Breadtime Stories

Do you eat bread every day?  I think we go through a loaf a day.  We work hard at watching every penny and many times have to by the 78cent per loaf of sandwich bread.  I actually make my own bread, which many think is an art.  For me, it is a necessity.  In fact, I am not an artist when it comes to dough.  I think I just found a couple of recipes that really work for me.  I also use my KitchenAid and it does all the work for me anyway!  :-) 

So this week is really tight budget-wise for us.  We are watching every penny and actually very thankful to be on our fast, so we have no excuses to stay home and not spend any money.  Having said all that.... 

I was making a loaf of bread this morning for the day.  Remember the loaf a day thing?  I was serious about that.  So I have my bread rising in the oven - no it's not on, but it's cold in here and it rises well in the oven.  Hubby comes down to make his lunch and promptly walks out the door to go buy his 78 cent loaf of bread.  Really?  Cheap bread over my homemade?  **sigh**  Honestly he was running out of time and had to get to work.  But I finished my bread, and we ate 3/4 of the loaf at dinner (my son was here too!). 

So, I'll make another loaf tomorrow and we'll have plenty for dinner and sandwiches for lunch too.  This all just made me think.  We eat a lot of bread in this house!! 

And....  on to the recipe.  I found this somewhere on the internet.  I hand wrote it down, so honestly I did not make this up but I have no idea where it came from. 

White Sandwich Bread

This bread makes the closest to a loaf of store bought sandwich bread that I've found.

I put 1 c flour in my KitchenAid bowl.  I add 1/4 oil, 1/4 c sugar, 3/4 t salt, 1 1/4 t yeast (or 1 packet).  I then add 1 c minus 2 T warm water.  I typically measure the water in a plastic measuring cup and heat in the microwave for 20 seconds or so.  If it's too hot it will kill the yeast so be careful with this. 

I mix on the lowest setting with the dough hook just enough to mix it well.  Then I add 2 more c of flour, leave it on the lowest setting and set the timer for 10 minutes.  When the timer goes off, I take the dough and form a ball.  Cover the bowl, and set in the oven (not on) for one hour. 

After the hour, shape in to a loaf and put in a loaf pan.  Let rise another hour.  Cook for 30 min at 350.  Cool on a rack.  Eat your bread!

Seriously, this is basically throw it in the bowl, turn on the mixer for 10 minutes and rise twice.  That's it!  Super easy and great for sandwiches or meals.  Mmmmm...  and there is just nothing like homemade bread wafting through the house. 

Well, that's my bread story.  I ran a mile today and worked the machines and now my muscles are hating me...  I'm going to have my bedtime hot tea and get ready for tomorrow.  Life is good and I am blessed!!

Living the Blessed Life,

~ Jessica

Fasting, Slippers and Sewing

Have I mentioned we are fasting this month?  We are participating in a 21 day fast and devotional with our church.  It's completely voluntary, and for us, we felt called to do it.  So, after much thought and prayer, we are fasting eating out.  No restaurants, no drive thru's, nothing to eat or drink that isn't made at home.  We are on day 10 and honestly a little surprised at how well we're doing.  Hubby has been tempted more than I have, which is funny because I'm usually the one that brings up going out.  But finding something new to cook every day has been a fun adventure!  Since I love to cook, this is my kind of fun.  And, no excuses for not cooking!

The other day I made breaded pork chops in the oven.  Now, I grew up in Texas and pork chops fried / grilled / broiled or any other way is a staple around here.  My favorite has always been fried pork chops, fried potatoes and some kind of green veggie.  Mmmm...  My point is, I made this new recipe and it was amazing!  I used boneless chops this time, but these could be made with bone in as well.  I found the recipe here, which is my favorite recipe website.  There just isn't much you can't find on there.  Here is one of the BEST pork chop recipes I've found ~

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Famous Pork Chops

By: HAULBUR

"My family loves these and they fall apart when you cut them with your fork."
 
Ingredients


1 cup crushed butter crackers
garlic salt to taste
ground black pepper to taste
3 eggs, beaten
4 pork chops
1/2 cup butter

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).

In a shallow bowl combine crushed crackers, garlic salt and pepper; mix well. In a separate bowl beat eggs.

Dip your pork chops in the egg batter and then in the cracker mixture. Place the pork chops in a casserole dish. Place chunks of the butter around the pork chops. Cover and bake for 45 minutes.

