whole wheat no-knead, 5 minute a day bread at last!

Do you remember the 5 minute a day bread from last year? I went from kitchen to kitchen teaching a lot of my family how to make it. Everyone loved it! This week I tested the whole wheat version and IT WORKED. Yes we have had three loaves now of really yummy whole wheat bread. There are some issues and I'll explain after I give you the recipe.

5 1/2 Cups whole wheat Flour

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 1/2 Tablespoons granulated yeast

1 Tablespoon kosher salt (to taste, I use half)

1/4 cup Vital wheat Gluten (This is a must!)

4 Cups lukewarm water (you can add a teas dried herbs to this water)

Cornmeal or parchment paper

1 to 2 whole seed mixture for sprinkling on top

flax seed, caraway, raw sunflower, poppy seed, anise. etc

You make this just like the white bread, mix it up, don't knead it. Put it in a bowl and let sit for 2 hours. NEVER punch down this dough. Cover lightly and put in the fridge. You have there 4 loaves of wheat bread.

When it's time to bake do just like you did with the white bread, put in the baking stone and a pan below it with a cup or so of water.

Take out a grapefruit size of dough form on your parchment paper and leave for about an hour.

Just before you put it gently in the oven put some slashes in the top to let it push out.

30 minutes before you are ready to bake turn on the oven to 450.

Gently move dough to oven and bake for 30 minutes.

If you cut this warm it will seem a bit damp, it's not usually under cooked it's just needing to cool a touch. Give it 8 to 10 minutes.

If you have forgotten any of this go to......

http://fireflyanswers.blogspot.com/2009/02/you-have-to-try-this-easy-bread.html

Now the only way you can get much of a rise out of wheat (ground wheat grain is sharp and cuts the yeast bubbles, it's also heavy) Is to use that 1/4 cup of Vital wheat Gluten. I got mine at Central Market and I got Bob's Red Mill. It's likely to be a P.C.C or a good natural grocery. I've heard you can order it online also. I have enough for 6 months of bread.

Do try this!

cookies so fast a 2 year old will wait .........

I like to have something up my sleeve for when the grand kids come over. This magically fast cookie was one I used with my own kids when they were little. Now Lilly and I made them yesterday and shared them with the family.

Pudding cookies

preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Makes 2 dozen small

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3/4 cup baking mix (I make my own so it's made with oil but Bisquick is fine)

1/4 Cup salad oil

1 egg

1 small package of instant pudding any flavor

(pistachio and lemon are my favorite)

2 tablespoons of sugar

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl.

Stir until it holds together as a ball

Shape one teaspoon into a ball

place on an ungreased cookie sheet

leaving space for them to spread

flatten

Sprinkle if desired with sugar

Bake 8 to 10 minutes

or until the edges are lightly browned

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Yes they are green but the photos don't treat them kindly. It's a nice soft green!

If you need a body boost.............try this!

Take note: OK I've added this to my posting. If you only buy one walking video this is it! I got this just this week and today I did all 5 miles. I loved it. It's arranged so nicely. You can do any mile and enjoy 5 different power walks or arrange any grouping of miles. I love the way she starts briskly and before you know it you are at 1/2 miles and the best part in the last half you get to do some really fast blast walking. It really felt like a workout. If you used even one of these miles you'd love how you felt. Because each mile is treated as it's own unit they each start slower than the end of the last mile so it gives me a little brake for the first 1/2 mile and then once again blast the last 1/2 mile. It's perfect. I really like this video. You can get them on the web site or I found mine on Amazon.com.

The girls in the family and myself are all working on new healthy lifestyles.

It's only the 2nd month of the year. I surely don't want the year to pass me by on my health goals. Yes it has been warm here in the Northwest but wet is wet no matter how warm and I needed something to boost my calorie burn that was easy to:

1.) decide I wanted to face it each day and make a life long commitment to being activity

2.) start without a fuss ( no drive to a gym or trail, change or load up equipment, open a locker...etc.)

