MerryHeartCrafts.comMountain Momma… Country Living

Pizza Dough/Breadsticks
 

3 cups bread flour

1 cup warm water

2 Tbsp sugar

1 Tbsp honey

1 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tsp salt

1 Tbsp yeast

Mix flour and salt.  Put yeast and half the flour in the mixer.  Mix the sugar and honey into the hot water until dissolved.  Pour mixture into bowl and use dough hook for about 2 minutes.  Stop mixer. Add olive oil and the rest of the flour.  Knead for 5 minutes stop mixer for 5 minutes then start mixer and knead again for 5 minutes.  Turn out on a lightly floured surface and shape into a ball.  Place in the refrigerator in a lightly sealed container coated with olive oil for overnight up to three days.

I did not put mine in the fridge and it turned out great.  I rolled out 16 breadsticks and 1 personal pan pizza from this recipe.  I let them rise for about 30 min.   Bake at 400 degrees for 12 min.  I then removed the breadsticks and turned the oven up to 450 degrees for an additional 5 min for the pizza.  On the breadsticks, I spread garlic butter while they were hot then sprinkled parmesan cheese mixed with a little kosher salt on top. 

Note:  This recipe was adapted from a recipe I found on line at pizzamaking.com

I thought I would give you all a break from festival pictures today.  Underneath these two trees sits my “green swing” which as you know I dearly love.

This is a picture of a late blooming hollyhock.  See how tall it is.  Our house is a two story house and if you look in the upper left corner of the picture you can see the edge of the roof on the house.  Just look at how blue the sky is today.  God is so good!

Our grapevine getting ready to rest for the winter.

Cows in the field behind our house.

Today I am trying a new recipe.  Well, not completely new, I have made it once before.  The other time I made it in the oven.  Today, I am making it in the crockpot.    The recipe is called Honey Baked Lentils and Rice.  

1 cup lentils, 1 cup brown rice, 4 1/2 cups water, 2 tbsp honey, 2 tbsp soy sauce, 2 tbsp olive oil, 2 tbsp minced onion, 1/2 tsp ginger, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, salt and pepper to taste (I used 1/4 tsp each).  Place in crockpot, cook on low for about 4 hrs or until lentils are done.  You can also cook this in the oven in a casserole dish for 1 1/2 hrs at 350 degrees.

School today as usual.  It is an absolutely beautiful day here in Floyd.  I am doing another batch of apples in the steam juicer and will be making applesauce later on today.  I also want to go up on the hill and gather some mullein leaves to dry for making tea.   This tea is very good hot or cold and it is very good for respiratory ailments.  I usually just pick it in the summer and make a cold tea from it.  I have never tried drying it before. 

Our supper tonight will be bbq made from the remainder of the roast I coooked yesterday.  Homemade buns, home fries and the honey baked lentils.   I think we will have peaches for dessert.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

Today, we worked on making spaghetti sauce.  I got this recipe from Sally, our pastor’s wife.  We really like it. 

Spaghetti Sauce

Scald and peel half a bushel of tomatoes (we used our food strainer instead), 6 cups chopped onions, 4 chopped green peppers, 1 clove of garlic. Cook for 1 and a half hours, stirring frequently. Add 1 pt olive oil, 1 cup sugar, 1/2 cup salt, 1 tbsp oregano, 1 tbsp crushed basil leaves, 1 tbsp italian seasoning, 1 tbsp parsley, 5-12 oz cans tomato paste, 4 jalopeno peppers. Cook another 45 min stirring frequently. Put in jars. Heat lids and seals to boiling. Put lids and seals on jars. Cover jars with towel and let sit overnight.

The sauce simmering in the pot.   Can anyone guess what we are having for supper? 

Enjoy your day and God bless.

So here are the other pictures I could not get to load yesterday. 

Today we are getting much needed rain.  The fog has already come in so it promises to be a dreary day here in Floyd, a good day for a inside project. Temperature is about 35 degrees.  Hopefully, this will all be rain.   I am hoping next week to get some outside work done here.  All the trees and bushes need trimming, along with the grapevines.   We also need to do some cleanup in the blackberries.  Not my favorite job.  The thorns are hard to work with but it has to be done if we want to enjoy the berries.   I love outside work.  In my opinion, so much more fun than cleaning house.   I am already looking forward to enjoying  fresh fruit and veggies. 

