In the baking of the bread...

I have been working on perfecting some bread recipes because, let's face it, there is not much that tastes better than fresh baked bread. This Italian Bread is made from just flour, water, yeast and just enough sugar to give the yeast something to eat. Nice crusty bread loaves perfect for dipping, toasting or slicing.

I went through a few recipes to find a nice hearty wheat bread. This one is made from Amish whole wheat flour. It rises and is kneaded 4 times before it is baked making the texture nice. It takes all afternoon to make this yummy bread.

Every recipe I found for rye bread called for molasses which makes a sweet rye and not what I wanted for dipping in my soup. Then I discovered sourdough bread recipes. This recipe takes two and a half days and 16 cups of flour to prepare. It makes three large and delicious loaves of bread-just what I was looking for. I love this bread!

Caramels

I attended and had a table at a Women In Agriculture night last week. I brought some of these homemade caramels with me as samples. After just a few people had tried them, I was laughing because of the reactions of the ladies. There were several mmmmmm's and ooohhhh's. By the end of the tasting time, the lady across the aisle who had handmade purses was actually laughing too. So I have decided that I will add caramels to my list of products to make women everywhere happy.

Today- Pears

I went on a scavenger hunt again the other day when someone wanted people to come and pick pears. I picked about a bushel of pears from the tree. If I would have had more boxes, I could have picked more. They are ripening and so I went on a recipe search. I found a recipe for Fresh Pear Cake...it is yummy! Pears and sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves, walnuts and egg whites in a delicious bundt pan made a beautiful presentation and a delicious cake. Our dinner guests seem to very much appreciate the homemade beef stew, italian bread salad and then the yummy fresh pear cake for dessert.

I can't wait to see what other recipes I find for pears as they ripen and I need to use them up. Any one know any delicious recipes for fresh pears?

The Best Tomato Sauce Ever...

I have a recipe for italian style stewed tomatoes, but wanted to change it a bit. The ensuing recipe makes a fabulous dipping sauce/tomato sauce/spaghetti sauce/soup starter.

Tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped are added to a mixture of onion, green peppers, fresh basil and chopped garlic. The amounts on these will vary according to your taste. Then added chopped zucchini and let it cook for about an hour. Next, run the mixture through your blender to finely chop and then can it.

Then pull it out with breadsticks or foccocia bread and use as a dip. It also makes a wonderful pizza sauce on top of foccicia bread with cheese and your favorite toppings. Add to meatballs and angel hair pasta for a quick meal. Take a jar and pour into a pan. Add one and a half jars of water, one jar of pasta noodles and some mini meatballs and let simmer for 30 minutes. Top with grated parmesan for a fantastic meal. Seriously a very versatile sauce and yummy flavor.

Enjoy, I have a whole pot simmering now that I will be canning in about an hour and the house smells amazing!

Baking Day

Today...baking. I have black walnut, chocolate chip cookies in the oven, italian bread rising and foccocia bread cooling. I still want to make wheat bread and pumpkin cookies before I call it a baking day success. I also put up a couple of more quarts of italian style stewed tomatoes. I could have done without that one today, but the tomatoes thought otherwise. The family sure is eating better these days!

The boys were working on the chicken laying boxes today. We may have found out why they keep laying all over the barn. It seems they don't like to lay in the same boxes they are sleeping in and they like to lay in a quiet spot. So the boys built some covers for several of the boxes. Hopefully that will increase our production numbers-at least the number we find! They have an order for 15 dozen eggs this weekend, so the girls better start laying where they are supposed to lay!

Tomatoes and Apples

Normally, these two crops do not come in at the same time. This year-they are. The apples are coming in early. Many think that the cool weather has them tricked into thinking that it is time, I don't know. I have gathered about 5 bushels from neighbors and they are in boxes telling me to deal with them! I think that I will make a lot of apple butter as it seems to be a favorite. Yesterday's apple crisp was a hit that will have to be repeated often in the next few weeks. I wonder if I can freeze them in freezer bags and have them ready to be made into apple crisp any time we want it? I will have to give it a try!

Tomatoes are also coming in now. The ones we planted early didn't do anything. Most of those plants died. The ones we put in the ground late are going nuts now. I am picking at least a Walmart plastic bag full every day. The romas are gorgeous. The others are just ripening and ripening. And the kids picked a bag of the yellow pear tomatoes alone yesterday. Those things are going nuts! Hopefully, I have the seeding thing right. I am trying to save the seeds from Mr. Stripey(heirloom), yellow pear (heirloom), red and yellow romas and a couple of the nice regular tomatoes. Today, I see more italian style tomato sauce in my future.

Tomatoes Coming Out of My Ears

Small yellow pear tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, red and yellow roma tomatoes and just plain tomatoes....what to do. Today, I have the yellow pear tomatoes and cherry tomatoes in the slow cooker to cook down into tomato paste. The roma tomatoes have been sliced and are in the dehydrators turning into yummy sun dried tomatoes. I will have to make some pesto later! I haven't made it yet, but it sure sounds yummy to compliment the foccicia bread. Then I blanched the regular tomatoes and have them ready to be made into salsa! I will freeze the salsa again so it is fresh salsa that I can pull out in January. Yummy, I can almost taste it now. Oh wait, I just did taste it with chips for lunch!

I also have some black walnuts in the oven drying at 150 degrees with the door open for the next several hours. If anyone knows some way to get those suckers out of their shells without all the work, I would appreciate the advice!