Have flour?? Make bread!!!

I am pulling up an old favorite!!  I think it may come in handy in the coming months for many.

How to make homemade White Bread!!

I personally use bread flour, however if you only have All purpose I strongly recommend at least sifting it.  If you don't have a 'real' sifter, use a strainer with small holes or whatever you have on hand to help loosen up any clumps!

I use a basic bread recipe for many things:

*Pizza (add less flour for a thinner crust)
*Rolls (make balls and raise them in a muffin pan or on a cookie sheet)
*Cinnamon rolls (that is shown in the link below)
*Cinnamon raisin bread
*Of course loaves of white bread.

This is my recipe:  I find it is very similar if not the same as many recipes I find related to Amish breads.

2 1/2 c. hot to touch water
2 T (or 1 pkg) dry yeast
2T sugar
2t salt
1/4c. oil
3 c. flour

Step by steps instructions are on my post from 2007 (back when I was not allergic to cinnamon.. sigh!!)

Homemade White bread

Enjoy!!

Banana Bread

I have been working on getting my recipes all typed out and into a printable format.  I even made a goal to print a cookbook for at least my family....  for a few Christmas's ago lol..

Many of my favorites are posted on this blog already so I am consistently referring friends and family and decided THIS is where I should focus!

For those who have never seen my blog before, it was really active quite a few years ago, a quick search should find you a few good recipes to try!   Life changed and my posting slowed down but it's time to finish what I started, more recipes that use up ingredients you can actually find in the stores!!

Here is one I get asked for often!!

This recipe will work well if you use GF flour blend in place of the Flour listed here as well!

Cornbread chicken pot pie..

** I found I have two post that were never published.. from 2018.  So here they are!! **

Ok, so I kinda made up this recipe, but adapted it from several ideas. Either it was really good, or everyone was really hungry, because the pan was practically licked clean.

I start almost EVERY recipe with sauteed onions, garlic and mushrooms.  No I don't measure, just use bacon grease or butter and cook them up!

I then added some fresh peeled and cubed carrots and potatoes, as well as leftover chicken!
You can easily replace the leftover chicken with canned chicken or any cooked meat.

Simmer with some cream of mushroom soup and broth until they are almost cooked and it thickens a bit.  I use Progresso GF Cream of Mushroom soup but you can use which ever your go to is.







Pour into your favorite casserole.  I feel deeper dish is better, but as long as it fits, it should work.

I topped with our corn bread recipe (posted below).  You can use a box mix or make it from scratch.  Aldi has a GF corn bread mix as well!

Bake @ 400  until the bread is cooked. 

.

Homemade butter... well sorta

In an effort to save money and do things from as scratch as possible... I thought it would be fun to at least try some homemade butter..  I say sorta because the cream was not fresh from a cow but from the store.  I can't get fresh cream here.  I did a few searches and found some great recipes for it.  None really gave exact measurements of how much it actually cost or saved them.  Most use fresh cream as well.  Here is what we did and, even though it's not necessarily cheaper, it was fun.

I used an empty 18oz PB container to mix it in.  I tried putting it in our blender and it didn't work.

Our blender is to wimpy.  I was going to try my manual PC food processor but was surprised it was clumping up by that time.

I poured the whipping cream into the plastic PB jar, put the lid on tight and the kids passed it around to shake.

It actually wasn't that hard but my 7yr old wasn't quite as vigorous as the older kids.  Once it started clumping

I poured the liquid (buttermilk) into a different container and shook it some more.  Once it got to a creamy butter consistency we stopped.  You can whip it more to make it more firm and many suggest rinsing it with water to make it last longer.  I didn't rinse it because we had cornbread to go with it for dinner.  I figured it will get used up pretty quick and the softer consistency would work great for spreading.

At this point you can add salt, honey or even herbs and mix it in.  We left it plain but I see many options to play with in the future..

So here is how the cost play out. 

~We have one small grocery store in town that carries whipping cream, so it's not the cheapest place to buy it. You can make it cheaper if you find the cream cheaper

~We use buttermilk in pancakes and waffles alot so this is something that gets used.  I buy powder buttermilk since it has a longer shelf life. Fresh is of course better.  If you don't use it up, you can always freeze it for later 
~It really isn't THAT much cheaper unless you can find the cream cheap..  BUT it's fresher, taste better and fun!  

Cost to make: 

          Whipping Cream 1/2 pt..   $1.89

yields:  1/2 c buttermilk

             1/3 c butter

Store bought:

           Butter:  price varies from $2.50 to $5 depending on brand and sale price per pound.

