Company is Coming...and we're making a MESS

The cooking is still on a back burner sorry to say, I miss cooking! The garden is in full swing and the weeds are growing just as well as the plants are. The bank is driving us absolutely crazy and I can't tell you how my life will change when and IF this FHA loan goes through.

We are cutting down yet another tree today. A large limb fell and shattered Chuck's nice new truck window and dented the side of his bed. A couple months ago another limb knocked off his side mirror. So we have a complete mess in our front yard and half a tree to finish cutting down tomorrow. The stress of hoping Chuck doesn't get hurt is almost too much for me. I just hate it. We can't afford to get someone to do it and he does have lots of experience and has taken down 4 others so far, but I don't like it nonetheless.

Chuck's Aunt from Florida is coming one day this week, and I have to make something homemade since she is on the road and eating out so much. And I want to impress, since she is the closest thing to Chuck's Mom besides his sisters.

I going to try one of my readers recipes this week. Chicken Salad on buns and Cranberry Orange Walnut Salsa. Yum.

You'll find her Chicken Salad Recipe under my last post in comments. She is starting a cooking blog of her own...Which you'll find in my listing.

Here is my version of Cranberry Orange Salsa
1 12 oz bag of cranberries
1 large or 2 small pkgs cranberry jello (strawberry or cherry could be used here)
1 cup fresh squeezed orange juice
2 tsp grated orange peel
2 oranges peeled and diced fine (yes there will be more juice from chopping them fine, that's a good thing)
1 cup toasted walnuts chopped fine

Combine first four ingredients and bring to boil, cooking until jello disolves, cranberries are tender or pop and mixture thickens, about 10 min.

Mix in chopped oranges and toasted walnuts. Chill at least 4 hrs and keeps up to a week.

Thank you Annette, this is a life saver this week when I'm terribly stressed and not in the mood to make decisions...you really helped me out by your posting! This sounds very homey, light and refreshing. This should be a nice break from the road food Chuck's aunt is getting lately.

I'll let you know how the Chicken Salad turns out : )

Can't wait for your posts to start rolling in from your new blog!

Hoping to get back to cooking and/or baking soon!

Summer heat is here...Bring on the Pizza Pasta Salad!

I feel it's been longer than two weeks since I've posted, and really miss it. This new job and all the yard work, garden to put in, and getting this house loan through the bank...is taking up all my time lately. I love the yard and garden, but will be glad that most of the hard work is done for this year, and this stressful loan stuff is almost over now, and I can get back to regular posts soon. We've lived here for three years now on land contract and we are going through our second loan attempt. We could use a prayer or two! These pics were taken a couple weeks ago, and lot's has been done since then and it's amazing how much things have grown, bloomed and changed in the garden in just two weeks. I wish I had pics from when were first got here. The whole yard was over grown like you wouldn't believe. The grass grew in the back yard b/c it didn't see the sun...you had to see it...we've come a long way baby! We love to work in the yard/garden together and it's a good thing : )

That front bed at the drive is new and there's one on the other side of the drive too. There were bushes all along the property line on the outside of the garden, shading some of the garden....no more! Yippee! Eventually as $ allows we will put up either alot of ornamental grasses or privacy fence or both...we have new grasses planted every 3 ft or so and spread wildflower seeds between so we'll see what happens.

Enough of that...

I made something this past week, that I haven't made since last summer, that I have to admit I have really mastered and am pretty proud of...Pizza Pasta Salad. You haven't tasted another Pasta Salad like it.

No, no picture...can you believe it? Sorry. The story on THAT is I had it all made and was waiting on getting my mozzarella/provelone at the store, and my "almost hubby" couldn't wait...and I ended up adding his fav Sharp Cheddar that doesn't go with this...but is his FAV cheese (he's a cheese freak...my big RAT)...so I just added it and said "whatever" this time. He was happy. Sometimes it's good for Papa to be happy. Especially when he's trying to quit smoking...arg.

So, I wasn't about to take a pic of this truly awesome pasta salad with the wrong cheese in it for you! I will make it a few more times over the summer and post a pic...but after I tell you about it, you'll want to make it pic or no pic!!

PIZZA PASTA SALAD RECIPE


2 boxes of Tri Color spring shape pasta
Drain good.
Pour into the largest bowl you own.
Pour over warm pasta 1 bottle Ken's Zesty Italian Dressing and 1 medium jar your favorite Salsa
(this salsa idea works especially well for those who don't care for raw chunks of tomato, you know who you are out there...)
1 long pepperoni chub or 2 shorter Hormel chubs (whatever you find at your store)
You want to hand cut this pepperoni into small bite size chunks how ever you like, and fry them up...yes...fry them up! This drains about 1/2 cup grease from it and intensifies the flavor, trust me. Drain on paper towels and let cool a bit, then add to the bowl. This really is one of the star ingredients of this recipe. Just trust me.
If you like your pepperoni crisp on your pizza...you know what I'm talking about...

