BBD#15 Glenda's Christmas Bread

I know this recipe is in here, but I have revised it to put into the BBD #15: Festive Breads by http://annarasaessenceoffood.blogspot.com.   I am glad I added the walnuts as I think it makes a better tasting bread. Here is the recipe!

Glenda’s Christmas Bread

Sprinkle these two ingredients in a large bowl and let proof for 5 minutes:

1 package of yeast

¼ cup warm water (105˚)

Slowly start adding the following ingredients and stir as you go:

1 ½ cups sourdough starter – freshly fed

1/3 cup sugar

½ cup butter, melted and cooled

3 eggs

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup pomegranate juice (I used POM® brand)

1 cup whole-wheat flour or whole spelt flour

1 cup shredded zucchini

1 cup dried cranberries

1 cup walnuts - chopped

Now start adding the flour:

5 cups bread flour (up to a cup more for dusting and kneading)

Pour this out from bowl onto flour dusted counter top or table and knead for about 5-10 minutes, adding a little flour at a time until the dough is not sticky to the touch.

Grease a large bowl with a little oil and put the dough into this bowl. Cover and let rise about 1-1 /2 hours, free from drafts.

Take dough out of bowl onto lightly flour dusted counter top or table and start to form the dough into the shape you want, a tree, a wreath or can put into*2 large loaf pans. Cover and let rise about 1 hour.

Bake in preheated oven, 350˚ for 40-45 minutes or until golden brown and surface springs back when touched with your fingers.

Made 1 tree and 1 wreath, can use loaf pans, makes *2-3 loaves (depending on your size pan). Decorate as you wish. The other main difference between this bread and the one on Nov 21, is that I didn't had red food coloring, so when baked this just looks as if it is all wheat bread. We really enjoy this recipe.

A Happy Christmas!

I love Christmas time, and all the excitement it can bring. It also can be too commercialized. This year I was wondering what could be done different. An idea came to me to recycle, so I came up with my own way of recycling what I had. I am not boasting or bragging I just wanted to see if I could do it. What a challenge! Started by thinking of what each family member wanted or needed then went to work on what I could give them, without them saying "oh I've seen this before" or "what is this?"

As I was contemplating, I came across some electrical goodies for one of my grandsons, he love them! Another was a special necklace for a daughter, which I had received from a special country. And so on down the line.

Here are a few pictures of happy people without expensive gifts and the joy of giving. What I didn’t expect was the gifts I received in return; they were all special to me. Some recycled some were not.  We all really had a nice Christmas, as I hope all of you did.

Here are some pictures of a happy family.

Father and Son, Merry Christmas!

I have been wondering what to write this year and have not come up with the words. So I am borrowing from my son and husband. Yesterday, I realized how my son and husband write alike. James has been gone almost six years and McKenzie does so many things like his father. I just felt these two poems are what I needed and so I am sharing. Jim's Uncle Mel used Jim's poem in his Christmas letter with a beautiful sunrise picutre of where they live, it is so heart warming to see the poem with his picture. As I read McKenzie poem yesterday, I saw the similarity. You may not, but that's ok. I really love these poems and hope you enjoy reading them, it brings the real spirit of Christmas to me.

Happy Hoilday and Merry Christmas to all!

Christmas Gifts 

By McKenzie E. Staples
Once a year
People around the world
Find a reason to give and receive gifts.
While filled with good intentions,
Do they remember
Some of the greatest gifts ever given?
Do they remember the Father
Who allowed His Beloved Son
To leave His Celestial Home
To enter a world
Of pain and sorrow?
Do they remember the Son
Who lived a sinless life
Who suffered for our sake
Who bled from every pore
Who painfully died
That we may live again
With His and Our Father?
As we gather with our family
Do we remember
The price that was paid
So that we may be with them
For Eternity?
As we exchange gifts this year,
Let us not forget
Some of the Greatest Gifts
Ever bestowed upon us.
And remember
Those who lovingly gave them to us.
And when we may be tempted
To mistreat another
Let us remember
That the Savior
Who loved us enough
To Atone for us
Loved them just as much.
And may the True Spirit of Christmas
Abide in our hearts forever.

 

The Light Shineth

By James P. Staples

We celebrate light in the midst of darkness:

Hope in the human heart glows strong.

Beyond the power of sense and logic - 

The Christmas Tree, the Menorah;

Even the Yule-log of the ancient tribes -

Who bowed in awe a the grandeur of Creation,

But dimly understood the Creator.

The sun ends its southward retreat,

While winter had just begun.

