How Many Snows?

There is an old saying that if you count the number of fogs you have in August, that’s how many snows you will have that winter.

I’m not sure how true that is but so far this month we had have 3 mornings with fog.

The geese don’t seem to mind though.

The girls and I picked a bushel of corn this morning. We put 40 ears in the freezer, keep out enough for supper, and had a few bags of corn cut off the cob for the freezer. We also picked almost 1/2 bushel of tomatoes. We will be using these to make spaghetti sauce one day this week. I am also trying a recipe for sourdough bread using my bread machine to work the dough. I’ll let you all know how it turned out.

We had a great weekend with the grandkids. Chuck brought these scooters for everyone to ride.

And a toy for him to play with.

We then went for a ride in the bumpy truck. Irma had never ridden in the back of a truck before. (I know, I just couldn’t believe it either). Sunday we had our church breakfast at Smart View Park. David and Jess came up. They had Katie dressed in the little dress and hat the girls had made her. She looked so cute in it. Later in the afternoon, we all went for another ride in the bumpy truck. Daniel so loves riding in “his” bumpy truck.

Well, that’s about it for now. I hope you all have a great evening and God bless.

August 6, 2012 5

French Bread

I got this recipe from my blogger friend Cheryl at https://holcombfamilyrecipes.wordpress.com/ I did alter it some as I wanted to use my bread machine to make the dough.

1 cup warm water, 3 1/4 cups all purpose flour, 4 tbsp. sugar, 1 tsp. salt and 1 1/2 tsp. yeast. Put into bread machine and set on dough cycle. When cycle is finished, take out on floured surface, flatten dough and roll into a long roll. Pinch ends and let rise for about l hr. I put mine in my oven and turn the oven light on. Then bake at 350 degrees for 15 min.

Garlic butter for making garlic bread

1 stick butter- softened, 2 tsp. minced garlic, 1 tbsp. dried parsley. Spread onto bread and toast.

February 22, 2012 0

Butter Rich Roll and Bread Dough

1 cup water-room temperature. I put use regular tap water heated in microwave for 20 sec. 1 egg beaten. 1/4 cup butter-cut into cubes, 3 1/4 cups bread flour (I use 1 cup fresh ground wheat flour and 2 1/4 cups bread flour), 4 tbsp sugar, 3 tbsp powdered milk, 1 tsp salt, and 1 1/2 tsp yeast placed in the center of the pan. Set bread machine on dough cycle.

When cycle is finished, turn dough out on floured surface. Knead slightly, just enough to punch down dough. Choose now what you want to make with your dough. If making dinner rolls or hamburger buns, shape small sections of dough into round shapes. This will make about 15 rolls depending on how large or small you make them. Place rolls on cookie sheet, spray tops with oil spray. Let rise 1 hr. Bake at 400 for 12 min. Remove from oven. Brush tops generously with melted butter. Enjoy!!

December 30, 2011 1

Happy Thanksgiving

Hello ladies, I’m sorry I haven’t posted in a while. For some reason, things have been busy around here and it’s been difficult for me to make a post. Grace is feeling better and I thank you all for your prayers for her. So far, we have been blessed that no one else has gotten sick.

We are on Thanksgiving break from school. The girls are very happy. Today is planned out as just a fun day. We will watch a movie, The Prince of Egypt, also play a few games, and listen to Christmas music. I will also be busy baking today. We are doing Thanksgiving at Jessica’s. Everyone is bringing something. I am to bring the rolls and the ingredients for punch. The punch we all love is called Angel Punch. Jessica’s grandmother, Marie would always make this punch at Thanksgiving and Christmas. We really like it.

My bread machine just beeped so it is time to start shaping the rolls. I better get busy. I pray you all have a safe and happy thanksgiving. God bless.