1lb Mozzarella however you like it best. I buy the fresh chunks and dice it up in cubes.
1lb. Provelone same as above.
1/2 cup fresh grated parmesan cheese
Throw all the cheese in the bowl. Toss it all around to coat it all with dressing.

Now, you get to customize and use the toppings you normally would order on your side of the pizza!

Here's what we add:
1 medium jar whole green olives
1 small can slices black olives
2 containers of whole mushrooms
slice them and saute them in olive oil and wine a few minutes till soft but not mushy maybe 5 min.
1 green pepper/1 yellow pepper ...both medium sized 
Blanched well and diced (not too small)
Fresh ground Black Pepper and  a bit of Fresh Oregano and Basil (if you have it) makes it all POP!
If you don't have a bit of these fresh herbs, the herbs in the Ken's dressing is quite enough, so don't worry about it. Dried won't be the same here so I don't suggest it.

Throw it all in the bowl and fold so all is coated well and let sit for a day...YES a WHOLE DAY! haha

I've also put young zucchini in it before and it's great, although I know it's not a pizza topping : )

You can't fail at this since it's all premade basically, and your putting in what YOU like. And it's good for you too!

This stuff is so good you can eat it all week and not get tired of it...we pack it for lunches and snack on it, and it's so good for a cool dinner in hot weather. It's a meal itself, nothing else needed.

The combo of the Ken's Zesty Italian and the Salsa is really great for the dressing! Hope you like it!

The bread is on hold till the heat of summer is past...so we're back to buying bread for a bit. I just can't get it all done right now. But it's a goal to eventually have enough of the house work done to be able to bake on Sunday. Just not there yet.

Considering a new cooking project now that I have the bread where I want it. We love wings and have kind of ran out of places we want to go to get them.
I may start a Wing Project, starting out green...not making them at home hardly ever...and perfect a recipe for wings we can make at home, just the way we love them...and not settle for what we get eating out. I love a dry rub, low sodium and just a bit spicy...or a sweet sticky BBQ. He prefers Hot Wings (not me). What about you? Have a great wing recipe??

No, I have definitely not forgot about the "Legal" Rich Chocolate Cake recipe from the Flat Belly Diet Cookbook...it's coming soon. Wish I had a big old piece of that cake tonight with a tall cold glass of milk!

How about sending me one of your favorite summer recipes?

Janie

Tweaking the Recipe and Wishing for Sunshine...

Hello and Welcome to Kitchen Weekend Warrior Blogspot!

Rain Rain go away...will it EVER stop raining??? I had plans to get the rest of the garden in today and it's raining AGAIN. Yesterday Chuck and I mulched my Mom's landscaping which took most of the day and thank goodness the rain held out for us. Got a bit of sunburn and was worn out at the end of the day. Can't believe I can't plant again today due to rain...I'm so annoyed. I pulled all the weeds around what I already have in and was ready to put in my corn, green beans, tomatoes and peppers this weekend...and then it started pouring. Ug.

Well I have my bread project going, and that's a comfort that I am being somewhat productive. Laundry just doesn't feel productive somehow.

I was so excited to see I have my first follower this week! Welcome : ) I hope to see more following. Would love to learn some new things from my readers!

I have a request for the recipe for my recent sucess and am so  happy to share!

 The Honey Starter is posted on a previous blog and is a fantastic starter. If you ever feel your starter has lost some of it's power you can always add a packet of yeast to the feeder flour/water, and a tad of honey for the yeast to feed on...to keep it going. I fed my starter double last week and noticed it was a bit weaker this time, so I give it a boost. If you keep making the same amount of bread you should be feeding it the same and have no reason to need to give it a boost. I doubled the amount of starter I'm using and think I added too much food for the small amount of starter left last time, so felt the need to give her a boost. But like I said, you should actually never have to do this if you feed regularly and use close to the same amount each time.

Above in the picture you see my long shaped artisan loaves rising today...made a couple 'tweaks' this week to see how I can improve.

Here is the basic recipe I'm using and tweaking this time around:

5 cups flour/3 cups King Arthur Bread Flour and 2 cups King Arthur Whole Wheat
2 tsp vital gluten (Hodson Mills)
3 cups filtered/distilled or spring water
1 3/4 cups starter
2 tsp salt (mix in first knead)

Mix and let rest 1 hr. Turn out on to well floured countertop and use something sturdy to scrape bowl it will be sticky and messy. Keep flouring hands and sprinkling dough and counter with bread flour as you knead for about 5 min. Add the salt to this knead along with your flour while your kneading.  Do your rectangle shape of stretching and patting dough out so you can fold once, then fold to meet both sides in the middle. Turn over seam side down on floured countertop, cover with flour sack towel and let rise 2 hours.
Punch down and knead again in 1 hr. Cut into two pieces and knead into a nice shape and place seam side down on your baking stone, make your cuts with a very sharp serated knife and cover and rest for at least 1 hr, can go 2 hrs without harm.

