Hopefully this will be a good memory

Baking Bread today. Haven't done that for a long time. I like rolling it around on the counter, kneading it until it's smooth and "elastic." Here's a photo of the dough before it was put aside to rise.

Toasted Oat Bread

5 1/2 to 6 cups all-purpose flour (total)
1 cup rolled oats, toasted*
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons salt
2 pkg. active dry yeast
2 cups milk
1/4 cup margarine or butter
1 egg

Topping
1 tablsp. water
1 egg white
1 tablsp. rolled oats

In large bowl, combine 2 cups flour, 1 cup rolled oats, sugar, salt and yeast; blend well. In small saucepan, heat milk and margarine until very warm (120 to 130 degrees F). Add warm liquid and egg to flour mixture. Blend at low speed until moistened; beat 3 minutes at medium speed. By hand, stir in an additional 3 1/4 to 3 1/2 cups flour until dough pulls cleanly away from sides of bowl.

On floured surface, knead in 1/4 to 1/2 cup flour until dough is smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Place dough in greased bowl; cover loosely with plastic wrap and cloth towel. Let rise in warm place (80 to 85 degrees F) until light and doubled in size, about 30 to 45 minutes.

Grease two 8x4 or 9x5-inch loaf pans. Punch down dough several times to remove all air bubbles. Divide dough into 2 parts; shape into loaves. Place in greased pans. Cover; let rise in warm place until dough fills pans and tops of loaves are about 1 inch above pan edges, about 20 to 30 minutes.

Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Uncover dough. In small bowl, combine water and egg white; beat slightly. Carefully brush on loaves; sprinkle with 1 tablesp. rolled oats.

If this turns out, I'll post a picture!* ;-)

*Oh, oh. No picture... must mean the bread wasn't photo-worthy. (Well, it wasn't. It didn't rise very well the second time. It may be due to the fact that I substituted 1 cup of whole wheat flour for the white. Today is another "enforced stay-at-home day," so I'm going to try again.)

Monday, January 14, 2008

It was the night before I was to leave my parents' home in Clear Lake. My sister-in-law was dropped off with her three grandchildren while their mom and her sister (my nieces) did a little shopping.

We were delighted to spend time with Landon and his little twin siblings:

Landon and his Grandma

Landon and his Mommy

Conner

Kennedy

Here's a video of Landon and Grandma

A Rockin' Good Time!

You never know what will unfold at a family gathering at Christmas-time! In this case, the two adults in the rocking chairs are holding twins. One boy and one girl born a couple of months ago. However, neither of these adults are the parents! But aren't they doing a fine job of baby-tending? :-) Way to go, Scott and Darby!

Good conversation and good memories often start and end with Good Food! :-)

And the other thing that brings about excitement is the opening of presents!
Here's Mommy (of the twins) and her 2 1/2 old!

Mom helps our 2 1/2 year old open his gift... and here's the proud Dad!!! ;-)

Christmas Family Activities

Living out the saying:

"Christmas is for the Birds..." only in the strictest sense!

Here we are (L and "me"), mixing birdseed.

We're standing on a stepladder, filling the birdfeeder with our mix.

The birds will be happy... in the morning!

Speaking of feeding the birds... we're all in the act! Even the two year olds!

M holds a finished project: A tongue depressor coated with thinned peanut butter and dipped in bird seed mix.
The next step is to hang them outdoors.We're almost ready to head outdoors! :-)
The process of hanging them. Daughter C with niece I.Are we done, yet? Son-in-law K with daughter A)

Ta-dah!The birds are enjoying our treat again today. Perhaps you'll see a couple if you click on the snowy picture.
The T girls with Grandpa and Dad "on the farm."
Girls and Grandpa
Grandpa's collection of deer antlers."Size chart."

The Making of Christmas Memories

Some little friends of mine (and a mom) were here on Thursday, Dec. 20. I'd made a batch of sugar cookie dough. We "each" rolled some dough and cut out one large cookie and one star. Here are pictures of the cookie painting. Egg yolk paint is made with an egg yolk (in this case, we used two). Dividing the yolk between dishes, put 4 - 5 drops of food coloring in each dish and mix well). Use small paint brushes to paint the cookies before baking.





I'm sorry we didn't get an "after photo." They turned out great, though!

Here Are the Recipes

Wisconsin Cranberry Growers' Favorite Recipes is the name of the cookbook that we purchased in Wisconsin earlier. It was first printed in Nov. 1991, second printing in April 1994, third in June 1997 and fourth in Oct. 2004. To purchase one yourself, contact Wisconsin Cranberry Discovery Center at www.discovercranberries.com. or (608)378-4878. I really don't remember the cost.

These are three recipes I used before Thanksgiving. They are all very good. The Cranberry Pumpkin Bread received rave reviews from several people! (I made this recipe 3 or 4 times. I actually doubled the recipe each time and made one regular sized loaf and 3 small loaves from each batch.) I've given away several small loaves. I've frozen the others for future use or giveaway. :-)

Cranberry Pumpkin Bread

This recipe is very moist and very delicious. (Not that it makes a lot of difference, but I was thinking of grandchildren perhaps not appreciating large "foreign objects" in their food. So, instead of using whole fresh cranberries, I chopped them. I also a little less sugar.)

1 1/2 cup sugar 1/4 tsp cloves
1/2 c. shortening 1 cup pumpkin
2 eggs, beaten 1/3 c. water
1 tsp. baking soda 1 2/3 c. flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder 1/2 cup chopped nuts
1/2 tsp. salt 1/2 c. whole cranberries
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Cream sugar and shortening together. Beat eggs well and add to creamed mixture. Add baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, cloves, pumpkin, water, and flour; mix well. Fold in nuts and cranberries. Put in a greased bread tin. Sprinkle top with sugar and bake at 350 degrees for about 1 hour or until done. (test with toothpick)

Cran-Yogurt Muffins
(I chopped the cranberries)

1 c. oatmeal 1 tsp. salt
1 c. plain or vanilla yogurt 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 c. cooking oil 1 tsp. baking powder
3/4 c. brown sugar 1 1/4 c. cranberries, halved
1 egg 3/4 c. walnuts or pecans
l c. flour 3/4 c. coconut

In a large bowl, combine oatmeal and yogurt. Let stand for 10 minutes. Add oil, sugar and egg; mix well. Sift in flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Fold in cranberries, nuts, and coconut until just blended. (If you use the dried sweetened cranberries, reduce the sugar to 1/2 cup.) Spoon into muffin tins. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Makes 12 - 16 muffins, depending upon the size of the tins.

Cranberry-Pumpkin Muffins

2 c. flour 1/2 tsp. allspice
3/4 c. sugar 1/3 c. cooking oil
3 tsp. baking powder 2 eggs
1 tsp. salt 3/4 c. pumpkin
1/2 tsp. cinnamon 2 c. cranberries, chopped

Sift together first 6 ingredients; set aside. Beat oil, eggs, and pumpkin; blend well. Add to dry ingredients. Stir just until moistened. Fold in cranberries. Spoon into muffin cups. Bake at 400 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes. Makes 1 1/2 dozen.

Pretty tasty!

Giving Thanks With Pies!

This little invention is one of my favorite tools. My Grandpa Peter had one that we tried using at his house while I was growing up. He also owned the original version of apple trees. They seemed a mile high when my dad climbed up in them to toss apples to us kids! And there were a lot of apples!

No matter how many apples you have, that little peeler, corer, slicer makes short work of them! And it makes baking a lot more fun.

Guess this photo is a bit dark.

One of the pumpkin pies. I used a bit of the extra dough to make the leaves.

And, here are the Cranberry pies.
Yum!