Whole wheat French Bread

It worked! Got a French bread loaf that was healthy and full of whole wheat, but light and crusty like French bread. Here it is:

1 c whole wheat flour
1 c white whole wheat flour
1 c Unbleached flour
4 tsp vital wheat gluten
1 3/4 c warm water
1 Tbs yeast
1 tsp salt
3 Tbs oil


Dissolve yeast in warm water. Mix in half of flour, salt and oil until well blended. Gradually add remaining flour. Knead by hand or in mixer for ten minutes. Allow to rise in an oiled dish covered, until doubled. Punch down and allow to rise again. Punch down and form two small loaves or one large loaf. Leave to rise on parchment paper sprinkled well with cornmeal. Preheat oven and baking stone to 500 degrees. Place a pan underneath stone. Once risen and preheated, carefully slide bread to stone, throw a cup of water in the pan and close the oven door. Turn heat down to 425 and bake for 30 or until golden brown on top and hollow when tapped on bottom.

Healthier Banana Muffins

I had a bunch of bananas past their prime and so i set out to make a healthy alternative to banana bread. I took King Arthur Flour's Heavenly Healthy Banana Bread and cut out the -gasp!- stick of butter, then added some other tasty treats and baked muffins instead of bread. I was pretty happy how these muffins turned out and Ellie ate four of them in a few hours, so I think I scored! Here's the recipe:

Ellie's Banana Muffins

2 Tbs butter
2 Tbs veg oil
1/2 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 medium very ripe bananas, mashed
1/4 cup honey
2 large eggs
2 cups King Arthur Whole Wheat Flour
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup dried fruit (I used raisins and cranberries)
1/4 cup wheat germ

Baked in muffin pan at 350 degrees for approximately 30 minutes or until baked through and browned at the top.

Cranberry Pomegranate Sauce

I love cranberry sauce and this super easy recipe gives a fun (and healthy) twist to traditional cranberry sauce.

1 12oz bag cranberries
2 cups pomegranate juice
1/2-1 1/2 c sugar, depending on taste
1 heaping cup of pomegranate seeds

Keep the cranberries, juice and sugar at a lite boil for 20 minutes stirring occasionally. Remove from heat, stir in the Pom seeds.... Wonderful!

Perfect Rye bread

The last rye bread I made was dense and flat. It was great for hummus and spreads, but it didn't have the springy texture that I love in slicing bread. So I took a recipe for Eastern European rye bread and modified it to ensure I'd get the proper rise, thus texture I was looking for. It was super easy and really enjoyable.


Rye Bread Recipe

2 Tbs active dry yeast
2 3/4 cup of warm water
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon of salt
1/4 cup of softened butter
3 cups of rye flour
2 tablespoons of finely ground caraway seeds (use a coffee grinder)
1 1/2 tablespoons of caraway seeds
5 cups of unbleached all-purpose flour
8 tsp vital wheat gluten

Take a large bowl and coat the sides with butter. Combine water, yeast and sugar. Let stand for about 5 mins. Add salt, butter and stir in the 3 cups of rye flour, the ground caraway seeds and the whole caraway seeds. Then add the regular flour 1/2 cup at a time. Knead for 15 mins in mixer.

First Rise: Form the dough into a ball and coat with a light layer of olive oil. Then place the dough back into the mixing bowl and oiled plastic wrap. Let rise for until twice the volume (about 1.5 hours).

Second Rise: Deflate and turn it over and form into a ball and let it rise again for 1 hour or until it doubles in volume.

Shaping and Final Rise :

I shaped mine into two large boules.
Cover with a lightly oiled plastic wrap and allow to rest till dough doubles in volume. (30 mins)

Glaze
1 large egg white
1 teaspoon of cold water
Caraway Seeds (optional)
Coarse Sea Salt (optional)

Mix the eggwhite and water and using a pastry brush, coat the top sides of the dough. Sprinkle with caraway seeds or salt. Then take a sharp knife and make 4-5 slashes across the top.