Bake with muffin tin cups full of water on lower rack and your bread on upper rack at 475 for 20 min.
Take water out and finish baking at 425 for another 45 min our until your bread sounds hollow and has a nice brown crust.

Today my tweaking consisted of :

1) adding yeast to my starter. I fed my starter double last week and I thought it looked a bit weak, not very bubbly. I added one packet of yeast and a bit of honey. I shouldn't have to do this again, just a fluke I had about a cup of starter and added 2 cups flour and water last week. They say it should take but I wanted to bake successfully today. No more brick loaves.

2) I used 6 cups of flour so as not to knead so much into it like last week, then just kneaded with bread flour as you normally would. (last week I added flour MAJOR to get it to firm up).

3) I used 2 cups of starter instead of 1 3/4 since adding more flour from the start this time.

4) Added 2 tsp of raw organic sugar.

Here they are out of the oven. They have a slight whiteish glaze to them, as I heard from someone who had grew up in a family owned bakery, to glaze the hot bread with a cornstarch and water mixture. Well, needless to say it didn't make it shine, so I rubbed the crust with butter, but you can still see the cornstarch and water glaze areas a bit. Lesson learned.

The loaves are larger and lighter this time! Chuck says it's lighter and airier this time, and, more moist and soft. The crumb was slightly dry last time.
I think this Tweak was a great success! Next week I want to finish them with a sesame seed/egg white wash to make them shine and add the sesame seeds Chuck wants.

So this week we have arrived at this recipe:

6 cups flour/half bread flour half whole wheat
2 tsp vital gluten
3 cups water
2 cups starter
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp salt
Mix all in large shallow bowl and let rest 1 hr.
Turn out on to well floured countertop and use something sturdy to scrape bowl it will be sticky and messy. Keep flouring hands and sprinkling dough and counter with bread flour as you knead for about 5 min.  Do your rectangle shape of stretching and patting dough out so you can fold once, then fold to meet both sides in the middle. Turn over seam side down on floured countertop, cover with flour sack towel and let rise 2 hours.
Punch down and knead again, cut into two pieces and knead into a nice shape and place seam side down on your baking stone, make your cuts with a very sharp serated knife and cover and rest for at least 1 hr, can go 2 hrs without harm.

Bake with muffin tin cups full of water on lower rack and your bread on upper rack at 475 for 20 min.
Take water out and finish baking at 425 for another 45 min our until your bread sounds hollow and has a nice brown crust. (1 hour)

I have this whole process down to 4-5 hours which is awesome compared to the recipes I started out trying! And these days you need all the extra time you can get. We work 8hrs and still do all the household stuff we were expected to do 50 years ago that the stay at home women did, and it's so hard to do.

Brush with butter when you take out of the oven. Let cool if you can! I dare you!

I would love to hear from someone who wants to learn how to easily and inexpensively bake fresh loaves each weekend...and share our successes and failures...and learn how to perfect this process together!

THERE'S NOTHING LIKE FRESH HOMEMADE BREAD

If I wasn't so busy I would have tried to make the Rich Chocolate Cake from Prevention's Flat Belly Diet I've had on my mind...stay tuned for that post!!
I will be making that very soon! It has all mufa fats and low sugar, dark chocolate which is a healthy antioxidant : )

Thanks for reading, send me a comment!

Janie

Old World Authentic Sourdough Success!

Happy Mother's Day!

It's 9:37pm and I'm covered with dirt, grass, probably bugs, and so excited to write...here I am.  Today has been the best Mother's Day I've had in seven years...long story I'll spare you. The day started out so quiet, overcast and a bit boring. But as the day progressed it got sunnier and so did my day. Hope all your Mother's Day's were nice too : )

Well I have FINALLY had success with my bread! I am so exited to know that I can keep my sourdough starter going and bake wonderful bread every weekend! This is so much better than store bought, and better for you...it's TOTALLY worth the effort. As you can see we didn't wait even 15 min to cut into this bread. We had no lunch no dinner and it was 9pm and we were totally starving and so excited it turned out so well, we had farm eggs steamed in the shell with homemade bread and butter for dinner tonight.

Today's journey came from a couple of new website's I found to be very informative and helpful. One is called Wild Yeast and the other is The Fresh Loaf. Great sites, be sure to go visit if your into baking breads.

Since it's late I won't be posting the recipe quite yet, but I just had to get a post in this weekend and share my success with you...not that I can tell anyone is reading...but I'm hopeful, yes, that is my nature. And I'm having such a great time with this blog. I love writing and sharing my experiments and success with you, and I am also hopeful I will hear from someone, somewhere, at some point. HINT.

I have percentage ratio's I found successful for the starter, flour, and water this time. The amount of starter is almost double from what I've been using, (and as you have read, I've been getting way too dense of a loaf).
The water is actually more and the flour is less, so I've learned alot so far. I've also learned to only steam for the first 20 minutes of the baking and take the water out after that. The last thing to mention is that I learned a new technique to add to the kneading process, it's called Folding, which is just like it sounds. Before the kneading process you get in a couple of foldings both an hour apart or so, and you make a rustic square shape and fold over fully, then half a fold meeting the middle and fold the other part into the middle half way and you turn it over and let it rest another hour, adding air and rising power to your dough. It worked well!

