shellebellecreates

my favorite bread recipe

 

I love baking muffins, cookies, cake and especially bread. I remember as a kid watching cooking shows and then trying to replicate their beautiful loaves. I even tried to use as many dishes as possible, the rule in our house was if you cooked you did not have to do the dishes.   In the beginning, I successfully made bricks and not all were even edible. My husband still teases me about some of my less successful loaves he pretended were "not that bad" at the time. I have wanted to share recipes here for some time but I have a very hard time following recipes, I bake and cook with what I have on hand and love to experiment. Often I make the artisan bread but sometimes I need the comfort of kneading the dough. I turn to this bread recipe based on one from a must have vegetarian cookbook, (newly updated website!) I have made this loaf many times without fail, I highly recommend it. (My changes are honey instead of maple syrup which I never seem to have, milk powder for milk, and extra butter.)

Oat Bread with Honey

3 cups boiling water

1 cups dried milk powder

1 package dried yeast

1/4 cup local honey

2 tsp salt

1/2 stick of butter, cut in pieces

3 cups white wheat flour

3 cups bread flour

Step 1. To large mixing bowl add oats, butter, milk powder. Add boiling water, mix and set aside for about an hour. The mixture should be about body temperature. 

Step 2. Stir honey into oat mixture. Add bread flour and yeast. I like to stir it about 100 times and have no idea where that number came from. Cover with towel or plastic wrap. Set aside in warm part of kitchen for about an hour. (I have left it for much longer without problems.)

Step 3. Stir down the dough. Add the white wheat flour 1/2 cup at a time, mixing well. When it is too stiff to stir, use hands to knead in the flour until the dough is no longer sticky. I have a big bowl and knead this time right in the bowl. Let rest about an hour.

Step 4. Punch down dough. Knead the dough on floured surface. Divide dough into two loaves, shape. Place into oiled loaf pans set aside to rise until double.

Step 5. Bake in preheated 350 degree oven about 30-45 minutes. Until tops are browned and loaves sound hollow when tapped. Ovens vary greatly so check loaf during baking.

Step 6. Let cool on wire rack. Enjoy!

priorities

I have been trying to take one small step to accomplish big goals, but I am easily sidetracked or sabotaged into thinking I can't do it.  Today, I started by making a list, not the huge one that I normally write, but three important tasks.(I think I was inspired by this post)  Today it looked like this:

• make delicious lasagna
• go for afternoon run
• wash kitchen floor

 I know that I can manage these tasks, and I know each one is furthering one of my goals. This makes me feel really good. In fact I know today will be a great day! I started with a short yoga session and then it was time for me to be mom and get jay out the door on time. He was feisty this morning! Off he went, a quick story with mo and then I encouraged her to write a newspaper. I then started prepping in the kitchen, I know have soup simmering, bread resting and time to start shredding cheese for the piece de resistance: the lasagna. It is amazing what a little planning can do. I just can't decide what should be for dessert or if I should skip it since we have mounds of Halloween candy...

Have a great day!

Lip balm recipe: batch 1

I used a simple recipe based on the one found here. I had to make it in larger batches so it looked more like this:

• 4 oz beeswax
• 4 oz coco butter
• 8 oz sweet almond oil

75 drops peppermint oil- I will measure this out next time so I don't have to keep count

I have added lanolin, honey and other butters and they work great but for my production line I wanted to keep it simple. I like to experiment and never take notes which is problematic when you want to reproduce it.

I bought everything except beeswax at Mountain Rose Herbs, they have great prices, excellent service and its an all around great company. 

No knead bread

I am still in love with this recipe. The finished bread rivals the $6 loaves from Whole Foods. This batch I let st for a day and a half hoping to impart a bit of sour flavor to it. This made for a really wet messy dough. I just have to let it cool a bit to pass final judgement. I love bread!

Rhubarb Day

Yesterday, I found a pile of rhubarb in the kitchen. A note near it said "weigh it?", what a good idea!(my goal is to grow two thousand pounds of veggies this summer!)  Manthing had harvested 6 pounds of rhubarb and plenty more is still growing. I contemplated making freezer jam with it but was turned off by jello being on the ingredient list. I decided to make muffins, they were a hit and I missed the chance to take a photo. I also made this:

Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble. Yum!

Hot Cross Buns!

"Hot cross buns! Hot cross buns!

One a penny, two a penny,

Hot cross buns!

If you have no daughters,

Give them to your sons,

One a penny, two a penny,

Hot cross buns!

But if you have none of these little elves,

Then you may eat them all yourselves."

--from Family Festivals and Food

I used this recipe. It smells delicious and I am just waiting until after school to eat them with the kids.

Happy Easter!

making: lip balm recipe

Lip Balm Recipe

inspired by a recipe at martha stewart.com

makes about 4 1/2 tins

ingredients:

1 TBS beeswax

1 TBS cocoa butter

2TBS almond oil

squeeze lanolin optional

squeeze honey optional

10-15 drops essential oil

how to:

mix first 5 ingredients together over double boiler 

heat until melted

mix in essential oil

pour into tins

let cool

label

give

and

use

This is my first run of lip balm. I am testing recipes and flavors. I want to make lip balm to sell at our local farmers market this summer. I also want my manthing to use these as promotional giveaways for his company at the coming up conferences. Don't you think supporting a small home based business would be better that made in china? And who really needs another junky pen? 

The initial reviews have been very positive, the lip balm works well and smells great! I just need some help designing a logo and sprucing up the website. When the new tins come in I think a giveaway will be in order :)

Cleansing lotion

This recipe is based on the aloe and calendula cleasing lotion in the Herbal Body Book. 2 TBS aloe gel 1 TBS tea: I used a strong green tea, chamomile and lavendar blend 4 TBS almond oil: I used half plain oil and half calumdula infused oil 1 TBS cocoa butter 1/4 tsp borax 5 drops essential oil Mix and melt oil and beeswax together in double boiler or microwave, heat just until melted. Mix tea, aloe and borax until dissolved. When both mixtures are room temp whisk together. This makes about two weeks worth. This is good for dry winter skin, rich in nurishment for the skin.

edited: this continually separated on me, so i use the liquid as a toner and the rest as lotion!

A final fairwell to summer

Summer days are just a memory, I have sat by the fire to knit but I always had my pile of tomatos. When the frost came in October we brought in baskets full of green goodness. Dutifully my tomatos were ripening on the kitchen counter. They are not quite as good as off the vine and warmed by the sun, but so much better than tasteless winter tomatos from the store. Dinner tonight tomato soup inspired by the Angry Chicken using the last of my tomatos:)

funny how the iphone is great with some photos and then we get this wonky one!

week in review

:finished a hat. not exactly what i was going for so it may be frogged, but it might be saved because it is super soft yarn and makes a good sleeping cap.

:finished plying the yarn and started making my so called scarf
it is all together lovely.

:spun this two ply yarn. roving hand dyed by me :) the colors just make me smile.

:lacto fermentation. kumbucha. beans. and the most delicious pickles ever. recipes based on this book.

:and of course spent time in the er with my little man. update: he is doing fine not taking any pain meds, the cast glows in the dark and we get an xray tomorrow :)