My friend at Arctic Garden Studio

You know I love to read your blogs and try to keep up with your doings. Well, today while I was reading on Arctic Garden Studio blog, I see Nicole has a cool giveaway going on. So I just had to join and see if possible there's is a chance to win! Go here to check this out:http://arcticgardenstudio.blogspot.com/2011/09/eat-your-books-giveaway.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ArcticGardenStudio+%28Arctic+Garden+Studio%29

I mean how could one go wrong with this? To be able to list the titles of  your cookbooks and be able to find the recipe you want faster! So, I went down to my bookshelves and reorganized them and took these pictures:

And this is not all, because there are magazines and recipe card boxes. I sure enjoy cooking!

I didn't know that I have over 158 cookbooks, pretty cool. Don't you think I might have a chance???? You should enter yourself, it will be fun to see who wins!
I do enjoy reading Nicole's recipes and have tried a few. She lives in Alaska, what an adventure! Although I love reading everyone's blogs and where they are from. I think the old saying is true, "Home is where you hang your hat." Every place on this earth to me has beauty, we just have to find it.  I have lived in 3 different states of the United States and have found great people in each one. But I feel I have many friends now through blogging. Thanks, blog world!

World Bread Day 2009

How could I not bake bread today after reading this blog!

I noticed it last week and have been thinking of what to bake.

Finally yesterday, I have decided to bake our special rolls.

This is another recipe I got when I was in high school and still make it to this day. My mom always made the 'Sweet Rolls' in the 1950 series Betty Crocker book, it makes 1 dozen at a time. She always made 2 dozen for us and a dozen each for the neighbors at Christmas time. They all knew when I would come to borrow a cookie sheet that they would get a pan of rolls back. So I have always tried to pass this tradition on wherever I live, the neighbors love it. My grandchildren expect these rolls every Christmas, and when I dare try something new, they say, "GRANDMA, where are our rolls?"

Here they are, hope you enjoy the recipe! It makes enough to share.

Where would we be without Zorra, to keep us making breads? Thanks for sponsoring this day Zorra!

Easy Refrigerator Rolls

4 packages dry-yeast

4 cups water water

1 cup sugar (* see note)

1/2 cup shortening (can use 1/4 cup shortening and 1/4 cup butter, or 1/2 cup butter)

2 teaspoons salt

2 eggs

12-14 cups flour

Dissolve yeast in water let sit about 5 minutes to proof.

Stir in sugar,salt,shortening and eggs.

Sift flour. Mix in flour with hand until dough is easy to handle.

Turn onto lightly floured board. Knead until smooth and elastic.

Place greased-side up in a greased bowl.

Cover with damp cloth, place in refrigerator.

In about 1 hour, shape into your favorite kind of rolls (I like the knot kind).

Let rise.

Heat oven to 400 degrees, bake 12-15 minutes.

After brown, and out of oven, brush lightly with butter.
Makes 4-6 dozen, depending on type of roll you make.

The original recipe says it makes 8 dozen rolls, if you like super little rolls, you can probably get that many.

Sometimes I make them big enough for sandwiches, other times small for dinner rolls.

*note: you can make this recipe using 1/2 cup sugar, instead of the whole cup.

**I did make this without 1 cup of sugar and used 1/2 cup, still tastes great! More like bread than sweet bread.

Don't know why when I blogged this, that Oct 8 came up. Must learn more about blogging.

Grandkids and grandma in the kitchen!

Last Saturday around 3 p.m. my granddaughter remembered we were going to a church potluck, where we were suppose to make a dish and share it for different contests.

The dinner, I thought started at 6:30 p.m. So we pulled out one of Seth's cookbooks, each found a recipe we wanted to try and got started.

Kalene started first with the recipe, 'Vanilla Rings'. As she was pounding whole almonds into ground almonds, Seth got his ingredients together. I went to the store to buy some yogurt as we were actually out. They did an awesome job, all by themselves and both of their cookie batches came out so delicious!

In the recipe that Kalene chose, she decided to add melted chocolate on top. What a great idea and it made the cookies.

I haven't tasted a sugar type cookie with ginger in it before, Seth's were a light type with just a little crunch as they cooled off. 'Grantham Gingerbreads' is the recipe Seth chose.

I decided to make a bread that I needed to enter a recipe for Bread Baking Day, 'Lemon Poppyseed Braid'. Post is below this one.

When we got to church, we found out the dinner started at 6 p.m., but lucky for us there were others who were late and plenty of food. Everyone was glad I brought bread as only two others did and this helped to be spread around, same with the kids bringing cookies. We must have chosen the right recipes as we didn't take anything home, yeah!

I think everyone who brought a dish should have won, everything was great! Very filling night.

Recipes:

Vanilla Rings

1 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1 egg

2 tsp vanilla extract

¼ cup ground almonds

3 cups flour

• Preheat the oven to 350˚F.
• Cream the butter and sugar in a bowl, or use a food processor on a low speed, until light and fluffy.
• Beat in the egg, then the vanilla extract, almonds, and flour.
• Put the paste into a decorating bag fitted with a star-shaped tip.
• Pipe 2-inch rings on to a greased baking sheet.
• Bake for 8 to 9 minutes.

Recipe by: Deborah Gray

Book: the baker’s bible

Grantham Gingerbreads

2 cups plus 2 tablespoons self-rising flour

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 stick butter or margarine

1 ½ cups superfine sugar

1 egg, beaten

• Preheat oven to 300˚F.
• In one bowl, sift together the flour and the giner.
• In another bowl, beat together the butter or margarine and sugar, then beat in the egg.
• Stir in the flour mixture and combine well.
• Roll the dough into a walnut-sized balls.
• Place the balls on a greased baking tray and bake for about 40 minutes until crisp, hollow, and lightly browned.

*Note: These round puffy gingerbread cookies should be “hollow and slightly dome-shaped, with a pleasing fawn tint.”

Recipe by: Deborah Gray

Book: the baker’s bible

A Wheat Bread

I made some wheat bread with the wheat levain and decided to make some rolls, along with the bread. The bread was beautiful until I took it off the towel and put into the oven. Once that happened the bread sunk a bit.

But the rolls and bread tasted just fine. Here are the pics. A picture of the dough, ready for the 1st rising.

The rolls and bread rising, doesn't that look yummy. Then the finished rolls, some with buttered tops, some without. I've decided it didn't matter if there was butter or not. And the bread not as pretty, but tasted great!

Any hints on how to take the bread from the tea towel to the oven without falling?