This time it has a wonderful crusty crust and a very soft light airy inside and it's white and whole wheat so it's got great flavor too. I am so pleased that now I have a successful base to start working with and now I can focus on fine tunning and perfecting this recipe and while I'm working on that, meantime we can enjoy it too!

My previous post for Honey Starter is a definite great starter and I'm still using it. I feed it 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of water each time I use it. Remember if you plan to use it more you must feed it more. I have a feeling this recipe will also be able to make some great pizza crust as well so I may feed it extra this week so I can make pizza soon.

So, I've found a way to make my own yeast agent and omit buying yeast at the store. I feel very triumphant this evening...now to go get in the shower! What a wonderful day it's been.

Sometime between now and next weekend I'll be posting what Chuck was working on all day today...the biggest and most beautiful flowers I ever got for Mother's Day! I was a social butterfly for the biggest part of the day, either talking to neighbors passing by, or on the phone with Mom, Andrew or Cinda. Then Cinda came by with two huge containers of clothes to go through (I LOVE HAND ME DOWNS) while we had girl talk and got caught up on eachother's lives which was so nice, as we don't see eachother often anymore. She also brought a couple starter plants from her Mom & Dad's house for us which was so great.

Did I mention I had a great day?

Who would love my secret "so far" recipe for this BEAUTIFUL OLD WORLDE ARTISAN SOURDOUGH WHEAT LOAVES?????

Anyone??


Janie

Homemade Italian Bread!

Here is my first attempt at Italian Bread, as requested by the Incredibly handsome man I live with : ) He just isn't into the whole wheat scene...

As you know I've been experimenting with Sourdough Starters, as to avoid using store bought yeast and limit ingredients, improve the healthiness of the bread and all that great stuff...and keep cost down!

During my web browsing I found authentic Italian recipes, and one that called for "pasta madre" which is actually a starter you make first and let ferment just like sourdough starter. I was so surprised and as you can imagine...happy to find Italian bread I can make with my sourdough starter!

Above are the results which look great so far, and the house smells sooooo good!

While I was doing laundry, cleaning, going out to the herb garden, pulling weeds in the flower beds and whatever...oh yes, I did take a nap too : ) Chuck stripped our front door with a heat gun, gave it a preliminary sanding and put it back up for now.  We are remodeling this house we just bought together and we decided we want to keep the original door, stain and varnish it and make stained glass pieces for it ourselves. The door was coated with more than a couple coats of white, and aqua paint, but it came off pretty easily...it's just time consuming. I helped a bit, but he did 95% of it himself. We love working on our house together. He was just as happy to know I was baking bread when I wasn't helping him with the door.
The guys at work tease him that I peel his oranges for his lunch, wait till they get a load of his homemade bread...hehe.

Next weekend I'll let you know how the bread actually was...I'm afraid it's too dense, but we'll see after it cools...this pic is taken while it's still warm. Chuck grins at me coming to the computer to post for you...I am having such a great time with this blog. I can't wait to get a few comments and maybe a follower or two! I'd love to hear about what your cooking or baking or...new things your learning about healthy cooking...or just healthy finds at the store.

I just read where we are better off not even having canned or boxed items of any kind...fresh produce meats and that's it. Makes sense I guess. The keeping and preserving methods are not good for us in the long run.

I just picked up a Prevention guide mini magazine at the store about Outsmarting Diabetes...no I'm not diabetic my numbers are just up a bit due to my weight so I'm trying to manage myself by making better choices...being more active...changing old habits...learning new ones that are better for me...and hopefully losing weight along the way...we all know how difficult that can be. Anyway, this book reverts back to their Flat Belly Diet which I have both the book and the cookbook and they are fantastic!!! I love the chocolate zucchini snack cake!!! I'm now looking at making their Rich Chocolate Layer Cake in the next couple weeks. No I don't need it...but its a MUFA fat, low fat, and antioxidant and looks INCREDIBLE.

Anyway would love to hear from you and what's on your mind or in your kitchen these days!

Until next weekend,

Janie

Though lots of rain and no sunshine...we have Asparagus!!!

That's what's one of the great things about gardening...when you've paid your bills, and don't have much money left...you have s o m e t h i n g  that can be used from the garden, whether it's potatoes, carrots...whatever...and create something to get you through.

We are going through purchasing our house and still have some transactions to deal with, and are running short this week, in addition to my being off work almost two months not helping financially.  Now that I'm back to work we are getting caught up but it's a slow process. Thank Goodness for our Asparagus!! It's coming up all over the place in it's little row out in the garden!! And, it's fabulous!! I fried some potatoes and added the asparagus and poured whisked eggs and milk over it and turned it over...and WOW what a meal!

I'd love to hear about what you've been cooking, or your garden or gardening plans!

