Meatballs

Home made of course.

2 parts burger to 1 part sausage.
Chopped onion (not too much, about 1 onion to 3 lbs of meat)
Chopped garlic (I used 2 large cloves to 3 lbs of meat)
Salt and pepper

Mix it up in your mixer and roll into balls. I made mine I'm guessing I used about 1/4c of mix each. They end up being the size of a plum.

I put them on my oiled stone and baked them at 350 till they were cooked thru, but not to brown.

We put them on top of some noodles and sauce. They were really good. I had some extra mix, so I baked and froze them for later use.

YUM


If you think sausage cost to much, look again. I can very often find a 1 lb log of sausage for $2 at our local grocery store. Burger is at least, if not close to that. So get some sausage to add some extra yumminess to it. Some store mixed breakfast sausage works great too. A great thing to make and freeze for later. David LOVED being able to helped roll the balls.

Honey Oatmeal Bread

This is my favorite bread recipe. It's a little trickier to make, has a few more steps, but it is the BEST...

I got the recipe from my sister-in-law, who got it from her sister. I think it came from an Amish cook book somewhere along the lines.

Honey Oatmeal Bread

1 c. warm water
2 T yeast

Combine and set aside

In the mixer:
2 1/2 c. boiling Water
2 c. Oatmeal

Let the oatmeal and water get mixed well and cool slightly

Add
1 c. Honey
3/4 c. Oil
4 eggs
2 t. salt

Beat well than add the yeast mix

Add the flour 1 -2 c. at a time (a total of 7-8 cups) until the dough is spongy and not sticky (like regular bread)

Grease the top and let it raise till double

Knead down and roll into 3 loaves, grease the top and let raise again.

Bake at 400 degrees for 10 min. than 350 degrees for 25-30 min.
This step is very important, if you try to cook it at 350 the whole time, the inside will not be done.

When it's done, dump it out of the pan and butter. Place in a bag, as soon as it is slightly cooled (about 10 min). If you wait to long to put it in a bag, the crust will get hard. You don't want it to sweat in the bag, but you don't want the butter to dry.

ENJOY!!

I haven't forget.....

I really need to try to post more often huh?? I really do try. I have all these ideas that go around and around in my brain and then get lost when I have the time to sit and type. It has nothing to do with having 4 kids, really LOL..

So I've found and tried a few new recipes I've been wanting to put on here. I'll post them separate one per message, hopefully today. Hubby's been home more often lately, which is really nice. Our family time has really gotten a boost, but he doesn't have his own laptop. Our desk top computer is too slow, so he uses my laptop. Hopefully he'll be getting his own here shortly. It seems that when I have time to sit and type for longer than a minute, it's when Abigail is sleeping, in the office, where the desk top is, sooooo.... I sit and read a book instead. I LOVE to read, but tend to read a book in one or two days, if it's good. I read very fast. So I can't put it down. I don't usually even pick up a book, because I know i'll be stuck in it. I got a few from the library and have been totally absorbed lately.

So I'm off to go roll out my noodles for supper right now. My bread is almost ready to put in the oven. The first batch was wheat and yes it was GOOD warm. The second is just plain ole white for the kids that don't like wheat... sigh..

I'll be back later to give you my FAVORITE recipe, YUM
Honey Oatmeal Bread,, I crave this bread, it's sooo yummy..

until later..

JenD

Yeast, the baking kind

Have you ever wondered what yeast (the kind used in baking) really is?? Is it a bug? Is it a plant? What is it?? So I hit the internet to find out.

I found a really great site that gave me the info I was looking for.

Did you know that yeast is a micro-organism? Its a tiny plant basically. Of course most people know it needs water to become active and it feeds on sugar. But did you know that salt slows it down?? Soo on those days that my bread just doesn't raise well, I wonder if it's because I sometimes add my salt at the same time as the yeast. I add my yeast, water, sugar and salt all at once. It depends on how much of a hurry I'm in. Soo from now on I will make a point to add my yeast, sugar and water first, after it is 'active' or fluffy I will than add my salt, oil and flour. Just thought I would pass that on..

Here's 2 sites that we found very helpful.

http://homecooking.about.com/od/specificfood/a/yeast.htm

http://www.breadworldcanada.com/sciencehistory/science.asp

"Dud" bread = Home made Grilled Flat bread sandwhich

I love baking bread, as you probably already know. Well even I have days that they just don't work. Sometimes is because, as mentioned in my previous post, I unknowingly killed the yeast. Others, well it's just not a good bread day. When it is super humid outside, it can appear to be done after only 5 cups of flour. If I don't add the rest anyways, it just won't raise. So what do you do with dud bread? Well if it didn't raise the first time I'm usually at a loss for what to do. I use it for pizza dough most often, OR this last time I tried some flat breads.

