The Sour Dough Experiment

I am going to try a sour dough starter. I'll update with pictures & everything.

Today we beat together 2 c flour (AP), 2 cups water, 1 T honey, 1 T yeast. It's sitting in my laundry room under a towel. I am supposed to stir it daily for 2 to 5 days until is smells sour & yeasty, then to the fridge it goes.



Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

In the fridge waiting for me to have time to bake a loaf! I did attempt a loaf before I put it in the fridge (I fed it with 1/2 cup flour & 1/2 cup of water & let it sit out uncovered for 12 hours) but I don't think I let the dough rise enough. The bread recipe calls for adding more yeast to speed the rising process, but since I have these crazy hours right now I might just prepare a loaf in the AM without the extra yeast, then it will have all day to rise... We'll see!

Italian Meat & Potatoes Casserole

Taste of Home's Simple & Delicious magazine this link was for my search, you have to be a subscriber to access it. I only have my free issue Nov/Dec 2007 page 15. Since I don't want to post something I can't link to...

If you are lucky enough to be a subscriber give it a try, or visit your library!

I made no changes to the recipe, it was so yummy even the kiddos liked it.

Freezer Bread Dough

I made this recipe today. I used half bread flour and half all purpose flour & I only ended up using 6 cups not the full 7 1/2. I also used my stand mixer, so no hand kneading for me. I baked 2 loaves as bread & rolled the 3rd out for pizza dough it worked nicely.

I left the 2 loaves to rise for about an hour before baking them (greased the pans with cooking spray & the loaf & put them in a warm oven). Baked at 350, I'm not sure how long, I took them out when they started to brown on top.

Freezer Bread Dough

Copy cat pancakes

There is a link to a different recipe in this weeks Carnival of Recipes. Although it is hugely different than mine is there are a few measurements that are changed.

"I-HOP" Pancakes
1 1/4 cup flour
1 egg
1 1/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup sugar
1 heaping teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1/4 cup vegetable oil
pinch of salt

1. Preheat a skillet over medium heat. Apply a little nonstick spray or margarine.
2. Mix together the ingredients, I usually wisk but a blender will yield a smoother result.
3. Pour batter onto the hot skillet, I usually use a 1/4 cup measuring cup for this.
4. When edges appear to harden, flip the pancakes. They should be golden brown.
5. Cook pancakes on the other side until golden.

I had to add chocolate ships to mine this morning. All I did was after pouring the batter onto the skillet I sprinkled on some chips. No biggie but the kids love it!

Scones - Links

I think I might give scones a try for a yummy Valentine's Day Breakfast. There are so many recipes out there here are just a few. I'll post what I go with (and possibly a picture...) when we've tasted them!

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Scones

Chocolate Chip Scones from Midwest Living.

Dark Chocolate Chip Scones from Hershey's

Chocolate Chip Scones from All Recipes

Build your own cheesecake

Kraft foods has a build your own cheesecake recipe tool, it's full of ideas! This one is my creation!


Ed's Favorite
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 5 hours (including refrigeration)
Makes: 16 servings

Crust:
2 cups cookie crumbs, OREO Chocolate Sandwich Cookies
4 Tbsp. butter or margarine
1/4 cup sugar
Cheesecake Batter:
2 pkg. (8 oz. each) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese and 2 pkg. (8 oz. each) PHILADELPHIA Neufchatel Cheese, 1/3 Less Fat than Cream Cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
4 eggs
1 cup BREAKSTONE'S or KNUDSEN Sour Cream
Batter Flavorings:
6 squares BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate, melted and cooled slightly
Swirl-Ins:
1/2 cup strawberries
CRUST: Preheat oven to 325°F. Line 13x9-inch baking pan with foil, with ends of foil extending over sides of pan. Mix Crust ingredients; press onto bottom of prepared pan. Bake 10 min.
BATTER: Beat cream cheese, sugar and vanilla in large bowl with electric mixer until well blended. Mix in Batter Flavorings. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing on low speed after each addition just until blended. Pour over crust.
BAKING: Bake 40 min or until center is almost set. Cool completely. Refrigerate at least 4 hours. Use foil handles to lift cheesecake from pan before cutting to serve. Store leftovers in refrigerator.