3.) afford, low cost (no money means no gym and very little gas for driving very far so it has to be close)

4.) see my progress so I get excited to do it again

5.) feel my progress as in muscles feel worked but not broken

6.) easy to do and keeps me off the floor (old body, old joints, heavy body don't do up and down well)

So these were my requirements. Bleach boy bought a gym membership for an indoor pool when he was in California and it traveled up here when he returned home. In the two, now three years of swimming three times a week he lost tons of weight. I am not a gym person. I do love it outside and will bike and hike but those don't fit the requirements above.

So here is what I've found is really helping.

WALKING AT HOME

I've discovered a wonderful web site for people like me. It's all about being healthy through walking. You can join the walking club and get a couple different streaming walking video's a month all online. It's so easy for me to wake up, turn on my computer and bring up the web site. Before you know it I'm doing at least a mile. Then later before lunch I do a fast paced heart healthy 2 to 4 mile walk.

I'm sure you are picturing a stroll down the path but this is exercise walking and I feel it.

I printed off the online calendar and am checking off my miles but feel free to write it on the wall or chalk board or in a note book. But do write it! As you see the miles click by you get excited that this will help you have a body boost and burn some calories.

As far as Spark people are concerned when I log a 30 min 2 mile walk I burn 266 calories. WOW

This is why if I can I do more than one walk a day I think I will make headway.

Even right before bed a gentle 1 mile walk is fine, I can sleep and I know that the calorie burning is still going on while I do.

Now where can you test this out, because I didn't believe how good this was until in early January when I started walking? See video's above this post

So after you've used the video's above move to the web site and try the faster video or join the club and have some great food ideas and new walking video's each month for a year. I'm sure this will make my year full of boosting energy and calorie BURN.

Go here for the express one mile. It's fast but on a sat when I know bleach boy wants to go do stuff I get a fast burning 1 mile in.

http://www.walkathome.com/index.php

This site also has all the walking video's to buy and the club to join do take a peek.

If you want something really challenging take the 10 day challenge offered on the web site. There is a menu and a walking plan for three walks a day. If you do this it will burn each meal on the menu off! No calories for the whole day that you didn't burn.

I thought about what this would mean?

That's right I'd have to burn those extra pounds all day if I wasn't burning my meals!

Thank you Leslie Sansone

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Here is a Spark people article on fitness that will give you some ideas also.

http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/fitness_articles.asp?id=194

There isn't anything we can't do!

Like fine dinning!

Every time I serve greens from our winter salad box I feel like I'm eating at a fancy restaurant!

Oh how delicate and fresh these greens taste, so tender a bite. I make a nice lemon and olive oil dressing with some herbs and very lightly toss with the greens, add some pine nuts and serve.

You must try a winter salad box next year, you can see mine in the posting below...some where down with the winter stuff. This nightly fine dining will spoil us!

REALLY GOOD NEWS

At last Bleach boy has a job.

He started today, back in the industry he knows and loves so well.

It took a while for paper work to sort out so in the last week it was like being pregnant and not wanting to tell until you were really sure.

So today we are sure!

Bleach boy has never seemed so happy as he was today. I wanted to bottle it and sell it!

I know this isn't the end of our struggles but it is an answer to prayer and a gift we won't forget. Besides I like a good challenge.......did I say that? Yikes.....I meant like in weaving or knitting. Deep sigh...

Easy to make Gingersnap cookies

Here is a recipe I've had so long I don't know where it came from. Back in the 70's and 80's my friend and I wrote calories on all our recipes so we could loose our baby weight. This recipe has calories on it so it came from back then.

Bleach boy is missing all his high fat treats but this one only take oil and egg which seems better than butter and eggs! It makes up fast, is crunchy if cooked long, or soft in the middle if cooked less. Remove the cookies as soon as they are holding together. They will cook too much if left on the cookies sheet once you take them out.

Enjoy

Gingersnap cookies:

In a bowl stir all ingredients, roll into a ball ( I like walnut size plus) roll in sugar and space well on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 15 minutes for crunchy, 12 minutes for soft middles.