With gas @ 4.25 down where my Mom lives...(4.19 here in Canton), we all need to make sure we do all we can to be economical and thrifty.

Is anyone reading???

Baking more bread tomorrow and going white this week...stay tuned.

Janie

Eggstra Special Tip for Boiling Eggs!

You'll also see this tip in my Potato Salad post...

About now or very soon you'll be peeling some of those colored Easter eggs to make egg salad and you'll get frustrated at the peelings not coming off so great...

Steam your eggs next time!

Steaming with lid on for 15 min will give you absolutely perfect hard boiled eggs!

Thank Farmgirls on the MaryJane's site for this tip : )

Janie

Sourdough Success!

Yes, this isn't the prettiest picture...but by the time I had the bread baked Sunday night and the company went home...and the dogs got their dinner and pills....and the cat got her dinner...and I kept laundry going...and cleaning up the kitchen...on and on this list goes...I was too tired to remember to take a PRETTY picture of the most delicious bread I made!! So bear with me please...I'll take better pics...

This bread as you can see, didn't fit in my bread keeper that well because it rose so incredibly well and puffed out at the top...and you can see I started to try to put it in a bread bag, and lost that battle, so just went with smooshing it a bit, covering it with foil and going to bed.

This is the recipe from my previous sourdough posting...half whole wheat half bread flour...and at the last minute I tweeked this recipe and added 2 tsp of vital gluten (a grain protein that helps bread rise). After the couple bricks I baked recently, I wanted to make sure this batch rose well, and boy did they ever!

The texture is perfect! Light and airy but firm and stable, not crumbly at all. A nice crust too. I am very please with this test run. The only thing is it doesn't have alot of sourdough taste, and I'm trying to figure out why. This bread is a nice go between for Chuck and I since I want whole wheat and he wants white. But I may try to make white next and see where that takes me, now that I know this method is a winner.

I am feeding my starter tonight and leaving it out for 7 days as opposed to 5 days to see what effect that has on the flavor of the starter/bread. I'll let you know how that works out next week. Now that things are hopefully going to quiet down I can bake each weekend now...my GOAL is to get the bread ready on Friday night and bake Saturday...still working on that goal.

So here I am, after work Monday, first thing is coming to post my results of the Sourdough Excursions! As this will be an ongoing adventure in BREAD BAKING here on Kitchen Weekend Warrior and I hold this project very important to me and hopefully I'll get some readers soon?? You can see what I'm having for a snack...the most wonderful homemade bread I've had in a long time...real butter and Pomegranite Herbal Tea (mixed with a little green tea too). Awwwwwsome!

Chuck ate a couple pieces before going to bed last night, and I packed his lunch sandwich with this bread and he loves it...but would rather have white bread, he is now requesting I learn how to make Italiana Bread like SaraJanes...a bread we get at Raisin Rack, it's all natural and incredibly good. I am addicted to her Onion Rye Dill bread, it's a round free form loaf and has incredible taste you can eat it plain no butter it's that good. I started getting him the Italian and he's hooked too now.

This adventure in baking all natural breads (hopefully no yeast) has just begun, and we'll see what we end up with...hopefully an easy versatile recipe, fantastic bread, and better health for not taking in all the preservatives and "stuff" they put in bread these days!

IS ANYONE READING???

Comment, and even better, become a follower so I know someone is listening?

Looking forward to hearing from you,

Janie

Spring, Easter Sunday...Sourdough Excursions, and Asparagus!!!

Just an FYI tonight I am baking with my starter FINALLY! My back was out all week and it's been just a really downer this spring with the wet gloomy weather and all...BUT...have any of you planted Asparagus?

What a spring angel our Asparagus patch has been for us this year!  We planted her three years ago, it takes three years to get to harvests your first crop you know.  We planted an heirloom seed, and these are gorgeous fern like plants, and the Asparagus themselves have purple tinted tops.

Let me tell you...I would have been planting and eating Asparagus my whole life if I would have know how good it is!

Chuck and I cut our first stalk last weekend, and ate it together still standing in the garden. How romantic right?? And it was....having planted it ourselves and watching it these past three years and waiting patiently we finally have this majical crop of Asparagus this year...you can almost watch it grow. Honestly, a stalk can grow up to 10 inches in one day...and it's true!

Today is the first day I got to put some in a tall glass with a bit of water, to save for later. We have been eating it or giving it away as fast as it's grown.

With my back out I didn't get to the store today, I hope something is open tomorrow.

We aren't doing much for Easter this year...not much family and no little ones. What did you do for Easter this year?

Considering trying to make crepes for the first time, with Asparagus and Hollandaise sauce...not sure if it will happen tomorrow, but it will be soon.

I'll come back to post a pic of our Asparagus patch on here in the next day or two, and I hope I have peaked your interest on the topic of Asparagus and you are inspired to plant some. Keep in mind the fern like fronds will grow about 5 feet tall and need full sun, and three years till you get veggies from it.

