Everyone Loves King Arthur Flour!

Even black squirrels.
I am starting to repurpose food scraps. I'm trying to learn what the critters like and what I should just put in my bokashi bucket. (http://bokashiworld.wordpress.com/2011/01/20/diy-bokashi-buckets-swedish-green-buckets/)
The Walter Sands' bread is a clear winner for critter food.

Christmas 2012: Recipe Update #2

I hinted at our Christmas food with the Boxing Day post. Christmas is a VERY busy time in our household. I always say that the kitchen is the heartbeat of the home. I think this is especially true this time of the year because sometimes it is only at mealtime that we are all together. Here is a list of the PLANNED meals we shared this year:
Christmas Eve Eve Dinner: homemade vegetarian stuffed peppers, tossed salad with homemade Asian dressing, and pies (Thank you, Dad Long and Gardner Pies!)

Christmas Eve Breakfast: America's Test Kitchen's Peanut Butter and Banana Steel Cut Oats Lunch: Mark Bittman's Bay Leaf -Infused Baked Potatoes Dinner #1 (Between the 4:30 and 7:30 services): Taco Quinoa and homemade guacamole and salsa. Dinner #2 AKA "Shepherd's Snack" (Between the 7:30 and 11 services): Amish One-Spoon Turkey Spaetzle, salad, pie, and homemade cappuccino.

Christmas Day: Breakfast #1: King Arthur Flour's Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Scones Breakfast #2 King Arthur Flour's Sour Cream Cinnamon Rolls Lunch: Guacamole, Salsa, Chips, and pies Dinner: Homemade pizza. (Andy slept on until 6 am so we didn't have time for breakfast #3 - Dutch Baby Oven pancake)

Boxing Day Yum

Bombur enjoys leftover, "scruffy" cinnamon rolls. They are King Arthur's Sour Cream Cinnamon Rolls so they are delish even on the second day.

Creamless Creamy Tomato Soup

Oh my, have our tastes ever changed in the past eleven months! Mark LOVES Tomato Basil soup from the restaurant Noodles and Company. For better or worse, the closest location is in The Big City – almost an hour away. So, I decided to tackle a homemade version. I gave myself the challenge to make it vegan since we simply do not have many carnivorous items in our pantry these days. My beloved America’s Test Kitchen came through with a simple and easily-modified recipe. The first batch was so delicious I ended up making and freezing three more batches with tomatoes from a kind parishioner. Since there is no dairy in the recipe, I know it will freeze well and we will have a taste of summer for many months.

Serves Six

Ingredients:

• ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
• 1 medium onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
• 3 medium garlic cloves, minced or pressed
• 1 pinch hot red pepper flakes or cayenne pepper
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 (28-ounce) cans whole tomatoes in juice*
• 1 Tablespoon brown sugar
• 3 large slices good-quality white sandwich bread, crusts removed, torn into 1-inch pieces*
• 2 cups chicken broth (or Not-Chick’n bouillon cubes and water)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in Dutch oven over medium-high heat until shimmering.
2. Add onion, garlic, red pepper flakes/cayenne pepper, and bay leaf. Cook, stirring frequently, until onion is translucent, 3 to 5 minutes.
3. Stir in tomatoes and their juice. Using a potato masher, mash until no pieces bigger than 2 inches remain.
4. Stir in sugar and bread; bring soup to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, until bread is completely saturated and starts to break down, about 5 minutes. Remove bay leaf and discard.
5. Transfer half of soup to a blender, add 1tablespoon olive oil and process until soup is smooth and creamy, 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl and repeat with remaining soup and oil. (Or carefully use an immersion blender in the pot.)
6. Rinse out Dutch oven and return soup to pot. Stir in broth. Return soup to a boil and season to taste with salt and pepper.

*Cook’s Notes: I use 3.5 to 4 pounds of peeled, fresh tomatoes per batch. I also substitute our family’s favorite homemade white bread (King Arthur Flour’s Walter Sands’ White Bread) for the store-bought bread. I save the crusts for dunking into the soup.

They Taste Even Better!

Coming Soon to a Funeral Luncheon Near You!