3/4 cup oil (go for the lower fat oils)

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 egg

1/4 cup of a good dark molasses

Stir the above until mixed well and add list below

2 cups flour

2 teas baking soda

1/2 teas salt

1/2 teas. Cinnamon

2 teas. ginger

1/2 cup of sugar for dipping

If you make 30 cookies (that's smaller than my walnut size dough balls) you have 117 calories per cookie. The whole recipe is 3524 calories approx. so count your cookies and divide)

Pumpkin muffins good food when it's cold out

Click to enlarge

Our son came home from Elementary school with this recipe in hand. He just had his birthday a couple of weeks ago and he is now 36 years old so you know how precious his coloring on the recipe is to me. Yes he colored his recipe and now he does art for the Big Movies you go see! This is a tiny class room size recipe. It doubles very easily but if you need a quick treat for a few use this amount. I can smell them baking now! Note: we never get 12 out of this recipe, closer to 9. I guess maybe I like mine larger

winter gardens do they work?

This is the first winter I have tried to have a northwest garden. It was a test. As you can see by my photos some things have grown. This is my lettuce box. I planted winter varieties in late Oct. They were only about 2 inches high and we had weeks of early deep freeze. We installed a light fixture and a 60 watts bulbs has been running day and night. During the deep freeze the ground froze hard on this box. It is on wheels and the cold hits it from the top, bottom and sides.

My side garden on the ground, next to the south wall of the house and surrounded by bales of straw did not have the ground freeze. BUT even though protected with a cover the plants themselves froze. I found the plants next to the bales of straw did not freeze. Now with that freeze a month past the plants have recouped and the garden looks ok. It Maybe that seedlings did not survive as far as I can tell. I have been cutting chard and pulling beets and they are fine. Mostly this is a sleeping garden, a few squares of garlic waiting for spring.

The garden on legs on the North side of the property was planted with fall garlic. It grew slowly with the freeze and for all I can tell will never produce. This box froze solid as it has no protection beneath from the cold. It was covered but that wasn't enough. We shall see when warmer weather arrives. Update late Jan 2010 Lots of garlic and shallots have peeked up. Guess the freeze didn't do all I thought it had.

What did I plant.

Rudolph broccoli

Winter red kale

winterwunder lettuce

arctic kind butterhead lettuce

Giant winter spinach

Provencal winter mix salad greens

5 kinds of garlic (normal fall planting)

I'm not sure what is growing here but it all looks good and much larger and though frozen solid in the roots two months ago it is now growing fine, but slowly. I think soon we will eat it. The chives have come back nicely and I never loose hope when growing things.

This salad box has wheels and I pushed it against my houses outside wall before the freeze.

Any thing that might help my odds.

Update late Jan 2010 We are eating large really tender excellent greens now!

This is the garden on the north side. We flip the plastic back and forth. It's on legs so it froze first, only garlic still growing here. This garden is on the South wall of our house. I put straw bails along the side opposite the house, I have the thermometer here and by the salad table. This garden is always at least 2 degrees warmer than our back yard. I flip the plastic back and forth by the weather. In summer the high PVC poles and the bean wire will go back on. Oh I can't wait! For now it's left over carrots, some beets, a few plants of rainbow chard, and the herbs.

Just in case you need a laugh

By this time I am usually done with winter. When I was raising the five it came sooner than it does now. This will give you a smile to remind you even snow moms' have problems!

Enjoy..

Christmas Tree Potpourri

It's about that time

Soon we will begin taking down the Christmas tree

I'm so sad to see so many artificial trees in homes, lifeless, smell-less, dull...

nothing for later

You get the picture, I like the forest best.

Save a bit of that beautiful tree with this Potpourri

It makes a nice gift for next year, just date it 2009 Christmas tree,

something to spark a good 2010 Christmas celebration.

Christmas tree Potpourri

Collect 2 cups of your Christmas trees small outer branches

Be sure to cut them into small bits 2" or so

The peel from 2 oranges, just peel, cut into 1/8 " strips

and lay out to dry

1/2 Cup Bay leaves

3 tablespoons Lavender buds

3 Tablespoons dried cloves

2 tablespoons of orris root tossed with 6 drops of spice oil (you have many choices here, fragrance oils to essential oils, I like a little clove leaf eo and a little cinnamon leaf eo)

You need to let the ingredients dry completely. Once my tree and oranges are dry I put them in a clean jar and save it until next year. Open and shake from time to time.

