Easy, slicable bread

My new favorite bread recipe.

I have been searching for an easy, quick healthy homemade bread recipe that is actually slicable.

I found one.

Nope, this one is not chalk-full of stuff that is supposed to make it slicable and soft.

It just is.

How many ingredients? 4. Bet you can guess them.

3 cups of flour (any type you have on hand!)
1/4 tsp yeast
1 tsp salt
and just enough water to make it wet. I don't measure this, I just splash some in there, and stir, and splash more until it is right.

Let is sit in a bowl covered with a clean tea towel over night, or all day while you are at work. When you come back it will not have risen a lot. Now spread a little flour onto a clean surface and knead the dough into a soft ball (this should take just a min)

Heat the oven to 385 F.  Heat your a oven safe container with a heavy lid, such as a dutch oven,  (I used my stone wear baker) in the oven while it is preheating (I actually skipped this step and it worked just fine). When your oven is heated stick the dough in your cooking vessel of choice , slice an x in the top and put the lid on. Bake for 25-30 mins, then remove the lid and bake another 10ish mins.

This actually has been the easiest, quickest, and most slicable bread recipe I have tried! Its my new go-to bread recipe.

Sure, it has several hours of proofing, but a total of less then 5 minutes prep time! Including clean up!


Try serving it with your home-made farmers cheese (and onions, I love onions).



You can use this dough for other things as well.








Happy Monday!

Easy home made crackers

I have made a few batches of the EASIEST home made crackers.

Ingredients:
2 c flour
2/3 c water
1/3 c oil

And whatever seasonings you feel like!

The first batch I added rosemary, salt and garlic. Just mix it in the flour before adding the wet ingredients.
I split off half, put it on a lightly oiled pan lined with wax or parchment paper.( oil the paper as well).

Roll out very thin. Using a pizza slicer slice into your cracker shape/size of choice. Bake at 375 for about 7 mins then start watching.

They are ready when they start to turn brown. Remove from sheet while still warm, allow to cool COMPLETELY before storing in a container. If you don't the moisture will cause your crisp cracker to go stale.

I have since added nutritional yeast, cayenne pepper, flax seeds.... Try about anything!

Enjoy!!!

Why, hello there

I have been gone for a while. I have had you in my thoughts often.

Many, many things have come into my thoughts that I have wanted to share here that I just have not had the energy to post.

I realize now I have been slowly getting sick. Hopefully it'll pass this weekend. I plan on forcing myself to rest,

Ugg..... I like the idea, but then there are soooo many things around the house that I want to get done!!!

This week I discovered little ways to bring nature into my new office! Like....

This really freakin' cool tea!

I am sure many of you have seen this tea before, but to me it is brand new! You place the individual packet in a cup or small pitcher, pour hot water on and watch it bloom! This one was jasmine green tea, which happens to be one of my favorites too :)

I did find time to make some plum jam. I had to do it last weekend. Or else the birds and time would have ruined the beautiful crop of plums I had this year!! 

It still makes me sad that I will have to wait another year to get a batch of home grown plums...

The best way by far, to spend a long time in the kitchen ;)

I will go into more detail on how to make plum Jam later. 

Now I suppose I need to go rest. I have already been running around more then I should ;)

Happy Friday!

Smell of summer

I realized my new summer smell is the scent of boiling water.

Yes, I realize that doesn't really have a scent but when you throw freshly wash and prepped fruit, and a clean tea towel in on top it does.

That scent when I am canning.

I am glad it is no longer the fake lime and coconut scent of my younger, tanner days.

This fresh water scent seems homier, more friendly.

Oh, by the way, I shot at my first animal today ( speaking of friendly.... Eh...)

We have rabbits that have been terrorizing our garden and multiplying for years.

My HH decided he wants to hunt for meat this year. Since one of the reasons I love him is in-ability to kill things, I told him he had to kill, clean, and eat the rabbits. If he could accomplish that we would talk.

It might sound harsh, but I have never had a problem with people killing to eat. As long as there is no overt cruelty involved its just a part of life.


However, my husband is not quite as good of a shot as I happen to be.... So.....


I missed, but it's a new to me gun, so I just need practice :-)

Anyway, I'll let you know how that goes.

By the way, my new job is sitting in front of a computer, all day every day. .

I can't wait to have my land and self sufficient farm.

Can't wait.

What I'm making

Garden fresh southern dinner of pinto beans, squash and zucchini, fresh picked tomatoes and cucumbers, mushrooms and onions. If we were not on a diet a batch of biscuits would be cooking too.... Oh well.....

I am also making healthy home made nutra grain bars. All the recipes I found had a cup of butter, and sugar! Ugh, so I modified

1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup of pear sauce from my pear trees ( you could use apple)
1 1/2 cup flour
1 1/2 cup oats
1 tsp vanilla

Jam of your choice, I used strawberry jam my mother in law made.

Mix everything but the jam, the dough will be pretty sticky. Add more pear sauce if needed.

Spread half the mix into the bottom of a greased pan, I used a finger spoon combo to get it spread.
Top with jam, then top with the rest of the mix. If this doesn't spread perfect, that's ok.

It will still taste good :-)

Bake at 350 for 20 ish mins! Allow to cool before cutting.

**update**
Darn it! I just thought that I should have added my flax seed meal, that would have been an excellent nutrition addition....

Miles to go

Homemade croutons from home made bread. Yummmm....

Today I spent a large part of the day with a friend. We both had some off time and thought we would watch some movies from our childhood. We did not grow up together, but we are the same age and some of those are universal for girls our age.

