Beautiful Winter

We had the great pleasure of experiencing 70 degree weather two Saturdays ago, and then three days later, there were blizzard warnings from Oklahoma to Illinois.  It took us almost two days to make the usual preparations that are necessary when the power goes out, including reserving enough water for several days, baking enough bread for two weeks and healthy snacks like homemade granola, oatmeal cookies, and stew; securing the animals and stockpiling wood for the fire.  When our power goes out, we are cooking over the fire in our fireplace and it's easiest to have food that only needs to be warmed. 

When the snow came, it was beautiful, huge fluffy flakes that came down for hours.  The wind was very strong and bitter cold, but after all was said and done, we still had power!  What a blessing that was!  We were able to breathe a little easier even though we were snowed in.  We didn't even try to go anywhere for three days.  We finally heard that the nearest county highway that leads to the main highway, had been somewhat plowed.  Somewhat plowed, here in this territory, is nothing to fool with, especially when you are faced with six miles of somewhat plowed roads that are wide enough for two small vehicles, deep ditches on both sides, and roller coaster quality hills and valleys.  Needless to say, we stayed snug as a bug in a rug without worrying about going anywhere.  

By today, things are seeming to get back to normal.  We began the day by making a good supply of bread and filling the bird feeders.  I counted nine male Cardinals this morning, four Bluebirds, six Blue Jays, a few Wrens, two Redwinged Blackbirds, several Nuthatches, Chickadees, Titmice and too many Gold and Purple Finches to count.  Oh, and three Yellow Bellied Woodpeckers and a few Downy Woodpeckers too.  I can't forget those!  Wheew! I think that about covers it.  

The chickens seem to be very happy this winter, today there were seven eggs.  Pretty good for a 20 degree day!  I can't wait for spring, we are planning to get some meat birds to raise for the freezer.  I simply refuse to buy anymore of that Tyson mutated chicken to feed our family.  And thankfully, we won't be relying on the E-Coli beef from the commercial feedlots with their disgusting kill floors.  If you aren't sure what I'm talking about, do yourself a favor and watch the documentary called Food Inc.  It has been shown on PBS several times and there is a book too.  It sure changed the way we eat and made us much more purposeful about raising our own food.  

Well....there is a beautiful, cozy fire in the fireplace, dear daughter is curled up with her latest book, dear hubby is curled up around his Mac playing on Photoshop,  the puppies are all cozy with Mama, a pretty relaxing evening compared to last night watching the Super Bowl.  That game was intense.  Go PACK!!!  

New German Shepherd Puppies !!

Our one and only litter of 2011 is now 5 days old!  We have created a new blog to post pictures of the puppies as they grow and develop, pictures of their parents and other ancestors, champion bloodline information and all of the fun stuff that goes on with a litter of German Shepherd puppies!

There is a blog button in our sidebar to take you directly to the Shannons Shepherds blog!  ENJOY !!!

Homemade Bread

The past several days here have been bitterly cold, snow on the ground and frost on every tree.  It makes for beautiful mornings and great days for baking, sewing, plotting out our spring gardens........countless things!  Yesterday we made our usual bread for the week and I finally had the time to take pictures of the process to share it with you.  This recipe is an old Amish recipe that I got directly from an Amish bishop here in our neck of the woods.  For some reason, his still tastes better than mine, but its still the best bread I've ever made.  He hand grinds his wheat, which I am not able to do until we get our mill.....if you're reading this honey....by spring would be nice!  Other than that, I make it the same way he does.

Gather your ingredients...

As you can see, I have been using my bread maker for mixing the dough.  I used to mix it by hand, but my hands don't take kindly to mixing bread dough with a skinny handled wooden spoon.  (Another thing for the wish list....a BIG handled wooden spoon.)  Since this entire recipe will not fit into the bread maker, I do it in halves for the mixing part.

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 cups white flour
• 2/3 cup white sugar
• 1 handful of salt (my handful isn't as big as his so I use about 4 tsp and its good)
• 2 packages of yeast (or 2 Teaspoons but note the picture with the size of the teaspoon)
• 3/4 cup lard (we use pig lard but you can also use oil or shortening)
• 1 quart of warm water
• 3 cups whole wheat

You will add more flour as you go until it isn't sticky, about 3 more cups or so, you have to just figure as you go.

Now the smaller spoon pictured here is a regular table spoon, the larger spoon is the one we use for measuring the yeast.  You don't need a large serving spoon, just something in between a serving spoon and a regular spoon.  

I put the ingredients into the bread maker in the order of the liquids first and then the dry ingredients, yeast last on top.  Make an indention in the top of the flour, big enough to contain your yeast.  I don't know if this is necessary, it's just a habit I have.

If you decide to use a bread maker for half of this recipe at a time like I do, just set your bread maker on the dough cycle, otherwise mix all of the ingredients together in a large bowl, continuing to add flour until the dough isn't sticky and then knead it.  

I usually leave the lid to the bread maker open during this first mixing part to add flour about a half a cup at a time.  These next few pictures are a bit fuzzy due to the mixing of the machine, please excuse that.  you can see in the first picture that it is still runny so I'm adding more flour.

Here you can see the dough beginning to form and pull away from the bowl, I'm still adding a half cup of flour at a time.  It mixes in pretty quickly.