If they aren't dry they mold

Around Oct I mix in the other ingredients and return it to the jar to age until Christmas,

Open and stir every week.

You can make this recipe as large as your Christmas tree can provide! You can mix all ingredients now, cure for a month shaking each few days and then storing in and airtight container.

Jars of potpourri make wonderful gifts!

NOTE: you can cut what ever part of the tree you want but no one needs the big branches so stick with the needle bundles. No need to cut the needles themselves. But when you put out your mix, in a glass bowl or pretty bag, be sure and press it with you hand to release the smell of the needles.

The little things that make Christmas happy

I finally got the table cleared of craft projects and Christmas cards and bits of the babies who had visited. Now the yearly puzzle takes over the table.

We love a good puzzle.

Not only does it brings us together to work out a problem area but it allows

us each a moments stress relief.

My mind loves to go deeply into a problem that has no stakes to it. It provides rest from worries and a challenge I can enjoy. This is one of the little things about Christmas that we really enjoy.

I know they make family puzzles with bigger pieces so that all ages can join in.

It draws families to a location like nothing can, and encourages conversation in a causal way. There are many little things that I love about this season.

Sitting in my rocking chair just looking at the ornaments quietly.

So many are from the hands of my children now adults raising their own children. What makes you happy at this time of year?

Set aside the stress you may feel and think for a moment of what makes you smile at this time.

Here is one ornament that always makes me smile.

No it's not on the tree but when our son, (oldest kiddo) made it in grade school

he made it to be a Christmas ornament for the tree.

I can brag at what a good artist he is as he is paid to produce art every day

but back then it was the beginnings of creative thought.

He made a family tree with a likeness of each family member and their hobby beside them.

I don't remember what we are sitting in on the tree, hopefully he will tell us

and also tell us what grade he made this masterpiece in.

I think I'll share an ornament or two in the next few days.

It will give my family a smile too.

Drink water

I've heard it twice now.

I loved to fly places, before it became such an impossible hobby.

I would always get a respiratory infection when I'd fly. A wise friend told me to drink lots of water for 24 hours before I went on a trip. The recycled air, full of virus, can't be avoided but if you have well hydrated sinus those virus can't attach to you as easily.

IT WORKED

Now a couple of nurses I know told me to drink extra water

when I'm going to be around the sick grand kids.

Guess why? Yes the virus's can't get you as easily if you are "wet" inside.

So it can't hurt can it?

Drink some extra water when you know you will be around crowds, little kids, etc.

Besides if you are one of the Spark people you are trying to get your eight cups a day anyway!

What happens when you dump the potatoes grown in a trash can!

Oh how I love to garden!

Fall is not going to keep my delight in homegrown food from slowing down. Today, after several nights of freezing weather, we decided to dump our potato can.

We've had this can for a lot of years but it doesn't aways work out so each time I dump a potato can I get some kind of surprise. I think I'll let the photos tell the story.

I'm cooking some right now for dinner. Yummy! Next year I'm adding a couple more trash cans.

The big green potato tops were melted after the last couple nights dusting of frost

I trimmed them down

Bleach boy spread out the tarp

As I pulled out the dead stems up came this beauty

Bleach boy has the dirt dumped out of my can in seconds.

I use Mel's mix in my can so it just slides out

Oh on first look it I see there are some nice surprises lurking!

Wow that's a big one

Well here they are a bit of dirt clinging

I pulled some potatoes early on so all total it's over 30 potatoes from a small can

One last thought, If you wonder about can drainage here is the bottom.

We don't remember what size drill bit we used but you can clearly see they are nice big holes.

Now is the time to plant your garlic, shallots etc. They use this cold time to put down good roots and lay still all winter and start back up in spring. Then the heat as it begins will make the bulbs produce as they think about going to seed. Such delight nature is.

Is what "they say" true?