Baking The Bread
Heat oven to 425. Place a shallow pan on the bottom shelf of your oven.

1) Open and place the baking sheet with the bread dough into the oven and close the door.
2) Quickly pour the water into the pan and close the oven door to trap the steam.

Bake at 425F for 30 mins, then reduce the temp to 375F and bake for 10-15mins longer or until the internal temp is 200F. Allow to cool for 20 mins before enjoying. For long term storage, allow to cool a few hours ,then seal in a ziplock bag and freeze.

Mother Earth News Magazine

In our early twenties, my husband and I began subscribing to Mother Earth News magazine while living in a little condo in downtown Denver, CO. While we diligently maintained our balcony container garden and sold our cars to reduce our fossil fuel usage, we dreamed of the day we’d be able to buy our own home, raise chickens and have a garden to grow more veggies than we could eat.

Our dream of buying a home came true when we moved closer to our families in Pennsylvania. This is the fourth year at our home, but the thrill and excitement of knowing that we own a little plot of land is still with us. But by little, I’m talking .24 acres little. No fields and woods for chickens to roam, no barn for our would-be goats and cow. Instead, our house is sandwiched in town, where you can hear the neighbor’s television and see the glow from Wal-mart’s 24 hour shoppers… But in our yard, we’ve created a little piece of heaven. Our grass may not always look manicured, but we have managed to provide all of the vegetables our family of three needs for the year. After the grass fed beef, chicken (plus eggs!) and pork we purchase from local farmers, we have just about everything we need. We are not completely sustainable—I still purchase approximately $50/month of goods from the supermarket—but we’re so much closer to being independent and that makes us happy.

This year, we have grown enough for us to enjoy (plus much more to can and freeze!) the following:

Lettuce (several varieties, including Buttercrunch, Romaine and Looseleaf)

Spinach

Bok Choy (several varieties)

Red Onions

Yellow Onions

Perennial Onions

Garlic

Beets

Turnips

Daikon

Radishes

Kale (several varieties)

Collards

Green Beans

Yellow Beans

Cowpeas

Cucumbers

Zucchini

Yellow Squash

Tomatoes (over thirty plants, most heirlooms)

Tomatillos

Okra

Peppers (over thirty plants, most heirlooms)

Winter Squash (Several varieties)

Lima Beans

Yard long Beans

Parsley

Basil

Rosemary

Oregano

Marjorem

Thyme

Sage

Peppermint

Spearmint

Lemon Balm

Apples

Rhubarb

Additionally we picked locally eight quarts of strawberries for jam and to freeze. I plan on picking other fruits to supplement our inventory. 

The Mother Earth News fair at Seven Springs Resort is coming up in September again and we are once again looking forward to it. Thank you MEN for inspiring our lifestyle!

Hot buns!

Here is a recipe for easy, quick homemade hamburger or hotdog buns. Made these with our organic, grass-fed local beef burgers last night.

Quick buns

1 1/4 c warm water
1/4 c half and half
1/4 c melted butter
1 c white whole wheat flour
3 1/2 c bread flour
2 Tbs instant yeast
1 Tbs honey
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp salt

Combine water, butter, honey, half & half in your kitchen aid mixer. Beat in egg plus two cups flour, yeast and salt. Then add the rest of the flour, 1/2 cup at a time. Mix on 4 (med) for 5 minutes until smooth. Divide dough into 12 pieces and form into buns. Let rise on baking sheet lined with parchment paper for 45 mins or until doubled. Bake @400 degrees for 8-9 minutes. 

You can also brush tops with an eggwash to glaze. I did not.

Seedlings!

I started seedlings this year February 4th. I'm in Zone 5 and that is about 13 weeks before our last frost here. This should show you what kind of winter I'm having--it is the first in a long time that I can not wait for Spring to come. I started the 2/4 seedlings early for two reasons: 1) One variety actually needed planted that early 2) I just wanted to see some green.

