|
Apple Time Giveaway  Today, I am just glad for the sunshine and the cool air. Oh my. It feels so good. I looked back over old posts and saw that we had triple digit temps in Okieland for somewhere around 60 days this summer. Really? My brain doesn’t embrace bad memories. All it is accepting right now is chilly temps and crisp air. Love it!! Of course you know that it is a proven fact that with the cooler days, there is a certain isotope that wafts in with the wind and settles on unsuspecting homemakers, rendering them slaves to a desire to bake and make soups. It is just difficult to avoid. It’s been happening since the beginning of time. I do know some individuals who have managed to resist the bombardment of these atoms by living at Panera Bread with their laptops, purchasing breakfast, lunch and dinner there, but even they have to admit that the first thing they crave is soup and hot bread!! So there you have it! In the realization of this natural phenomenom, I continue sharing bread recipes sent in by readers. This bread, sent in by reader Mrs. B, is very versatile and though it will make a large loaf of bread, I used it to make bagettes and sandwich rolls. Very good with a nutty flavor. I grind my own 9-grain flour from a combination of grain berries including hard wheat, soft white wheat, barley, spelt, millet, oats, triticale, rye and flax seed, but you can find the flour at your local health food store and in some grocery stores. 7-grain works fine too. And if anybody out there wants to share a favorite recipe, please email it and we will test it and post it! 1 1/2 cups warm water  Place brown sugar into mixing bowl. A mixer with dough hooks is great, but this can be stirred and kneaded by hand too.  In 1/2 cup warm water with 1 tsp sugar, sprinkle yeast and proof. When yeast is bubbly, add the yeast water to the brown sugar and add 1 cup more warm water.  Melt butter and add to water and brown sugar mixture. Stir slightly.  Add 9-Grain flour and stir.  Add salt  Stir and continue adding bread flour one cup at a time until dough pulls away from the bowl. You may not use all the flour. Knead with the dough hooks for 8 minutes on medium speed. Or knead by hand, on your Oklahoma Pastry Cloth™ for 10 minutes. On the pastry cloth, form the dough into a uniform ball.  Add one to two tablespoons of olive oil in the bottom of a large bowl.  Place the dough ball top down into the oil and turn so that the dough top is oiled.  Cover with a warm, wet towel and place in a warm place to rise until double.  When the dough has doubled, roll it back out onto your pastry cloth and form into rolls or long bread rolls to be placed in bagette pans.  With kitchen scissors, make diagonal cuts into the rolls.  Cover again with a warm, wet towel and place into a warm place to rise to double again. When risen, for added flavor, sprinkle with cheddar or asiago cheese. Bake in 350º oven for 20 – 30 minutes or until golden brown.  These make wonderful submarine sandwich rolls! I’m thinking soup for next week?  |
|
|
Oklahoma Pastry Cloth™ Company on Facebook
|
|
 |
|
|
A 9-Grain Bread!
