffing. Season bird. Open an oven bag, dust with flour and insert bird. Bake at 350* for 3 hours.

Fair Isle Hat

This was a very difficult project, and it did not turn out as floppy as I wanted it to.

Acorn Beret

This turned out rather cute. It has oak leaves instead of a pom pom.

Carrot Cake

Ingredients:

1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 cups brown sugar, firmly packed
1 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
1/2 cup (8 ounces) canned crushed pineapple in juice, drained
1 cup raisins, soaked in water for 15 minutes, and drained
1 cup (about 2 large) finely grated carrots *food processor

Cream Cheese Frosting:
8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a 9 x 13-inch baking pan with non-stick foil or grease with butter liberally. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Set aside. In a smaller bowl, beat brown sugar, vegetable oil, and eggs until well-combined. Add egg mixture to flour mixture and mix well. Stir in walnuts, crushed pineapple, raisins, and carrots. Mix until evenly distributed. Pour into prepared pan and bake about 30 minutes or until center tests done. Cool to room temperature.

Candy Corn Cookies

1 package (18oz) refrigerated sugar cookie dough
1/2 C. all-purpose flour
food coloring yellow and orange
White chocolate chips OR frosting
sprinkles OR colored sugar

Preparation:
Divide dough into 3 equal sections. Roll each dough segment in flour. Add orange color to one dough, yellow color to the second dough, leave the third dough colorless. Mix colors in until smooth, dust dough with flour so it is easier to work with. (It gets sticky as it returns to room temperature). Form dough into ropes (snakes) and on a floured surface side by side and lengthwise with the orange rope in the middle. Gently roll dough into a 15x4" rectangle. Using a knife cut dough into 12 equal triangles. Transfer triangles to an ungreased baking sheet. Push a ruler against the sides of the triangles to straighten the edges. Bake 9-11 minutes until lightly browned. Frost bottom portion of cookie with last months leftover frosting and top with sprinkles OR melt white chocolate chips, dip in cookies, then rim with colored sugar.

To turn these cookies into sandwiches, place 1 heaping tablespoon of chocolate frosting between 2 cookies!

How To: Corned Beef

Ingredients:

10 cups water
1 1/2 cups kosher salt
1 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons dry mustard
3 tablespoons pickling spices
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 fresh beef brisket, 7 to 9 pounds

Preparation:

Combine water, salt, sugar, mustard, spices, and 3 cloves minced garlic in an 8-quart nonreactive stock pot. Bring to a boil over high heat. Remove from heat and set aside to cool. When liquids have cooled, trim the corned beef of excess fat and put into the liquid. You may need to transfer the liquids and corned beef to a larger container or bowl. If necessary, add more cold water to cover the beef. Cover the pan and refrigerate for 5 to 7 days in the refrigerator. Take out once a day to stir lightly, and turn the beef as needed.

On the 6th or 7th day, remove the beef from the brine and rinse well with cold water. Place in a large (8-quart or larger) pot. Cover with cold water and bring to a boil; skim off any scum which develops on the surface. Reduce heat to medium-low; cover and simmer for 2 1/2 hours.

Pumpkin Spice Cookie

They are like sugar cookies, made with brown sugar and pumpkin pie spices.

Pumpkin Spice Cookie
3 C. all-purpose four
1 T. pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 C. butter softened
1/2 C. firm packed brown sugar
1/2 C. granulated sugar
2 eggs
1.5 tsp. vanilla extract
chocolate or white chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 375*F. In a medium bowl, combine four, spice, baking soda and salt. In a large bowl beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla; beat in flour mixture.
2. Drop 1 Tbs. sized drops of dough on silpat. Dip a glass in sugar and smash out cookies into 3 " rounds.
3. Bake until crisp but not browned, 8-10 minutes. Transfer cookies to a cooling rack.
4. Drizzle with melted chocolate chips if desired.

Sugar Cookies

Vanilla Frosting
2 C. powdered sugar
2 tsp. butter, melted
2 TBS milk
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. pure almond extract

Mix all ingredients together until smooth. Color with food coloring if desired.

*If you frost the cookies while they are hot the frosting will lay down and become smooth and shiny. You must place sprinkles immediately or the frosting skin will not allow them to stick.
If you frost the cookies after they have cooled you have better frosting control but can not ever stack your cookies without getting frosting everywhere.

Thumbprint Cookie

Peanut butter cookies with Hershey Kiss in the center. These were made with mini kisses. Final cost 3 cookies for $1.

