Soaked Whole Grain Bread

This was an amazing, easy recipe that husband, daughter, grandson, kids’ ministry team, and I all enjoyed!  I made it for my team leaders meeting, and along with the vegetable beef soup (made with my homemade beef stock), it was a well received lunch.

To make the bread start the night before you’ll bake it.  Combine 3 cups flour (I used whole wheat and kamut) with 1 cup warm water and 2 Tbsp raw apple cider vinegar.  Mix well with a wooden spoon, then cover the bowl tightly.

The next day:  proof yeast using about 2 ounces warm water, a little honey, and 2 tsp yeast; let sit until it bubbles up; add to soaked mixture.

Then add:  2 Tbsp melted coconut oil, 1-2 Tbsp honey, 1 tsp salt.

Mix thoroughly; knead til smooth.  Let rise in an oiled bowl til doubled.  Punch down and shape into a loaf (I made rolls instead); let rise again til doubled.  Then bake at 350F for about 30 minutes (even the rolls seemed to need that much time).  Success–they were light, tender, great tasting!  Now I’ll try a loaf of bread.

(recipe slightly adapted from the blog: Cracking an Egg with One Hand)

It’s spring…already?

Predictions are for the weather to be in the 50s this week–that’s a major blessing after the tough, long winter we had last year!  Going out in the greenhouse this noon I found 7 little pea shoots making their way out of the ground, along with the little bed of spinach coming up nicely and even my late addition of kale making a showing.  The French breakfast radishes, speedy little guys that they are, are filling in nicely and I’m anticipating adding them to our fresh salads before too many more weeks pass.  A fairly small bed of salad greens wintered over nicely and now are genuinely growing.  We can feast on salads again!!  And then the new bed of greens is coming along nicely, but it won’t be eating size for quite awhile.  It’s always a matter of planning ahead, checking my notebook to see what worked before, and a little bit of trial and error.  Never fails to feed my hungering, thirsting soul.

Maybe this afternoon (after or before short nap and walk?) I can get a few broccoli seeds in the ground in there.  Usually I winter over some broccoli, too, but that didn’t happen this year.  It’s time, too, to begin seriously planning for spring and summer gardening outside.  I like to grow heirloom tomatoes, sell a few, and give the surplus away.  I’ll pull out my tomato marketing plan from last year, revise it a little and get it out there and available.  Amazing that we can be that far into spring already:-)

I’d love to hear from other “inland northwest” gardeners, especially if you use unheated greenhouses for food crops.  Let me know what you’re eating, planning, planting right now.

Planting Time!

This morning grandson and I spent a good hour out in the greenhouse–outside its lower 40′s, inside lower 70′s.   Aaaaah.  This is my very favorite time of year to be working inside where it genuinely feels like spring though there’s still a bite in the air outside.

We planted the kale seeds that had come in yesterday’s mail, hopeful that the warmth and increasing light will speed germination.  Kale is way too expensive this time of year to buy at the market, but I do it anyway for green smoothies most every morning.

So now we have a bed of salad greens (a mixture that I planted early last fall to eat in the winter) there for the picking, and we also have another bed of greens plus early peas and radishes.  A friend and I planted those two weeks ago, but the weather hasn’t yet cooperated enough to get them boogying.  There are a few salad starts (tiny and tentative), but nothing else popping up yet.  I planted a small section of bloomsdale spinach last week–nothing there yet either.

It’s a waiting game, one I’m not very good at right now.  I want to see these vegies up and growing!  With the greenhouse, it’s still a guessing game as well.  I’m continuing to learn when it’s best to plant what crop, and which ones are actually worthwhile growing inside.  Some things do just as well outside for us, some things are good inside during certain parts of the year, and some things excell when they’re grown in the protected environs of the greenhouse.  The challenge is constantly learning which is which.

One thing that definitely works (and makes the whole thing seem worthwhile!) is planting salad greens in the late summer/early fall, letting them come up and keep growing through mid- to late-November, then basically sit (pickable but not growing) until sometime in early February when there’s enough light to start new growth.  It’s truly luxurious to have fresh salad fixings–crisp, sweet, juicy–just out the back door in the dead cold of winter!