October 21st, 2011
Apple-Time Giveaway
October 19th, 2011
|
It’s apple pickin’ time, which means apple butter and apple sauce, and canned apple pie filling and dried apples!!  That means that somebody out there needs an apple peeler and corer and probably some yummy OPC™ Frontier Fixin’s apple cinnamon bread to munch on while they are peeling apples. Don’t you think that’s true? So here’s the deal…from now until November 25 – I think we call that Thanksgiving – anybody who leaves a comment at the blog will have their email address thrown into the pot and on Thanksgiving day, one of my many, many, many relatives will pull a name out for a winner. Get to commenting!! Your name goes in every single time. Good luck! |
|
|
Oklahoma Pastry Cloth™ Company on Facebook
|
|
|
|
|
|
October 17th, 2011
|
Well, it’s a fun journey on to another bread recipe sent in by a reader and this one is from reader, Ken. I made it and oh my, is it yummy and rich! The dough is much softer than a traditional bread dough. This is no ordinary sandwich bread. This is a soft and slightly sweet bread that goes way beyond mayo and ham! I used it to make a loaf and cinnamon rolls and then used part of the loaf to make French Toast for breakfast. Ken said that he uses it to make pizza dough too, so this recipe is very versatile. 6 cups all purpose or bread flour 1/2 cup sugar 2 tsp. salt 2 packages of yeast or 2 tbsps loose yeast 2 eggs 1 stick butter or margarine that has been slightly softened 1 cup hot water 1 cup cold water 1/2 cup lukewarm water 1 tablespoon dough enhancer (optional)  Proof yeast in 1/2 cup warm water mixed with a tsp of sugar. Allow to stand about 4 minutes until yeast starts bubbling to the top  In the bowl of a mixer that has dough hooks (or in a large bowl if stirring by hand) place 2 cups flour (I used King Arthur Bread Flour), 1/2 cup sugar (I used honey for Mr. Fix-It), yeast mixture, the cold and hot water and mix briefly.  Cube softened butter and add. Mix slightly  Add eggs and salt and mix again.  Add tbsp of dough enhancer and add the rest of the flour, one cup at a time. Reserve 1/2 cup of flour for working. Note: Depending on the humidity, you may find that you need more or less flour. It was a very humid day when I made this and added almost 1 cup more flour than the recipe called for. The flour I used was a very fine bread flour and that probably added to the necessity for more to make a good dough. The dough should pull away from the walls of the mixer, but it is still a very soft and sticky dough. Knead in the mixer with the dough hooks about 8 minutes on medium to low.  Pour the dough out onto your Oklahoma Pastry Cloth™ and knead slightly with the leftover flour to form a ball.  Pour 1 tbsp olive oil into the bottom of a large bowl and place dough ball top side down into the oil. Turn the dough ball so that the oiled top side is up. Cover with warm, wet towel and allow to rise. I turn my oven to 150º and then turn it off when heated, open the door for 30 seconds and then place the bread into the warmed oven and shut the door. Hint: If the dough sticks to the towel while rising any dough, before removing the towel, use a spray bottle and spray the surface of the towel with water. It will lift right off of the risen dough.   The bread rises until doubled. Pour it back onto your pastry cloth and cut in half. At this point, you will be forming two loaves or forming one loaf while using the other dough for rolls, cinnamon rolls or pizza crust. For a loaf, grease and flour loaf pan and place dough into pan to rise. The dough is VERY soft and goes into the loaf pan very soft. But it rises to a beautiful height. When the bread has risen, bake at 350º for 25 – 30 minutes until golden brown. Turn out immediately onto a wire rack to cool.  For cinnamon rolls, I rolled the dough into a large oval about 1/2″ thick and sprinkled powdered sugar over the surface.  Then LOTS of cinnamon covered the surface. It is up to you how much you use, but I covered the whole surface. We like cinnamon.  Chopped pecans topped off the whole surface of the dough  I rolled the dough up like a jelly roll and sliced with a good, sharp knife that was floured between cuts.  The slices were placed about 1/2″ apart on a deep cookie sheet. Cover with a warm, wet towel and allow to rise until double in a warm place. After doubled, bake in a 350º oven for 20 – 25 minutes or until golden brown.  After baking, ice with a mixture of 2 tbsp melted butter and 1 1/2 – 2 cups powdered sugar with 1/2 tsp vanilla and enough milk (added 1 tbsp at a time) to make an icing of spreadable consistency. These cinnamon rolls are to die for!! And yes, one is missing! I couldn’t wait.  And here is the beautiful loaf of bread…  …which was used to make French Toast for breakfast! Lots of butter and syrup. Yummy. |
|
|
Oklahoma Pastry Cloth™ Company on Facebook
|
|
|
|
|
|
Life Can Certainly Get in the Way!