I'll be back to tell you how the bread is going...

Love to hear from you all,

Janie

Are you a lemon lover?

If you are, you can make these wonderful lemon bars anytime, as long as you have a couple fresh lemons. These are made with simple ingredients you almost always have in your kitchen and are so addictive!

These have a simple flour, butter, sugar crust that is partially baked before the filling is poured on top and baked. The filling is very simple...eggs, sugar, flour, lemon juice and lemon zest.

I even made a version of this with peanut butter in the crust and chocolate pudding on top and Chuck loved them, they weren't overly sweet, so the flavor is appreciated so much more. I'll decline on sharing that recipe as most may not like it. If you want it let me know I'll be glad to send it to you.

Crust:
1 cup flour
1 stick butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar
Mix till fine crumbles and press into a greased 9x9 pan that has been lined with aluminum foil and greased again. Make sure to pat the crust at least half an inch up the side of the pan as to hold the filling inside of it. Bake at 325 for 15 min. or very barely lightly starting to brown.

Filling:
Use a wire wisk to blend...2 eggs, juice of 2 lemons, zest from one (I love lemon and hate to waste it so I use zest from both lemons), 3/4 cup sugar that you have blended into it 2 Tbl. flour very well and a sprinkle or two of sea salt to bring out flavor. I like these a bit tart, you may want more sugar in them, or honey is a nice alternative to white sugar, I use honey whenever I can! The amount of honey will be less than sugar by almost half remember. Wisk well and pour over hot crust and Bake at 325 for about 20 min.

Cool to warm and lift out of pan by the foil. Leave foil on but try to loosen any parts sticking and return to wire rack and cool completely. Cut into squares. Shake a wire colander with a bit of powdered sugar over them, but be sure they are completely cool, or the powdered sugar will dissolve and become a wet mess.

Or, you can make a quick meringue and make these lemon meringue pie bars! I love meringue don't you?
It's so pretty and elegant looking, and good too of course : )

Enjoy!

Time, never enough is there? Unless your waiting for the potato salad to marinate!!

Okay here I am on Sunday again...where does the time go? It seems Saturday's have been full for a while now. Yesterday we took my Mom to Lehman's hardware in Kidron and out to lunch at Mrs. Yoder's kitchen for her 78th birthday. Chuck found it to be mostly boring and sleep most of the trip, but that's another story. Mom and I had a fun day in spite of our male companion being bored to, well...sleep.

Today I find I didn't have the patience to prep my sourdough last night, so I am yet... trying to find the time since starting working again. I will master this plan, so be patient with me just one more week on the Sourdough Experiment, and anyway as I see, no one is commenting yet, so I assume nobody is taking the journey with me quite yet anyway... I'll get there...soon. Did anyone make starter yet???

Above you see my trifle bowl filled to the brim with the most awesome Potato Salad, and a new recipe I want to share with you.

On St. Patrick's day I made corned beef and cabbage with red skins, and this sauce recipe that was included, from Food TV Network and it was fabulous! With a bit of tweeking I wanted to try this sauce for potato salad for something new and WOW, if you love horseradish, it's a must try! Find the original recipe I started with by looking up Corned Beef and Cabbage on Food TV and below it is a sauce to serve it with, it's fantastic with this dish. And, it gave me the base to create the following potato salad dressing recipe.

********************************************************************************

Cook a 5lb bag of the smaller redskins and let cool completely. Chop how you like them for potato salad.

Boil a dozen eggs (Organic or farm eggs are MUCH better) and cool completely. Chop the way you like.

~By the way have you ever had trouble peeling hard boiled eggs? The majic trick is to STEAM them instead of boiling. Using a stainless steel basket, steam your eggs for 15 min. and cool, they will be a dream to peel! I recently learned this from my fantastic MaryJane Farmgirls, a great group of women who I am so thankful to have bartered, emailed and learned so much from so far on the farmgirl websiste http://www.maryjanesfarm.com/ ~

Now, blend the dressing in the bowl you will mix it all together in:

1 1/2 c regular mayo (I use the Hellman's Olive Oil type which has more of the mufa's (healthy fat)
1 1/2 c sour cream ~ yes the real thing, no non fat here

Zest and juice of one lemon (be sure not to zest into the white part as it's bitter)
2 Tbl sugar

1/3 cup of Dill pickle relish (I get Heinz brand, it's the best hands down!)

1 Tbl. dried dill (fresh is better if you have it, use 1/4 cup)
1Tbl. dried parsley (fresh is better if you have it, use 1/4 cup)

Also~if the fresh chives were up in the garden I would have thru a 1/4 cup of these in too!

*Horseradish*-This is the star ingredient and takes some important consideration. All horseradish you get (I usually try to by Helluva Good Brand as I find it the most consistant) will most likely be of different strengths per each bottle, depending on the root they used to make it. With that said, knowing yourself well enough to know how you like it, light or stronger....START WITH 1/8 CUP first then increase if you find it too weak. We used 1/4 cup plus two tbls for ours.