So far, this is what I've started:

February 4, 2011:
Aji Dulce Peppers- 111 days. (green > orange-red > red) [Heirloom from Venezuela] For those who like the flavor and aroma of Habanero peppers but find them too hot. Aji Dulce has the same shape, size, color and aroma of Habanero, but is sweet, spicy, and delicious, with only a trace of heat. The fruits are highly aromatic and the flavor is unusual and complex, with overtones of black pepper and coriander, and undertones of other spicy flavors. Aji Dulce is an excellent choice for saut?ed vegetables, rice and bean dishes, paprika, or herbal vinegars. The thin-walled pendant fruits are 2" long and 1" wide, tapering at both the stem and blossom end.. Plants have good foliage cover and bear at 18" high. Seedlings are slow growing at first, but grow rapidly later in the season. 70% germination. First time grown.

Marconi Peppers- 75-90 days. Prolific Italian heirloom prized for its gigantic sweet red fruits. Delicious 12" long peppers are excellent eaten fresh or fried. 70-90 days from transplant. 40% germination. Tasty peppers, no bigger than 6-8 inches in yrs past, not extremely productive for me.

Brandywine Tomatoes- 90 days. 1885 Amish Heirloom. Winner of countless taste tests. Heavy producer of big, boat-shaped, beefsteak fruits. Tempting pink-red color, 1- to 1 1/2-lb. size and rich, creamy aftertaste. Indeterminate. 100% germination. No previous luck, blight yr 1, rodents yr 2.

Black Krim Tomatoes- 80 days. This unique heirloom variety is considered one of the best “black” tomatoes around. Indeterminate plants produce large, 6-in. fruits that weigh 10-16 oz. each. Heat-tolerant, Black Krim’s color deepens as the summer temperatures rise. Rich, slightly salty flavor makes them an ideal addition to salads. Great for fresh eating, too! 100% germination. First time grown.

I chose to start these four varieties because the Aji Dulce demanded it at 111 days and because in years past, my Marconies and Brandywines haven't started producing until September.

February 11, 2011:
Aci Sivri Peppers- 75 days. A centuries old Turkish heirloom. Each plant produces dozens of slender, curved spicy peppers averaging 7” in length. Exceptionally high yielding and trouble free even in Northern areas where it’s often difficult to produce a large pepper crop. Ripening to a shiny crimson, these can be strung for a lovely ristra. Temperatures are only moderately hot making this a very versatile pepper for kitchen use. Originally brought to Nichols Garden Nursery by a returning Peace Corps volunteer.

Jalepeno Peppers

Orange Bell Peppers

African Fish Peppers- 75 days. Very unusual and ornamental pepper plant is variegated both on the foliage and the peppers themselves. Both leaves and fruit are striped with creamy white and green, with the peppers eventually turning orange-red. Very hot fruit, 1 to 2 in. long, was used to season fish and shellfish in the African-American communities around Baltimore and Philadelphia back in the 1930's and 1940's. Plants are attractive enough just to be used as ornamentals, but peppers are prized for use in cooking. 0% germination TD, very prolific, beautiful. Excellent medium hot pepper, fresh or dried.

Wisconsin Lake Peppers- Sweet Red.


February 22, 2011:
Orange Nebraska Wedding Tomatoes- 105 days. An old Great Plains heirloom reintroduced! Produces huge, globe-shaped fruits of a deep orange color, weighing up to 10 oz. each. Vigorous plants yield a heavy, concentrated set of fruit. Not grown before.

Polish Linguisa Tomatoes- 73 days. Plant produces excellent yields of 10 oz red tomatoes. Tomatoes are very sweet and are more productive than most heirloom varieties. These huge sausage shaped tomatoes are excellent for making paste and sauce. A heirloom variety from New York, USA dating back to the 1800's. Not grown before.