San Diego Restaurant Guide

I was just sent this great directory website of restaurants in San Diego. I don't know much about the area or have any plans to go any time soon, but who knows!

There was a section of San Diego restaurant coupons. I saw some free appetizers, free desserts, half price deals. If you are in the area & plan on dinning out this site would be worth a check just for the coupons.

This San Diego restaurant guide website has so many different ways to search. The scrolling lists cover just about any dinning experience you could be looking for from "Live Music, "Juice Bars," "Wi-Fi," to "Kid's Menu." So if you are planning a trip or already live there this site could save you a little $ & a little time, what's not to love!

Strings of Life

This is a song I can't get enough of, they are a band out of Rochester NY. Some of their other songs tend towards the heavy side, but this song is just addicting (at least to me!)

Kitchen Equipment

Now that we are putting off the kitchen work until later in the year I am letting my mind wander through all the possibilities of making it a dream kitchen, or at least a dream budget kitchen!!! In my design I am tring to figure our how to incorporate an enclume pot rack. They look very sturdy & come in so many styles it's almost hard to choose one that I like more than another.

My issues is that I don't have any wall space for a wall rack & the ceiling is dropped so hanging a hundred pounds of pots & enclume pot rack isn't really an option. I'm not sure how I'm going to store my pots, the other issue with an open storage plan is that I don't have pretty pots! Just average normal, ugly pots.

If I had the wall space I'd love one of the bakers racksbut the styling is too modern for my kitchen. I really would like one of the copper enclume pot racks. I am trying to decide between copper & wrought iron. My cupboards are both oak & black, the couter is gray slate & the backsplash is copper. So I could go either way.

Apple Pie - Deep Dish

Crust

Sweet Butter Pie Crust

I doubled the recipe as printed on the site

1. 1 cup cold butter, cubed


2. 4 cups flour


3. 1/2 cup sugar


4. 1/2 tsp salt


5. 1/2 cup cold water (added as needed not all at once)

I used my stand mixer so I just attached the paddle and tossed in everything but the water, put on my pour shield & turned it on to #2.  It really never got to a pea sized grain like I would have expected in a food processor.  I started adding the water until it started to form a ball.

I covered the bowl & put it in the refrigerator.  I didn't roll it in to disks because I had no idea how much dough my bottom crust would require since I used my new Pampered Chef deep dish stone ware pan. 

For the filling I peeled cored & sliced about 4 pounds of apples, I would use more for a really deep pie next time.  I precooked the apples in a Dutch oven with a can of applesauce (I have a bunch so it was just a filler), 1/2 cup brown sugar, 2 tsp of cinnamon,  1 tsp nutmeg, & 2 Tbs cornstarch just until the apples started to get soft.

I rolled out the dough for the bottom crust adding about 2 inches more than I thought I would need.  It ended up being thick on the bottom which was good.  I poured in the filling & then rolled out the top crust.  I trimmed & crimped the edges, then cut a few slits in the top. 

I ended up using 1/2 of the crust recipe for the bottom & than half of what was left for the top, so I had 1/4 of the crust recipe left over.

 Perfect to have put in the freezer for a single crust pie, but we ate it dipped in cinnamon sugar, because we are weird like that!

This baked for about an hour at 350 degrees.  I did an egg wash and sprinkled some sugar on top towards the end (last 15 minutes).

I'd love to say I have pictures but I don't, next time!

Google -ers Welcome!

I've had a ton of readers visiting here from Google searches. I hope you find what you are looking for here or at one of my many links! Happy Reading!

New Content Marketing Site

Buzzfuse is a new content marketing tool for bloggers or people who just want to get their "stuff" out there. You upload your contacts (at least 10) and then submit your article, post, photo (coming soon), music for distribution. If you pay for a premium membership they are testing a pay for performance model. If you have 30 contacts in your circle you can (for a short time) qualify for an upgrade. There are some requirements but if you have the contacts... Me I haven't uploaded my 10 yet!!!

It's easy enough to use, you just ad a snippet of code into your html. Bam there is a little button on your post. Of course my test didn't work, I need to add 3 email addresses before it will :D.

It feels almost like a social networking site but a little less "social" & a lot more marketing. It didn't take long for me to find some decent indie music and a bunch of blogs I've never before visited.