Here the dough has formed a firm ball and has pulled away from the edges.  It is still a bit too sticky, but I go ahead and turn it into a bowl.

This dough is still too sticky, I can really tell now that it's in the bowl.

This time I add just one more half cup of flour, knead it slightly and the dough transforms into...

 I let the dough rise for about an hour or so in front of the fireplace with a dish towel over it.  It should almost double in size.  At that time, I'll punch it down and then let it rise again for another hour or so.

Now the dough gets turned out onto the counter and divided, placed into greased bread pans and let rise one more time.  Only let it rise till it is barely over the bread pans, otherwise you might get too much air in your bread.  I know some people poke holes in the tops of the dough to release the air before this rising step, I don't bother with that.

 Bake at 350 degrees for about half an hour or so.

This batch isn't the prettiest batch I've ever made, but it is soft, hearty and delicious with soft crusts even without buttering the tops!  It's delicious smothered in homemade butter straight from the cow!

ENJOY !!!

I've tried to explain my process in detail, but when you do something so often, you tend to forget little things others may need to know.  If I have done that, please let me know and I'll gladly fill in anything I've left out :o)

Back to the Grindstone

The wonderful Christmas season has past, we finally put away all of the decorations today and its back to the books.  It feels good to gently settle back into our regular routine of home schooling even though this month we will add a lot of sewing time to balance out our book work.  Sewing is a nice way to compliment any curriculum, adding to many learning aspects including creative design (art), motor skills, reading, researching, math, history (in terms of historical clothing and home made items), home making skills, and science (what fabrics are made of and where they come from).  We somehow found the time to make several hand made gifts for Christmas, which in turn gave us more ideas of other things we would like to make and/or create.  Isn't that the way it goes though?  Once you are elbow deep in a project, it unlocks your creative mind and many other projects come into existence.

Also, even though our family is not a TV type family, we did discover some wonderful DVD's that are put out by Vision Forum on Creation Science that really compliment not only our learning in science, but our history and Bible study too.  Did you know that it is NOT against the law for a government school teacher to teach creation in their classroom?  They are strongly directed not to do it by most principals and school boards in order to avoid law suits, but by law, it is legal to teach creationism in the classroom.  Most teachers may not even know that.  I found that very interesting.

Another thing I recently listened to and appreciated very much was a CD called "What's a Girl To?"  How to Wisely Invest Your Daughter's Time by Douglas Phillips.  It was very eye opening and affirming all at the same time.  Here is the description of it.....A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. The same is true of double-minded parents. Across America we have met evangelical parents who

Learning from the past and looking ahead

 

The past year has been full of wonderful memories and struggles of hard work physically and emotionally and much opportunity to learn from it all.  With every life giving moment, either in joy or sorrow, we are blessed.  Each step of our journey is taken in faith.  

Looking into the next year, we are already planning where to make room for more garden area, what to plant, when to plant it, how to make some extra income from our homegrown and homemade things and the immediate pending chore is simplify, simplify, simplify.  God has placed this issue heavily upon my heart and it is my time to act on it.  Plus, just recently we faced some extremely strong, tornado producing storms where we did lose some fellow Ozarkers.  So much property lost and lives left to rebuild.  We were blessed

Christmas Goodie Baking

I think I am finally done with any and all of the Christmas goodie baking I am going to do!  I have been baking for a week, and if what there is, isn't enough.....I'll just simply have to start earlier next year.  We send gift packages to family living in other states, so baking has to start in time to get them sent out in time for Christmas.  Plus....this year, I had a fun, FUN time with my daughter in law and grandson last Saturday, baking.  Their family moved down here earlier this year, and this is the first time ever we have been able to create such a memory at Christmas!  We baked all day, the children played, cut out cookies, played, frosted and decorated cookies, and made a huge, wonderful mess that I would clean up many times over in order to enjoy such a wonderful day.

Up to this evening the baking list includes, Amish Pumpkin Fudge (the best I've ever tasted), several different barks.....Pecan, Cherry Vanilla, Dark Chocolate Mint and I still may yet make a Butterscotch bark (thank you Pam for the wonderful recipes, they are delicious!), Lemon Poppy Seed bread, Chocolate covered Ritz filled with peanut butter, Pumpkin bread, Strawberry filled Thumbprint cookies, 7 Layer Bars, Christmas cut out sugar cookies, Chocolate covered pretzels....that's all I can remember....I wanted to also make Snowball cookies and Forgotten cookies, but I just don't know if I have any more baking in me!  If anyone is interested in my dear friend Pam's recipes.....go to her incredible My Favorite Recipes Blog where you will really enjoy her recipes, tips and overall down home goodness!

Tomorrow the real cooking begins with three family events to cook for.  Next week.........left overs!

How about you?  What have you made and/or still plan on baking?  Be sure and share links to your recipes please!

Sweetened Condensed Milk

Since I don't normally keep sweetened condensed milk in my pantry, the few small cans I bought for Christmas baking went too quickly.  Thankfully, I was able to find my grandmothers homemade recipe for it and wanted to share it with you in case you run out too soon while baking!

Sweetened Condensed Milk

1 cup dry nonfat milk

2/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup boiling water

3 Tablespoons butter

In blender, place dry ingredients first, then add butter and finally the boiling water.  Blend until smooth.  This will keep well in refrigerator for 5 days.