October 15th, 2011
|
OK. I know. I’ve been a bad blogger…bad blogger. I try to write two to three posts a week and they are usually plenty long with lots of pictures. No off-the-wall posts of “Hey! Meet Harry, my garbage man” or “Three ways to hide peas in Junior’s chocolate chip cookies”, although I guess I have to admit that I did show how to hide black beans in chocolate cupcakes…ok, so scratch that one. But I do try to make my posts interesting, useful and … full of as many words as I think I can get away with before my readers throw up their hands and just start looking at the pictures. I don’t think that I am arrogant enough to suppose that anyone is hanging onto a single one of those many words to the point of having to go into rehab if I haven’t posted something new within a two day time period. However, I do have a schedule I like to keep – a promise to myself you might say – so that if I do miss a few posts, I am the one who seriously considers rehab.  So, I’d just like to say that I’ve had a reasonably good excuse – at least in my book – for my absence since Monday. Would you like to hear my reason? I’m gonna be a grandmother for the first time and I had to get ready for the very first baby shower. All week long I have been doing a drawing plus matting and framing it and putting together a basket of goodies that Martha Stewart would consider “a good thing.” I even included M & M’s for the dear daddy-to-be to eat for a snack, in the labor room, in front of his laboring wife while she munches on ice chips. I’m that kind of thoughtful individual.  So I attended the shower, today, and it was absolutely beautiful. I managed not to cry a single tear. And all of us mothers eagerly encouraged the expectant mother with our own horror stories of pain and trauma in childbirth so that she happily ended the day convinced that it would be much better just having her leg cut off with a chainsaw. The best story was from one of the older guests who told of going into labor back in the 80’s, having only heard of Lamaze and watching it practiced on sitcoms. In the midst of the worst of labor, she decided to mimic what she had seen on television, promptly hyperventilating. The nurse, in a panic, asked what in the world she was doing with her quick breathing and this woman matter-of-factly told the nurse that she was simply doing what she’d seen them do for Lamaze on television. The nurse yelled at her, “Stop it, now!!!” So much for Hollywood led birthing classes. So just to let you know that this is my story and that I am sticking to it, I am providing a few pictures so you can identify. I think we are back to normal now for a few weeks. Another bread recipe is in the works already. I promise.  Drawing flowers to match each letter and then matting with pink ribbons and framing in a bright white frame took up most of the week. There are Coneflowers, Lillies, an Anemone, Indian Paintbrush, Rosepink and Euryops. Bright colors for a nursery!  This is the bassinet that I found as a surprise from Mr. Fix-It and me. I have been looking all over the place for one like this. I found it online and it is Badger brand. It is wood, rocks and makes a toybox when no longer needed as a bassinet!  The hostess created a beautiful table, don’t you agree? It was just a lovely day. But back to work! |
|
|
Oklahoma Pastry Cloth™ Company on Facebook
|
|
|
|
|
|
Spring Ravioli in the Fall
October 10th, 2011
|
The internet has been down for two days. Hence a late post. So sorry – but that’s technology for you!! Fall has finally made its way into Oklahoma and we are all breathing a sigh of relief. The triple digit temps are gone and it’s just hard to remember how it felt. We got 2 – 4 inches of rain in our area over the past couple of days and it’s even hard to remember the drought. But the fact of the matter remains that we have been in a drought and we have had triple digit temperatures and we did lose our garden and a couple of fruit trees. And worst of all, for the first time ever, we had no tomatoes. Now that’s just plain sad not to have tomatoes. Tomatoes go with everything and in everything so I have always canned boatloads of tomatoes for the winter. None this year. But have no fear!! Red Gold® tomatoes came to the rescue. First, I have to tell you about my new “love affair” with the Red Gold® Tomato company. I