Still soaking (whole grain muffins, tortillas)

I’m practicing my soaking again; today we had a couple winners. First up was a batch of muffins that is going to make a great basic recipe in my binder. This time I added a mashed banana, both for flavor and for moisture. The recipe comes from Wardeh’s blog, Gnowfglins; it’s a sample tutorial recipe from her upcoming eCourse on traditional food preparation. I’m definitely glad I tried it as it’s going to be a foundational recipe in my recipe notebook. Click here to access Wardeh’s blog and find out about her coming course, and naturally, find this recipe.

My other success story today in the kitchen was whole grain tortillas. I’ve tried soaking tortillas before, but never quite got the product I was looking for. Today’s tortillas were beautiful–soft and pliable, looking much like the hand-fashioned tortillas in Mexico–as well as delicious. My husband and I were both impressed, and this is another “keeper”. The recipe comes from Stephanie at “Keeper of the Home,”  “http://www.keeperofthehome.org/”>.

Soaking is fun–it does take planning ahead, but after that it’s easy!  One of the next things I’d like to try is yeast bread.  Sue Gregg has a sample recipe on her web site; I’ll keep you posted.

Potato Leek Soup

Here’s a great soup for a cold winter warm-up! Never had it before, but I wanted to try leeks. Even though I neglected to end the soup properly (adding creme fraiche shortly before serving), it was super.

To make enough to serve 8 people as a first course or half that many for a main course:

3-4 leeks, peeled, cleaned and chopped
2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp olive oil
4 potatoes, quartered and sliced (might be nice to peel them, but I didn’t)
1 qt chicken stock + about 2 cups water
thyme to taste (fresh sprigs or dried)
1 bay leaf
1/3 cup creme fraiche
salt and pepper

Saute leeks in melted butter and oil until soft. Add potatoes and stock; bring to a boil. Add thyme and bay leaf, simmering until vegies are soft. Add creme fraiche and heat gently, but do not boil. Add salt and pepper to taste, remove bay leaf, thyme sprigs before serving.

**Creme fraiche is very simple to make: use 1 pint good quality cream (raw is certainly best, but do not use ultrapasteurized). Add 1 Tbsp cultured buttermilk, stir thoroughly, cover tightly in a glass container leaving in a warm spot for 20-24 hours until it thickens. This process comes from the NT cookbook, and it is very easy and very delicious.

Roasted Chicken like you’ve never tasted before!

I remembered this special chicken from a few weeks ago…but I couldn’t remember exactly where to find the recipe. Found it, but it took some time. So now I’ll get it posted so it’s there for me to access as well as anyone reading the blog. *Note: this one really needs to be baking in the oven about 3 hours before mealtime so the sauce can be ready at mealtime.

Here it is, fit for royalty in its simple glory (if you like garlic like we do!):

1 whole chicken (farm pastured if you can get it)
1 onion, sliced
2 heads of garlic, cut in half
fresh rosemary or another fresh herb of choice (oregano, thyme…)
about 3 Tbsp melted butter
salt and pepper to taste

Strew onion slices over the bottom of a roasting pan. Then place the two garlic halves cut side down over the onion. Put the rosemary sprigs in the chicken’s cavity and place the chicken, breast down, on top of the onion and garlic. Brush the chicken with melted butter, season with salt and pepper. Bake in a 375F oven 1 hour, then turn chicken over, brush again with butter and finish with another hour in the oven.

Then for the yummy sauce:

½ cup dry white wine
1 quart chicken stock (homemade is definitely nice to have)
1 Tbsp gelatin

Remove chicken and garlic heads from roasting pan. Add wine and bring to a boil, stirring any stuck bits from sides and bottom of pan. Then add chicken stock and gelatin; vigorously boil until reduce by half. Strain into a small saucepan and keep warm over low heat.

Source of recipe: Nourishing Traditions

A very good read!

I just finished an enjoyable, inspiring book. Mudhouse Sabbath seemed as unlikely name for such a powerful little book, but there it is. Author Lauren Winner, Jewish by birth becoming a Christian believer in adulthood, writes with both passion and sincerity.