Thumbprint Cookie
3/4 C. creamy peanut butter
1/2 C. Crisco shortening
1.25 C. firm packed light brown sugar
2 Tbs milk
1 Tbs vanilla
1 egg
1.75 C. all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 bag kisses for topping cookies

1. Heat oven to 375*F. Line counter tops with tinfoil for cooling cookies.
2. Combine all ingredients until well blended.
3. Drop dough by teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart onto un-greased cookie sheet. Flatten slightly in a crisscross patter with tines of fork for standard pb cookies, or with bottom of a glass for thumb print cookies.
4. Bake for 7-8 minutes or until set and just beginning to brown. Immediately place kisses on top of cookies if making thumb prints. Cool 2 minutes on baking sheets, and then transfer them to foil to cool completely.

Yield close to 30 cookies.

Wedding Cake Recipe

Butter Cake
 1 1/2 cups butter, room temperature             2 1/2 cups granulated sugar
 5 eggs                                                                          1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
 3/4 teaspoon No Color Almond Extract        3 cups all-purpose flour
 3/4 teaspoon baking powder                             1/4 teaspoon salt
 1 cup milk

Makes: About 7 1/2 cups cake batter.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray pans with vegetable pan spray, or use Cake Release. In mixer bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Mix in vanilla and almond flavor. Mix flour with baking powder and salt. Add flour mixture alternately with milk, starting with the flour; mix well. Pour into prepared pans. Refer to baking chart, for baking times and temperatures for specific pans.

Fluffy White Icing
 1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine softened
 1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract
 4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar (approximately 1 lb.)
 2 tablespoons milk

Makes: About 3 cups of icing.

In large bowl, cream shortening and butter with electric mixer. Add vanilla. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry. Add milk and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. Keep bowl covered with a damp cloth until ready to use.

Lillihammer

I finished my Fair Isle Hat. I think I did an awesome job.

Wool Beanie

I also finished a wool hat I have been working on. Isn't it pretty?

Mittens

With winter approaching, I feel compelled to knit something warm. I think I am giving these to mom for her birthday, but I don't have enough yarn for a matching hat.

PICKLES!!

I made some pickles, green beans, and pickled garlic. Everything will be ready in about 2 weeks.

Northern Bobwhite

It is a type of quail.

Green Heron

He was amazingly focused on a bug.

YUCK

Why is it that a late night BBQ always brings these little guys out in large numbers. They are gross!

Fava Beans

Fava beans are ugly, take a lot of preparation,and taste like a Lima bean. I don't think I like them.

Rainbow Discs

These are the discs we got in our misprint variety pack. A nice assortment. 1 putter 3 mid-range and 6 drivers (the kind that get lost).

Biggest Mushroom

Fillets

This year's 'valuable skill' was catching, filleting, and eating fish. And mmmmm, they were tasty!

Bald Eagle

This is the activity we did in class today. It is a bald eagle covered with leaves we found at the Nature Center.

Anticipation

I rarely purchase movie based cereals, however, these looked too good to pass up. They indeed taste like lucky charms. I can't wait for the movie to come out!!

Elephant

I found this on the ground outside while taking a walk today. How much fun is that!?

Gone Fishing

In Ohio, May 2nd and 3rd are free fishing days open to the public. No permit is required to go fishing. So, that's what I did! I had a fantastic day.

Paper Bird

Blackbird singing in the dead of night, take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life, you were only waiting for this moment to arise

Blackbird singing in the dead of night, take these sunken eyes and learn to see
All your life, you were only waiting for this moment to be free

Black-bird fly
Black-bird fly, into the light of a dark black night
Black-bird fly
Black-bird fly, into the light of a dark black night

Blackbird singing in the dead of night, take these broken wings
and learn to fly
All your life, you were only waiting for this moment to arise
You were only waiting for this moment to arise
You were only waiting for this moment to arise

Date Cookies

Makes 30-35 cookies

The Dough
1 cup unsalted butter
3 cups semolina flour
2 teaspoons yeast
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon powered gum arabic
Pinch mahlab (optional)

The Filling
2 pounds pitted dates, finely chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
Powdered sugar

To prepare the dough: Melt the butter and let it cool to room temperature. Add to the semolina and mix thoroughly. Cover and leave at room temperature overnight. Mix together 1/2 cup warm water, yeast and sugar in a measuring cup. Cover and set aside in a warm place for about 5 minutes. Add yeast mixture to semolina, along with nutmeg, gum arabic, optional mahlab and 1/2 cup room-temperature water. Knead by hand until thoroughly mixed.
To prepare the filling: Mix dates with olive oil and cinnamon. Form date mixture into 1 1/2-inch balls and roll into 4-inch logs.
To assemble: Position a rack in middle of oven. Preheat oven to 350*. Grease 2 cookie sheets. Roll dough into 1 1/2-inch balls, then roll into 4-inch logs. Flatten dough with your fingers and place a date strip in the center. Crimp edges of dough to seal date mixture inside. Shape dough into a ring and crimp ends together. Using a fork or wooden skewer, indent surface of cookie, taking care not to puncture dough. Bake for 12 minutes. Remove from oven and cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet before transferring to racks to cool completely. Dust with powdered sugar.
Note: Mahlab and gum arabic are available at Middle Eastern stores.
Per cookie: 180 calories, 2 g protein, 31 g carbohydrate, 6 g fat (3 g
saturated), 14 mg cholesterol, 3 mg sodium, 3 g fiber.