Mini Picnic Rolls: King Arthur Flour

Sooooooo tasty!

Move Over Bacon!

Today I made King Arthur Flour's "Our Favorite Chip Cookies" (http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/our-favorite-chip-cookies-recipe) with a slight twist: I made them completely vegan! What a treat to know the cookies have NOTHING in them that can raise my husband's cholesterol or cause all sorts of nasties to my body and mind. I used an equal amount of Earth Balance as a substitute for the butter. This was my first attempt at using The Vegg, the Vegan Egg. (www.thevegg.com) Many thanks to @VeganHeartland on Twitter for alerting me to this modern miracle. What an amazing product! As many other bloggers have noted, it even SMELLS like an egg. I used the same mini food processor I had minced the oats in. I think it took me just as much time to make The Vegg as it would have taken me to crack "real" eggs into a measuring cup. I am looking forward to using them again soon. My family gave the cookies rave reviews at lunch. My hubby described them as "Chocolate chip cookies with a satisfying crackle." My son, who has watched too much Mystery Science Theater 3000 said, "Amazing - Rolling Stone."
P.S. I got The Vegg from Amazon. With Prime, it arrived less than 24 hours after I placed my order!

Me?!?

This afternoon I received a VERY exciting email: I had been accepted to be a part of King Arthur Flour's "Consumer Advisory Panel." I had filled out a survey a few months back about our family's baking habits and, I guess, they liked what they saw. This answer did not work for Andy to his question, "Why did they pick YOU?" When he asked again, I answered "Because Mama tells all her family and friends about King Arthur Flour until they are so sick of hearing about it that they go and try it." That answer worked for him but maybe I should have added "Because she buys fifty pound bags of their flour and texts with Aimee back and forth about all their yummy recipes."

I'm one excited mama!

(P.S. There's a scoop and measuring cup in our unbleached AP flour because in our family we have once baker who weighs and one who measures.)

Why, why, why?!?

Why have I been feeding my family store-bought hamburger buns when I know how easy and tasty home baked ones can be?
I had a surplus of "high quality" buns in the freezer - a local restaurant supply store sells them laughably cheap so I haven't baked any for months. The stash ran out and I wanted to finally give the new bun pan a try. So this morning I baked up King Arthur Flour's Poultry Burger Buns (The Baking Sheet, Summer 2010, p. 17.) In the past I have substituted the poultry seasoning for various other spices with great success. Today I chose Penzey's Bavarian Seasoning to match the Meatless Ruebens on tonight's menu. I wish blogs had smelling features because my kitchen has a wonderful scent right now. I will return to making our family's rolls.
Thank you, Grammy and Grampy for the bun pan!

I Couldn't Wait a Day to Share!

I found out this morning that King Arthur Flour has recently revamped their website. The most exciting update - for me - is it is now mobile-formatted. This means no more awkward pinching and zooming while I use my phone to make one of their delicious recipes. I love their recipes because they include the ingredients' weight. This means a lot less (or if you're really good, no) dirty measuring cups and spoons. Just place your mixing bowl or bread machine pan on the scale and "dump" away.
Whether you access their website from a PC, laptop, or smartphone, I invite you to click here and NOT find something tasty: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/RecipeHome

(Novice baker? That's not an excuse with KAF. Check out their step-by-step, filled with photos blog and instructional videos.)



- "What else do I know besides Raggedys and recipes!?!"

Week 2: Plan B

One week into my new plan to blog on Sunday nights and I've already hit a roadblock. Last night I got about two hours of sleep thanks to a solo trip to the Doggy ER in the Big City about 75 minutes away. (The big guy is fine - he just had a giant case of missing his boy who was off visiting grandparents.) So I'm going to cheat a little bit tonight and list links to recipes I made this past winter and spring when I wasn't blogging.

In no particular order - thanks to my sleep-deprived brain:

*Pizza Restaurant Style Bread Sticks - Yup, you can guess the story behind this recipe. My boys wanted to spend big bucks on these at a chain restaurant. I said, "Mama can make those for a fraction of the cost." They are sooooo easy to make (as long as you don't add way to much oil to the pan like I did the first time.) I have yet to do steps 9 and 10 with no complaints from my gang.