November 23, 2011 7

Fresh Bread

Very few things say home more than fresh baked bread. Clothes hanging on the line run a close second in my book. I just pulled this bread from the oven and thought it looked soooooo good. It smells delicious too. I tried a different recipe today and am hoping it will be good. I needed a good sandwich bread recipe. Here is the recipe I used:

1-1/3 plus 1tbsp. water, 2 tbsp. butter, 4-1/4 cups flour, 3 tbsp. sugar, 2 tbsp. dry milk, 1-1/2 tsp. salt, 2 tsp. yeast. I put these ingredients into my bread machine on dough cycle and let it do its job. When the cycle was finished, I took the bread out of the machine, shaped it into a loaf and put it into my loaf pan. If you do not have an extra long loaf pan, you will need to make 2 loafs. Bake at 350 degrees until done. It takes about 30 min. in my oven.

I also have been working on apron patterns and I think I have decided which one to do the matching aprons in. I just have to adjust the pattern a little to compensate for what I don’t know how to do. I will show pictures soon. By the way, thanks Dave, for fixing my problem on the computer.

Warmer temperatures here today-35 degrees. Hardly any wind. A really nice day. I have to go raid my material stash. I will need a piece large enough to do all 3 aprons. I’m not sure I have anything. Hopefully, I will, as I would like to get started on them today.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

January 15, 2011 4

Beautiful Morning

What a wonderful way to start a Sunday morning! Sitting on my front porch, drinking a cup of coffee with my favorite man in the whole wide world, and looking at this special presentation from the Lord. Beautiful! We had a really good weekend. We watched the movie “Fireproof” Saturday evening with some friends from church. Then our Sunday School lesson was on marriage. This was not planned to be that way-just our Lord at work. I said we had an unplanned marriage retreat weekend. We started the day with the beautiful sunrise and then on the way to church last evening the Lord gave a beautiful sunset to look at all the way to church. (of course, I did not have the camera with me then) How good is the Lord we serve?

Here is a picture of my first attempt to make english muffins. They turned out pretty good-a little dense I thought but good. I used a recipe I found on line to make the dough in my bread machine. Next time I think I will try making them by hand to see if they are different. I am trying really hard to make as much of our food at home as possible. This really lowers the grocery bill and of course is healthier for us and usually tastes much better. Well enjoy your day and God bless.

November 15, 2010 2

Fall

Hubby took this picture from our dining room window. I think the dogwood is looking very pretty. Yesterday was a busy day. Remodeling always makes the whole house a mess, not just the area where you are working. Our house seemed to me to be very chaotic. The girls and I took some time before school to straighten up a little. Then we decided to take a morning walk. It would have made a good picture. Myself, Julie, Grace, our two dogs and one kitty cat. The little black cat, Moon, always loves to go on walks. She was very tired when we got back and had to take a long nap under the maple tree. Hubby got the first coat of mud on the drywall yesterday evening. It is starting to look more and more like a room now. Gets me excited thinking things will soon get back in order.

Today seems to be another beautiful day. Yesterday was very nice-sunshine, warm temperatures, breezy, a nice day for drying clothes outside. We made homemade doughnuts yesterday. They turned out okay, I guess. The girls and I did not care a lot for them, but Hubby thought they were good. He likes doughnuts much more than we do. I made the dough in my bread machine and then fried them. If I do them again, I think I will try baking them. A blogger friend of mine bakes hers and they like them better. I did discover though, the doughnut dough is excellent for making garlic bread sticks. The girls liked them better than the ones I did the other evening. The recipe I used is:

1 1/4 cups milk, 1 beaten egg, 1/4 cup shortening, 3 1/2 cups flour,1/4 cup sugar, 1 tsp. salt, 1 1/2 tsp. yeast. I put this in my bread machine in the order listed. Set it on dough cycle and let it work. I love that.

Today I think we will make some cookies-chocolate chip of course. They are the girls favorite-not mine. I am not much of a chocolate person. I know that goes against all nature-for a woman to not like chocolate- but I just don’t care a lot for it. Well, we better get started on our day. Take care and God bless.

October 19, 2010 2

More Snow Pictures

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.

February 8, 2010 3