Yet there is hope in knowing that spring will return:

Triumphant, life-giving;

The heat and sweat of summer,

Autumn's bounteous harvest, And winter's rest - 

For even in cold and darkness, there is renewal

And a season for inward growth.

Each cycle a part of something larger:

The days, the months, and years;

The planets, stars and galaxies;

Birth, death, and eternal life: Ourselves, our families and the human family,

Hope gives us vision beyond the senses, And reason beyond mere logic.

In the season of darkness, we celebrate light, Even the eternal light of our Creator, Sustainer and Redeemer.

 

Need to catch up...

Haven't blogged in awhile. Things happen.

My neighbors had to put the dog to sleep, he was the best dog and we will miss him.

My best friends here in the mid-west had a major fire on their house, which also they lost their dog. But the damage was so bad, I am sure they will have to completely rebuild. This happened on Sunday evening, they were all at a church program and came home to find their on house on fire. On Monday a lot of people, (church friends, neighbors and city friends) were their to help pack up for later use. It was great to see all sorts of people their to help them. 

These are friends we have known since 1986 and seem to find each other when we have moved to differents places since then. It is weird that we both are here in the mid-west. I feel there loss.

We are busy with getting things ready for Christmas, as all of you are. 

So it might be awhile until I write, but wish all of you a Merry Christmas and great holiday season!

God Bless

Snow Today

It is snowing here in the mid-west and cold. I don't like to drive when it is like this as the cars slide. If you are from Los Angeles and come to the mid-west driving is different. You learn new things all the time. So, I visited a new web page today from a lady in Holland and her garden. It is much bigger than mine was and so I sat in my warm room and enjoyed her pictures. She grows lemon cucumbers, have you heard of them? Here is a link to her web page, if you are interested: http://members.lycos.nl/greenheavens/

I got her web address from one of the groups I enjoy through facebook. I belong to the sourdough, organic gardening, my best recipes and others. It is a continual learning of what others do in different parts of the world. For me, facebook, is a good way to share with my family, their pictures and everyday goings-0n.

Winter Cake

I saw a picture of a beautiful wedding cake and so I thought that would be a nice cake for winter time. So here it is, not great as the one I saw but the family and neighbors enjoy it.

A New Leftover

On Fri. night I took the leftover turkey and made my turkey enchiladas. Saturday night we pulled out everything and ate most of that. Thrus. night, their were 8 of us and on Fri., Sat. 10 of us, so there wasn't much after that to have as leftovers. But.....we did have left over sweet potatoes.

I make my sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving, with the potatoes and some apples with a little water and baked until tender. I don't do the added sugar or marshmallows anymore, as no ones eats them but me. So, I cook them for me. The marshmallow got eaten but not the potatoes. Anyway, I took the leftover and pureed them and looked up a recipe for sourdough biscuits and added the puree and now we have sweet potato biscuits. The kids love them! Yeah, now I don't have to eat the leftovers by myself. They went really well with some chile, I made up.

Pictures from our Thanksgiving week-end

Here are some pictures, not many, that we took during our 4-day week-end. My neice and nephew were able to come up on Fri, Sat. We played alot of board games while they were here, what fun! My neice also surprised me with a little 2-cup pitcher she had made in her pottery class. I like it!

Here is a picture of my granddaughter.





Here is a picture of my oldest grandson.



A picture of my neice and nephew.





My neice and younger grandson.



The pitcher my neice made.

White Pumpkin Pie

I haven't blogged for awhile, as I don't know where to start. So here goes.....

I cooked up 3 white pumpkins last week and found out their meat was also white. (Most of the past white pumpkin I have bought has the orange meat inside and makes better pies, so I was surprised to find white meat.) I usually buy one white pumpkin and one orange. This year after Halloween the white was on sale for $1.10 each, so I got 2 along with the one I already had. I went online to see if the white meat was edible and found it was, so for Thanksgiving we had one white and one orange pumpkin pie. I froze the rest for later use. There so much to do with pumpkin that I thought I would spread it out over the year.

Here are the pictures of the two pies. Soren, my grandson, made the orange pie this year. He has helped to make pies the last couple of years. Since their was a little extra orange mixture, we decided to marble it into the white pie.

They both tasted great!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here's to all my friends who are reading my blog.
Happy Thanksgiving!
I am grateful to have such good friends and family.

Question.....

What do zucchini and pomegranate have in common? The recipe below........