Mix well and taste until you have it right for you*

Add 2 tsp onion powder, sea salt and pepper to taste, to your *chopped* eggs and potatos in your big bowl for mixing, then add your mixed up dressing above, and fold in till all is coated and ALLOW TO SIT A DAY OR OVERNIGHT IN THE FRIDGE, for flavors to develop and marinate into the potato.

Good luck with that.

Chuck and I are both loving this new dressing, we are potato salad lovers who like the traditional Miracle Whip, vinegar, sugar, celery seed and sugar dressing thing, but we are both sold on this and will use this for potato salad and the traditional for macaroni salad from now on, we love it that much!

Would love to hear comments on this one, as I'm very proud of the end result...we can't stay out of it!!

Till next week!

Sourdough Excersions Check In

I made my starter and put it in the fridge till next weekend, as we are so busy I was too tired to start my baking last night, and, I start a new job tomorrow, so I don't want to overextend myself this weekend.

Did anyone make the starter? Love to hear from you!

I'll be blogging about it next week...see you then!

Leftover Mashed Potatoes?

I don't know about you...but when I make mashed potatoes, I make a 10lb bag at a time, so we  have those wonderful leftovers!
Have you ever tried to make mashed potato cakes? My Mom used to make them when I was a kid at home, and they were heavenly. But, even Mom's potato cakes would often fall apart and end up in pieces by the time they made it to our plate. Mom used one egg in enough potato cakes for five people and didn't use flour for coating, which always helps things brown. And, a small bit of flour in the mix helps it bind together.
So, with that considered...here is my latest attempt at potato cakes, that turned out quite successful!
First, I made enough for about a dozen cakes.
I mix the mashed potatoes, 3 eggs beaten, salt and pepper, 1 tbls flour, and 1 1/2 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese in a large mixing bowl by hand. ~Sprinkle the flour in first and partially mix to avoid lumps, then add the rest and mix very well.
I get a shallow bowl and put about a cup of flour in it, now using a big spoon, get about a heaping 1/4 cup of potato mix and 'plop' into your flour, rotate and cover with flour and start shaping a ball with your hands, when coated well, you'll put into your (I use cast iron) hot skillet with whatever you use for frying (I use olive oil with a small bit of bacon grease for flavor), they should start sizzling right away when you place them gently into the skillet. Leave the same about of room you do for meatballs, so you can keep turning them as they brown.
On the last turning, I smash them open, flattening them a bit, and they will sizzle again...and as you see above you have a firm golden potato cake that won't fall apart and is melty cheesy and incredible. Chuck ate these leftover right out of the fridge, cold! If you want you can serve them with a bit of sour cream and chives (fresh in the garden right now!) and I promise, this side dish will make your eyes roll back in your head! Oh my, who needs meat and veggies when they make THIS for dinner???

Try these and let me know how it goes for you...

ps-with all the gardening we are preparing for, sorry I totally forgot blogging last week, I do plan to blog each and every Saturday!

Snowy Weather and Sourdough Excursions

Welcome to April Fool's weekend!

Let me tell you about my recent discoveries with Sourdough Starters and baking 100% Whole Wheat bread. I'm a new fan to MaryJane's Farm, she has a magazine and website, and has written about this topic, so adventurist that I am, I decide it would be great to bake homemade bread without any of the extras, no yeast no gluten or bread flour, just good for you ww flour and water, a little salt and honey. Well, there's a definite science to this and much patience is needed, but I know in the end it will be worth it : )

Only flour and water is used here to attract "wild" yeast in the air. I have a good starter but it has a more sour taste than we prefer and it's not raising the bread as it should, yet...?

Above you'll see my second attempt at the baking process, more successful than the first mind you, but not quite a success story as of yet. I'm not actually impressed with my first instructions, as were many other pioneers with this project through MaryJane's, so I have researched online and read many variations and measurements and am going to let this first starter rest, and continue on trying a new one. I'll still bake with my old one, resting it in the fridge, but not adding to it for active baking for the time being.

It makes good sense to me, since I'm trying to create good bread with as few ingredients as possible, instead of baking with yeast, to add yeast to the begining starter to build a stronger raise with less sour taste.

Armed with my new information and thoughts, here is my new starter recipe and it will be fed for the next week and used next weekend. I'll be back then to give you the results. Meanwhile, keeping a starter going is so incredibly easy, and if you think about it, its the way bread was made so many years ago, and so much better for us than eating the bread with the list of ingredients a mile long and most we can't even understand or pronounce! Baking on the weekend for the rest of the week is pretty easy to find time for too, you can set your bread to rise Friday night before going to bed and bake Saturday morning. You can set to rise Saturday morning and bake Saturday night etc.

Another consideration is I love to knead bread and it's also supposed to help the rise. The recipe on the MaryJane site is for no knead, and well, I can't help myself, I need to knead! Not that I like to play with my food, but there is something relaxing and stress releasing about kneading bread, do you agree?