have most often used that brand of tomato ever since I first discovered it. I can not tell a lie though, if Surefine goes on sale, I snatch those up too!! But the Red Gold® tomatoes are by far the best canned tomatoes on the market – as close to fresh as you can get. So trust me, I had been using them long before I ever had any contact with them. However, about two weeks ago I got the nicest email from a Cristy with the marketing firm that handles the Red Gold® Tomato Company. She said that she had come across the blog and that she thought we would be a perfect fit for one of their Red Gold® Tomato Giveaway packages. The only request? Try some of the recipes in their new cookbook that would be included. I willingly agreed and also offered to post what recipes I will try every now and again. Then I promptly forgot about it.  Last Wednesday, this awesome cardboard box arrived that had a big tomato with the Red Gold seal on the outside. I opened it to find another box even cooler. It looked like a crate of gorgeous red tomatoes.  I finally got that box opened to find all kinds of neat items….a variety of canned tomatoes, refrigerator magnet, clip magnet, cookbook, key ring, a thumb drive with a tomato on the end (that is now the official Oklahoma Pastry Cloth™ thumb drive) and a lovely red canvas Red Gold® Tomato shopping bag coincidentally in the Oklahoma Pastry Cloth™ red. And evidently, they had gotten word that Mr. Fix-It loves cars, including model ones, because included was a to scale, heavy-duty special edition model of a 2004 Chevrolet SS Convertible – yellow with a Red Gold® emblem. Now what man couldn’t love that?! And to beat everything, Red Gold® has put their canned tomatoes on sale for “Buy 10 and get $5 off At The Register.” The sale goes off here in Okieland after Tuesday, October 11th. But you can continue to make use of their coupon that you can print off at the Red Gold® website for $1 off of three cans. Think of that. If you use that at Homeland, where coupons are doubled, you get 10 cans of tomatoes for $2.50 minus $2 off from the coupon, which leaves you with 10 cans of tomatoes for 50¢!!! You had better believe that I took advantage of that sale and rounded up cans of their different kinds of tomatoes to be carried out in my own, matching Red Gold Tomatoes Grocery bag. I was just too, too shopping coordinated! As far as a recipe, I decided to try this particular one in the cookbook. It calls for fresh, spring veggies, but you can use frozen if fresh is not available. I did and it was delicious. And it calls for fresh ravioli like you buy in the cooler case at any store. However, since I am the “make it yourself if you don’t have it since you live way out in the country kinda gal” I did just that. So here you go and I won’t be doing a printable recipe this time since it is from their book that can be purchased online: 2 tsps olive oil 1 cup fresh green beans, cut into 1 ½” pieces 1 small yellow bell pepper (green is fine too) 1 (14.5 oz) can Red Gold® Diced Tomatoes Italian with Basil, Oregano and Garlic ½ tsp salt 1 pound package fresh cheese ravioli ½ cup sour cream 3 tablespoons basil pesto 2 tsp grated lemon zest Substitutions: 4 oz fresh asparagus cut into 1” pieces and 4 ozs snap pea pods instead of green beans. For ravioli, use Noodle Dough recipe here at the blog.  Once noodle dough is mixed, put it onto a floured surface – preferably an Oklahoma Pastry Cloth™ – and gently flour to form a ball. Cut the ball in half to form two balls.  Roll each ball out into about a 6″ x 12″ rectangle  Place 1″ squares of Asiago cheese onto one rectangle, three across and four down  Place other rectangle of dough over the rectangle with cheese and allow to sit in the open air until the dough is slightly dry. This makes it easier to cut.  With a ravioli cutter or a knife, cut between rows of cheese squares to form ravioli. If using a knife, crimp edges with a fork.  Drop raviolis one-by-one into a two quart pot of salted boiling water with a tblsp of olive oil added to the water. Cook for 10 – 15 minutes until done and slightly chewy.  Heat two teaspoons of olive oil in a skillet and add green beans and yellow pepper ( I had to use a green pepper) Sauté for 5 minutes, stirring frequently, until crisp-tender.  Stir in undrained can of Red Gold® tomatoes and salt. Stir and cook for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.  In a bowl, combine sour cream, pesto and lemon zest and mix well.  Add sour cream mixture to the tomato and green bean mixture and stir until incorporated  Gently add cooked ravioli and stir  Serve garnished with shredded parmesan or asiago cheese and accompanied by garlic toast and a raspberry vinaigrette salad with fresh raspberries! Oh yeah!! Tasty, tasty!! And the leftovers are good too!! |