Glenda's Christmas Bread 1st Time

I wanted to create a nice bread for Christmas time with the colors red and green. What food could I use to get the colors I wanted? I knew I wanted the shape of a tree. I was going to do cranberries, but didn't know if I could get the bread red enough and I didn’t want the seeds. I was watching the 'Martha' show and there they had the pomegranates. I love pomegranates; my Aunt Mary had trees in her front yard in California. When I was a little girl we would go and visit and pick and eat them to our heart desire, yes we stain our clothes, but ooooh they were so good! So, I knew the red I wanted, now for the green. I wanted it to look like pine needles, so I thought of zucchini. Why not, there is good zucchini bread out there, why couldn't I make my version of yeast bread. I knew I didn’t want raisins, think, think….
Ok, so now I have my colors, what other ingredients do I want? I went to the store for some ideas: I bought one pomegranate, one zucchini and a small package of dried cranberries, enough to make 1 cup. Came home and juiced the pomegranate and let it set over night. They are light in color when you first juice them and darker over night, something I didn’t know, it also separated into 2 shades of pink or red. Today I got my starter out and fed it, so that by noon it would be ready. Alright here goes. You really need 2 pomegranates to get 1 cup of juice. So, what I did was to add water to make the cup with ½ teaspoon of red food coloring, which I said I wouldn’t do, but did. Next time I will buy the Pom® brand of juice and then I won’t need to juice. The bread came out nicely and tasted super good!



The recipe :
Glenda’s Christmas Bread
Sprinkle these two ingredients in a large bowl and let proof for 5 minutes:
1 package of yeast
¼ cup warm water (105˚)
Slowly start adding the following ingredients and stir as you go:
1 ½ cups sourdough starter
1/3 cup sugar
½ cup butter, melted and cooled
3 eggs
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup Pom brand pomegranate juice

1 cup whole-wheat flour
Now start adding the flour:
5-6 cups bread flour
Keep stirring until it starts to form the dough and is smooth then add:
1 cup shredded zucchini
1 cup dried cranberries
Pour this out from bowl onto flour dusted counter top or table and knead for about 5 minutes, adding a little flour at a time until the dough is not sticky to the touch.
Grease a large bowl with a little oil and put the dough into this bowl. Cover and let rise about 1-1 /2 hours, free from drafts.
Take dough out of bowl onto lightly flour dusted counter top or table and start to form the dough into the shape you want, a tree*, a wreath or can put into 2 large greased loaf pans. Cover and let rise about 1 hour.
Bake in preheated oven, 350˚ for 45-50 minutes or until golden brown and surface springs back when touched with your fingers.
Makes 2 loaves.




*The instructions I use to shape the tree:
Take one-quarter of dough and form the trunk, about 1 inch thick and 10 inces long, tapering it broader at the base. Place on a 12 by 18 inch baking sheet with parchment paper. With the side of your hand, press a dent about 2 ½ inches up from the base to indicate beginning of branches.
Divide the remainder of the dough in quarters. Roll one-quarter of dough between your floured hands to make a 1-inch-thick roll about 15 inches long. (If you roll all the dough at once, it may break.) Starting at the top of the tree, twist figure “8’s” down one side of trunk. Roll out another quarter of the dough, as you need it, into a 1-inch-thick roll. Repeat, using the other half of dough to make figure “8’s” on the opposite side of tree. Cross the ends of the dough over the dent in the trunk.

Ciabatta Rolls

This is an Italian type roll made with sourdough (biga), it looked good in the Daniel Leader's book, so I had to bake it along with the pumpernickel yesterday. They turned out great, will make this again. I wanted a nice sandwich roll that I could easily take for lunches and this just might be it. Who knows, I might find another variety. So many bread recipes, so little time.......

Pumpernickel Bread

This recipe originally comes from ‘The Frugal Gourmet On Our Immigrant Ancestors’ by Jeff Smith, 1990 page 148. I enjoyed reading this book a few years ago and forgot about it until Boaz was asking for German Rye Bread. It is interesting to note that all the cookbooks I have, this was I felt the most authentic recipe. I remember making this for my husband because he wanted a dark rye and likes caraway seeds. Well I have change it just a bit, I added rye sourdough. Here is my version of the recipe.

Pumpernickel Bread

Sprinkle into a large bowl 1 package of yeast and add 1 ¼ cups warm water (about 105˚) and let proof for 5 minutes.
Add: 1 cup rye flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
¼ cup molasses (I used 2 tablespoons molasses and 2 tablespoons buckwheat honey)
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
Mix in a mixer with a dough hook for about 5 minutes.

Then add into this 1 cup all-purpose bread flour and mix about 3 minutes.

(If mixing by hand, stir in 1 cup flour with a heavy spoon. Scrape the dough onto floured board. Knead, adding as little flour as possible, until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes.)
Place the dough onto parchment paper and cover with a large glass bowl. (I have never done this step, but did it this time, interesting way to raise dough.) Let rise for about 1 hour or until double in bulk.