Yes I tried something new, imagine that lol. I decided to try a few things. First I tired to make tortilla shells with them. I rolled them out really thin and fried them in a dry pan. Well they were good with some butter and jelly on them, but were to stiff to roll. So I decided to try baking them next. I separated the dough into smaller dough balls. I got 2 - 3 per loaf of bread. I rolled them into a rectangular shape at thin as possible. I than cut them in half, so I had two rectangles in a 4"x6" shape. I had made some onion/garlic butter to spread on it (chop some onion and garlic and put in some melted butter) after I placed it on the pan. Than I baked it on 350, just till cooked, NOT too brown. Coat with more onion/garlic butter when they come out, BOTH sides this time.

So for the filling, YUM..

Boneless, skinless chicken breast, cooked and sliced into strips. Fry some bacon, than use the grease to partially cook some onion, garlic, green peppers and mushrooms, you can also brown the chicken strips in it. Cook them for a few minutes DO NOT COOK all the way. You want to leave a crunch. When they are perfect fill up your flat bread. Fold it in half, layer some cheese first ( I used provolone for chicken), than add the bacon and meat vegi mix. I added some Feta cheese on top, it was on sale and I had it so YUM...

I used my George Foreman Grill to grill it like a panini. Be sure to make the opening towards the back, so your stuff doesn't all fall out. Grill it, press it flat in there, until it's nice and toasty looking. Than you can take it out and add pickles, lettuce, tomatoes, olives, and dressing. Ranch or even some Sweet Vadalia Onion dressing is really good (it's in the dressing section, made by "Kens") YUM.

You can vary the meats but what you have left over. We tried some corned beef last night. I left out the onions and used Swiss cheese instead. It was still good, but not AS good as the chicken. The chicken were SO good, hubby wanted them again yesterday LOL.

Yesterday I tried it with a good dough, and it really worked better with the "dud" bread. They got too thick, they were still GOOD. I made some extras and threw them in the freezer for a quick lunch. So if you want to try some, my bread recipe is here.

Winter Blaaaaaaas....

I know we still have a month or so to go, but this year the winter is really bumming me out. I guess maybe because I'm stuck in the house more. I mean last winter I was very pregnant and going out to the doctor all the time it seemed. This year I have no appointments. In an effort to save gas and not have to cart all 4 kids out, we've condensed alot of activities. On Monday nights when our kids have their music, they alot of times ride with their Aunt (who lives around the corner). I really like to go and get out, but dragging 4 kids, just is daunting. Only the older 2 have a class, so that leaves the younger 2 to run in circles and be board lol. David is the biggest challenge. At 3 1/2 he's not to keen on sitting still and being quiet. Now Abigail (who will be a year old on Sat!!!) is very mobile and has learned there is a door she can run thru... I go when I can, and miss it when I don't.

So our shopping day is our only day out, really. Thankfully my nieces live close, so I can leave some or all of the kids with them to go shopping. It doesn't always work out that way, but when it does, it's a HUGE relief. Have you taken a 3 yr old into a store? YIKES. He just has to much energy for me. If it was just him, I wouldn't be so crazy, but with Abigail, who is not sure she likes the cart anymore...... I'm not complaining about having 4 kids, don't get me wrong. I wouldn't trade them for anything, (but maybe more sleep?? just kidding) but being that we homeschool, I need a break at least once in a while LOL. So I can't wait for summer. I can sit on the patio and watch them run off some energy. They seem to think the house is a gym and the couch is a jungle gym. I can't blame them really, they are kids.......

OK, so enough complaining....

Is it Spring yet???

Well we got our first bill since putting in the Geo-thermal. Of course it was for the move previous, so we know how much we hope to save. Our Gas and electric together was $525, yikes... They came by yesterday and read the meter, so we will see how it works out. They estimated it last month. I'm not sure if that means they will give us a refund or what, ha I know, probably not... But I am anxious to see the difference..

So we are back into the singles and teens for temps around here. It's 10 degrees right now. BRR. It got down to singles over night.

Well I better go dig something out for supper. I'm thinking pork chops and rice maybe??? Hmm you think I could bring the grill inside?? lol, no I'll wait till it's warmer outside. I know it's on our patio and I COULD use it, but I would freeze....

sigh

Is it spring yet??