Rising Bread by the Fire

The house gets a bit chilly this time of year, making it difficult to get my bread to rise. Today I set up a small table near the fireplace and set my loaves to rise there. It did the trick!

Where I've Been

• In the kitchen, of course! Here's what I have " put up" for winter so far.
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• 3 pounds Carrots, dehydrated
• 5 ears Corn, dehydrated
• 5 lbs. dried black beans
• 8.5 pounds Roma tomatoes, dehydrated
• 10 pounds pears, dehydrated
• 40 pounds apples, dehydrated
• 32 Stoplight Peppers, dehydrated
• 7 half- pints Blueberry-Lime Jam
• 7 half-pints Cherry Love Jam
• 7 half- pints Spiced Rum Peach Jam
• 8 half-pints Cherry Jam
• 9 half-pints Strawberry Pineapple Jam
• 16 half-pints Strawberry-Lemon Marmalade
• 17 half-pints Blueberry Jam
• 16 half-pints Peach Jam
• 15 half-pints Blackberry Jam
• 19 half-pints Triple Berry Jam
• 19 half-pints Strawberry Jalapeno Jam
• 2 gallons Blueberries, frozen
• 3 gallons Strawberries, frozen
• 38 half-pints Strawberry Jam
• 3.5 gallons Blackberries, frozen
• 3 quarts and 20 pints Dill Pickles
• 5 quarts and 8 pints Volcano Pickles
• 7 pints Beets
• 7 pints Apple Wedges in Cinnamon Red Hot Syrup
• 5 quarts and 7 pints Tomato Sauce
• 15 quarts Applesauce
• 7 quarts Peaches
• 2 quarts and 1 pint diced Tomatoes
• 4 quarts and 14 pints Pickled Cauliflower Medley
• 11 quarts Spaghetti Sauce
• 14 quarts and 1 pint Tomato Juice
• 27 quarts and 1 pint Mixed Fruit
• 36 half-pints Banana Peppers
• 74 pints Salsa
• 55 quarts Sweet Corn
• 61 quarts Green Beans

And I'm baking for the farmers' market several times a week. I've made literally hundreds of jars of jam to sell there, too. Time's a wastin'. Gotta run!

Jam Sessions

It's the time of year to start preparing for the winter. Here's what I've put up so far:

• 16 half-pints Strawberry-Lemon Marmalade
• 19 half-pints Triple Berry Jam
• 38 half-pints Strawberry Jam
• 7 half- pints Blueberry-Lime Jam
• 7 half-pints Blueberry Jam
• 8 half-pints Cherry Jam
• 9 half-pints Strawberry Jalapeno Jam

Are you canning yet?

Home Bakery

For years I've dreamed of opening a very small bakery with scones, and muffins for breakfast, soups, quiches, and salads for lunch. And desserts. Pies, cakes, cookies, cheesecakes- you name it.

It isn't happening anytime soon, but that doesn't stop me from selling out of my home.

Cinco de Mayo

Though we have no Mexican heritage, Cinco de Mayo is a good reason to make some tasty treats. Chicken quesadillas on homemade flour tortillas, freshly made guacamole, and Pina Coladas were on the menu.

Collin whipped up a strawberry pie for dessert, but we need to work dinner off first.

Green Smoothies

We've been enjoying these smoothies just about every day, changing up the ingredients to use what we have on hand. There's always an apple, cored and seeded, skin left on, and most always a pear, prepared the same as the apple. Variations include pineapple, bananas, blueberries, and frozen strawberries. And greens. LOTS of greens. About 4 cups! I started with kale, and have moved to spinach. Parsley is good thrown in there, too. We always add freshly ground flax seed, and some liquid. Some folks like to mix their fruit/greens with milk. You can use water and add a bit of honey or maple syrup to sweeten it, but we all love orange juice.

I puree everything in my Cuisinart blender, and serve. Four of us can have a pint from my one blender full.

Adding strawberries makes a more murky looking smoothie, but they taste great!

Salads

It seems as though I've been bitten by the salad bug. I've been trying a new one every few days, and even ate the leftovers of this one for breakfast.

Fresh -Squeezed Lemonade

Warm days call for cold drinks. This lemonade is easy, and tastes far superior to any powdered mix.

Coconut Scones

Not exactly what I had in mind when I woke up this morning and decided to create, but I was out of pecans (OH! the shame!), and so the other variety has to wait. These were a lovely treat even if they weren't what I had originally planned.