Put parchment paper on a baking sheet and sprinkle some cornmeal onto it, set aside.

After the dough has risen, take out of bowl onto a flour dusted counter top or board and knead the dough to into a shape of a 6 inch round. Place this onto the baking sheet and let rise about 30 minutes.

Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. Use a water sprayer while baking. Simply spray a bit of water into the oven now and then as the bread is baking. (I put the round onto a preheated stone and baked about 40 minutes, it still needed a little more time. Also I put a cast iron skillet with ice cubes in the skillet and put it on the bottom rack of the oven for the steam.)

Notes: Next time I will bake just a little longer, maybe an extra 5-7 minutes. Some rye breads call for coffee to darken the bread. I like this recipe because it calls for cocoa, I don't care for coffee, so this works better for me. It does taste a little bitter than most breads, but has a good strong taste of rye. This bread would be great for Ruben sandwiches or a nice light soup that has cabbage in it.

Look what I saw?

As I opened up the shades this morning to the backyard, I saw two yellow iris growing. So I went outside to snap some pictures and decided to see what else was growing in November.

The rosemary is still doing good and some mint. I picked some of the mint and made some delicious tea.

Also my little rose bush with one loney little rose is still growing.

Anyone have a suggestion as how to cover up the rose bush for winter, it is in a big barrel?

Over the week-end I did some baking:

Coconut Cake with Strawberry Filling
I made the white cake from the King Arthur cookbook page 353. I didn't have enough egg whites so tried the Deb El - Just Whites®. It worked! The cake was light and fluffy. We all enjoy it. Sometimes it amazes me when there isn't enough of something and you try what you have on hand and it works. I also didn't have enough strawberries, so I mixed them with some of the frosting for the filling of the cake. It tasted great.
Isn't it fun to make something new?

Sally Lunn Sourdough

Sprinkle:
1 package yeast over:
¼ cup warm water (105˚)
Let set about 5 minutes to proof

Put in a large bowl and mix together:
¼ cup cooled, melted butter
1/3 cup sugar
3 eggs

Next put in the yeast mixture and add:
1 ½ cups sourdough starter

Start adding:
4 ½-5 cups flour and knead all of this together with:
1 teaspoon salt
This dough will be sticky, but knead for about 7-8 minutes adding a dusting of flour on the counter top as you knead.

Take this dough and put into a large greased bowl and let rise for 1 to 1 ½ hours, covered.
While this is rising go ahead and greased two loaf pans.
After the rise, take out of bowl and knead just a bit, then divide the dough in half.
Roll out and make two loaves, put into prepared loaf pans, let rise until to the top of the pan, covered and free from drafts for about one hour.
Preheat oven to 350˚. Bake for about 40-45 minutes, check to make sure the tops are not over browning. If so, then put a piece of foil on top to prevent burning and use the toothpick method to check and see if the bread is done. When done, take out of oven and cool on wire rack.
Makes: 2 loaves


Mostly what I tried new with this batch of bread was instead of rolling the dough out, I stretched it out and folded it into 3rds, then stretching it out again and folding, then took the loaves and put them into the pans. Usually I rolled out the dough and then roll it back again and put into the pans. I liked this method and will use it again. I saw this method on a web and I tried looking for it but can't remember what web page, sorry.

Making of Vanilla - Part 2

Here are the bottles that I use, I buy them from a health food store and then sterlized them, then add the finished vanilla. I use a small funnel with cheesecloth on it, and then pour the vanilla from the quart jar into about 8 small bottles. Label them and they are ready to go!

This is the front of the label.

This is the back of the label. I usually put on a 6 month expiration date, or can use the expiration date from the vegetable glycerine bottle.

That's it, hope you give it a try.

Making of Vanilla - Part 1

I start by buying the best beans I can afford. I have found an internet site, that I buy them from. I've tried a couple sites and like this one the best. (spice fever is the person from ebay)

I then cut up the about 12-18 beans and put into a pot with 1 cup distilled water. I heat until boiling and then them boil for about 1 minutes to get the seeds out and the color started.

I put this into a sterilzed 1 quart jar, with the lid. Shake it everyday, a couple of times a day.

To this I add 16 ounce container of Vegetable Glycerine. I let this set for 2-4 weeks, depending on the color and fragrance I want.


This is the back of the Vegetable Glycerine bottle so that you can see it is a food grade product.

To be continued........