|
|
Oklahoma Pastry Cloth™ Company on Facebook
|
|
|
|
|
|
Simple White Bread
October 6th, 2011
|
I thought that over the next several weeks, I’d post a number of different bread recipes that readers have sent me to try. I love it when you send me recipes because you broaden everybody’s cook books! I will always try what you send and if Mr. Fix-It gives me a thumbs up, I’ll post the results with a “kudos” to you. There may be a few other things thrown in between recipes, but I have four or five I’d like to share. This first bread is really, really, really, really (is that enough for emphasis?) easy and would be a great bread for anyone who has never made bread and wants to practice. It is awesome for sandwiches becasuse the crust is more firm and the slices hold together perfectly when sliced with a serrated bread knife. This recipe is from reader, Shari, and I think you’ll enjoy it. So get out your Oklahoma Pastry Cloth™…oh? You don’t have one? Well, first, pop over to the shopping page and order one and then start your bread baking with ease and no cleanup! 1 cup warm water 3 tbsp butter 1 egg 2 tbsp sugar or honey 1 1/2 tsp salt 3 1/2 cups bread or all-purpose flour (I used King Arthur Bread Flour) 1/3 cup nonfat dry milk 2 tsp yeast  Pour water + 1 tsp sugar into mixing bowl. Add yeast. Allow to sit until yeast is bubbly. (proofed)  When yeast is proofed, add egg  And butter  Mix slightly until egg is fully incorporated and add honey or sugar  Add dough enhancer if you like to use it. You can order dough enhancer from Sonrise Whole Grains right here in Oklahoma City.  Add powdered milk  Add salt  Add one cup of flour and mix until smooth. Continue slowly adding flour until you have a sticky batter. (Reserve some flour for shaping the dough) Either knead by hand or, in the mixer with a dough hook, knead for about 8 minutes on medium speed. This is the easiest way because you are not adding flour in the kneading process which keeps the dough light.  After kneading in the mixer, scoop the dough onto a floured surface, preferably on your Oklahoma Pastry Cloth™!  Knead slightly to form a ball  Put a tablespoon of olive oil in the bottom of a large bowl and place ball of dough top down into oil. Turn dough so that oiled top is then on top. Cover with warm, damp towel and allow to rise to double in size in a warm place. I turn my oven to 150º for 10 minutes, turn off the oven, open the door to allow to cool a second and then place the bread dough into the warm oven to rise. (close the door during rising to trap the warmth)  When the dough has doubled, put it back onto your floured surface and shape into a bread loaf. Place into loaf pan and allow to rise to double again. Bake at 350º for 25 – 30 minutes until evenly browned on top.  As soon as you remove the bread from the oven, spray it with water and cover with a towel to steam for about 10 minutes.  Remove bread from pan and finish cooling, covered with a towel, on a rack. This recipe makes a very pretty loaf of bread.  Using a finely serrated knife to cut bread is a must, but it makes especially pretty slices with this bread. I made a grilled cheese sandwich with it today and yummy!! So thank you, Shari, for sharing this recipe with us. It is one that is going into our recipe holder for frequent use!! |
|
|
Oklahoma Pastry Cloth™ Company on Facebook
|
|
|
|
|
|
Beauty and A Beastly Bolt
October 3rd, 2011
|