Having infused her Jewish cultural background into her Christian practice, she writes with a deep richness. She speaks of the concept of sabbath, for example, showing how the western church has lost sight of the true meaning of sabbath. It’s not so much a day to do as we please, but rather a day to devote to the Lord, to focus on Him and to rest in Him. It’s a day given over to worship of our Creator.

To touch on a few interesting areas in the book, I appreciated Lauren’s explanation of the grieving process as experienced by a Jewish person. It reminds me of the book of Ecclesiastes, with there being a time for each phase of life. She conveys the importance of ritual in daily life without negating the spontaneous, Spirit-led aspects. It’s important to the Jewish person to experience vital community involvement in all stages of life. A friend pointed out to me, too, how Lauren’s take on fasting was refreshing, revitalizing.

It was a quick little book, but I enjoyed it and came away inspired and energized.

2010 goals and budget completed!

Over the last few days we have finished up our budget numbers for this year as well as our goals for 2010.

I revised my Budget Worksheet again to make it easier to track. Sometimes it would be so appealing to be in “normal” circumstances instead of dealing with rental income, a re-established small business, housing allowance expenses that need to be carefully tracked because we pastor a church. However, if God wanted life to be “normal,” I’m sure He would have limited the desires of our hearts and the gifts He has placed in us. Somehow I don’t really think “normal” would be very exciting! So budgeting is always a little more complicated than I’d like to keep track of…but, I can’t begin to imagine living without a plan for our resources.

The year’s goals are printed out and ready to post on our bedroom wall just by the door. It’s a great place to be reminded of our anticipated activities for the coming year. We haven’t broken them out by “personal, church, and business” before, but that makes a lot of sense. The best part of written goals is always, of course, the huge satisfaction that comes with crossing an item off as it is accomplished. Sometimes if it’s one of the “biggies,” we’ll celebrate with dinner out or a movie or something special.

If you’re reading this and you haven’t written (and posted where you can see them) your goals for 2010, I’d very strongly encourage you to do that. It can be a terrific motivator, something to help keep you on track.

Another success–new, improved meatloaf

We’ve not been overly excited about meat loaf for several years. “Not bad, but just not great” has been my standard response. Last night I decided to do what I’ve been doing with other meals lately—taking parts of different recipes and combining them into my own creation. I think this one is a another winner!

Ingredients:
2# ground beef (grass fed is definitely best)
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 or 3 cloves garlic, minced
1 carrot, finely chopped
1 stalk celery, finely chopped
3-4 Tbsp butter
¼ tsp dried chili flakes
1 tsp dried thyme
generous sprinkling of ground pepper
salt to taste
1 ½ c bread, cubed (could also be bread crumbs)
1 c buttermilk or cream (I combined the two for 1 cup total)
2 eggs
up to 1 Tbsp fish sauce

Put it together:

1. Prepare meat loaf pan(s), lightly greasing with coconut oil.
2. Soak bread cubes in buttermilk/cream.
3. Saute onions, garlic, carrots and celery in butter until soft; stir in dry seasonings.
4. Combine meat, eggs, sautéed veggies and soaked bread. Mix well, then pack into loaf pan(s). Spread ketchup on top if you like.
5. Bake at 350F about an hour and a half.

Nice texture, delicious tasting!

An Elmo wall hanging for the birthday boy!

Young grandson turned 3 years old on Saturday.  He still enjoys Elmo (along with other Sesame Street characters and Curious George) so I wanted to take advantage of that interest before he got older and decided that Elmo was only for babies!

I printed Elmo out from Goggle Images and drew my design from that, enlarging it probably 3 times or so.  The finished wall hangings (one for his room at home, one for his room here) are 17″ wide, 20″ high including the red border.  I used felt for the colors and zigzagged around all the edges to give definition to Elmo.  He’s “dancing” on a muslin background!  Grandson really likes him, and I definitely had fun making him up.  I’ve shrunk my drawing to a size that will fit a pillow form, so I can now make a throw pillow for him as well.  Actually, I was thinking of perhaps attaching the Elmo figure to the pillow with velcro so it could be taken off to wash and later exchange for another design that would be more age-appropriate.  Any comments on that?

Here’s Elmo hanging on my studio wall:

Dancing Elmo