New Recipes

Tried out 2 new recipes last evening for dinner and we liked them! Sometimes we get in the same old rut and fix the same meals over and over again, maybe because as we go down the isles of the grocery store, we know where our favorite food items are, so we buy them.
I was watching Rachael Ray because they had on Michael J. Fox and I wanted to see how he's doing. As Rachael was saying good-bye to Michael and Ryan Reynolds she mentioned she would be cooking a Thanksgiving dinner rolled into one, so I was interested in how this could be done.
Well, it's called: ‘Turkey and Stuffing Meatloaf’ with mashed potatoes and ‘Cider Gravy’. Doesn't that sound different? It looked easy enough and sounded great, so I copied off the recipes got the ingredients I didn't have and made it. Wow, it was pretty good! I asked the kids if I should make it again and we all agree that we could. My son and I said, we liked meatloaf the way I made it but this would do every now and then. My daughter liked this better as she doesn't care for meatloaf at all.
I really liked the gravy, it was different and I am not a gravy fan.
S00ooo, if you want something a little different before big turkey day, you might want to give this a try. It gave me an idea of what to do with the leftovers, changing the recipe just a bit.
Web page: www.rachaelrayshow.com/food/recipes/turkey-and-stuffing-meatloaf

www.rachaelrayshow.com/food/recipes/cider-gravy
Sorry, I didn't take pictures.

Day Dreaming of.....

Days of Yesteryear?

Always wondered if I would say that. I can remember as a child and thinking that my grandparents were wonderful and of course older than I. They would talk of their growing up days and the younger years. Some stories I loved listening to and others, I wish I would have paid more attention to.
Holidays were always fun and exciting to think about just before Thanksgiving. We used to have the week before Christmas off and get to dream of what we wanted and to be able to make or buy some little thing for our family members. Today we just buy, buy, buy and not really think about why we are buying. The children say, I want this or that and usually somehow they get it. My dad and mom usually would make something for us and then buy a toy to go along with what they made. We accepted it and if we got what we dreamed of that was a bonus! We usually had a tradition of where we went to a relatives home the Sunday before Christmas and have a big feast and give and received gifts, (we always had to wait and open them on Christmas). The feast and visiting were always great fun! Our families are so scattered that we don’t do that anymore. I usually have Thanksgiving and Christmas here with the seven of us. I didn’t realize that this has become a family tradition, so to me to switch things around has been interesting. I like change in most things, so I was excited to see if I could get it done. Looks as if not this time, back to the same old thing. We’ll see what happens come Christmas. I suppose when you live in a house a long time, things just do fall apart and sometimes don’t get fixed. I can remember thinking when I visited other houses and it needed work, I thought to myself, how can they live like that? No knowing maybe they just couldn’t fix it for whatever reason. And not helping them fix it up, how selfish of me. Now I look at where we live and I am sure people think the same of me. No wonder I don’t have many visitors anyone! If I had the money and get-up-and-go like I use to, I would love to fix up my house! I know in my head what I want done, just the body won’t get going like it use too.
After all my years, I have finally decided what I do best at, and that is to bake. Breads and cookies and other goodies. No so good at pretty pies, I can bake good pies, just not decorative type. So I would love to have a huge kitchen just to bake. I know I couldn’t bake big batches; otherwise I would be in a bakery. But just to bake for family and neighbors is fun.
I have enjoyed looking at all kinds of blog sites on breads and other different foods. It is so cool that many people have written their recipes and pictures. You all are doing such great work!
Guess I will get off my soap box now and get busy…..thanks for letting me talk it out.
I do hope all of you will have a great holiday season!

Polish Cottage Rye Bread

Today I made some rye bread, again from the book, "Local Breads" by Daniel Leader page 327.

I enjoy reading his little stories of how he came by the recipes.

Luckily I had two rye starters going, as the one I had for this recipe didn't rise, but I put it in anyway and added some of my other rye starter. The only major difference is that I used one teaspoonful of vital gluten, as this recipe calls for unbleached bread flour that is high in gluten. I didn't have that so I just used my regular flour and added the gluten. I wanted to make sure this dough did rise, so I added 1 package of dry yeast, no extra water.

The recipe said the dough would be sticky, as you can see in the first picture, it was. The fermention of the dough turned out great, in second picture. It is rising in a colander, I don't have a banneton. (Maybe as a Christmas gift, from one of my children??? HINT) But I was surprised because I thought it turned out great, as you can see from the picture where the bread is in the oven.

I baked the bread for 40 minutes and did the thumping because a toothpick wouldn't go through. It sounded done, but I think Daniel is correct on adding 5 more minutes in the oven, as the bread wasn't quite done as I would have liked. I think you can notice that from the last picture. But the finished bread was beautiful and tasted great! (Croc, you're right, it does taste like the rye crackers) I enjoyed it with butter and my daughter with some honey.