The Monarch butterflies are making their pilgrimage to Mexico for the winter and they are coming right across the Oklahoma Pastry Cloth™ digs. They are so regal and so beautiful, they just take your breath away. I wish I could have gotten a picture of the tree covered in butterflies, but I didn’t have my camera. However, a number of the splendid creatures stopped on my Lantana and got a drink.  And there was this weird little creature that looked like a hummingbird with a butterfly face. It moved so fast, it was hard to catch, but it was feeding right there with the Monarchs. Anybody know what it is?? I’d sure like to know. Note: Thanks to reader, Dorothy for informing us that this creature is a Hummingbird Moth. Who’d a guessed THAT? 🙂  And as I was taking pictures of such pretty things, Mr. Fix-It arrived with his rental car marred by a beastly windshield disaster that had happened not an hour earlier. A bolt from a truck and trailer in front of him, bounced on the turnpike asphalt and shot into Mr. Fix-It’s windshield right in Mr. Fix-It’s face. Praise God that it did not go through because it would have been like a bullet. The bad thing is that he is driving the rental car because the regular one is in the shop being beaten back into shape from the incredible hail damage done to it in the hail storm I wrote about recently, including the video. Sooooo, now Mr. Fix-It is picking up a second rental car.  But I choose to think about the butterflies. They have made up the pretty part of the day! (You thought I was going to talk about squashed butterflies on the windshield, now didn’t you??!)  |
|
|
Oklahoma Pastry Cloth™ Company on Facebook
|
|
|
|
|
|
No Gluten – No Sugar – Yeah, Sure
September 29th, 2011
|
This is more information than you probably need, but my spine looks like an “S”. Now back in grade school, it was a really cool thing to say, “I have SCOLIOSIS!” and grin as friends looked at me with the admiration of comrades who had absolutely no idea what I was talking about. But now, it isn’t so cool and my back can give me fits. No more horseback riding, no more high impact aerobics, no more motorcycle riding – ok, so I’ve never gone motorcycle riding but you get the point. Now, my days are spent in the office of Dr. Ryan Hanson, chiropractor extraordinaire and I have to say, I AM getting better. The goal is to straighten me out even though Mr. Fix-It has devoted his life to that project. I’m thinking that he’s going to find that even after Dr. Ryan has done his job on my back, I still won’t be straightened out in Mr. Fix-It’s world! Dr. Ryan’s office (we call him Dr. Ryan because he is in with his dad, the other Dr. Hanson), is totally devoted to a healthy lifestyle that includes healthy eating. Every so often, on customer appreciation days, his lovely assistants provide snacks for us patients. Now I am relatively new to the office and so I was shocked at my first customer appreciation day to see chocolate cupcake muffins adorned with tiny mounds of whipped topping and a fresh raspberry. Health-conscious fanatics don’t eat chocolate muffins with tiny mounds of whipped topping and a raspberry. Well, that is unless it’s carob. Yuck. Dr. Hanson encouraged me to be sure and grab a muffin before I left and I was assured there was no carob in the recipe. I went through my regular routine, and then, as I was preparing to leave, grabbed a cupcake and headed to the car. Sitting in the seat, I gently pulled back the cupcake paper and gingerly sampled a tiny bite. Oh my. It was sweet, chocolate heaven with a firm, white cloud on top. And so, after savoring the rest, I ran back into the office and demanded the recipe. Anything that good, that was supposedly healthy (which I doubted seriously) had to have an available recipe for my dessert repertoire. I got back to my car with recipe in hand, got situated, turned on the car and just glanced over at the recipe. The first thing on the ingredients list was black beans. BLACK BEANS?? What?? I searched for flour. None. I searched for sugar. None. There was no way in the world that the chocolate treat I had just inhaled was made of black beans. I had to go home and give it a try to prove the recipe to myself and to surprise Mr. Fix-It. I have this mean streak in me that likes to play tricks on my husband. I made them and they were a success – until I told him about the beans. He still had to admit that they were good, though. I even shared them with a friend. She wasn’t too keen on the fact that there were beans in the making either, but she admitted that they were good, as she licked the last crumbs from her fingers. So if you are trying to lose weight or eat more protein, cut back on sugar or cut out gluten, these little jewels are just for you. They are wonderful for kids’ snacks and healthy as all get out. But they taste sinful!! Here’s is the recipe. Try them and let me know what you think!! 