I added a little bit to my menu  last night.  One of our favorite things to eat in the spring is wilted lettuce and green onions.   Hubby likes pinto beans with his.  So I purchased some fresh baby greens at the store, put a little chopped onion on top.  Then I heated olive oil  (shameful but I did not have bacon grease).  Next step is to pour some of the hot oil on top of the greens and onions, then top it off with pinto beans.  A big chunk of cornbread finished it up.    It was not as good as it would have been fresh from our garden but it definitely was good.  

Enjoy your weekend and God bless.

I use my Zojirushi bread machine to make the dough for my rolls.  I put 1 cup lukewarm water into the machine, 1/4 cup butter-cut into chunks, 1egg beaten, 3 1/4 cups bread flour, 4 tbsp sugar, 3 tbsp powdered milk, 1tsp salt, 1 1/2 tsp yeast.  Set the machine to dough cycle and walk away.  It takes the machine l hr 50 min. to run through this cycle.  Then I take the dough out, punch it down and form the rolls.  I get about 15 rolls from 1 batch.  Then I spray them with olive oil and let them rise for about 1 hr.  Bake 12 min. at 425 degrees.  When I take them out of the oven, I brush them with melted butter(being generous with the butter).  Half of these never make it to the table.  They get eaten as soon as the butter is spread on them.  One thing I do a little different from this recipe is I put 1 1/4 cup fresh ground wheat flour and 2 cups bread flour instead of using all bread flour.  I also have lowered my heat to 400 degrees because the pans I use are darker pans.  I have just discovered they do so much better using 3 round cake pans-8 rolls per pan than they do on a cookie sheet.  Hope you all enjoy this recipe as much as we do.  God bless.

Here are some pictures of the fun we had last Thursday on Jess and Daniel’s visit.  In the first picture, we are outside playing, the next picture is coltsfoot (one of our earliest wildflowers to bloom).  We took a ride around the farm in “MawMaw’s bumpy truck”.  On the tractor road, we spotted these kildeer walking on the road.  Jess took the picture from the truck.  I think they might have a nest somewhere close as they did not want to leave thier area.  The last picture is Daniel, thinking.  I am not exactly sure but it looks like he is trying to figure out how to get the sawdust in his wheelbarrow.  We had lots of fun!

Tonight’s menu is pork tenderloin on the grill, french fries and corn on the cob-frozen from our garden last year.  I gathered some rhubarb today and plan to make rhubarb dumplings for dessert. 

Rosemary Marinade Recipe

1/3 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup lemon juice

2 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp minced garlic

2-4 tsp dried rosemary-crushed

Combine all ingredients.  Pour over beef, chicken, or pork. (I use this on all types of meat).   School is finished for today.  Time to enjoy the sun.  We got our bikes out today, pumped up the tires,and oiled the chains.  We rode for a little while.  Long enough for me to discover how out of shape I am.  It will take a while before I can keep up with the girls.  I hope to work some on the garden this evening.  We have some clean up to do before Hubby can plow.  I hope you all enjoy your evening.  Take care and God bless.

A picture of the field.  I was hoping it would show how the sun was glistening off the snow.  It was absolutely beautiful.

Our road after the tractor had made a path.

Going up the hill beside the hay barn.  Yes, that brown spot proves there is still dirt under all this snow.

Guess what?  We’re supposed to get more snow tomorrow.  Not much though-about 3″.  After all this, we probably won’t even notice 3 more inches.  Anyway, we have company coming over today.  My brother-in-law and his wife are coming.  I made homemade vegetable beef soup(cooked on the wood stove, of course)and I’m making  rolls as I type this.  I use my bread machine to mix and knead the dough.  I love this machine.  It is a Zojirushi.    

I bought it used several years ago and consider it a very valuable helper.  I put 1 cup lukewarm water into the machine, 1/4 cup butter-cut into chunks, 1egg beaten, 3 1/4 cups bread flour, 4 tbsp sugar, 3 tbsp powdered milk, 1tsp salt, 1 1/2 tsp yeast.  Set the machine to dough cycle and walk away.  It takes the machine l hr 50 min. to run through this cycle.  Then I take the dough out, punch it down and form the rolls.  I get about 15 rolls from 1 batch.  Then I spray them with olive oil and let them rise for about 1 hr.  Bake 12 min. at 425 degrees.  When I take them out of the oven, I brush them with melted butter(being generous with the butter).  Half of these never make it to the table.  They get eaten as soon as the butter is spread on them.  One thing I do a little different from this recipe is I put 1 1/4 cup fresh ground wheat flour and 2 cups bread flour instead of using all bread flour.  My family doesn’t care a lot for whole wheat so I mix it.  I guess I better go check on my rolls and get ready for company.  God Bless.