           Buttermilk: $2.19 qt.(4 c)

Breakdown:   1/2 c buttermilk                  ~ $0.55
                       1/3 c butter (using $4 lb.)  ~ $1.33
                                               TOTAL:     ~ $1.83

http://lifehacker.com/shake-heavy-cream-into-homemade-butter-with-nothing-but-665497265
I love one of the comments on this one.  Next time David can stand still while shopping I will give him a pint of cream to shake in the store.  By the time we get home it will be butter lol.

A few links I found helpful and informative in my searches.
http://www.cheesemaking.com/Butter.html

http://www.theprairiehomestead.com/2013/12/how-to-make-butter.html

White Chili

Why didn't I try this sooner?? Oh yea.... because the chili part threw me off, I thought that meant it had tomatoes.   I can't have tomatoes so I never looked into the recipes... 

YUM!!!!!  I wish I had

I started with dry beans.  I boiled some kidneys on the stove ( and drained) for about 90 minute than added them to the crock pot with pintos for the day.  Set on High, they were done by the time we got ready to make dinner.  I just added water in with them

I added the cooked beans to my stock pan with:

1 lb cooked turkey burger

1 chopped onion

Chopped celery and garlic

Chicken broth

Cut up carrots

I simmered it all together until the veggies were done, added some cream cheese and cheddar.. I put some aside and added spicy sausage for my spicy folks here.  

Delicious!!!   We served it with some corn chips. 

Canning in an RV

One of the things I miss the most is my kitchen in our old house...  I miss my garden and canning.  While I couldn't convince my hubby that canning in an RV was a perfectly good idea, I did manage to bring along some of my supplies...  And haven't used them yet!

Than he brought home some Kumquats and instead of letting them go bad, he suggested I make marmalade..  

It's not as easy but its not impossible!!

I found a recipe online.  It is a basic marmalade recipe with kumquats, oranges and lemons.

I used jars we emptied and saved since moving.  All we had to buy were some lids and rings... And sugar.  And I still didn't dig out my canning supplies.  It was dark out and they are in a tote in the back of the storage trailer.  We managed.

I can't say its a favorite since we are not huge fans of marmalade but it won't go to waste..  It turned out thinner than I expected as well, but that could have to do with our small stove burner. I actually used my thermometer on this one since it was having a hard time boiling.

Stuffed Mushrooms

Everything is better homemade right??  Well that depends lol, but we always have to try!!

We love stuffed mushrooms so I attempted to make some home made, so they could be GF as well.  After looking up some suggestions (aka recipes) and asking a friend who makes them, here is what we did!!  I made to much filling and ended up stuffing more mushrooms.. I halved what we did in this post so it would come out to the correct amount for one package of mushrooms.

Ingredients:

One 8-14 oz pkg of large mushrooms (I used whole Bellas but they make some called 'stuffing mushrooms')

Onion

Garlic

Celery

Green pepper

2 oz cream cheese

Shredded cheddar

1/2c cooked rice

4 oz of seafood meat (I combined imitation lobster and crab)

Wash and remove the stems from the mushrooms.  Chop 1/4 of an onion, 1/4 gr pepper, 1/2 stalk of celery, some cloves of garlic and the mushroom stems.  Combine them together and chop/mix to small pieces (I use my PC food processor)

Cook the mixture in your grease of choice (I use bacon grease).

Add the cooked rice and mix well.  (If the rice is leftover than add it to the pan and warm it together.)

Add the 2 oz of cream cheese, cut into chunks.  The heat from the mixture will melt the cheese as you stir it together.

Chop up the meat into small chunks.  Add to mixture.  I did 3 parts rice mix to 1 part meat but you can add more or less for your taste.

Arrange the mushroom tops in a pan.  I used my small cast iron pan and it was a good fit for one pkg of mushrooms.  

The mixture will clump into a ball, fill each mushroom with a nice clump.

Top with some shredded cheese.  Keep the mushrooms together in the middle and it helps keep cheese from falling to the bottom of the pan.

Pour about 1/4 c of melted butter/marg or even broth on the tops and into the bottom of the pan.

Bake at 350 for aprox 30 min.  All the meat and rice is cooked already so you really only need to melt the cheeses.  You don't want to cook it to long and make the mushrooms mushy.

These are best hot from the oven but that doesn't mean they aren't good leftover (if they last that long). They are not good for very long, after a few days in the fridge we did throw them out.