1 – 15 ounce can of unseasoned black beans drained Coconut Milk Whipped Cream Nutritional Info  I must begin with an explanation that the recipe called for all kinds of separate actions like beating the eggs, etc and then adding to the bean mixture, but I am a lazy cook in many ways and I just tossed all those ingredients into the blender and blended the fire out of them. First, I added the beans. And they were cheap beans.  Next I added the 5 eggs  …and salt  I used coconut oil, but I bet butter is awesome too  Then I added the xylitol and stevia which can be purchased at any healthfood store or online  Next came the cocoa, baking soda and baking powder  …and the water. Then I blended and blended and blended until I had a smooth, consistent batter.  I put cupcake papers into muffin tins for 18 cupcakes and carefully poured the batter in to fill about three fourths full. Bake at 350º for 20 – 25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean  Top the cupcakes with either the coconut milk whipped cream or the chocolate frosting and garnish with a raspberry. At first I thought that I liked the chocolate topping best, but I realized that you have to let the cupcakes with the whipped cream set up in the frig before eating. Makes the topping harden up and I decided that I like it better than the chocolate at that point but they are both good. To make the whipped topping, open a can of coconut milk that has been refrigerated overnight. The water will have separated from the solids and you will have a big chunck of white solid in the can. Drain out the water and add the solid to a bowl. Add xylitol and whip until well mixed. Put about a half to one tablespoon onto each cupcake. To make the chocolate icing, place xylitol into blender and blend until it is powder. Cream xylitol and butter together. Add salt and vanilla and then slowly add cocoa. Slowly because it will explode into a big poof if you don’t. Add coconut milk and then slowly add regular milk until a good consistency to spread. You can add the egg yolk if you want a more traditional, glossy icing. Spread on top of the cupcakes. |
|
|
Oklahoma Pastry Cloth™ Company on Facebook
|
|
|
|
|
|
Dehydrating Sweet Potatoes and How To Use Them
September 26th, 2011
|
I heard something pretty neat yesterday in an Adrian Rogers sermon. I sure miss him. His “Adrianisms” are just priceless. The quote yesterday concerned those who are married and he referred particularly to us women. He said that “the woman’s job is to love her husband. It is God’s job to make him good.” Of course, that goes ditto for the husbands regarding wives, but I pondered on that for a moment and had to look at where I try to take on God’s job with Mr. Fix-It. We women are really good at trying to “fix” our husbands into the men that “we know they should be.” Yikes. Now don’t get me wrong…Mr. Fix-It is close to perfect – but I am the normal woman who can find that tiny loose thread in any sweater and unravel the whole thing trying to make it right. And so, the next time I decide that I need to tell Mr. Fix-It what he “needs to be doing” I think I’ll shut my trap. Perhaps my focus needs to be on what I need to be doing! He is awfully sweet and treats me like a queen. And speaking of sweet, I’ve been dehydrating sweet potatoes! Yep. This is the time of year when those tubers start going on sale and with our new organic grocery stores, I am hoping to cash in on some really nice ones. The sweet potato is one thing I hadn’t tried dehydrating, but last week I decided it was something I should try. What a success!! And when I served them for dinner the other night, Mr. Fix-It smacked his lips and commented on how good they were. “There were dehydrated,” I crowed. “I figured as much,” he said as he chomped on another mouthful. He has gotten used to my dehydration experiments and is pretty impressed with the results. It is just too neat to have jars of dehydrated sweet potatoes on hand to whip out and create a casserole or candied yams. I have always had such trouble with potatoes going bad in the bin and so this is a welcome discovery! So grab your taters and start slicing and here’s how to dry them and how to use them afterwards!  