Nify Box

Check out this link to see how these boxes are made. As you can see, you could use them to gift or organize a variety of objects.

Cute Baby Shoes

These cute shoes are easy to make, and incredibly adorable!! I chose some leftover quilting fabric and sandwiched a layer of polar fleece in between so they would be plush to wear like slippers should be.

Clam Chowder

IT'S AWESOME!

4 ounces salt pork, chopped (about 1 cup) (get the kind that looks like bacon, not the little bricks)
1 large onion, chopped
1/4 C. flour or corn starch*
4 cups clam broth, or bottled clam juice, or seafood stock
3 C. whole or 2% milk
1 cup diced celery
1/2 C. Chopped carrot
4-5 C. diced Yukon gold potatoes (1.5 lbs)
2 Tablespoons fresh thyme or 2 teaspoons dried
3 C. chopped clams (4 cans?)
2 C. half and half
salt and pepper to taste
2 Tablespoons butter

This makes a LOT of soup, so use your big pot. (3 quarts or 6-8 main course servings)

Cook the salt pork in your soup pot over medium heat until the fat is rendered (liquid) and the pork bits are getting crispy. 10 minutes or so.
Add the onion and cook, stirring frequently until it begins to soften. About 5 minutes. Add the flour and cook for a few seconds. Slowly add the clam broth.

The flour will make it thick, so be sure to really stir and mix it in now. Add milk, whisk until smooth. Add potatoes, carrots, celery, and herb. Simmer uncovered over medium heat for 10 minutes. Add the clams and half and half. **if using corn starch instead mix the corn starch with the cold half and half when you add it.

Simmer your soup until the potatoes are tender. Season soup with salt and pepper to taste. The salt pork makes it very salty, so be sure to taste it first. Remove soup from heat, and let the chowder sit at room temperature for an hour, or refrigerate for up to 2 days. Before serving, add the butter and reheat gently.

Sourdough Bread

Makes 1 pan sized, or 2 small round loaves

3/4 C. warm water (95-105*f)
3/4 teaspoon fresh yeast
1 1/2 C. sourdough starter
1 1/2 C. all-purpose flour ----> or about 4 cups of all purpose flour
1 1/4 C. whole wheat flour---->
1 tablespoon salt

Combine the warm water and fresh yeast to the bowl of a stand mixer. Stir to dissolve the yeast fully. Add the sourdough starter, flours and salt. Mix on low speed until the dough is fully developed. Remove the dough from the mixing bowl. Roll the dough unto a smooth ball, and place in a medium mixing bowl lightly brushed with olive oil. Cover and refrigerate for 16 hours. Remove the bowl from the refrigerator and ferment at room temperature for 6 hours.

Divide the dough into 2 equal pieces and form into loaves. Place the loaves on the counter or in a proofing basket and cover with a warm damp cloth. Proof the loaves at room temperature for 2 hours. Preheat the oven to 400*F. Continue proofing the loaves at room temperature for 1 hour.

Score the loaves with a sharp knife, (allows steam to escape and make a pattern on top of the bread) spray with water, (makes the shiny hard crust) and bake for 30-40 minutes or until the crusts are a deep golden brown. Remove the bread from the oven and place on a cooling rack for 30 minutes. If the bread was baked in loaf pans, remove the bread from the pans before cooling.

Advanced Bread Making

Sourdough Starter

Stage 1

1 C. warm water (95-105*F)
1/2 teaspoon fresh yeast
1 C. buttermilk
1 1/2 C/ plain yogurt (two little cups)
2 C. all-purpose flour
1/3 C. semolina flour
1 C. unwashed medium red grapes

Combine the warm water and fresh yeast in a medium mixing bowl. Stir to dissolve the yeast fully. Add the buttermilk, plain yogurt, all purpose flour and semolina flour to the bowl and stir until the ingredients are fully incorporated. Wrap the unwashed red grapes securely in a clean cheesecloth or small kitchen cloth and submerge the cloth in the mixture. Ferment at room temperature for 12 hours.