Sauerkraut

I remember a large crock sitting in the basement for a long period of time, and waiting and waiting for the sauerkraut to be done. I have no large crock, and was happy to learn that the wait would be much shorter, too. Sally Fallon's recipe from Nourishing Traditions is a keeper. It's not the way my mom made it, but it's still delicious!

Pancake Party

He was on one side of the kitchen frying bacon.

She was on the opposite side of the kitchen, cooking pancakes.

And they met in the middle to sing a duet. What is it about pancakes for supper in this house, anyway?

Making Bread

I've only bought one loaf of bread since September. I've been making sandwich bread when I know that we'll need it, and artisan bread for meals. It's such a wonderful treat to have a small loaf of fresh bread when we sit down to the table.

No plastic rising containers for me, though! The authors of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day recommend a plastic container with a non-airtight lid. I thought glass was the better way to go, and found this HUGE canister that works perfectly for doubling the recipe. This feeds us for a week!

Cherry Almond Scones

It's such a simple thing to come up with scone variations once you have a basic recipe that you like. This morning's creation was a huge success. Some younger people thought that cherry meant that the scones should be pink. Easy enough; I just added a bit of maraschino cherry juice to the confectioners sugar for a quick glaze. Yummy, and pretty!

A King Arthur Giveaway!

February 19th marked 3 years of blogging for me, and to celebrate I'm teaming up with the wonderful folks at King Arthur Flour for a giveaway. I'm so excited for each of you who have a chance to win!

As you all know, I love to cook, and especially to bake. Several months ago I checked the King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion out of the library, and started trying recipes. Everything I've tried so far has been very good. I was thrilled when the King Arthur folks told me that they would help me by donating not only the Baker's Companion, but also a selection of back issues from The Baking Sheet.

All you have to do to enter to win is leave a comment telling me what your favorite baked good is. It's that easy. Everyone is welcome to enter, even international readers! Please make sure you leave a valid email address or link to a blog so that I may contact you if you are the winner.

I'll leave comments open until Wednesday, March 3rd at 11 PM, Eastern time. The winner will be announced on Thursday, the 4th of March.

Comments are now closed.

Thursday Brunch

Abigail and Collin took it upon themselves to use last night's leftover ham steaks and fried potatoes, and added scrambled eggs. They set the table and called for everyone to gather around. It's so nice to witness teamwork, especially when it's their idea.

Hungarian Nut Rolls

I first made these with Verne's aunt over twenty years ago. Each week before we were married, Verne and I would go to his aunt's home to babysit her two young children while she worked an evening shift, and her husband was in a bowling league.

I taught Verne's much younger cousins many things that they didn't know. You know, valuable life skills, like making happy toast and volcanoes from baking soda and vinegar. In turn, Debbie taught me how to make these. I think I got the better end of the bargain.

Boys Doing Dishes

It's been four long weeks since Mac has been home, and we were all ready to see him for the weekend.

I love how he can't wait to sit down for the meals that I prepare, and how he offers to do the dishes!

I could have them done in a quarter of the time that it takes him to finish them, but I wouldn't have near the fun.

He always recruits a sibling to help. He washes, they dry. The party gets started.

And then they crank up the tunes.

Counters get splashed, and the floor gets wet, but eventually, it all gets cleaned up.

We all laugh, and sing along at times. Except the rap stuff.

I just sit back and enjoy the show during the rap songs.

Macsta da Rapsta. That's his name.

Meringue Pies

Coconut Cream

or Lemon.

When given the choice, several of my family members said, "Yes, please!"

Fortification

Mini chocolate cupcakes frosted with chocolate and coffee cream cheese buttercream sprinkled with a dusting of cocoa powder.

Just a little inspiration for him to continue working on the fireplace.

Chocolate Dipped Marshmallows

I'm not a fan of marshmallows unless they are in hot chocolate or toasted. I've never been one to eat them straight out of the bag. Even so, I got the idea to dip them in chocolate and decorate them for Valentine's Day. I figured my husband and children would eat them, and I would just swoon over the cuteness.

When I saw the pink (strawberry) marshmallows on the grocery store shelf, I knew I had to have them for this project. Who doesn't love chocolate brown and pink together?

What started out as a cute project ending up being a delicious project. These are way better than I could have imagined!

To make them you need one bag of strawberry marshmallows, one container of Dolci Frutta, and sprinkles.

Simply melt the Dolci Frutta according to the directions on the package, dip one marshmallow, and carefully place the sprinkles on it. Stand on undipped end, and proceed to the next marshmallow.

I can imagine these for every holiday now, but those little heart sprinkles are going to be hard to beat.