Wash and peel sweet potatoes  Slice the potatoes in slices about 1/8″ thick  Drop the slices into boiling water and boil for 2 minutes. Drain and drop into iced water with ice cubes and leave in the water until ice cubes melt. Drain the water.  Place blanched slices onto dehydrator racks without overlapping and dehydrate for at least 15 hours. You want them nice and dried.  Store potatoes in mason jars or ziploc freezer bags. You can vacuum seal the jars but it is not required. 1 cup of dehydrated slices per potato needed. Plan approximately 1/2 potato per person. Per 1 or 2 potatoes: 1/3 cup butter 1/2 cup packed brown sugar pinch of salt chopped pecans miniature marshmallows  Soak potatoes overnight in the refrigerator, covered in water in a bowl. The potatoes will soak up much of the water.  Pour contents of the bowl, water included, into boiling water and boil until slices are tender. Drain.  Layer the sweet potato slices in a casserole dish. I just used the equivalent of one potato in a small casserole for me and Mr. Fix-It. I miss making those big dinners when all the kids were home!!  Melt butter and brown sugar and salt together in a pan on medium heat  The mixture will make a smooth sauce  Pour the brown sugar sauce over the potatoes.  Sprinkle chopped pecans over the surface. Bake in a 350º oven for 30 minutes.  After 20 minutes of baking, sprinkle marshmallows over the top of the casserole and allow to brown for the last 10 minutes of baking.  Now THAT is some Southern yumminess!! |
|
|
Oklahoma Pastry Cloth™ Company on Facebook
|
|
|
|
|
|
Yummy Salad
September 23rd, 2011
|
Here in Oklahoma, we are EX-CITED! We have a new Sunflower Foods store in downtown Oklahoma City. And Whole Foods will be opening next month. The only thing that could make it better would be for a threesome finished out by Trader Joe’s which appears to be in the works!! See? Okies do have taste. Yes, they do. Well, Wednesday I ventured into the wild crowd that packed our newly opened grocery and took advantage of a sale of sales. Organic plums for 77¢ – organic celery for 99¢ – organic 2% milk for $3.99 – 5 pounds of Gulf Shrimp for $18.00 – and the list goes on. But, oh my, they had an olive bar!! Give me a plate and call me Greek. I love olives. All olives. And all the things that go with olives like pickled garlic and marinated mozarella! Oh yeah. So I loaded up on olives and the works and left that store with visions of a salad deluxe and boiled shrimp. 1 1/2 cups lettuce, greens and spinach per person 1/3 cup olives of your choice per person 2 Marinated Mozarella Cheeses per person 2 slices bacon per person + 1 tsp brown sugar per slice 1/4 cup brown sugar 2 tblsp butter 1/2 cup pecans 1/4 cup crumbled blue cheese per person tomato slices Raspberry Vinaigrette dressing or Greek Vinaigrette I got home, chopped lettuce and put it into large bowls, one for me and one for Mr. Fix-It and set those aside. I used iceberg lettuce and some fresh spinach, but you can use any greens at all. That’s what I had on hand for this week.  Next, I melted 2 tablespoons of butter and added 1/4 cup of brown sugar. I stirred that around on medium heat until a thick liquid was formed. This can take a little while and just when you get frustrated – poof – it all melts!  I added 1/2 cup of whole pecans and stirred those until they were coated. You don’t want to cook the sauce too long or it will scorch and get too hard.  I poured the nuts onto a nonstick tray to cool. Once cooled, I tossed them into the food processor and pulsed until they were chopped into large pieces.  Meanwhile, I really did it and sprinkled brown sugar onto strips of bacon. I cooked those in the microwave, but if you want to cook them in a pan, you can start them frying and then sprinkle them with the brown sugar. It gives a crisp, sweet taste to the bacon for salads.  Finally, I piled different olives onto the center of the lettuce and spinach, put two pieces of the marinated mozarella on the edge of the bowl alongside two slices of tomato, piled about 1/4 cup of crumbled blue cheese over the whole thing and then sprinkled the pecans and crumbled bacon over that. With Raspberry Vinaigrette dressing or Greek Vinaigrette, it is awesome!! I boiled some of the shrimp, made some drawn butter and called it supper!! Mmmm. Mmmm. |
|
|
Oklahoma Pastry Cloth™ Company on Facebook
|
|
|
|
|
|
Homestead Revival
Paratus Familia
Rural Revolution