Stage 2

All stage 1 starter
2 C. all purpose flour
1 C. semolina flour
1/2 teaspoon yeast
2 C. warm water

Carefully remove the cloth with the grapes from the mixture, using a spatula to scrape any remaining starter off the cloth and back into the bowl. Squeeze the cloth containing the gapes over the bowl, capturing the juice in the bowl. Discard the cloth and the grapes, and stir the starter until the grape juice is fully incorporated. Add the all purpose flour ad the semolina flour to the starter. In a separate bowl (2c measuring cup) add the yeast to the warm water, stirring until the yeast if fully dissolved, then add this mixture to the starter. Mix the starter until all the ingredients are fully incorporated. Ferment at room temperature for 4 hours before using, or cover and place in refrigerator for future use.

Oh, and this makes enough starter to use for 4 bathes (8 loaves), so you might want to share with some people.

Cinnamon Rolls of Extacy

These cinnamon rolls are so good!

**Dough**
2 packages active dry yeast
1 C. warm water (105-115*F)
2/3 C. Sugar
1 t. sugar
1 C. warm milk
2/3 C. butter
2 t. salt
2 eggs slightly beaten (I used one jumbo egg)
7 C. flour, more or less

**Filling**
1 C. melted butter, divided
1 3/4 C. sugar, divided
3 T. cinnamon (use good stuff)
1 1/2 C chopped nuts or raisins if you like

**Creamy Glaze**
2/3 C. melted butter
4 C. powdered sugar
2 t. vanilla (use good stuff)
6 T. hot water, more as needed

Directions:
In a small bowl mix together warm water, yeast and teaspoon of sugar and set aside. In your stand mixer bowl, mix milk, 2/3 C. sugar, melted butter, salt and eggs; stir well and add yeast mixture. Add 2 cups of flour and beat until smooth. Using blender, stir in enough of the remaining flour until dough is slightly stiff and a little sticky. Turn out onto a well floured surface; knead 5-10 minutes (a little less if you gave it a good turn in the mixer!). Place dough in well buttered glass or plastic bowl and cover and let rise in warm place free from drafts, until doubled in bulk (about 1 - 1.5 hours). When doubled, punch down dough and let rest 5 minutes. Roll out on floured surface into a 15x20 rectangle. Yes! Its huge.
Filling:
Spread dough with 1/2 c. melted butter (little rubber paintbrush thing works great). Mix together 1 1/2 C sugar and cinnamon (or forget measuring all together and make the dough look like cinnamon toast with lots of cinnamon); sprinkle over buttered dough. Sprinkle with nuts and raisins, if desired. Roll up jellyroll-fashion and pinch edge together to seal. Cut into 12-15 slices (use the sharpest non-serrated knife you have). Coat bottoms of a 9x13 pan (for 12 rolls) and a 8 inch square (if making smaller rolls you need more pans) with remaining melted butter, then sprinkle with remaining sugar. (I don't recommend that part, it just makes everything sticky) Place cinnamon roll slices close together in pans. Let rise in warm place until dough is doubled in bulk, about 45 minutes. Preheat oven to 350*F. Bake 25-30 minutes or until rolls are nicely browned. Cool rolls slightly.


Creamy Glaze:
Meanwhile in a medium bowl, mix melted butter, powdered sugar and vanilla (use a hand mixer); add hot water 1 T. at a time until glaze reaches desired spreading consistency. Spread over slightly cooled rolls. (As you eat them or they are hard to store in the refrigerator and to re-heat)

This makes a 5 pound pan of cinnamon rolls. I would invite a lot of people over to eat them. They are super sweet, and super heavy, and SUPER GOOD.

Cheese Desert

We had a nice time playing Monopoly with some friends this weekend. The subject turned to Wisconsin Cheese. th'Dave mentioned how the rest of the world tends to be a cheese desert. As they were confused by this, I felt the need to clarify his statement with pictures.

The first picture is the left half of the dairy aisle. You can see bins and shelves brimming with cheese.



The second picture is of the back and right half of the aisle. As you can see it continues in both directions.

The third picture is an example of what each cheese case looks like. As you can see, this typical Wisconsin grocery store has more cheese than the rest of the cheese desert combined.

Earflap Hat

This cute little hat is knit with hand spun wool yarn. It is a size small adult or XL child. It only took a few hours to knit, and the colors are fantastic.

Family Album

I was working on my scrapbook yesterday. I am beginning to think that I don't take enough pictures of us. I mean I have pictures of birds, and plants, and bugs, but very few photos of the two of us doing things.

Th'Dave and I are working on compiling our own nature identification field guide. If you haven't ever noticed, the plants in the books look NOTHING like the plants in front of you. It makes it rather hard to identify what you are looking at. We were thinking of putting the book together scrapbook style, like our family album. I'd just be happy if The Audubon Society published my pictures. We all have dreams.