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/soft-bread-sticks-recipe

*Oven Chili - With our new church, Mark is able to have dinner with us on Saturday nights after a seven year hiatus - yay!! This is a super easy, super tasty dish for a Saturday supper after a fun day. I've made it with pork stew meat for something different.

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/oven-baked-chili-recipe

*Fried Apples and Onions - After reading all of "Little House in the Woods," Andy and I finished up our homeschool year with "Farmer Boy." Mrs. Wilder said she wrote so much about her husband's childhood meals to show the wealth of his family compared to hers. Well, it worked! Andy and I would be ravenous after reading a chapter of "Farmer Boy" even though it was only our second subject of the morning. I wanted to save homemade donuts for when we read "Homer Price" this fall so Andy and I made Almanzo's self-proclaimed favorite dish instead. I felt a little guilty using my Pampered Chef Apple Peeler/Corer/Slicer (http://www.pamperedchef.com/our_products/catalog/product.jsp?productId=229&categoryCode=CE) but it sure did make this dish easy. I used bacon drippings and flip-flopped the cooking times, as suggested in the first comment.

http://www.food.com/recipe/fried-apples-n-onions-185675

*Cola Cake - I passed on this at a Cracker Barrel while on our summer vacation and a dear friend let me know I missed out on something great. I bought three slices at our local Cracker Barrel (at $3.39 a slice plus a scoop of ice cream - yikes!) and she was indeed correct. I found the recipe on Coke's official website and made it for a church function that same week for I think $3.39 for the entire cake. I waited about an hour for the cake to cool before topping with the frosting.

http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/heritage/pdf/RECIPE_colacake.pdf

I think I could add recipes all night but the Indians game just started. (I'm a BIG baseball fan. Alas, Raggedys, Recipes, AND Baseball just doesn't have the same ring!) I hope you enjoy these dishes as much as we did.


- "What else do I know besides Raggedys and recipes!?!"

I'm a better baker because of . . .

It has been a little over a month since I attended the King Arthur Baking Demo with my Dad. I decided to write down a FEW of the things I learned in the four hours. 

Pie Crust:
*Can be frozen for up to six months.
*Cold butter doesn't dent when pressed
*There's 1/4 teaspoon of salt in a salted stick of butter. 
*For a bottom crust, you want a 12" circle. An easy way to figure this out is  the barrel of the rolling pin plus two fingers. (Most American rolling pins are 10" long.)

Chocolate Tarts
*1 ounce of dough per inch of tart pan plus one more ounce for the sides
*Hold your micro-plane upside down so you can see how much zest you have

Sweet doughs
*Think "baby's bath water" when a recipe says warm water for yeast. 
*Practice makes better (good advice outside of the kitchen, too)
*Kneading is gentle folding, not therapy
*Parchment paper is the seatbelt of baking. You should never be ashamed to use it. 
*Too tightly rolled cinnamon buns spiral up when baked! (And here I thought it was just the opposite!)

And one of my life's greatest questions was answered; How/when can you freeze cinnamon rolls ahead? You can freeze them for up to 30 days before the second rise. Defrost in fridge the night before. This alone was worth the pre-dawn, three hour car ride!

Thanks, Frank, and all the other WONDERFUL King Arthur Flour folks!! I'm a better baker because of YOU!

I'M PUBLISHED!!!

My friend texted me this picture tonight that she spied in her latest issue of The Baking Sheet!

Pizza for Breakfast? Yes!

Since we weren't planning to have Mark's super-yummy homemade ("Poppy John's") pizza last night, I decided to give King Arthur Flour's Breakfast Pizza a try. It was wonderfully different. Two cook's notes: I made it into six pizzas and it took only about 12 minutes on the top shelf. Also, you really do put the raw egg mixture on the partially cooked dough. It's a much thicker mixture than you would think.
Enjoy!
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/breakfast-sandwich-pizzas-recipe

Doughnut Muffins: So Easy, So Yummy!

