Sweet Dough

2 1/2 cup warm milk
2 T yeast
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup melted or very soft butter or oil
2 tsp salt
7 cups whole wheat flour (or white flour if you prefer)

In mixing bowl, stir all ingredients together for about one minute. Allow dough to rest for ten minutes. Knead dough for five minutes, adding more flour if necessary. The dough should be soft and slightly tacky.

Place dough in a greased bowl. At this point, you can refrigerate the dough for an overnight rise, or allow it to rise at room temperature until double.

After it has risen (or within the next couple days, if you refrigerated the dough) shape the dough into the bread you desire.

I got this recipe from http://homejoys.blogspot.com/2011/02/sweet-dough.html

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

Marie’s Pumpkin Roll
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup pureed pumpkin
1 tsp lemon juice
3/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup chopped nuts
powdered sugar

Beat eggs on high 3 min.  Gradually beat in sugar.  Stir in pumpkin, lemon juice.  In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients.  Fold into pumpkin mixture.  Spread into a greased 15X10X1″ pan.  Top with nuts.  Bake at 325 degrees for 15 min.  Turn out onto a towel sprinkled with powdered sugar.  Starting at the narrow end roll towel and cake together, cool and unroll.  Use wax paper to turn it out on. 

Filling

1 cup powdered sugar
6 oz cream cheese
4 tbsp butter-softened
1/2 tsp vanilla

Beat until smooth.  Spread over cake roll.  Roll up pumpkin roll and chill well.

I thought I would show you all a picture of mullein.  The girls and I went gathering it this morning.  We got quite a lot.

I then looked it  (I think this might be a mountain term) and removed any that did not look good.  I have the first batch in the dehydrator now.  As I said yesterday, this is the first time I have tried drying it.    I will show you all pictures of it after it is dryed.   I usually just gather the leaves and make a tea from them, add sugar or honey and use it as a cold tea.  It is very good cold with a minty taste.   The problem with this is there are no leaves to gather in the winter.  I have never tried this as a hot tea but according to what I have read on line, you use 1 tbsp. dried mullein to a cup of hot water.  Let it steep for about 10 minutes and strain the liguid through a coffee filter or cheesecloth.  You will need to add honey to this, as it is bitter without a sweetener.  This is good for coughs and respiratory ailments.

I have finished drying the mullein and I thought I would just add the picture of it here on this post.

I will store this in an airtight container to enjoy over the winter.  It actually yielded much more than I thought it would.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

This morning as Hubby and I were having our morning coffee together, we saw what we thought were tracks on the pond.  Then we thought maybe it was just where the wind had blown the snow in swirls.  Later in the day, Grace took these pictures.

They look like they are having fun!

Maybe this is a sign of early spring.  They do seem to be here kinda early this year.  Maybe it is just wishful thinking on my part.

Yesterday, for dessert I made an oatmeal pie.  This is one of my favorites, also Julie and Jess.  The recipe is:

2 eggs beaten, 2/3 cup sugar, 2/3 cup uncooked oatmeal, 1 tsp vanilla, 2/3 cup melted butter, 2/3 cup corn syrup, 1/4 tsp salt.  Mix all ingredients together and pour into uncooked pie crust.  Bake at 350 degrees for l hr. 

Okay, so my crust is not too pretty but I promise you it tasted delicious!  It tastes a lot like pecan pie.  Temperatures here are warm-mid 30′s.  We have some sun right now but a storm is supposed to be moving in.  One forecast said 4-5 in of snow.  We’ll see.  Right now though it is nice.  I have clothes on the line outside, hopefully, they will dry before the clouds come in.

Tonights menu is deer bbq, made from the roast yesterday, home fries and slaw.  We still have some pie left for dessert.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

Well, the snow did come yesterday-about 4″.  So no family coming today.  Hopefully, Dave, Jess and the boys will get to come about the middle of the week.  I’m not sure when Chuck will come.  The girls are excited today.  There is enough snow to make snow cream, which is a favorite around here.  There probably will be some sledding today too.  The winds are supposed to start later today so we’ll just have to see how everything goes.  The cows don’t seem to mind the snow at all.

I took these pictures from our dining room window.  Later today, we will be going down to the barn to get milk.  I will try to take more pictures then.

Hubby completely surprised me yesterday morning.  We very seldom get each other gifts at Christmas but this year he got me this wonderful mixer.  He even braved Wal-Mart on Christmas Eve to get it for me.  Complete surprise!  I got up yesterday morning, went to turn the coffee pot on and there it was.  I squealed out loud and he just smiled that beautiful smile of his that always says “I love you”.  He said with all the cooking and baking I do, he thought it would come in handy.  Well, it certainly will.  I made a batch of banana nut muffins in it this morning.  I used a different recipe than I normally use and I think I like it much better.  The recipe is:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour (I used whole wheat), 2/3 cup sugar, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp. baking soda, 1/2 tsp. salt, 1/3 cup applesauce, 2 eggs, 1/4 cup sour cream, 1 tsp. vanilla, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp. allspice, 2/3 cup mashed bananas, 1/3 cup chopped walnuts.  Combine all ingredients.   Pour into muffin tin.  Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 min.  I used my large muffin tin and got 6 muffins.  Very good.

No church today because of the snow.  I sure am glad we got to go Friday night to the candlelight service.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

For the first time this year, the kids got to play some of the games outside before it got dark.  This was a lot of fun and much cooler than in the basement.  I, for one, was extremely hot downstairs but then I should have known not to wear a long sleeve shirt.  We girls got our hair cut yesterday.  I decided to make a batch of  cinnamon buns to take to the lady who cuts our hair.  We all sat down and enjoy them while they were still warm before we started our haircuts.  It was a nice visit. 

Today it has been pretty chilly here in Floyd.  We have kept a fire going all day.  While the girls worked on school, I have been busy making pumpkin puree to put in the freezer.  I used part of the puree to make a pumpkin pie for supper.  It is in the oven now.  The recipe I used is:

2 cups pumpkin puree, 3/4 cup sugar, 1/2 cup evaporated milk, 1 egg beaten, 1/3 cup plain flour, 1 tsp vanilla,  1 tsp pumpkin pie spice.  Stir all ingredients together and bake at 350 degrees until done.  Pie is done when toothpick stuck in middle comes out clean.  Start checking for doneness at about 45 min.  Years ago, we were at a farmers market and this older lady was selling pumpkins, cushaw and other fall squash.  I ask her about a pie recipe for them and she just told me all the ingredient and their measurements, right from memory.  I was of course very impressed.  I hurriedly wrote them down (before I forgot them) and have used this recipe ever since.  It is a favorite fall dessert around here. 

Take care and God bless.

Here is a picture of the apple muffins I made this morning.  They were very good.  I definitely will be making them again.  Thanks for sharing the recipe, Cheryl.  Here is the recipe: 

2 cups flour (I used whole wheat), 1/2 cup sugar, 1 tbsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp cinnamon, 3/4 cup apple juice, 1/3 cup oil, 1 egg and 1 cup diced apples.  Combine all ingredients and put into muffin pan.  Bake at 400 degrees for 20 min.  Next time I make it I will add nuts but I didn’t this time.  Anyway they were really good.

Today has been rain, rain, and then some more rain.  Extremely dreary.  Hubby is having trouble with the van  but has been unable to work on it because of the rain.  We did manage to sneak in a picnic lunch over at the park.  They have a shed there and we were fortunate enough to get to use the shed, otherwise we would have had to come home.  We had hamburgers on the grill, pasta salad and yogurt.  We got some more good pictures to share. 

I hope you all enjoy your day and God bless.