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Wow, were they really yummy.  I didn't measure the butter.  I just spread it around the pan all around the pork chops.  I only needed 2 eggs, and I had 6 chops.  If you get a chance, try this recipe!

And, speaking of recipes...  I have a new snack I absolutely LOVE.  This is another recipe from the same place.  It's super easy~

8 oz cream cheese, softened
5 oz jar of green olives
garlic salt to taste

I put this in the Cuisinart and it comes you great.  I read it's not good to use a mixer because it whips it too much.  But I got the exact consistency I wanted with my food processor.  Oh, and if you choose to mix by hand, be sure to chop the olives up really well.  I serve it with Pepperidge Farm crackers, the ones that come 4 different crackers in a box.  This one is added to my official "football snacks" recipe collection.  Maybe sometime soon I'll share that collection with you.  :-)

Today, we've spent hanging out at home.  We have Addi here with us, she's our youngest grandchild.  She was 20 months this week.  Wow, I can't believe she is almost 2 years old!  Otherwise, my agenda included making honey pancakes for breakfast, a recipe I found here.  And starting beef tips in gravy for dinner in the crockpot.  That recipe was more, what do I have in the pantry I can throw together?

The beef tips I had some smallchuck beef steaks in the freezer so I cut them in to chunks, threw in the crockpot with a can of cream of mushroom soup, an envelope of dry onion soup, a can of milk and an envelope of brown gravy mix.  I'll cook it all day and possibly add a little more liquid depending on how the gravy comes out.  I will make egg noodles to serve it over, with some asparagus I got from a friend. 

But that wasn't even what I'd planned to share.  I was sitting here surfing the net when I realized my feet were cold.  So I got out a couple of skeins of yarn I had from other projects and promptly crocheted myself these:

I am so happy with them!  They were super easy and made up super quick.  :-)  Now, my feet are warm and cozy while I work on sewing up some Valentine's Day dresses for my granddaughters.  For a fairly lazy day, it's turned out to be pretty productive!

I hope you had a good Sunday.  Sleeping in this morning made me very thankful for Saturday services at our church.  I hope you stay warm and cozy.  Blessing to ya'll!

Living the Blessed Life!

~ Jesi
"Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."  ~ Mark 11:24

Quilting, baking and other domestic things....

I seem to be very domestic right now. I'm super motivated to make quilts. I have made baby ones, but not "real" quilts. Just patchwork put together and backed with fabric. Today, I made a baby quilt for Addi Kate. I had started the 6" blocks a long time ago. So I picked that up and finished the quilt top. Then, I had a friend share with me about fusible interfacing or spray adhesive to use to "set" the top and back to the batting. That stuff is amazing! I adhered the quilt top and back to the batting and then machine quilted it. I am sewing the binding on the edges now by hand and it will be done. The last thing I'm going to do is hand embroider "YNana" on a corner square. I thought it would be nice for her when she is older to know I made it for her. :-)

I also made a cherry pie and ginger bread cookies for my hubby today. I found a great recipe for the ginger bread cookies on http://www.allrecipes.com/. It's my favorite recipe website. These cookies come out perfect every time. I also made a beef vegetable soup for dinner and it came out yummy. It's so easy, and I use just whatever is in my cabinet at the time. Throw it all together and cook until the flavors are all melded. Mmmmm... it's been a good cooking day too.

It has not, however, been a good work day. UGH! I have so much to do, I've put in so few hours lately and I absolutely have to get caught up!! So, we'll see how tomorrow goes. Hopefully I'll spend the day on work related things so I can get back to the business of sewing on my quilts.

Oh and I forgot the best part! In the midst of setting up my new craft area, I found two quilt tops my grandmother made. They are both hand pieced and appear to be pretty fragile. You have to understand, my grandmother was born in the late 1800's so these are very very old. I'm SO excited I found them!! I am going to find something to use for the backing and put them together. I found that my machine has some nice quilting stitches, and it will be fun to use them on the quilts. Yep, time to focus on work so I can get back to the fun!

And.... this coming weekend our church is having a conference that will last 5 days! We will get to hear TD Jakes and James Robison among others! It's going to be so good, and such a blessing! I have never heard either of them in person, we are super excited about that too. What a great way to start the year.

Still love living the Blessed Life!

~ Jessica