MerryHeartCrafts.comMountain Momma… Country Living

Here on the farm we are blessed to have lots of blackberries.  They are not the thornless kind, however, so they can be difficult to pick.  They are domestic though and have huge berries on them, so it doesn’t take long to pick a gallon.  They looked so pretty  with the snow on them.  My thanks to Julie for the pictures.  We got about 3-5″ of new snow yesterday.  More shoveling!  My peach pie  was very good.  I also made homemade rolls.  I kinda made up a recipe for supper.  We had some chicken left over from Sunday. I sauteed onions, garlic, italian seasoning, and spinach.  Added the  chicken.  Next I added a can of my homemade spaghetti sauce.  Then I added cooked whole wheat penne noodles.  Mixed it all together, added cheese to the top and baked covered 30 min. at 350 degrees.(cast iron skillet of course)  It tasted really good.  Well time for school.  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.