I had read that veggies grown up will be straighter than those allowed to grow on the ground. So I tested. I took one vine of the same cucumber and let it grow on the ground and one went up the trellis. Don't let the size difference bother you we collected plenty of straight long cucumbers! You decide if what "they say" is true! Next issue; can you plant your square foot garden even tighter than suggested? Of course you can. I put beets near each corner as well as the normal placement. You can see the beets that lived in the corners are odd shaped and the beets in the middle had the freedom to grow. And YES they all cut up and pickled the same no matter what their size.

It's getting cooler now and you can see the signs of fall in the trees. My thinking goes to cozy food. Here is a favorite pancake recipe and if you aren't from the South you might never have eaten anything like it. These fill you up fast and aren't the most healthy food

(I know because I now have to cook heart healthy for Bleach Boy) but they are VERY GOOD!

Here is how the batter looks, not too thick. If it gets too thick add a bit of milk

They fry up nice and crisp if you use butter on the griddle

Oh and I wouldn't serve them with anything else but real maple syrup. The taste is amazing

from my first cook book

1963 Good Housekeeping cookbook

Southern Pancakes

1/2 cup sifted all purpose flour

3 teas. baking powder

1/2 cup corn meal

1/2 teas salt

1 tablespoon sugar

1/2 cup boiling water

1/4 cup milk

1/4 cup melted shortening (oh do use veggie oil!)

1 egg, well beaten

Sift flour with baking powder.

Into bowl, sift corn meal, salt, sugar. Slowly stir in boiling water; beat well.

Stir in flour

Stir in milk, shortening

Fold in beaten egg

Drop batter by tablespoonfuls onto hot griddle, spread each with the back of your spoon into a nice flat round. Cook until puffy, full of bubbles and the edges are cooked.

Turn, and cook the other side.

Serve Hot

The colors just amaze me

More garden photos. I can't walk out to my gardens without feeling the thrill the beautiful colors give me. There have been plenty of great successes in this years garden. Failure? yes no peas, the bean plants grew but gave nothing, tomatoes are always a disappointment. Not enough heat units. Lots of green ones nothing ripe. The other big frustration is earwigs. They are decimating the cabbage. The salad table was amazing and I collected all of it's basil today and made and froze 4 cups of fresh pesto.

I love watering this garden! Today I hung the squash on the rack with my old nylons!

how colorful eating can be!

left to right, rainbow chard in orange, yellow, pink, bright yellow and bright orange. Chard stays nice when heat would have turned spinach to seed! next a patty pan summer squash, Cross wise is some rhubarb, in the back some boc choi, and then spinach nearly all seed. For this one pot meal I also pulled some onions. I know bleach boy must think I'm a crazy lady taking photos of the veggies that I just washed!

If you can't tell I LOVE to garden.

Unlike my weaving where my favorite part is planning, and the hard work of warping, in gardening it's the eating I like!

Tonight was vegetable soup with a Thai twist (lemon grass and coconut milk)

For dinner I just walked out to the garden and collected a Rainbow to put in the pot!

Garden box update

side garden on the south wall

Oh yes the heat has made some things grow and other things went straight to seed. Compare my garden photos to the ones a few months ago. You can see what we are getting a lot of now! Wow are fresh veggies good. It's never too late to start a small container garden. Do a lot of careful watering in this heat. Avoid getting water on the leaves if you are in the sun, and water deeply. click to enlarge and see all the different plants.

UP Up we go, up the verticals!

kale before

Kale now

Joi choi before

Joi Choi now

Ching-chang a mini pac choi early harvest

baby beets then

Beets (use some of the leaves as they grow for salad) now

China Express cabbage

Rainbow chard, all parts are eatable

egg plant then

Egg plant now

Spinach

Broccoli went to seed before growing much

Potatoes doing wonderfully growing in a trash can

Cucumber then

Carrots then

Carrot now

onions then

Pumpkins then

Basil then

Back yard garden now

left to right, ching-chang, Nasturtium, Swiss chard, more Nasturtium

Behind, patty pan summer squash

Onions, pac choi, nasturtium, basil, basil , rainbow chard behind

onions now