She hosted at her house for the first time.

I could tell she put a lot of effort into it. She had laid out a cute spread of food for us, made dip and had veggies out. Then she told me later she had lasagna cooking and salad and bread.

It was really good! Even though she had a hard time reconciling that she had made vegetarian lasagna so I could eat it. I believe that was the first time for her, and she does not like to step out of her comfort zone.

Then after the movies we walk into the kitchen so I can help her clean up and I see her throw away over a whole loaf of garlic bread. That was fresh. And tasty....

I was a bit shocked. I guess I have become so used to the way my husband and I are trying to live that to see such blatant and needless waste in a home was stunning.

I have no interest in forcing my ideas of a great life on anyone else (to each his own, just don't mess with mine if you want to keep that hand ;)

but that still shocked me!

Bread I made, next to jar I saved. If I see anyone throw this away before it is moldy, there will be trouble!

My friends are not wealthy, but neither are they hurting for money. Both work, they are young, childless and in school.

But still... I mean, that was almost a whole loaf of perfectly good bread!

I had to stop myself from saying something. I left before I saw what she did with a pan of lasagna with only two pieces out.

Have I become so out of touch with what people around me are doing?  Is that really how people live?

Containers I have saved, and find no end of uses for. The white ones even have scoops that are perfect for home made laundry detergent!   

It makes me want to double up my efforts to live simply.

However, it makes me want to do it while looking stylish.

Not that I am suddenly going to run out and spend money on clothes that I do not need, but more that I can show people the value and enjoyment in living simply. That even though one of my goals is to live below our means and save money, that you can live this way and really enjoy life too.

I am still learning to live simply, I know I have miles to go. It is a trek worth the time and effort.

Look away, too much cuteness!

Baby Booties!!!!

Its too late now, you are sucked in too, huh?

I finally found another knitting project that I could handle. And they are freakin' adorable.

I never used to go soft over baby clothing. Until I decided I wanted one. Now I am such a wimp for this stuff.

I had made these with the intention of sending them to my cousin who is expecting a baby boy in August. Then I was going to make a pair for my niece who is due in October. But I kinda want to keep them.

Is that bad? No, I am not pregnant (Not yet anyway). And they really only took a couple hours to make, and that time will shorten as I gain confidence.

But still.....

I. Love. Them.

I do want to make a hat to match. Maybe I'll do that and then decide....

hehe...

I also am pretty sure I will adapt the pattern to fit adult feet. Might as well match:)

Today I

Today HH had to work his long day south of town. This is regular, about every other week or so during the grass cutting season. He gets up early and comes home late. Oh well...

I had my nieces and bro-in-laws birthdays to celebrate this evening.( Happy Birthday Lily and Josh!!!)

So this morning I made a sign. Using junk I had around the house.

Then I turned it into a key holder. I prefer things that actually serve a purpose.

I used a straw and a paper plate to mix the acrylic paints. And some rags as paint brushes. Making do with what I have and It works pretty well :)

I thought it looked pretty all mixed up

The bird is a bit girly-er then I normally am, but hey, its spring and I am feeling a bit girly :) 

I can be girly sometimes.

Speaking of girly, I also made earrings. These are the only cool shells we found that were not currently occupied by the creature that created them our whole vacation.

It was a matching set and I could not resist. Let me tell you, it was a PAIN getting a hole in them. They are small and delicate. I finally got a hole in both shells, and broke one putting the chain in it. Luckily I have modge podge glue, and was able to put it back together :)

Aside from the 2$ I spent on a pack of 40 earring posts, these were free!

The stripes are pretty cool, right?

Happy weekends to you.

Lip Balm and weird goo

I was researching lip gloss recipes online for my day today.

My sister in law came over to make stuff. I am packed pretty full of soap right now, so I suggested we do the chap stick I have been wanting to make, and the lip gloss she has been wanting. I asked her if she had a recipe in mind and she said "No.". So I figured it was my job to supply one ( I don't mind the responsibility).

So in my research  I realized that there are very few gloss recipes that do not involve petroleum jelly. I wanted to make a natural lip gloss, so that would not do at all.

I found one that involved aloe, olive oil and coconut oil. Perfect. In the directions it said if I did not have aloe gel, but did have a plant just to pop one of those babies open and scrape out the gel. So I did.

Have you ever done that? I didn't take a picture, but it looked like snot. And felt like snot. Smelled kinda weird too.  

My poor aloe plant....

We made the gloss and it did not want to come together very well. I believe the person who came up with this recipe never actually used raw aloe before.

I chunked it. It did not turn out like something I was willing to slather on my lips every day.

I altered the recipe and made a version with 1/4 teaspoon beeswax, 1Tablespoon olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon shea butter, and 4 drops orange oil.

I like it. It is shiny and smells good. Not snotty at all :)

The chap stick recipe came from a blog I love.

It is:
1 1/2 tsp beeswax
1 7/8 tsp coconut oil
1 1/8 tsp coco butter (I used shea butter because that's what I had, and I was too cheap lazy to go get anything else)
3 tsp olive oil
3 vitamin E capsules (Optional)

5 Empty chap stick tubes. (She swore it filled 7, but I only got 5 out of the recipe)

Mix everything together in a heat safe, pour-able container (I used my measuring cup) except the vitamin E (I made a batch with orange oil, if using any essential oils leave these out too)

Microwave for short (15 second-ish) intervals until all have melted together. Then mix in the vitamin E and essential oil (Both of these are optional) and pour into the containers.

That's it!

Rocks, doesn't it?