This will be an ongoing journey for me, to experiment and find what works best and takes best. I'll be sharing information from time to time at how it's going, and you may want to join me in the journey? I'm here for questions, concerns and help anytime!

Sourdough Starter Recipe #2 (the first is on the MaryJane site www.maryjanesfarm.org/recipes and is on the back burner for now)

2 1/2 cups warm water (distilled)
1 pkg active dry yeast
2 tbsp raw honey

2 1/2 cups all natural King Arthur  unbleached white whole wheat flour

Using a glass bowl, pour all in and stir with wooden spoon until yeast disolves. Begin adding flour a cup at a time stiring well. Cover with light weight cloth (I use flour sack cloths). Let sit for 5 days, mixing well each day. Then store in frig until ready to use.

1 cup of starter will be used for 2 loaves of bread. Replenish starter by adding equal amounts of flour and water and replace what is used each time, repeating the process of sitting for a week, and storing in the frig unless your using it right away.

The Bread Recipe for Honey White Wheat Sourdough/Starting the night before is recommended : )

4 1/2 cups white whole wheat King Arthur like used in the starter
3 3/4 cups warm water
1 cup starter

1 tsp baking soda (I think this helps cut the sourness a bit too)
2 tsp sea salt
1 tbls raw honey
1/2 cup olive oil
5 cups bread flour

Mix ww flour, warm water, and starter. Cover and let sit overnight, covered with a light towel.

Morning, stir down the spongy texture and mix in soda, salt, honey and oil (I add all to the oil first).

Mix in bread flour reserving that last half cup if you have very stiff dough, if not go ahead. This sometimes depends on how you measure your flour! Spoon flour into cup, don't use cup to dip flour it compacts it and you end up with more flour that way. Dough should be sticky but holding together well.

Knead on floured surface 5 min, with floured hands. Let rest 10 min, while greasing two loaf pans with olive oil or butter. (I save my butter wrappers to use for greasing pans) (I use seasoned stoneware loaf pans).

Divided dough in half and knead into a nice log shape with crease facing down side, place in pans.

Cover with towel and let rise 2 hrs or until dough is up over edge of pan. Set some real butter out to soften because anyone within wafting range will be ready to dive on this bread when it comes out of the oven!


Bake at 425 for 20 min, reduce to 375 and bake another 30 min until sounds hollow when tapped on. Turn loaves out of pans to cool.

After all of my research I have high hopes for this starter and recipe I'll be working on this next week.

I hope you decide to join me in my sourdough journey!

Janie

Potato and Spinach Fritatta Cast Iron Style

I would have taken a picture of this masterpiece creation, but we were so famished from bowling last night we dove into this like vultures!! I promise to include pictures in my posts from now on.

Use quanities of ingredients for the number your serving and consider if you want leftovers or not. We love leftovers in our house! I'll leave the quanities of these ingredients up to you since they are so simple. Also, this lets you customize to your likings : ) Consider potatos, eggs, spinach, cheese amounts here. Seasonings are to your taste.

For this easy and fulfilling dish, slice to 1/4 inch idaho/russent potatoes or dice in 1/2 inch chunks whichever you prefer is fine. In your large cast iron or oven proof skillet, start heating up (I use high heat on my gas stove for this whole process) about 1/4 inch olive oil and when it's ready, (be careful with olive oil, it's sensitive to overheating easily), add potato slices one at a time so you will be able to turn them individially when it's time...so you can get each slice nice and brown. If your doing cubes do a thin layer as to not overcrowd them. You want even browning for the maximum flavor! While these are draining on a plate lined with paper towels....preheat oven to 400 degrees.

When your potato's are all browned, most of the olive oil will be used up, so add 1/4 stick of butter and swirl rapidly to melt it, then add one square box of frozen chopped spinach, half a bag if the bagged type and let sizzle till some of the water starts to evaporate. Meantime you have the eggs you want to use cracked and in a bowl for whisking...add half a can ( I used 6 eggs and half a bag of frozen spinach, so adjust your evap milk accordingly) of 2% evaporated milk, sea salt and fresh ground pepper, and freshly grated nutmeg. Whisk this all up, and pour over your sizzling spinach. Turn your heat off. Sprinkle shredded cheese of your choice over top, now the potato's.

Place in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes, you'll see it puff up nicely. As you serve this up you can flip each serving over so the potato's are on the bottom and the egg and spinach is on top. You can garnish with a sprinkle of more cheese, or serve organic ketchup on the side for dipping. I served this with Whole Wheat buttered (real) toast, and a frozen (thawed of course) blend of blueberries, blackberries and strawberries sprinkled with a tad of organic raw sugar.

AWESOME BREAKFAST FOR YOUR INNER CHAMPION!!!!! I will be making this OFTEN...YUM.

Have fun making your own healthy, tasty Potato Spinach Fritatta...remember we are supposed to have dark green leafies three times a week! Use olive oil when you can, and have a pat or two of REAL butter once in a while...REAL is ALWAYS better : )

Janie