I am going to try another idea someone suggested.... Bacon :-)

The recipes I found all had bread in them.  I want to try some with GF cereal or crumbs to see if they are better!!  These are good and the rice definitely makes them very filling.

~ enjoy~

Turkey Meatballs and Mushroom gravy

Turkey Meatballs and Mushroom gravy

In our quest to be healthier without raising our food bill we have cut out most of the red meats in our diet.  I rarely buy beef and when I do its for burgers or to mix with Turkey burger.  Here is one way we use Turkey instead of beef and it still taste delicious!!

I made a quick and easy meatball mix, which is also Gluten free!

2#'s of ground meat (turkey, sausage, beef, venison... Mix up what you have, use spicy sausage if you like it hot.  We like part turkey, part sausage)

1 onion chopped

garlic (fresh, dried or powder works)

Salt and pepper

Chopped celery

Mix together.  Note: season it to your taste preference.  We like a lot of garlic but not much pepper... Sausage adds alot of flavor so if you like spicy, use some spicy ground sausage in it.  

Get the pan hot with some grease in it.  I prefer to use bacon grease but oil, butter or even lard works.  Once its melted put the meatballs in by scoopfulls.  I use an ice cream scoop so they are uniform and less mess.  

Let them brown a bit and roll around so all the sides get browned.  I added some bacon to the pan since it was getting dry. 

Once the pan is full and all the sides were browned, put a cover on and put the pan in a 350 oven to bake.  Bake until they are cooked through, about an hour?  They were ready by the time I was done with the rest.

Get some potatoes boiling and your gravy of choice.  I made a mushroom gravy to go on top (chicken stock, fresh mushrooms, onion, garlic, celery and Italian seasoning.. Thickened with GF flour).  We served it all in a bowl, I may have licked the bowl clean.

2#'s of ground meat filled my family of 6 and even left a few for me to eat the next day. 

If your gravy is thin, make your potaoes thicker and vice versa!

Of course you can also serve this with your vegetable of choice.

~~ other things we tried ~~

I made this last night with 1 roll of Italian seasoned turkey burger and 1 roll of plain turkey.  I only added some garlic powder to the mix and it was also very good!  You can use what ever meats you have on hand and keep it interesting.  

We served it in a bowl on top of noodles and a thin broth gravy.  I had a rice and quinoa mix instead of noodles.  Yum!!

Scones, Gluten-free

I love converting recipes, especially easy ones!!  So, since I am Gluten-Free, here is one of them...

I used a favorite scone recipe off of the Pampered Chef website.... Added chocolate chips, and used GF Flour and oats

http://www.pamperedchef.com/recipe/Breakfast%7CBrunch/Fruit+%27N+Oat+Scones/9825

The recipe calls for 1 1/2 c of flour, I used up the rest of my bag of GF Rice flour Blend and King Arthur GF Flour Blend to make 1 1/2c. 

1c of GF Oatmeal

1/4c brown sugar

2 t B powder

1/4 t salt

1/2 c marg

1/2c -ish Chocolate chips

1/2c. Milk

I am allergic to cinnamon so I leave that out but I am sure that would taste very good in there as well! 

The possibilities are endless, raisins, craisins, various baking chips, top with icing.  We have tried many variations and love them all!!!

Have fun.. Try something new..  

Here is the same recipe with regular flours:

French Fry bake

Tonight was a last minute figure it out as you go kinda day!!  I love being creative and I love making due with what I have on hand.... Most of the time... Yesterday was NOT one of those creative day.  

But today!!!!!!!

So I had the basics...onion, green peppers, bacon grease, celery and even some chopped carrots from yesterday..  Chopped them all up and cooked them a bit in the grease.

It needed meat, so I dug in the freezer.. And found some sausage patties.  (I decided bacon was for breakfast tomorrow YUM)

So I added them to the mix, let it cook a bit and the sausage ended up chopping into a crumble as it cooked.  

The plan actually started with some french fries in the freezer.  So I added them on top of this mix and put it into the oven at 400.  I stirred it a few times, careful to not mash the fries and dug in the fridge for some topping.  After realizing the jar of cheese dip was moldy we opted for the sour cream and some sharp cheddar cheese. And back into the now OFF oven it went. It melted just right, I might have to rememeber this one!

This pan is one of my favorites.  Its an 11" heavy cast iron pan that is used almost daily.  When filled it has enough to feed my family of 6!  Cornbread, granola, even cake and breads!  LOVE my cast irons!