Ever have one of those mornings when you're looking for something different for breakfast BUT you're short on time? Well, thanks to King Arthur Flour these tasty Doughnut Muffins were on my kitchen table in LESS THAN AN HOUR after I rolled out of bed! I hope your family enjoys them as much as mine did this morning!
Here's the link to the recipe: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/doughnut-muffins-recipe

P.S. I substituted Penzey's Baking Spice for the nutmeg.

Flour Power

Dad and I went to King Arthur Flour's Traveling Baking Demo in Dublin (OH) yesterday. It was AWESOME and FREE!  I've always had great respect for the Vermont-based company but this exceeded all my expectations.  The five company representatives managed to share their immense baking knowledge in a down-to-earth way, that was never condescending. It was like having a friend of a friend over for coffee and she just happens to be an expert in your favorite hobby. The four hours just flew by. I look forward to sharing what I learned (and won in their door prize drawings) in an upcoming post.

Move Over Cinnamon Buns . . . .

It's Pizza Buns time!

I discovered this extra-tasty treats earlier in the month on the King Arthur Flour website and made them the very next day.  They are super tasty and easy. I made them tonight because Patty, Brian, and Zach are stopping by for lunch tomorrow after church. 

Here's the recipe from the website: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/pizza-buns-recipe

If you are intimidated, here is a blog from KAF baker with LOTS of pictures.  It's like she is standing next to you, showing you what to do:  http://www.kingarthurflour.com/blog/2009/12/13/holiday-baking-take-a-savory-break-pizza-buns/

Dinner with the President

I get up about an hour before the rest of my family. Somedays, I am fortunate enough to get the chance to sit with a cup of coffee and my Treasury of Daily Prayer (app.) I love to sit in the morning calmness, reading Scriptures and praying.  But this morning was like most of my mornings - I used that precious hour to get as much chores and paperwork done as possible. On such mornings, my Jesus Time is recalling Bible verses, hymns, and the liturgy and "talking" to God as I multitask. I was praying for Rev. Matthew Harrison, the newly installed President of the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod, at the same time I was trying to figure out what type of bread to make my family along with the homemade vegetable beef soup. That's when my mind wandered and . . .

. . . I started one of my favorite daydreams - Imaginary Dinner Party. I pick real people as guests and then make up menus I would serve them if they "happened by." I have dinner parties planned for Christopher Kimball, David Eckstein, Alton Brown, CC Sabatthia, Harlan Coben, Tom Hamilton, Glenn Beck, Bill Penzey, Sting, and Sarah Palin planned. I used to imagine groups of three or four of these people gathered at the SAME dinner party but that just would be too crazy. I mean, what would Sting and Tom Hamilton possibley have to say to each other?

Any who, I started to wonder what I would serve Pastor Harrison. I've admired him and his heart for "mercy works" for quite awhile. Mark and I now refer to many of the things I do as a pastor's wife as "mercy works." (That says so much more than "random acts of kindness.") I would assume Pastor Harrison is a very down-to-earth person so I came up with a very unpretentious meal for my imaginary dinner party with him. I thought of Beef Stew, Homemade Applesauce, and Potato Rolls with Icebox Cake for dessert. 

Since I already have my bread recipe binder out from planning tonight's dinner bread, I've decided to share with you my potato roll recipe. It came from my friend Aimee when she lent me her Zo bread machine last December. It was the first dough I made in the Zo and baked in the oven. I recently saw a potato roll recipe in King Arthur Flour's "The Baking Sheet," but it will have to be an amazing recipe to usurp this family favorite:
Add the following ingredients to your bread machine in the order directed in your owner's manual:

1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup potato water (water reserved from boiling the potato)
1/2 cup boiled and mashed potato
1/4 cup butter
1 large egg
1 1/2 tsp. salt
3 cups bread flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp. yeast
Egg glaze - optional

When dough cycle is complete, remove dough from machine to a lightly floured surface. Divide dough into 12 equal portions. Form into smooth balls. Arrange balls into greased 9" round pan. Cover. Let rise an hour. Brush with egg glaze. Bake at 375 for 30 minutes. Remove from pan. Attempt to cool on wire rack - chances are they'll be gone before they're cool.